[A2k] Opening soon: a digital library for Europe

Mon Aug 11 11:53:09 2008

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*IP/08/1255*

Brussels, 11 August 2008
 *Opening soon: a digital library for Europe* *Europe's cultural diversity
in books, music, paintings, photographs, and films open to all citizens at
the click of a mouse via one portal =96 this dream of a European Digital
Library could become reality this autumn. However, further efforts by the E=
U
Member States are needed, said the Commission today in a new Communication
on making available digital versions of works from cultural institutions al=
l
over Europe. Digitisation of cultural works can give Europeans access to
material from museums, libraries and archives abroad without having to
travel or turn hundreds of pages to find a piece of information. Europe's
libraries alone contain more than 2.5 billion books, but only about 1% of
archival material is available in digital form. The Commission therefore
called on Member States to do more to make digitised works available online
for Europeans to browse them digitally, for study, work or leisure. The
Commission itself will provide some =80 120 million in 2009-2010 for improv=
ing
online access to Europe's cultural heritage. *

"The European Digital Library will be a quick and easy way for people to
access European books and art =96 whether in their home country or abroad. =
It
will, for example, enable a Czech student to browse the British library
without going to London, or an Irish art lover to get close to the Mona Lis=
a
without queuing at the Louvre," said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for
Information Society and Media. "However, even though Member States have mad=
e
significant progress in making cultural content accessible on the Internet,
more public and private investment is needed to speed up digitisation. My
goal is to have a European Digital Library, called Europeana and rich in
content open to the public before the end of the year."

The Commission today confirmed its commitment to help Member States bring
their valuable cultural content online. In 2009-2010 =80 69 million from th=
e EU's
research programme <http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/> will go to digitisation
activities and the development of digital libraries. In the same period,
Europe's Competitiveness and Innovation
Programme<http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/ict_psp/index_=
en.htm>will
allocate about =80 50 million to improve access to Europe's cultural
content. However, the total cost of digitising five million books in
Europe's libraries is already estimated at approximately =80 225 million, n=
ot
including objects like manuscripts or paintings. Realising the vision of a
European Digital Library (Europeana) needs substantial investment from
national institutions, but at present most countries only provide small
scale, fragmented funding for digitisation. The Commission today called on
Member States to raise digitisation capacities to make their collections
available for Europe's citizens, team up with the private sector, and
address the following priorities:

   - More *funding* needs to be allocated to digitisation, along with plans
   for how much material will be digitised.
   - Most countries still lack methods, technologies and experience for the
   *preservation* of digital material, vital so that content remains
   accessible to future generations.
   - *Common standards* need to be implemented to make different informatio=
n
   sources and databases compatible for and usable by the European Digital
   Library (*Europeana*).

- Resolution of *copyright* issues, above all legal solutions to the proble=
m
of orphan works - works whose right holders cannot be found to consent to
digitisation (IP/07/508<http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?refer=
ence=3DIP/07/508&format=3DHTML&aged=3D0&language=3DEN&guiLanguage=3Den>
).

Visitors to digital libraries can digitally discover copies of the famous
Gutenberg bible =96 the first real book ever printed =96 at the British
Library's website <http://www.bl.uk/treasures/gutenberg/homepage.html>, the
voices of Maria Callas or Jacques Brel at the French Institut National de
l'Audiovisuel<http://www.ina.fr/europe-des-cultures/Fr/Html/PrincipaleAccue=
il.php>,
or Da Vinci's masterpiece the Mona Lisa at the
Louvre<http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_=
id=3D10134198673226503&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=3D10134198673226503&F=
OLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=3D9852723696500816&fromDept=3Dfalse&baseIndex=3D38>-
without a ticket.

Some Member States have taken exemplary steps to accelerate digitisation of
cultural collections. *Slovenia* adopted a Public-Private Partnership Act i=
n
2007, providing new opportunities for private promotion of digitisation
projects in public institutions. *Slovakia *has rehabilitated an old
military complex as a large-scale digitisation facility using page turning
robots. *Finland, Slovakia* and *Lithuania* used European Structural Funds
to secure extra funding for digitisation.

However, the Commission's assessment also shows that in many cases there is
a gap between the objects which have been digitised and their online
accessibility. For example, only one in four *German* museums that have
digitised material offer online access to it and only 1% of the material
digitised by *Polish* archives is online.

*Background: *

The European Digital Library is part of the i2010 initiative adopted by the
Commission on 1 June 2005
(IP/05/643<http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=3DIP/05/=
643&format=3DHTML&aged=3D1&language=3DEN&guiLanguage=3Den>).
On 24 August 2006, the Commission adopted a Recommendation on digitisation
and digital preservation
(IP/06/1124<http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=3DIP/06=
/1124&format=3DHTML&aged=3D0&language=3DEN&guiLanguage=3Den>).
In the 13 November 2006 Culture Council, national ministers agreed to move
forward on digitisation(Pres/06/309<http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAct=
ion.do?reference=3DPRES/06/309&format=3DHTML&aged=3D1&language=3DEN&guiLang=
uage=3Den>)
.
Communication and assessment of progress on digitisation:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/index_=
en.htm

The World Digital Library:

http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org/project/english/index.html

The European Library:

http://search.theeuropeanlibrary.org/portal/en/index.html

Europeana:

http://www.europeana.eu/

MEMO/08/546<http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=3DMEMO/=
08/546&format=3DHTML&aged=3D0&language=3DEN&guiLanguage=3Den>

Anne-Catherine Lorrain
TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD)
TACD Intellectual Property Expert
Avenue de Tervueren, 36 bte 4
1040 Bruxelles
Tel: +32 2 740 28 17
Mobile: +32 473 99 97 92
Cell (US): +1 (202) 390 6264
<http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=3DMEMO/08/546&form=
at=3DHTML&aged=3D0&language=3DEN&guiLanguage=3Den>