May 2011

IFLA Job Opening

Do you have several years experience coordinating activities and managing projects in the library world? IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, is seeking a Professional Support Officer to support and coordinate the activities of the Professional Committee and the IFLA professional units. Learn more.

May 2011

National Library of Latvia Geo-References Historical Maps

The National Library of Latvia has geo-referenced 20 historical maps as part of its participation in the Europeana Travel project. Some of the maps are nearly 300 years old, such as iesienamajam Ducatuum et Curlandia Livonia (1720), while others are more modern, such as the 1935 Latvian railway map.

Many of the maps are also featured in the Travelling Through History exhibition from The European Library.

Explore the maps.

March 2011

Earthquake Affects Japan's Libraries

Libraries in Japan have been badly affected by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. IFLA has assembled a list of resources that show just how libraries have suffered after the disaster.

IFLA offered its deepest sympathy to Japanese libraries and their employees. The European Library also extends its thoughts and condolences to our Japanese colleagues.

March 2011

ARROW Presents Its Results

ARROW has presented its results at a conference in Brussels. The project, which is working to make copyright clearance of orphan works easier, was praised by Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda, as well as the head of the French National Library, Bruno Racine, and Germany's National Librarian, Elisabeth Niggemann.Read More

February 2011

Agreement for Digitisation of Out-of-Print French Books

An agreement has been reached to digitise 500,000 out-of-print books, even though they are still covered by copyright laws.

The works will be digitised by the French National Library and made available for sale online. The bibliographic records will be displayed on culture website Gallica.

See the press release

February 2011

New Kulturpool Website For Austrian Cultural Heritage

Kulturpool has launched its newly redesigned website, where you can search and discover Austria's cultural heritage.

The European Library is delighted to see one of its partners, the Austrian National Library, contributing to Kulturpool. Other participating institutions include the Austrian Theatre Museum and the Museum of Natural History Vienna. In addition to uniting objects from several prestigious Austrian cultural institutions, Kulturpool invites user participation by allowing people to add tags to objects.

Visit the Kulturpool website.

February 2011

Registration Open For IFLA Presidential Meeting 2011

Registration is now open for The IFLA Presidential Meeting 2011. The theme is Libraries Driving Access to Knowledge: Action for Europe and the two-day conference will be held on April 14-15 in The Hague at the National Library of the Netherlands.

The programme will focus on three major topics for the European and international library community: Copyright, Open Access, and Human Rights. The conference aims to propose new solutions to the challenges facing libraries and to enhance the visibility of the library community in Europe.

To register and see details of the programme, please visit the IFLA Presidential Meeting website.

January 2011

Europeana Libraries: 5 Million Manuscripts, Films and Texts for Europeana

The Europeana Libraries project was officially launched in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek last month. Sixty-five participants from university, research and national libraries across Europe came together for 2 days of collaboration and learning. The main areas of focus for each Work Package were also presented.

Read the Press Release

Video highlights

January 2011

International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications

The 11th International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications will be hosted by the KB and organised by The European Library Office on 21st – 23rd September, 2011.

Find out more

January 2011

IFLA Presidential Meeting 2011

The IFLA Presidential Meeting 2011 (Theme: Libraries driving access to knowledge: Action for Europe) is a two-day conference organised by IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions and FOBID, Netherlands Library Forum will take place on 14 & 15 April 2011 at the National Library of the Netherlands.

For complete details, including a draft programme, please see the Event listing.

Registration will begin in January 2011

October 2010

The European Library features Reading Europe: Europe’s Literary Gems Online For Free

From 18th century English bestsellers to medieval cookbooks, nearly 1,000 of Europe’s most fascinating works are featured in a new multilingual online exhibition created by The European Library and supported by Europeana.eu. The interactive display – “Reading Europe: European culture through the book” – offers a rare opportunity to view masterpieces in 32 languages, from Albanian to Yiddish. Drawn from the collection of 23 national libraries in Europe, many books are in manuscript or their first printed editions."

