31 May 2005
Over 11m Digital Records Now Available At European Library
After three years of collaborative project work and ten months of operational development, The European Library was recently launched.
Over 11 million digitised and born digital records and objects from 9 of Europe's National Libraries are free to all.
The European Library portal is the result of a project led by the British Library working with Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze and ICCU, Die Deutsche Bibliothek, Helsingin Yliopiston Kirjasto - Suomen kansalliskirjasto (National Library of Finland), Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands), Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica (National Library of Slovenia), Biblioteca Nacional, Portugal and the Swiss National Library.
Owned by the Conference of European National Librarians, the project libraries were joined by the Bibliothčque nationale de France, in June 2004, to create an operational service. These same libraries have all conformed to metadata standards and given access to their collections for launch.
Using an innovative portal in the browser approach, The European Library exists to open up the universe of knowledge, information and culture of all Europe's national libraries. It has started with 9 of the 43 members of the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL) and will add in more of the member libraries during the course of 2005.
Dr. Elisabeth Niggemann, Director General of Die Deutsche Bibliothek and Chair of The European Library Management Board commented: "We are pleased to have created this basis for access to the cultural heritage and learning held in the National libraries in Europe and look forward to more of our CENL colleagues joining us so that The European Library can become a truly European resource."
For more information, please visit: www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org
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