The Europeana Libraries project, coordinated by the European Library from January 2011 to December 2012, aimed to aggregate digital collections from leading research libraries across Europe, enhancing their searchability and accessibility. Significant outcomes included the creation of an efficient library-domain aggregator service capable of processing metadata and digitized material from over 75 research libraries. Future steps involve sustaining library aggregation and fostering connections across European research infrastructures.

1. The successes of the
Europeana Libraries project
Project Review, Den Haag, February 2013
Louise Edwards, The European Library
(Project Coordinator 2011)
Alastair Dunning, The European Library
(Project Coordinator 2012)

2. Europeana Libraries
• Some background
• The aims of the project
• 1 – Ingesting content
• 2 – Incorporating full text
• 3 – Creating a sustainable library aggregator
• The next steps
• All deliverables available via project website at
http://europeana-libraries.eu/

3. Some background :
Existing E uropean Library
portal harvesting via outmoded
technologies

4. Some background :
No European
Library contac
with Research t
Libraries
(nor European
a)

5. Some background :
No European
Library contac
with Research t
Libraries
(nor European
a)
Little interacti
ons between
acronyms – C
ERL, CENL,
LIBER

6. Europeana Libraries
January 2011 –
December 2012
Coordinated by The
European Library
(the library aggregator for
Europeana)
25 partners

7. Europeana Libraries
WP1 Project management, coordination and
monitoring (Mary Rowlatt, MDR Partners)
WP2 Modelling the library landscape (Martin
Moyle, University College London)
WP3 Aggregating research library content for
Europeana (Andreas Juffinger, The European
Library)
Aggregation Steering Group (Marian Lefferts,
CERL)

8. Europeana Libraries
WP4 Extending The European Library
aggregation infrastructure (José Borbinha,
Instituto Superior Tecnico)
WP5 Enhancing searchability of existing
library content (Valentine Charles, The
European Library)
WP6 Dissemination, communication and
promotion (Aubéry Escande, The European
Library)

9. The aims of the project
1. Bring to Europeana the digital collections of some of
Europe’s leading research libraries from 11 countries
2. Be the first project to offer digital collections where the text
will be fully searchable
3. Establish systems and processes capable of ingesting and
indexing significant quantities of digitised material … The
outcome will be an efficient and effective library-domain
aggregator service for Europeana

10. Medieval
Manuscripts
from
Oxford,
Complutense
(Madrid),
Belgrade and
Uppsala

11. Early Modern Books
from Sibiu, Zurich and
Vienna, amongst
others.

12. Google Books
Ghent, Oxford,
Bavarian State
Library,
Complutense.
2m+ metadata
records

13. DART Europe
(Ph.D. Theses -
67,868 records)
Directory of
Open Access
Journals
(915,013
records)

14. Provided links to 5.6m
different digital objects

15. 19 providers
have made
metadata
available for
harvesting
Material from
over 75
research libraries
included

16. 25m pages of
text adapted for
incorporation into the
new European Library
portal

17. 2.6m
pages from
Národní
knihovna ČR
8.2m
pages from
Bibliothèque
nationale de
France
3m pages
frm Biblioteca
Nacional de
España

18. An effective
library-domain
aggregator
service
Stores Data
Centrally /
Builds Index for
TEL and Customer and
Aggregates / Europeana/ Process
Harvests Data Normalises & Management
Enriches Data
(REPOX) (UIM) (SugarCRM)

19. An effective
library-domain
aggregator
service
Now capable of
processing 160
records / second (aim
was 100 records a
second) – entire TEL
corpus processed in
January 2013

20. Development of new The Europeana Library portal -
http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/

21. "We are involved here in Switzerland with two national
projects and that gives us some experience with
collaboration but this – on a European level – is quite
new for us. As a Swiss library, we have almost no
possibilities to take part in European projects. We want
to gain experience in technical workflows and it’s also
very important for us that we have more visibility of our
collections outside of Switzerland."
Dr. Urs Fischer, Chief Librarian of the Special
Collections of the Zentralbibliothek Zürich

22. Some broader
results :
Shared governance and organisation between
CENL, LIBER and CERL

23. Some broader
results :
A technical infrastructure
also requires a
sustainable business
model
The project Business
Plan directs the future
business model of The
European Library

24. The next steps
• Libraries remain the most important aggregator for
Europeana (18% of records)

25. Some broader
results :
Research and
national library
connection
forged at
European level

26. Europeana Libraries as
a springboard for further
projects – Europeana
Cloud, Europeana Closer working practices
Newspapers and with ERICs – European
Europeana Research Research Infrastructure
platform Consortia, such as
DARIAH and CLARIN

27. Research and
“The launch of the new European Library website is an
exciting event that represents another important library
national
connection
development in the way researchers can gain access
to digitised sources from Europe’s national and at
forged
research libraries. The launch also holds a special level
European
significance for the National Library of Wales as we are
named as a contributor to the European Library for the
first time. As an institution we are proud to be able to
extend access to some of our most important digital
collections to the European stage”
Andrew Green, Chief Librarian,
National Library of Wales

28. Images Credits
• Slide 3 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/brothermagneto/3801193167/
• Slide 4 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/terrycady/5827494144/
• Slide 5 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/rogersmith/2278856732/
• Slide 10 - MS. Bodl. 579 - fol. 256rhttp://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/record/1000086012883
• Slide 11 - Aus Johann Jakob Wickhttp://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/record/2000082153224
• Slide 12 - Capitulatie, om te werven een Regiment Voetknechten ten dienste vande,
http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/record/2000069565290
• Slide 13 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/bogdansuditu/2377844553/
• Slide 15 - Bradshaw's Map of Europe http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/record/2000000045453
• Slide 16 - Piers Plowman ('C' text) http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/record/1000086150263
• Slide 18,19 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/alastair-dunning/8458545820/
• Slide 21 - Mäandrierender Fluss und Häusergruppe, http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/record/1000096775016
• Slide 22 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/4556156477/
• Slide 23 - Coins showing Rose bis Feigeeblatter http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/record/1000086136818
• Slide 27 - Llangollen http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/record/1000093321560