European Digital Library Foundation welcomed by the Commissioner
28 November 2007
Yesterday, the European Commission endorsed the work of the European Digital Library Foundation when high level EC officials met members for the formal handover of their statutes. "Europe's citizens should all be able to enjoy our rich cultural heritage. This Foundation is a significant step towards making that ambition come true," Commissioner Viviane Reding, responsible for Information Society and Media commented. "It shows the commitment of Europe's cultural institutions to work together to make their collections available and searchable by the public through a common and multilingual access point online."
Foundation members include the key European heritage and information associations. Their statutes commit members to work in partnership to:
- Provide access to Europe's cultural and scientific heritage though a cross-domain portal
- Co-operate in the delivery and sustainability of the joint portal
- Stimulate initiatives to bring together existing digital content
- Support digitisation of Europe's cultural and scientific heritage
The European digital library is developing its prototype site for launch next year. To coincide with the formal handover to the Commissioner, the Foundation announced the CITY as the first of the site's themes.
The CITY is a broad theme that will enable the prototype site to show the European urban experience from several perspectives. Emerging ideas include:
- cities of the future/cities of the past
- migration and diaspora
- trade and industry
- design, shopping and urban cool
- pox, cholera and the plague: the route to urban health
- archaeology and architecture
- utopias and cities of the imagination
- riot and disorder
- palaces and politics
The digital library project is gathering digitised content from European archives, museums, audio-visual collections and libraries. It will use maps, artefacts, photos, sound, film material, books, archival records and artworks to explore two millennia of connectivity between Europe's cities.
Dr Wim van Drimmelen, foundation member and Director of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the Netherlands, which hosts the European digital library initiative, said, "archives, museums, audio-visual collections and libraries are collaborating in order to guarantee that their resources can be brought together in a virtual world, regardless of where the original is held. It's what users expect. However, the benefits are not just for the users. The development work is providing an excellent forum for knowledge transfer between the domains, which increases our collective ability to respond to changing user needs and remain relevant in the fast-moving digital environment."
Lynne Brindley, Chair of the Management Board of the European Library and Chief Executive of the British Library, added, "The British Library welcomes the announcement of the formal creation of The European Digital Library. To truly respond to the needs of 21st-century researchers cultural institutions must embrace the digital age and open up their unique collections to a global audience. This portal will bring Europe's rich heritage to the fingertips of users worldwide."
For further European digital library information contact Jonathan Purday on +31 9(0) 70314 0684 Jonathan.purday@kb.nl
For further British Library information please contact: Lawrence Christensen at the British Library Press Office, +44 (0)20 7412 7114, lawrence.christensen@bl.uk or Suvi Kankainen, +44 (0)20 7412 7105, suvi.kankainen@bl.uk
Notes for editors
1. The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest research libraries. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. The Library's collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million separate items representing every age of written civilisation. It includes: books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken languages. Further information is available on the Library's website at www.bl.uk.
2. The European digital library will launch a prototype in November 2008. It will give direct access to at least 2 million digitised books, photos, maps, sounds, films and archival records from Europe's libraries, archives, museums and audio-visual collections.
The European digital library foundation comprises the following members:
Martine de Boisdeffre, EURBICA: European Regional Branch of International Council on Archives
Edwin van Huis, FIAT: International Federation of Television Archives
Claudia Dillmann, ACE: Association Cinémathèques Européennes
Massimo Negri, EMF: European Museums Forum
Elisabeth Niggemann, CENL: Conference of European National Librarians
Hans Geleijnse, LIBER: Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche
Christophe Dessaux, MICHAEL: Multilingual Inventory of Cultural Heritage in Europe
Wim van Drimmelen, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, national library of the Netherlands
ICOM Europe: International Council of Museums, Europe
CERL: Consortium of European Research Libraries
The European digital library is hosted by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the national library of the Netherlands, and led by the Conference of European National Librarians.
The initiative is one of the Commission's flagship i2010 initiatives to create a European Information Society for growth and jobs (see IP/05/643).
On 25 August 2006, the Commission adopted a Recommendation on digitisation and digital preservation (see IP/06/1124 and MEMO/06/311) which urged EU Member States to set up large-scale digitisation facilities, so as to accelerate the process of getting Europe's cultural heritage online via the European digital library.
In November 2006 the idea of a European digital library was strongly endorsed by the Culture Ministers of all EU Member States and was recently backed by the European Parliament in its resolution of 27 September 2007.
More information about the European digital library can be found at http://www.europeandigitallibrary.eu/edlnet/
The British Library collaborates with European partners in range of major projects, working to improve access to the continent's shared heritage and offering leadership and expertise in fields such as mass digitisation and digital preservation. Highlights of the British Library's European activity include:
The European Library (TEL) - the British Library led the TEL Project from 2001-04, which resulted in the establishment of The European Library, a free service that offers access to the resources of the 47 national libraries of Europe in 20 languages. The British Library's Chief Executive, Lynne Brindley is chair of the management board of The European Library and the British Library has contributed its metadata, marketing and branding expertise, as well as participating in the TEL-ME-MOR project to enable 10 new member states to join TEL. See: www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/
The European Digital Library - the British Library has contributed its metadata expertise to the EDLNet project, which aims to lay the foundations for the European Digital Library, which will provide cross-domain access to the objects and information held in the museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual archives of Europe. See: www.europeandigitallibrary.eu/edlnet/
Planets and digital preservation - The Library is leading the EU-funded Planets Project (Preservation and Long-term Access through NETworked Services) to address the challenge of preserving access to digital cultural and scientific knowledge. Information conservatively valued at around 3 billion Euros currently languishes in endangered digital formats. This project aims to ensure that digital preservation concerns are taken on board by software manufacturers and by the IT community in general. See: www.planets-project.eu/
The British Library also works with European partners through a number of high-level groups on subjects including orphan works, public private partnerships and mass digitisation. www.bl.uk/digital