Slides from Special Libraries Association 2010 Conference session International Virtual Libraries Description: Virtual libraries comprising materials spanning nations now populate our professional world. Probe the major ones: UNESCO‘s World Digital Library, The European Union’s Europeana, and the very latest on the Google Books settlement. Speakers: Lyle Minter, U.S. Congressional Research Service; Ann Sweeney, European Union Delegation to the U.S.; Doug Newcomb, SLA Chief Policy Officer; Peter Brantley, Internet Archive, Independent Expert on the Google Books Settlement.

1. INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL
LIBRARIES
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
2 – 3:30 pm
SLA Unit Sponsor: Social Science Division,
International Relations Section
Underwriter: GALE GROUP/CENGAGE

2. To tweet about this session:
Social Science Division: #dsoc
SLA Annual Conference: #sla2010
All presentations will be uploaded to the Social
Science Division website after Conference:
http://sites.google.com/site/sladsoc/

3. Ann Sweeney: Moderator; “Europeana”
• European Union Delegation to the US in DC: Librarian, Webmaster, & now Senior
Communications Advisor: Electronic Publications;
• SLA Division Cabinet Chair; Social Science Division International Relations Section
Chair; other SLA past roles;
• 30+ years’ career: Columbia University Graduate Business Library, US Defense
Intelligence Agency, Port Authority of NY & NJ, Information for Business, National
Academy of Sciences – Transportation Research Board (TRB), & public libraries;
• Electronic applications, reference, collection development, database creation,
cataloging, abstracting, indexing, serials management, thesaurus construction, &
solo librarianship;
• Undergraduate degree: Romance Languages & Political Science; Master of Science
in Library Service, Columbia University;
• 2 married daughters: older—NYC Teaching Fellow alumna, taught in South Bronx &
now Washington, DC, public elementary schools; younger daughter—returned Peace
Corps volunteer (Benin, W. Africa)—development aid project director.

4. Lyle Minter: UNESCO’S World Digital
Library
• Manager of Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade Consulting Section in the Knowledge Services
Group of the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, since January 2005;
• Master of Library Science degree, University of Maryland;
• US Department of the Army librarian at several installations in Washington, DC, metropolitan
area; Head, Reference Branch, Pentagon Library, 1988;
• Library of Congress, 1991: Head, Government Publications & Periodicals Section; 1997: Head,
Newspaper & Current Periodical Room, the Serial & Government Publications Division’s public
service point;
• SLA’s Finance, Nominating, & Bylaws Committees; President, DC/SLA; 2 DC/SLA Board of
Directors Awards; Chair, Social Science Division; elected Fellow of SLA, 2004.

5. Peter Brantley: Google Books Settlement
• Director, Bookserver Project, Internet Archive—San Francisco-based not-for-profit library;
• Co-founder, Open Book Alliance;
• Board of the International Digital Publishing Forum—the standards-setting body for digital
books;
• Significant experience with academic research libraries & digital library development
programs;
• Previously Executive Director, Digital Library Federation—a not-for-profit membership
organization of research & national libraries;
• Presentations on Google Books settlement in many fora, including US House of
Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, US Department of Justice, & European
Commission's Copyright Unit.
• Contact: Twitter: @naypinya; email: peter@archive.org .

6. Doug Newcomb: SLA & the Google Book
Settlement
• SLA Chief Policy Officer: leads SLA’s public policy efforts & also manages human
resources;
• SLA staff committee member of: Public Policy Advisory Council, Diversity Leadership
Development Committee, & Research & Development Committee;
• 20+ years’ experience in association management;
• Ongoing activities: monitoring, advocating, & lobbying on issues that will influence & shape
legislation & regulatory proposals that affect SLA’s membership;
• Bachelor of Arts degree in English, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington; Master
of Science degree in Applied Behavioral Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore;
Certified Association Executive designation, American Society of Association Executives.

7. The European Union
“Europeana:
Europe’s Digital Library”
Ann R. Sweeney, MLS
Senior Communications Advisor:
Electronic Publications
ann.sweeney@ec.europa.eu
Delegation of the European Union
to the United States

8. The European Union
http://www.europeana.eu/

9. The European Union
SAMPLE SEARCHES

10. The European Union

11. The European Union

12. The European Union

13. The European Union

14. The European Union

15. The European Union

16. The European Union

17. The European Union
Napoleon’s Handwritten Notes, from a Local Polish Library

18. The European Union
TRY…
•Martin Luther
•Gerard Mercator – mapmaker
•America
•Liber Chronicarum – 15th century
View different editions of the same
work from different countries’
collections.

