Episode 313 - Unearthing Story Treasures with Beth Daley of Europeana
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Beth Daley discusses UNEARTHING STORY TREASURES WITH EUROPEANA, including how writers and storytellers can use the Europeana digital archive to spark creativity, deepen research, and find free resources for their projects—whether you’re looking for historical details, artistic inspiration, or unique images for your book covers. Beth Daley shares tips on navigating millions of cultural artifacts, using visual prompts to fuel your writing, and turning research rabbit holes into story gold.
Dr. Beth Daley is a novelist, cultural and creative writer and Europeana's Editorial Adviser. She works on engaging a broad range of audiences in Europeana’s work and content. She has a PhD in Creative Writing, runs a range of writing workshops and her first novel, ‘Blood and Water' is published by Hic Dragones in Manchester. A self-confessed story addict, Beth has led various initiatives in digital storytelling with Europeana, including acting as new writing mentor in Europeana’s Digital Storytelling Festival Online Creative Residency.
Episode Links
https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-daley-a032b537/
Related episodes:
Episode 312 - Storytelling through Epistolary Fiction with David Viergutz
Summary
In this episode of The Indy Author Podcast, Matty Dalrymple talks with Dr. Beth Daley about Unearthing Story Treasures with Europeana, including how writers and storytellers can use this free digital resource to find inspiration, conduct research, and access millions of images, texts, and artifacts to enrich their creative work.
WHAT IS EUROPEANA?
Beth explains that Europeana is a website funded by the European Commission that brings together digitized collections from museums, galleries, libraries, and archives across Europe and beyond. It includes photographs, scans, 3D models, videos, audio recordings, and written materials. “You can go to the website and search for something and you can get results from a tiny museum in rural Estonia next to something from the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands or the British Library,” she says. Europeana currently houses about 60 million items, roughly half of which are licensed for reuse. All materials are free to access, and users can filter their searches based on rights and licensing to determine what can be used commercially.
HOW WRITERS CAN USE EUROPEANA
Beth notes that writers have always used libraries as sources of inspiration and research, and Europeana serves a similar purpose in digital form. Writers can explore the collections for creative writing prompts, detailed research, or even practical applications like book cover art and marketing materials. “If you want some inspiration, you could look at our most popular items,” Beth suggests, noting that the site refreshes frequently so there’s always something new to discover. Writers can search for topics that match their story’s setting or theme—such as seventeenth-century fashion, World War I artifacts, or folk traditions—and use the visuals or historical details to add authenticity and texture to their writing.
Beth also emphasizes that half the materials on Europeana are licensed for reuse. Each item has a rights statement indicating its status—public domain, Creative Commons, or in copyright—so creators know how they can use it. “You can take an illustration and use it in your magazine article or maybe for your cover art,” she says.
EUROPEANA’S WRITERS’ ROOM AND CREATIVE EVENTS
Beyond the collections themselves, Europeana offers resources specifically designed for writers. Beth describes the Europeana Writers’ Room, a monthly free online creative writing workshop that uses “ekphrastic prompts”—images used as inspiration for writing. Participants meet on the first Wednesday of each month, view an image from the collection, and then write freely based on what it evokes. “Nobody has to share anything, but you can if you want,” Beth says. The sessions are designed to spark creativity and build a sense of community among writers.
She also discusses additional interactive activities tied to Europeana, including “Shut Up and Write” sessions and downloadable “story dice.” The Shut Up and Write sessions provide structured writing time and accountability. While participants work quietly, she displays images from the Europeana collection on screen for optional inspiration. The story dice feature printable templates with images from the archive—faces, emotions, landscapes, objects, and genres—that can be rolled to generate writing prompts or story elements. They’re useful for solo writers, workshops, or even classroom settings.
SEARCHING EUROPEANA EFFECTIVELY
Matty asks for tips on how to navigate such a vast archive, and Beth offers practical advice. “You can start with a word, but quite often that gives you thousands and thousands of results,” she says. The key is to use filters. Writers can filter by country, rights status, or even color. “Let’s say you are looking for stilettos and you want red stilettos—you can narrow it down by color and only have red stilettos returned to you.” For academic or detailed research, there’s also an advanced search feature that allows users to drill down into metadata.
For those who prefer to browse rather than search, Beth recommends starting with the “Collections” page, which organizes materials around themes such as migration, sports, newspapers, or the First World War. These curated sections include editorial articles, virtual exhibitions, and educational materials. The site also highlights the most popular items from the past day or two, which Beth says is “a really nice way of browsing because you’ll always get something unexpected.”
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSING
Beth acknowledges that copyright can be complicated, especially because it varies by country. However, Europeana makes the process easier by providing a rights statement with each item. Items in the public domain or with Creative Commons Zero licenses can be used freely. Others may require attribution or prohibit commercial use or alterations. “Europeana can’t grant permission because we don’t own the items,” Beth notes. “All the rights come from the individual institutions that hold the items.”
Beth also mentions that users can filter by image quality, which is useful for those wanting to use images in design projects like book covers. High-resolution images are ideal for professional applications.
TURNING RESEARCH INTO STORY
Matty raises the challenge of balancing research and writing, noting how easy it is for authors to get lost in rabbit holes. Beth agrees and advises writers to separate research from drafting. She suggests using free writing to explore what details stand out after the research phase. “Find that bespoke little detail about something that you can use to manifest all the rest of it,” she says. “You might conjure a lot of that by just picking out a particular detail or using it as a seasoning here and there rather than over-salting everything.”
Matty adds that separating research and writing in time helps authors focus on what’s truly important to the story. “What sticks in your mind is maybe an indicator of what’s going to be that telling detail,” she says. Beth agrees: “If you remember it after it’s sat in the drawer for a week, that may be the detail that you want to include.”
DIGITAL STORYTELLING AND CREATIVE RESIDENCIES
Beth also shares details about Europeana’s Digital Storytelling Festival, a two-day online event held annually in May that celebrates innovative storytelling across mediums. The festival features talks, workshops, and social sessions showcasing creative uses of cultural heritage. It also includes a digital creative residency program with a writing strand. Each year, the residency explores a different theme—such as LGBTQ+ stories, journeys, or food—and participants create new works under the guidance of mentors.
As the writing mentor for the residency, Beth has seen how participants blend personal stories with historical research. She recalls a visual artist who invented a “beer god” as part of an exhibition and used the residency to research the history of beer. Another participant, a writer in Corfu, explored traditional red sauce recipes and connected them to memories of his grandmothers. “We encourage people to connect with their own experience as well as use the historical collections,” Beth says. “That’s what really makes these stories come to life.”
She explains that while digital storytelling can involve multimedia elements like animation, collage, or video, the storytelling itself remains at the heart of the process. “Sometimes people get a bit carried away with the technology,” Beth notes. “The important part is the storytelling because the digital and technological elements should melt into the background so that the story is brought to the front.”
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF EUROPEANA
Beth encourages writers, artists, and teachers to explore Europeana without hesitation. “You can’t break anything,” she says. “Just go and enter something and have a go.” Whether for inspiration, research, or practical creative use, the platform offers endless opportunities to explore cultural heritage and spark new ideas. Matty adds that after exploring the site herself, she quickly found herself lost in an evening of discovery—particularly enjoying architectural cutaway drawings.
Beth closes by reminding listeners that Europeana.eu is available worldwide and open to everyone, including users outside Europe. “Go down rabbit holes and just enjoy it,” she says. “We’d love to know what you find.”