Continuing our collaboration with The European Library partners, this month’s Newsletter has a Spanish slant. Taking us on a tour of the National Library of Spain - BNE is their Director General, Milagros del Corral Beltrán. As this month’s Chief Editor she’ll be delving in to developments in digitization and pouring over the BNE’s plans and projects. And Newsletter regulars will realise that our latest issue has a different feel following our readership response to last month’s survey. We have focused on your feedback and hope you enjoy our new even more user friendly experience

In our latest vox box, the Director General of The National Library of Spain, Milagros del Corral Beltrán, provides us with a peek at her organisations projects and partnerships.

Milagros del Corral Beltrán: Digitization, Latin Links and Robots "The National Library of Spain has been an active partner of The European Library for many years and the Biblioteca Digital Hispanica is just one of our many successful collaborative projects. The Library signed an Agreement with the Ministry of Culture and the company Telefónica to develop the Hispanic Digital Library project; the Library has started a mass digitisation program (10 million Euros) to accomplish the goal proposed to the European Commission." More info...

Amadis de Gaula: Five Hundred Years of Heroes

There’s nothing like a tale of chivalry to counter the credit crunch crisis. Visitors to the Amadis de Gaula exhibition were treated to a tour of this enduring Spanish literary genre. Five hundred years of chivalric tales from the late 15th to the 17th century were on show, from its most famous incarnation, Don Quixote, to more obscure manuscripts, prints and even an array of armor More info...

The "Copla": Celebrating Spanish Song

The "copla", a quintessentially Spanish musical genre combining music, lyrics and virtuosity, has a rich history covering the whole of the 20th century. This exhibition aims to highlight how the music has infiltrated different cultural cliques with displays covering everything from musical scores, cinema programmes and show bills to covers of vinyl records, CDs, videos and DVDs. Various stars from the scene from La Argentinita to Plácido Domingo are also featured. More info...

Malaria: Man Against Mosquito

Man’s battle with malaria dates back many centuries and this exhibition aims to highlight the impact and ongoing attempts to eradicate this devastating disease. Drawings, posters, photos and audiovisuals are just some of the information on hand to illustrate its effect on society and the curious can even uncover attempts at ancient cures. More info...

Architectural Advances: Plans and Projects from the 18th Century

The public gets a chance to celebrate all things architectural as the BNE uncovers its collection of over 700 architectural drawings from the 18th century. And if you didn’t just want to set your sites on Spanish plans and projects, it’s also possible to peruse some fascinating French and Italian designs. More info...

José Luis Bueren, Automation Area, reveals what’s so riveting about The National Library of Spain’s collections.

"The richness of the collections rests not only in its volume (over seven million items) but also in its value. The Beato de Liébana, Pictures of Velázquez and Goya, the Atlas of Sgrooten, the Leonardo da Vinci codex, the first edition of Don Quixote de la Mancha, the maps of Tomás López and the Relaciones of Hernán Cortés make up just some of our priceless pieces. And thanks to the legal deposit law of 1958, the majority of modern materials printed in Spain also form part of our vast collection of works." More info...

The EFG project plans to produce a portal providing the public with direct access to over 700.000 objects including films, photos, posters, drawings, sound material and text documents. With links to the Europeana portal, it’s hoped the cinematic treasures will be available online in under three years. The EFG consortium consists of 20 partner institutions, including 14 European film archives and cinémathèques. The EFG project is supported by ACE and the EDL Foundation and is coordinated by the Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF e. V. (Frankfurt). More info...

Following the feedback from our November/December reader survey our newsletter now has a new look. With more cutting edge content and a brighter, bolder lay-out we hope our readers will be even more riveted by our bimonthly mine of The European Library information. If you have any comments, feel free to contact us via our feedback form.

Users Uncovered. Last month’s large scale survey also uncovered some revealing readership results. Although our subscribers are mainly situated within Europe we also have a good grasp on the rest of the globe. More info...