Olaf D. Janssen

The European Library Office

The Hague, The Netherlands

Building The European (Digital)Library

An insider’s Point of View

ACRL, 31-03-07

1. National libraries in Europe

2. The European Library 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Common standards

3. Ingredients for successful European Digital Library

Structure of presentation

European Union (EU)

27 members states

Major project funder

www.eu.int

1. National libraries in Europe

National libraries in European context

National library LoC, British Library

47 national libraries – 45 European countries(Russia & Italy 2)

20y collaboration since 1987, since 1995 online

Latest collaborative project is The European Library

1. National libraries in Europe1. National libraries in Europe

1. National libraries in Europe

2. The European Library 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Common standards

3. Ingredients for successful European Digital Library

Structure of presentation

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The European Library relies on common standards

A. Access protocols

B. Metadata

C. Collection descriptions

2. The European Library

TheEuropeanLibrary.org =- service of all 47 European national libraries

- to provide access to their

- catalogues & digital collections

- via 1 central multi-lingual web interface

- (= portal)

What is The European Library?

2.1 Introduction to The European Library

www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org

Current status TheEuropeanLibrary.org is live since 17-03-2005

Funded by the national libraries (not EU)

Now : 250+ collections from 22 national libraries: Austria, UK, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Poland, Cyprus, Malta, Lithuania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia

End 2007 : 320 collections from 31 libraries

Mid 2009 : 400 collections from 43 libraries

2.1 Introduction to The European Library

What’s Good about The European LibraryFor end-users

Have integrated access to catalogues & digital collections of national libraries of Europe

Quality-controlled deep web resources 250+ collections, 2.0M digital objects and 50M

metadata records

For the national libraries International showcase for collections Wider access to their collections & content Combined political mass greater marketing

and negotiation power.

2.1 Introduction to The European Library

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The European Library relies on common standards

A. Access protocols

B. Metadata

C. Collection descriptions

2. The European Library

The European Library = hybrid portal = federated search tool

Overall goal of The European Library = COLLABORATION Low implementation barrier for libraries is key!!

Different libraries demand different access protocols to access their collections

TEL uses well-known access protocols : OAI-PMH, FTP, Z39.50, SRU, OpenURL

The European Library portal queries 1 central index (90 harvested collections, OAI-PMH & FTP)

160 remote databases (Z39.50 & SRU)

2.2.A Access protocols in The European Library

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The European Library relies on common standards

A. Access protocols

B. Metadata

C. Collection descriptions

2. The European Library

Metadata All 50M records in The European Library are in same metadata format!!

TEL metadata Basis = Dublin Core

Expanded with elements from other metadata sets

2.2.B Metadata in The European Library

More info about metadataThe European Library Handbook

www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/handbook

2.2.B Metadata in The European Library

2.1 Introduction

2.2 The European Library relies on common standards

A. Access protocols

B. Metadata

C. Collection descriptions

2. The European Library

Collection descriptions All 250+ collection descriptions in The European Library are in same format!!

TEL collection descriptions XML files describing each collection (name, content etc)

Each collection description translated in 20 languages

Helps users to select collections they want to search in

2.2.C Collection descriptions in The European Library

More info about collection descriptionsThe European Library Handbook

www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/handbook

2.2.C Collection descriptions in The European Library

1. National libraries in Europe

2. The European Library 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Common standards

3. Ingredients for successful European Digital Library

Structure of presentation

European Digital Library =

- yet to be built - pan-European - multi-lingual portal - giving access to digital

cultural heritage- from European

libraries AND museums & archives

3. Ingredients for a successful European Digital Library

The European Library =

- operational - pan-European - multi-lingual portal - giving access to

digital cultural heritage

- from European libraries only

EU 2005 : “Creation of a European Digital Library is a strategic priority“

EU 2006 : “The European Library is a good starting point for a European Digital Library”

3. Ingredients for a successful European Digital Library

Vision of the European Union

Towards a European Digital Library

The European Library already has already created

Operational technological platform (portal)

Based on common open standards for metadata & access

Firm cooperative organisational framework (20 years)

3. Ingredients for a successful European Digital Library

BUT…

A successful European Digital Library needs more ingredients

……

Look at 6 of them…. challenges

3. Ingredients for a successful European Digital Library

Challenge 1 Mass-digitisation of as many materials as possible

Challenge 2Long-time digital preservation of these digitised materials

Problem Only 4% of content in The European Library are digital objects Even lower %-tage is digitally preserved

Solution Mass-digitisation & preservation programmes Europe-wide network

digitisation centres

3. Ingredients for a successful European Digital LibraryChallenges to tackle (1,2)

Challenge 3More partners, esp. museums, archives, AV

Challenge 4Multilingual search & retrieval facilities Searching in German, finding texts in Spanish

Challenge 5 Business models / governance / funding models / sustainability

Challenge 6 Copyright issues

All of these challenges are addressed in a series of EU funded projects 2007-2011

3. Ingredients for a successful European Digital LibraryChallenges to tackle (3,4,5,6)

Summary Common and open standards for access and

interoperability are essential for a European Digital Library

The European Library is catalyst

Building a European Digital Library is a much a political & social game as it is a technological

Willingness to collaborate is key!!

3. Ingredients for a successful European Digital Library

See full paper for more details

www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org

olaf.janssen@kb.nl