• Click here to access the Press Release in English
• Click here to access the Press Release in French
• Click here to access the Press Release in German
• Click here to access the Press Release in Romanian
• Click here to access the Press Release in Serbian
• Click here to access the Press Release in Bulgarian
• Click here to access the Press Release in Russian
• Click here to access the Press Release in Lithuanian
• Click here to access the Press Release in Hungarian
• Click here to access the Press Release in Macedonian

May 2010

Fumagaba Project Final Report now live

FUMAGABA (2008-2009) is a project of The European Library that aims at integrating the collections of the national libraries of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, Georgia, Armenia, Bosnia Herzegovina and Azerbaijan. FUMAGABA partners are members of CENL and are becoming Full Participants with the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Click here to read the Final FUMAGABA narrative report 2008-2009

March 2010

A Roma Journey, an exciting new web exhibition from The European Library

"Uncover the Roma's rich cultural heritage with this ground breaking multilingual online exhibition. With just a couple of clicks, visitors can view a unique collection of books, rare manuscripts, photographs, paintings, sound recordings and videos from the world of the Roma. Rarities on offer include the first ever dictionary written in Romani-Serbian-German in a concentration camp, traditional songs and tales, the Zemfira postcards and letters exploring the experiences of one Roma family in Scandinavia."

• Click here to access the Press Release in English
• Click here to access the Press Release in French
• Click here to access the Press Release in German
• Click here to access the Press Release in Italian
• Click here to access the Press Release in Dutch
• Click here to access the Press Release in Serbian
• Click here to access the Press Release in Romani
• Click here to access the Press Release in Spanish

February 2010

The European Library celebrates the end of TELplus project

TELplus is a completed targeted project for digital libraries funded by the European Commission, and supported by CENL (Conference of European National Librarians). From 2007 to 2009 TELplus was the main research and development project of The European Library.

Find out more about TELplus through this brief final report detailing results.

20 May 2009

Cultural Events in The National Library of Bulgaria

Click on the summaries below with images and descriptions in Bulagrian and English for further details

• View Bulgarian education and culture in the Slavonic literature
• View Celebration of the Patron's day
• View Knut Hamsun and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway
• View Max Reinhardt - Pantcho Vladigerov : interrelations and projections

14 April 2009

The European Library annual report: strategic priorities & a committed group of people

This report summarises the main strategic priorities and goals set for 2008 and covers The EuropeanLibrary main achievements in meeting them. It provides important statistical information, including the annual accounts and several performance indicators. Most importantly, we present The European Library team, a small but committed group of people who give their utmost to the success of the service.

• View The European Library annual report 2008
• View The European Library Product and service plan 2009

16 February 2009

The European Library and the National Library of the Republic of Moldova

Vera Osoianu, FUMAGABA Project Gazeta Bibliotecarului.-2008.-Nr.4-5.-P.4.The article is about FUMAGABA Project. It describes the goals of the project and the expected results from its implementation. It is presented as well the European Library, the perspective priorities and the impact on users around the world. Click here to read the article (in Romanian).

Vera Osoianu, Integration of Moldovan Libraries in the European projects// Buletinul ABRM.-2008.-Nr. 2.- P.11-15. The article is about the concerns of the European Commission as regards the digitization of the European cultural heritage; and the role of the European Library in communication to users of the most valuable collections from the patrimony of the European national libraries. Click here to read the article (in Romanian).

Svetlana Barbei, The Digitization of the Collections of the National Library of the Republic of Moldova: Problems and Solutions // Cercetare şi dezvoltare în bibliotecile naţionale ale României şi Republicii Moldova. – Bucureşti: Ed. BNR; Chişinău: Ed. BNRM, 2008. – P. 83 – 87. The author of the article introduces the first experience of the National Library of the Republic of Moldova, in the digitization of the documents and the lessons learned from it and puts forward some proposals to improve the work in this direction. Click here to read the article (in Romanian).

10 February 2009

Suggested Services’ Infrastructure for The European Library

Web services are vastly popular among web users; web services can be defined as self-contained business functions that operate over the Internet. This article features Web services’ description and demonstrates their usage through The European Library portal

12 December 2008

Bulgaria and The European Library

On the 31st of October 2008 the Union of the National community centers did a presentation of the awards "Follower of the leaders of the National Revival” in the National library „St. St. Cyril and Methodius”. More information are available here (in English and Bulgarian).

