1 The Open Memory Apulia platform. How Open Data turns in Digital Heritage (DH) Nicola Barbuti 1,* , Mauro De Bari 1 , Stefania Riso 1 , Tommaso Caldarola 2 , Francesco Piero Paolicelli 3 1 University of Bari Aldo Moro, Piazza Umberto I, 1, Bari, 70121, Italy 2 D.A.BI.MUS. s.r.l., Via Garruba I, 1, Bari, 70122, Italy 3 AgID Expert Abstract In 2020, the EU proclaimed the need to turn the digitization processes to create and manage records related to the identities of European Communities, transforming data into historical sources of the present time for future generations. In this scenario, the Open Data paradigm plays a decisive role in creating and managing innovative models of digital libraries (DLs). In this paper, we describe the current state-of-the-art of this paradigm, showing how Open Data are essential for communities and discussing the issues that this argument could generate. Afterwards, the research on pilot Open Data DL Open Memory Apulia is presented, focusing on an innovative approach to managing the resources. The digital asset’s metadata includes information on digital records’ content, their relations with context, and their provenance, according to a dynamic path compliant with quality and certification requirements. The aim is to foster active interaction of users with the collection, linking the datasets enclosed within the DL by relationship metadata. Keywords 1 Open Data, metadata, Digital Library (DL), Open Memory Apulia 1. State-of-the-art In the Digital Transformation and digitalization of processes, data represents the new border of society in terms of connections [1], considering the daily amount of data created, accessed, managed, used, and reused [2]. This sharp growth generates numerous positive spill-over effects in all life sectors [3]. The EU recently outlined a data strategy to create a single data market to ensure Europe’s global competitiveness and data sovereignty [4]. Open Data plays a first-rate role in reaching this goal. The global Open Data movement has a long-time lifecycle [5] [6] 2 . However, it was defined around 2007 as a necessity in the Government sector [7], reaching the pick with the democratization of data launched by the United States [8] 3 . At first, it was and is essential to publish digital data in an open format accessible to all citizens, without copyright or other limits of use and reuse, allowing public bodies to make transparent procedures and decisions by opening data to the participation of citizens [9]. Secondly, it was necessary also for “the creation of economic value through the development of new activities based on open data” 19th IRCDL (The Conference on Information and Research science Connecting to Digital and Library science), February 23-24, 2023, Bari, Italy * Corresponding author. EMAIL: nicola.barbuti@uniba.it (N. Barbuti); mauro.debari@uniba.it (M. De Bari); stefania.riso@uniba.it (S. Riso); tommaso@caldarola.net (T. Caldarola); piersoft@icloud.com (F. P. Paolicelli) ORCID: 0000-0003-0817-4235 (N. Barbuti); 0000-0003-2730-2204 (M. De Bari); 0000-0002-4279-2566 (S. Riso) © 2023 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org) 2 The Open Data movement started in 1972, during the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, to develop international engagements that rely on scientific knowledge to guide activism, decision-making, and policy development. 3 The President of the United States, Barack Obama, claimed these openings in 2009 when he wrote in the Open Government Directive Memorandum: “Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use”. Obama’s declaration has accelerated the democratization of data, opening new perspectives for the direct interaction of people with information.