Europa Inventa (the Australian Collections Service) was envisaged, in the original NEER application for funding, as a gateway to all Early European items in Australian collections, including manuscripts, papers, artworks, maps, furniture, fabrics, scientific instruments, and so on. The main focus was to be on unique items and those with specific associations (rather than on mass-produced items like early printed books, for example). The aim was to link from descriptive catalogue records to digitized images held on the servers of the holding institutions, rather than storing copies of images centrally. The possibility of commissioning some digitization work in these institutions was also envisaged.
There are no exact models or precedents for such a service, so NEER is putting together its own approach which draws on and adapts work in related fields. Detailed specifications are documented here. Links to other services of relevance and interest are maintained on this page.
Europa Inventa databases for artworks and objects and for manuscripts and text-based materials are currently being assembled, but are not yet directly available on the Web. In the meantime, snapshots of the databases will be posted as attachments to this page.
| Database | Date | No. of records | File | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europa Inventa Objects | 21 November 2007 | 769 | Europa_Inventa_Objects2.htm | |
| Europa Inventa Objects | 18 March 2008 | 1405 | Europa_Inventa_Objects_Mar08.htm | |
| Manuscripts - Full | 26 November 2008 | 252 | Europa_Inventa_Manuscripts.htm | Full records with list of item record nos. for each manuscript |
| Manuscripts - Items | 26 November 2008 | 450 | Europa_Inventa_Manuscripts_Items.htm | Item records grouped by manuscript ID no. |
| Manuscripts - Brief | 26 November 2008 | 252 | Europa_Inventa_Manuscripts_brief.htm | Brief records for manuscripts (without decoDesc, provenance, item record nos.) |