EU digital library open in 2008

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 29 Nov 2007 at 11:51

The EU has taken another step towards the formation of a European digital library, after meeting with representatives of the Digital Libraries Initiative, a body set up to promote the digitisation of information.

The meeting looked at new ways for funding digitisation through public private partnerships and at possible methods for mass-digitisation of out-of-print works and orphan works, those for which it is difficult to trace the rights holder.

A prototype library is scheduled to launch in November 2008 and will provide access to at least two million digital books, photographs, maps, archival records and films. By 2010 the EU says it expects the library to have grown to include six million more resources that had initially been anticipated when the scheme was first proposed.

"It shows the commitment of Europe's cultural institutions to work together and make their collections available and searchable to the wide public through a common and multilingual access point online," explains Viviane Reding, the Information Society and Media commissioner.

Earlier this year, the European Parliament gave its backing for the library, though it warned that "new methods of financing must be developed".