Monday, August 20, 2007

News from the European Library and beyond

Last week, the Russian State Library joined the European Library. According to the new blog TELL Fleur, which chronicles happenings at the European Library:
As a result users of www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org will be able to search and retrieve material from the national library of Russia-Moscow. The European Library is a service of the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL).
TELL Fleur points out that the European Library is not the same as the European digital library that is now under development. However, Ms. Fleur Stigter writes that "the European Library is the organisational ground for the European digital library." It is hard to tell how these two project might entwine. There are some European digital library treasures on the European Library web site, but it is unclear if these are truly part of "the" European digital library. (Fleur, perhaps you can leave a comment and educate us?)

Following the links concerning the European digital library, I found information on the i2010 initiative to create "a European Information Society for growth and employment." What a spectacular project that will cross geographic and cultural boundaries in order to help Europe collect, manage and preserve its knowledge.

Unfortunately, we don't receive a lot of European library news on a day-to-day basis. Therefore, I'm glad to see this new blog that will help to keep us up-to-date.


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

better late than never?

apologies for the late response

a lot has happened -

A start has been made in creating Europeana (formerly called: European digital library). As a matter of fact, a first demo-version has been launched some time back. At this moment the first prototype is being developed.

To come back to your question..

The European Library is a service of CENL. It gives access to the combined resources of Europe's national libraries.
www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org is a fully operational site.

Europeana is produced by a Thematic Network, called EDLnet. This project is funded by the European Commission (eContentplus program). CENL/The European Library makes part of the network.
www.Europeana.eu is not yet operational

For more information about Europeana and EDLnet, please visit http://www.europeana.eu/about.php

Hope this helps.

Many thanks!

Fleur