The European Library Office produces a bimonthly newsletter in English to which you can subscribe by filling in the right column form. This newsletter is intended to inform partners, professionals, and the general readership about recent events and information related to The European Library network; it serves as both a source of news and a platform for an exchange of information for all partners.
The content of this page is a selection of the latest newsletter of The European Library. If you wish to view the entire content of the latest newsletter or older issues, click on the Newsletters Archive.
To celebrate the French EU presidency, this month’s newsletter has French National Library - BnF as its focal point. Overseeing our guide through Gallica, Globes and Europeana is The French National Library’s Elisabeth Freyre, who’s on hand as guest Chief Editor. And as well as our French focus, we’ve also slipped in a survey to help better inform our readership.
"My role in the Bibliothèque nationale de France centers around the Department of International Relations where I oversee and manage the BnF’s European projects. As the contact person for The European Library I coordinate, with the assistance of a team, the input in areas such as metadata, collection description and technical issues" says Elisabeth.
"The BnF’s work for The European Library is vital in providing access to BN-OPALEplus, the bibliographic database containing more than 10 million records, as well as Gallica, its digital library"
"The European Library offers users huge online content as well as new access modes to a vast amount of cultural and scientific data. The European Library places a strong focus on multilingualism. Coupled with The Languages Working Group’s role in translating over 23 languages, we hope to make our service easily accessible to an ever expanding audience"
"With over 48 national libraries joined under The European Library’s umbrella, it offers a perfect opportunity for the sharing of experiences and ideas. Such a worthwhile collaboration can only benefit the ongoing development and refinement of the service."
DIRECTOR'S CORNER: Mr. Bruno Racine, BnF President
The Director’s corner is dedicated to directors and chief executives of national libraries across Europe. Mr. Bruno Racine, BnF President, gives us a brief presentation of the role and position of the French National Library in Europe.
Embracing The European Library & Europeana
"The BnF joined The European Library in 2004 at a time when the other founder members were deeply committed to building this portal, which aimed to give concrete form to the Europe of national libraries"
"After five years of existence, The European Library represents a real asset for my establishment. By allowing teams to compare their bibliographical, technical and normative choices, it ensures a more effective interoperability of our systems. It enhances the wealth and diversity of our collections by making them accessible to an ever wider public. Finally, The European Library strengthens and underlines the importance of multilingualism."
"The Bibliothèque nationale de France played a significant role in the birth and existence of Europeana by providing its name but above all by making a substantial technical, financial and documentary contribution to it. This commitment will continue and even grow now Europeana has become a major priority of the BnF."
"Everything that we digitise is intended to be accessible via Europeana and represents several million items. This is enhanced by the BnF's intensified efforts to open Gallica to include copyrighted works under an agreement signed, in the general interest, with French publishers. In addition, we actively participate in several projects aimed at making the future European Library a highly advanced technological system. I am therefore very pleased to note that we are reaching a milestone on November 20th with the launch of the prototype in Brussels."
"The French presidency of the European Union will enable the BnF to further strengthen its involvement in the effort to realise a digital offer which represents the diversity of European cultural identity. Ultimately, we hope to meet the needs of users whatever their language."
"This strong conviction, which I would like to maintain and share with other European colleagues, represents my commitment as a recently elected member of the CENL executive committee."
The Bibliothèque nationale de France is offering the public a rare chance to catch a glimpse of the magnificent globes of Louis XIV. In their latest exhibition visitors can view the stunning spheres at close quarters as well as discovering the incredible story behind their amazing images. With details on the history of the period and progress in geographical sciences, the exhibition promises to be both a visual and educational treat.
Hélène Richard, Curator of the exhibition and Head of Maps department at the BnF, explains:"Vincenzo Coronelli, a Franciscan monk, was commissioned to produce the globes by Cardinal d’Estrée for King Louis XIV. These Globes, made in 1681 and 1683, are almost four metres in diameter and each one weighs 1,500 kg. On the one hand they represent the glory of the King and symbolize his supernatural mission and on the other hand, they embody scientific knowledge in the late 17th century."