2nd December 2008

Macedonian books in The European Library

"Macedonian books in The European Library : the aim of The European Library is to unite cultures with the help of national libraries" by Viktorija Kostoska, National and Unviersity Library "St Kliment Ohridski" Republic of Macedonia.

• Summary in English
• Full scanned article in Macedonian part A and part B

1st December 2008

Research and Innovation in The European Library:

Research and Innovation in The European Library; the TELplus Project by Georgia Angelaki , The European Library Office.

NOW ALSO AVAILABLE IN BULGARIAN

28th October 2008

The European Library Annual report:

The Annual Report report covers our main achievements for the year and also provides important statistical information, including the full audited accounts and several performance indicators. There are also profiles of the team of The European Library, the people who are the key to our success. Click here to view the entire Annual Report in PDF format

28th October 2008

A gateway to the resources of Europe’s national libraries:

“The European Library – gateway to the resources of Europe’s national libraries” By Fleur Stigter, Sally Chambers and Louise Edwards; (IFLA journal)

“A Gateway to Europe’s National Libraries" Fleur Stigter of The European Library shares the library’s objectives.(PANLIBUS magazine)

6th of August 2007

The RSL becomes Full Participant of The European Library

The Director-General of The Russian State Library (RSL) - Moscow, Dr Viktor V. Fedorov, signed a letter of agreement with CENL on the 6th of August; the letter of agreement details the Full Participant agreement of the RSL with The European Library. Since July 1st, 2007 the process of implementing access to the RSL collections on The European Library portal began. Access to RSL holdings will start in 2008 with their "Electronic Library of Dissertations" collection covering 174026 documents: 33594 abstracts and 140432 dissertations.

11th April 2007

Learning from New Member States of the EU

The advantages of being a second rather than a first mover are apparent as the latest project of The European Library, TEL-ME-MOR, comes to a successful conclusion.

The aim of TEL-ME-MOR was to bring the digital collections of 9 countries: the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Slovakia into The European Library.

Full details are available in the following Press Release in English - PDF format   or in Serbian - PDF format  .

20th March 2007

Improving Library Services - Outcomes of EDL project Knowledge Sharing Workshop

Developing more web-services, recommending OAI-PMH compliance and using FRBR techniques in The European Library were all recommendations from the EDLproject Knowledge Sharing Workshop. While formulating practical actions to further develop the web services of The European Library portal, the workshop also proved to be a good opportunity for Edlproject participants to work with members of The European Library network in a hands-on setting.

The Workshop, organised by The European Library Office, took place in The National Library of The Netherlands. View the full press-release in English - PDF format   or in Serbian - PDF format  .

March 2007

The European Library introduces a mini library

The European Library has been developing a mini version of The European Library searchbox that website owners can easily install on their own site. It’s free and very easy to install. Via this mini library visitors of other websites can always check if a national library somewhere in Europe has digitised a particular item. It guides website visitors to great material – books but also photos, maps, images, music scores, paintings, films, etc. Quality and reliability are guaranteed because all content has been selected and categorised by Europe’s best librarians. Learn how to install The European Library searchbox on your site.

January 2007

The European Library, today and tomorrow - Presentation by Jill Cousins in Warsaw (National Library of Poland)

Document avaialbe in:

• PDF format  
• Power Point format (7.3MB)  

January 2007

The European Library & TEL-ME-MOR integration - Presentation by Olaf Janssen in Riga

Document avaialbe in:

PDF format in English  
PDF format in Russian  


December 2006
The European Library today …- Presentation by Jill Cousins - National Library of France, Paris  

September 2006
The European Library: contributo alla promozione di un portale europeo in Italia 
Article by Marta Benoffi for Biblioteche oggi – Italian magazine

