The European Library gives centralised access to the resources of the 47 national libraries of Europe. You can find all kind of material. Original documents, text books, maps, photographs, music, etc..

And ….you can quickly check whether a national library has digitised a particular item!

Title and Creator of illustrations:

1. Painting: 'Meisje met de parel', Johannes Vermeer van Delft
2. Online book: 'Harry Potter Titka', Kende B. Hanna
3. Map: Cosmographia by Claudius Ptolemaeus
4. Manuscript: Corrected page proofs of 'Les Fleurs du mal', Baudelaire, Charles
5. Photo: 'A Winterspaß', United Press Photo
6. Music score: 'Sange for Claveret', Johannes Sørensen

That’s easy. Just follow the below 4 steps.

I. Enter the website through http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/ .

II. Enter "Einstein" for example and click on the SEARCH button (A).

III. The "Result" page provides the following:

• The list of collections (B) your query has been launched in.
• The query results. The displayed results correspond with the grey-toned collection. In this case "Online books, images, maps, music, … 77" (C).

IMPORTANT NOTE

The See online button (D) allows direct access to the digitised object. If See online does not show, the document has not been digitised yet. In all cases, the underlined header (E) allows access to the "library card" of the document (See further).

IV. If you click on one of the results, the "Library Card" is shown. This is a record of the collection you had selected from the list of collections (F). In this case The British Library.

TIPS FROM OUR LIBRARIANS:

Try an "advanced search" if you are not finding what you are looking for:

• Define which collections you wish to search in. This will certainly improve your query result!
• Specify your query (by type of material, title, creator, etc.)

You can change the language of the interface!!

If your item is not digitally available we tell you where you can find it. On the right of the "Library Card" is displayed its availability in libraries across Europe. (G).

Click on "LINK to services of" to access the book within the selected national library collection.

The selected book availability details appear on a pop-up screen (H).

The option "LINK to other services" gives direct access to all online availability (I).

Select online "Bookshops" to purchase the selected book, "Search Engines" to further investigate or "Other Web Services".

ASK FOR FURTHER EXPLANATION AT Info@TheEuropeanLibrary.org