19. The European Union
All sorts of European Institutions:

20. The European Union
From EU & Non-EU European Countries:

21. The European Union
• The EU's executive body, the European Commission, has
been working for a number of years on projects to boost
the digital economy.
• These prepared the ground for an online service that
would bring together Europe's cultural heritage.
• The European Commission's goal for Europeana is to
make European information resources easier to use in an
online environment. It will build on Europe's rich
heritage, combining multicultural and multilingual
environments with technological advances and new
business models.
• As of May, 2010, some 7 million digitized items have
been entered into Europeana; by the end of 2010, that
number should increase to 10 million.

22. The European Union
• The project is run by a core team based in the national
library of the Netherlands, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek.
• It builds on the project management and technical
expertise developed by The European Library, a service
of the Conference of European National Librarians.
• Overseeing the project is the EDL (Europeana)
Foundation, which includes key European cultural
heritage associations.

23. The European Union
The EDL Foundation’s statutes commit members to:
• Provide access to Europe’s cultural and scientific
heritage though a cross-domain portal;
• Cooperate in the delivery and sustainability of the
joint portal;
• Stimulate initiatives to bring together existing digital
content;
• Support digitization of Europe’s cultural and scientific
heritage.

24. The European Union

25. The European Union
Europeana Prototype Search Facility

26. The European Union

27. The European Union
RECENT EUROPEANA MILESTONES
• May 10, 2010 - The EU Council adopts Conclusions outlining the next steps for Europeana.
EU Member States agree to continue and strengthen their support in order to increase the
number of objects from libraries, museums, archives and audiovisual collections accessible:
http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/10/st08/st08843.en10.pdf#page=2 .
• May 5, 2010 - The European Parliament adopts a Resolution on "Europeana - Next Steps,"
joining the European Commission in asking EU Member States to step up their efforts to
make their cultural heritage available through the European Digital Library:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/doc/parliament/resolution
_europeana.pdf .
• April 21, 2010 - The European Commission sets up a "Comité des Sages" on bringing
European cultural heritage online. Before the end of 2010, the Group is due to present
innovative solutions on how best to speed up digitization, online accessibility and
preservation of cultural works across Europe:
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/reflectiongroup/index_en.
htm .
• January 28, 2010 - Final report of the High Level Expert Group on Digital Libraries: "Digital
Libraries: Challenges and Recommendations for the Future":
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/digital_libraries/doc/hleg/reports/hlg_fina
l_report09.pdf .
• November 20, 2008 - Launch of Europeana prototype.

28. The European Union
Important Points in the May 10, 2010 EU Council Conclusions
The EU Council recognized:
• The organizational, legal, and financial challenges for the digitization
and online accessibility of cultural material, as well as for digital
preservation, such as issues related to intellectual property rights and
the need to find complementary funding for digitization, which could
include public-private partnerships.
and recommended:
• Work towards a sustainable financing and governance model for
Europeana as a common access point to Europe's cultural heritage, and
ensure optimal use of the financial instruments available for funding
digitization at the national and European level.

29. The European Union
PARTING SHOTS
• The current Europeana is a Beta version, to be improved
later this year;
• An overhauled, new release is slated for 2011;
• Google Books & Europeana are in negotiations for Google
Books to provide European content to Europeana;
• This may be used as a model for the public-private
partnerships envisioned by the EU to continue
Europeana’s mission.

30. The European Union
Ann R. Sweeney, MLS
Senior Communications
Advisor: Electronic
Publications
ann.sweeney@ec.europa.eu
Delegation of the European
Union
to the United States

31. World Digital Library
Lyle W. Minter
Program Planner,
SLA Social Science
Division

32. WDL: An International Cooperative
Project
 Library of Congress
 United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO)
 Partner libraries, archives, and educational and cultural
institutions from around the world

33.  WDL interface operates in
– Arabic
– Chinese
– English
– French
– Portuguese
– Russian
– Spanish
– Documents on the site are presented in their original
languages

34. Home page

35. Locating objects

36. Object descriptions

37. Browsing by topic

38. Browsing by participating institution

39. Please feel free to explore
http://www.wdl.org/en/