| URL | theeuropeanlibrary.org |
|---|---|
| Commercial? | No |
| Type of site | Portal to the content of Europe's national and research libraries |
| Owner | CENL (a consortium of 48 national libraries) |
| Launched | 17 March 2005 |
The European Library is an Internet service that allows access to the resources of 48 European national libraries.[1] Searching is free and delivers metadata records as well as digital objects (most for free, others at cost). The objects come from institutions located in countries which are members of the Council of Europe and range from catalogue records to full-text books, magazines, journals and audio recordings. Thirty five different languages are represented among the searchable objects.
From 2011, The European Library is managing the Europeana Libraries project, which will aggregate over 5 million objects from 19 research libraries and make them available to Europeana. These research libraries will also become partners in The European Library.[2]
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The European Library of today has evolved from a number of earlier projects.
Its starting point was in 1997 when the GABRIEL (Gateway and Bridge to Europe’s National Libraries) project set out to establish a joint web portal of European national libraries. At a basic level, the portal provided information about each library’s collections and access to their online public access catalogues (OPACs).
| “ | The European Library exists to open up the universe of knowledge, information and cultures of all Europe's national libraries. | ” |
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— European Library Mission[3] |
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GABRIEL was followed by the TEL (The European Library) project, which ran from 2001-2004 and created a framework for access to key national and deposit collections within Europe. The project was part-funded under the Fifth Framework Programme of the European Commission. The national libraries involved in the TEL project were those of Finland, Germany, Italy (Florence), Italy (Rome), Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland and United Kingdom.[4]
This led to the launch of TheEuropeanLibrary.org portal on 17 March 2005.
Between 2005-2007, the TEL-ME-MOR project helped to incorporate 10 more national libraries from new European Union member states as full partners of The European Library. By the beginning of 2008, a further nine national libraries within the European Union and the European Free Trade Association had joined the service.
The European Library took a further step towards its enlargement with the EDLproject, during which national libraries continued to join The European Library. The project also focused on multilingualism, undertook the first steps towards a European Metadata Registry and created a roadmap for potential digitization efforts in the national libraries.
| Year of Joining | National Libraries |
|---|---|
| 2005 | Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, Finland, France,Germany, Portugal, Italy-Florence, Italy-Rome |
| 2006 | Malta, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Serbia, Croatia, Denmark |
| 2007 | Belgium, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Russia-Moscow |
| 2008 | Albania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova,Montenegro, Romania, Turkey, Russia Saint Petersburg, Ukraine |
| * | San Marino, Vatican City (collections not searchable) |
The European Library provided much of the organization and support required to launch Europeana – a European Commission initiative that makes millions of digital objects from libraries, museums and archives accessible to the public via the Europeana website.
When the European Parliament called for Europeana to be established, the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL), under the auspices of the National Library of the Netherlands and CENL's service The European Library, were asked to submit for a project under the eContentplus programme. Work began on a prototype in 2007 and Europeana was launched in November 2008.
Europeana now operates independently but The European Library continues to work closely with Europeana. The European Library is the aggregator of digital content from national libraries for Europeana and delivers digital content from national libraries on a monthly basis to Europeana.
As of January 2011, The European Library was the third biggest content provider to Europeana[5], with over 1.2 million items added to the Europeana database.
Some human and technical resources are also shared between Europeana and The European Library.
In addition to its search engine, The European Library pulls together themes from the collections of Europe's national libraries[6] and displays them in virtual exhibitions. These exhibitions unite geographically disparate objects in a single online space, offering Pan-European sources on the topic.
The European Library is financed by its owners, the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL). The portal is maintained by The European Library Office located in the premises of the Dutch Royal Library in The Hague. Its programme director is Jill Cousins.[12]
The 48 National Libraries who participate in The European Library project are:
Research Libraries who are joining The European Library in 2011 as a result of the Europeana Libraries project include: