[A2k] Europe's digital library is online

[Anne-Catherine Lorrain]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
*Now Online: "Europeana", Europe's Digital Library * *Europeana, Europe's
multimedia online library opens to the public today. At www.europeana.eu,
Internet users around the world can now access more than two million books,
maps, recordings, photographs, archival documents, paintings and films from
national libraries and cultural institutions of the EU's 27 Member States.
Europeana opens up new ways of exploring Europe's heritage: anyone
interested in literature, art, science, politics, history, architecture,
music or cinema will have free and fast access to Europe's greatest
collections and masterpieces in a single virtual library through a web
portal available in all EU languages. But this is just the beginning. In
2010, Europeana will give access to millions of items representing Europe's
rich cultural diversity and will have interactive zones such as communities
for special interests. Between 2009 and 2011, some =802 million per year of=
 EU
funding will be dedicated to this. The Commission also plans to involve the
private sector in the further expansion of Europe's digital library. In
September 2007, the European Parliament supported, in a resolution voted by
an overwhelming majority, the creation of a European digital library. *

Jos=E9 Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, said: *"With
Europeana, we combine Europe's competitive advantage in communication and
networking technologies with our rich cultural heritage.* *Europeans will
now be able to access the incredible resources of our great collections
quickly and easily in a single space. Europeana is much more than a library=
,
it is a veritable dynamo to inspire 21st century Europeans to emulate the
creativity of innovative forbears like the drivers of the Renaissance. Just
imagine the possibilities it offers students, art-lovers or scholars to
access, combine and search the cultural treasures of all Member States
online. This is a strong demonstration of the fact that culture is at the
heart of European integration."*

"Europeana offers a journey through time, across borders, and into new idea=
s
of what our culture is. More than that, it will connect people to their
history and, through interactive pages and tools, to each other," said
Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media. "I now
call on Europe's cultural institutions, publishing houses and technology
companies to fill Europeana with further content in digital form. We should
make Europeana a home for interactive creative participation at the
fingertips of people who want to mould their own piece of European culture
and share it with others. My objective is that in 2010, Europeana will
include at least 10 million objects."

Elisabeth Niggemann, Director-General of the German National Library and
chair of the European Digital Library Foundation =96 the organisation behin=
d
Europeana =96, added: "Europeana makes cultural bodies more relevant to the
Web 2.0 generation =96 a generation that expects to be able to read text, s=
ee
video, hear sounds and view images all in the same space and time. By
offering young people a complete multimedia experience it will connect them
to Europe's culture, past and present."

Europeana makes it possible to search and browse the digitised collections
of Europe's libraries, archives and museums all at once. This means users
can explore themes without searching for and visiting multiple sites and
resources.

Europeana was initiated by the Commission in 2005 and brought to fruition i=
n
close cooperation with national libraries and other cultural bodies of the
Member States as well as with the strong support of the European Parliament=
.
Europeana is run by the European Digital Library Foundation, which brings
together Europe's major associations of libraries, archives, museums,
audiovisual archives and cultural institutions. Europeana is hosted by the
Dutch national library, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek

Over 1,000 cultural organisations from across Europe have provided material
for Europeana. Europe's museums, including the Louvre in Paris and the
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, have supplied digitised paintings and objects fro=
m
their collections. State archives have made important national documents
available, and France's Institut National de l'Audiovisuel supplied 80,000
broadcasts recording the 20th century, right back to early footage shot on
the battlefields of France in 1914. National libraries all over Europe have
contributed printed and manuscript material, including digitised copies of
the great books that brought new ideas into the world.

In 2009-2010 around =80 69 million will be available for research on digita=
l
libraries through the EU's research programme <http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/=
>.
In the same period the information society part of the Competitiveness and
Innovation Programme<http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/ict=
_psp/index_en.htm>will
allocate around =80 50 million to improve access to Europe's cultural
and
scientific heritage.

*Background: *

The European Commission started to work on the digitisation and online
accessibility of cultural material as early as 2000. Between 2000 and 2005
it co-funded research projects and stimulated a better collaboration betwee=
n
Member States that wanted to bring their cultural heritage online.

In June 2005, Commissioner Reding made the European digital library a
flagship project of the EU's i2010 strategy for a European Information
Society for growth and jobs
(IP/05/643<http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=3DIP/05/=
643&format=3DHTML&aged=3D1&language=3DEN&guiLanguage=3Den>).
In September 2005, the Commission outlined the measures needed to make
Europe's cultural and scientific heritage accessible to all
(IP/05/1202<http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=3DIP/05=
/1202&format=3DHTML&aged=3D0&language=3Den&guiLanguage=3Den>).
This August, the Commission asked Member States to step up their efforts to
contribute to Europeana, especially by providing more funding to
digitisation and put clearer figures on how much material they would
digitise. (IP/08/1255<http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?referen=
ce=3DIP/08/1255&format=3DHTML&aged=3D0&language=3DEN&guiLanguage=3Den>,
MEMO/08/546<http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=3DMEMO/=
08/546&format=3DHTML&aged=3D0&language=3DEN&guiLanguage=3Den>
).

The Commission's work on the European Digital Library was accompanied by a
High-Level Group of experts from the public and the private sector: from
cultural institutions, the ICT industry and from right holders.

*For more information: *

http://www.europeana.eu

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

A press pack on Europeana, including a MEMO and fact sheet is available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/itemlongdetail.cfm?item=
_id=3D4505

The European Parliament resolution of 27 September 2008, "Towards a Europea=
n
digital library" (rapporteur: Marie-H=E9l=E8ne Descamps) can be found at:

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=3DTA&language=3DEN&refer=
ence=3DP6-TA-2007-0416


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Anne-Catherine Lorrain

Intellectual Property Policy Expert

The TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD)
Avenue de Tervueren, 36 Bte 4
1040 Bruxelles - Belgium

aclorrain@consint.org

Mob (Belgium): +32 473 99 97 92

Cell (US): +1 202 390 6264
Tel: +32 2 740 28 17
Fax: +32 2 740 28 02
www.tacd.org