September 2006
TELMEMOR final policy conference – October 19-20 October
"The Digital Future of Cultural and Scientific Heritage" is the topic of the TEL-ME-MOR Policy Conference. TEL-ME-MOR was launched in February 2005, with the overall goal of raising awareness of the opportunities for New Member States (NMS) to participate in European projects, especially in the areas of Culture and Learning. In addition to that, the project supports the 10 new National Libraries to integrate their electronic resources into The European Library. The conference presented the achievements and results of the TEL-ME-MOR project. It also provided a forum for discussion of the latest digital library developments in Europe and in the world and highlight future research requirements and formulated concrete recommendations as to how the EU and international R&D agendas can lead to improving access to our common cultural heritage. All presentations are now available for viewing and downloading at the official conference website!!

August 2006 - The National Library of Serbia & The European Library
Commission recommendation of 24 August 2006 on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation (2006/585/EC) (Translated by Tanja Tasić)

Council conclusions on the Digitisation and Online Accessibility of Cultural Material and Digital Preservation (2006/C 297/01) (Translated by Tanja Tasić)
i2010: Digital libraries (Translated by Vesna Jovanović)

Find out more about Digital NLS.

The Leading Serbian Cultural Institution - Interview with mr. Sreten Ugricic from JAT New Review (article from JAT New Review)

20 July 2006
Online Collaboration Between European National Libraries Since 1995 – Building Towards a European Digital Library 
Article by Olaf Janssen for the SLA 2006 Conference, Baltimore, USA, 11-14 June 2006

9 July 2006 - The National Library of Serbia & The European Library
Narodna biblioteka Srbije objedinice celokupnu romsku kulturu na tlu Evrope VecernjeNovosti (scanned article from Vecernje novosti)

1-2 July 2006 - The National Library of Serbia & The European Library
Uspešna institucija u neuspešnoj državi (article from article from Danas online

May 2006 - The National Library of Serbia & The European Library
«Projekat Evropska biblioteka» by Injac Vesna (article from Pancevacko citalište: list Gradske biblioteke Pancevo, issue 8, year V)

1 February 2006
Connecting with users: Europe and multilinguality
Key-note speech by Dr. Britta Woldering of the German National Library during the VALA 2006 Conference, Melbourne Australia, 8-10 February 2006

1 February 2006
Research books its place in the library of the future
This document is also available in PDF-format

Online Collaboration Between European National Libraries Since 1995 – Building Towards a European Digital Library, Article by Olaf Janssen for the SLA 2006 Conference, Baltimore, USA, 11-14 June 2006 (translated by Ana Savić)

February 2006 - The National Library of Serbia & The European Library
Connecting with users: Europe and multilinguality, Key-note speech by Dr. Britta Woldering of the German National Library during the VALA 2006 Conference, Melbourne Australia, 8-10 February 2006 (translated by Gordana Ljubanović)

National Library of Serbia in The European Library project by Vesna Injac.

Behind The European Library portal: technical environment by Tamara Butigan.

December 2005 - The National Library of Serbia & The European Library
National Library of Serbia – Full partner in the project 'The European Library' (abstract) - Full text (in Serbian)
Vesna Injac, Review of the National Center for Digitization, Serbia, pages 49 - 54, Issue 7, December 2005

12 December 2005 - The National Library of Serbia & The European Library
Nova verzija elektronske Evropske biblioteke (article from Glas javnosti - Serbian newspaper)

12 December 2005 - The National Library of Serbia & The European Library
Scanned article from Blic (Serbian newspaper)

27 September 2005
Wasted Tax Euros?
Article from Panlibus (with a reponse from Bill Oldroyd of the British Library)

23 September 2005
EU member states v Google: no contest
(with a reponse from Bill Oldroyd of the British Library)

14 September 2005
Pan-European library information service launched

September 2005 - The National Library of Serbia & The European Library
Scanned article from Visokoskolske biblioteke

02 July 2005 - The National Library of Serbia & The European Library
Ulazak Narodne biblioteke Srbije u projekat Evropske biblioteke (article from Danas - Serbian newspaper)

2 July 2005 - The National Library of Serbia & The European Library
Dusanov zakonik na Internetu (article from Glas javnosti - Serbian newspaper)