europeana

1. The i2010 digital libraries initiative -
Europeana
Luca Martinelli
European Commission
DG Information Society and Media
European Congress on e-Inclusion: ECEI09
Brussels 22-23 October 2009

2. EUROPEANA
“More than a digital library!”
• Text (books and other), image, video, sound
• Common multilingual access point to Europe’s
digital cultural heritage
• A collaborative endeavour between libraries,
museums, archives and audiovisual archives
• Official launch on 20 November 2008
• Critical mass of content, user-friendly interface

3. Europeana: main features
• Europeana supervised by the EDL-
Foundation (established 8
November 2007)
• Europeana Office in The Hague
runs the service on a day-to-day
basis
• 4.5 million digital objects (images,
texts, videos, sound recordings)
» Target : 10 million objects in 2010
» Release of Europeana 1.0 in 2010

5. Framework conditions for
digitisation, online accessibility and
digital preservation
1)Work at political and legislative level:
2006: Recommendation to Member States
•2008: First implementation report: some
progress, but key areas deserve special
attention: support to Europeana, funding of
digitisation, copyright issues and digital
preservation.
•2010: Second implementation report
• 2009: Communication “Europeana – next
steps”
• 2009: Communication “Copyright in the
knowledge economy”

6. Framework conditions for
digitisation, online accessibility and
digital preservation
2)Work with stakeholders
• High level group on digital libraries: forum for
cooperation and sound advice on Copyright,
Public-Private Partnerships and Access to
Scientific Information.
• Memorandum of Understanding on Orphan
Works (due diligence guidelines)
• Model licences for the digitisation and
accessibility of out-of-print and out of
distribution works

7. High Level Expert Group on Digital Libraries:
report on Public Private Partnerships
• Key recommendations
• Public domain: Public domain content in the analogue
world should remain in the public domain in the digital
environment. If restrictions to user’s access and use are
necessary in order to make the digital content available at
all, these restrictions should only apply for a time-limited
period.
• Exclusivity: Exclusive arrangements for digitising and
distributing the digital assets of cultural institutions should
be avoided.
• Re-use: Cultural institutions should aim to abide by the
principles of the European Directive 2003/98/EC on the
re-use of Public Sector Information (PSI)

8. Framework conditions for
digitisation, online accessibility and
digital preservation
3)Co-funding of projects through EU
Programmes
• eContentplus/CIP-ICT Programmes: support to
Europeana, content aggregation
• ICT Research (6th and 7th Framework
Programmes): competence centers on
digitisation, digital preservation research

9. Communication from the Commission
Europeana – next steps
• Adopted on 28-8-2009
• Accompanied by staff working
document with a series of questions
for public consultation
• Gives an overview of where we stand
with Europeana
• Looks at two major areas:
– More content for Europeana
– Funding and governance issues

10. More content for Europeana

11. More content for Europeana,
types of content
• Big quantitative difference between Member
States in terms of contribution
• Different types of contributions from Member
States (books, newspapers, museum objects)
• Selection of content to be brought into
Europeana determined by Member States and
cultural institutions
• Are there categories of content that are so
important for the users that they should be
available through Europeana?

12. More content for Europeana,
in-copyright content
• Avoid a “20th century black hole”
• Collaboration between cultural institutions and
rightholders necessary
• Links to sites of rightholders (Gallica 2 model)
• Licenses to digitise and make material
available
- Cross-border access is essential
• Problem of orphan works
– - Not enough progress in Member States
• Difference with US legislation
– - Cut-off date - 1923 - in US legislation
••• 12

13. More content for Europeana,
public domain material
• Commission has underlined the need to keep
public domain material in the public domain after
a format shift
• In practice this is not always the case
– Wide range of approaches in Europe
• Legal question about rights created by digitisation
• Issue of principle about locking up public domain
material
• Related to the issue of exclusive agreements
based on public domain material
– Report by High Level Group on Digital Libraries

14. The consultation
• Three parts:
– General questions (orientations for Europeana,
features, identity)
– Content for Europeana
– Financing and governance
• Deadline for submissions 15 November
• Replies can be sent to:
ec-digital-libraries@ec.europa.eu
• Submissions will be made available online

15. Conclusions
2005-2009-Digital libraries initiative
• The issue of Digital Libraries has raised a high level of
political attention
• Improved basic conditions for digitisation, online
accessibility and digital preservation
Europeana: not just a project!
• Further engagement is necessary to make all digitised
material accessible through Europeana and ensure
long term sustainability
• Your input into the public consultation is necessary at
this strategically important moment
Digital libraries are knowledge, innovation, creativity…
Much work ahead of us!

16. More information
Europeana
www.europeana.eu
Digital Libraries’ initiative
http://ec.europa.eu/information_society
/activities/digital_libraries/index_en.htm
Contact:
Luca.Martinelli@ec.europa.eu