"The 17th century had a unique connection with technical knowledge. The advances made in measuring devices, astronomy and mathematics led to significant changes in the science of cartography. One globe shows the terrestrial world, while the other shows the sky on the night of Louis XIV’s birth."
"The BnF has held these Globes for three hundred years. Following the destruction of their original home at the famous Parisian 'Salon des Globe’ they had been stored in packing cases. Their exhibition in the West Hall finally offers the opportunity for a wider public to discover these artistic and scientific treasures."
This exhibition takes the visitor on a virtual tour through some of Europe’s best and brightest children’s literature. The 27 books on display (one for each country) highlight the remarkable talent of local authors and illustrators, while reflecting the historical and cultural background of each country.
Nathalie Beau, Curator of the exhibition, International section for youth Edition, Literature and Art department, BnF, sheds light on this literary event:"It was created with the cooperation of 27 European countries to coincide with the series of cultural events organised as part of the French Presidency of the European Union."
The French National Library and Gallica get to grips with giving the public access to some of France’s vast cultural heritage from the comfort of their own computer. As one of the major French-language digital portals, it puts a plethora of BnF resources at the public’s fingertips. From maps to music scores, a wealth of information can be accessed online and with user friendly features it couldn’t be more fool proof.
Gallica BnF’s scientific coordinator, Jean-Didier Wagneur reveals all:"Gallica has been on line since 1997 and offers Web access to several hundred thousand documents, covering all fields of knowledge from antiquity to the First World War. Just some of the gems on offer include the complete works of major French authors, periodicals (nearly 2,000 titles, including the daily press from the 19th century to 1944), music scores, early maps such as the Cassini Map, engravings, medieval manuscripts and sound recordings of the languages of France."
"Gallica enables the richness of the national cultural heritage to be shared as widely as possible. This digital library is extended every day thanks to the “mass” digitisation (100,000 documents per year) of printed books from areas of particular strength in the BnF’s collections including French poetry and theatre, art periodicals, works of law and documents on national and local history. The digital collection will shortly be enhanced with specialised materials such as Portolan charts, which are currently being digitised for long term preservation"
"Much thought is being given to ways of viewing this documentary wealth in a more accessible format. Ideas for a more user friendly future include introducing text mode coupled with a powerful search engine, a personalised workspace, federated access to documents in partner libraries and in copyright collections and much more. This all contributes to making Gallica one of the major French-language digital portals."
The launch of the Europeana.eu prototype moves interoperability onto a new level. Never before has it been possible to search across such a range of digital formats from different institutions across Europe. The next step is to scale the prototype up to a full service and make 10 million objects available in 2010.
In 2007, Horst Forster, Director, Digital Content & Cognitive Systems Information Society Directorate, European Commission defined the vision as, "A unique resource for Europe's distributed cultural heritage… ensuring a common access to Europe's libraries, archives and museums."
To realise this vision, CENL and its service The European Library, were asked to submit for a project under eContentplus. A first partner prototype of Europeana was previewed in June 2007 in The Hague. The follow-up public prototype is set to be unveiled in front of the European Commissioners and major stakeholders on the 20th of November 2008 in Brussels.
In addition, a series of new projects under the Europeana banner will channel material into the Europeana portal. A number of these are getting underway; European Film Gateway will add film stills, posters, scripts and digitised films and EuropeanaLocal will bring in material from regional libraries, archives, museums and audio-visual collections. The ATHENA project will focus on museums, bringing together an association of 109 top museums and other cultural institutions from 20 EU Member States, plus Israel, Russia and Azerbaijan. All these projects are funded by the eContentPlus Programme.
Note that the NEW site of Europeana will be publically launched on the 20th of November 2008 and therefore will be accessible from the 20th onwards only.
The European Library is hosted by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek - National Library of The Netherlands.
"My role in the Bibliothèque nationale de France centers around the Department of International Relations where I oversee and manage the BnF’s European projects. As the contact person for The European Library I coordinate, with the assistance of a team, the input in areas such as metadata, collection description and technical issues" says Elisabeth.
The Director’s corner is dedicated to directors and chief executives of national libraries across Europe. Mr. Bruno Racine, BnF President, gives us a brief presentation of the role and position of the French National Library in Europe.
