The document discusses the European Library initiative, highlighting its aim to provide equal access to Europe's national libraries and promote cultural understanding among European countries. It outlines the organizational structure, target users, and ongoing developments, including the integration of APIs and the connection to the Europeana project, which seeks to digitize cultural and scientific heritage resources. The European Library primarily serves librarians and academic members while Europeana targets a broader audience, facilitating access to diverse cultural materials.

1. Virtual Communities in Europe: The European Library Approach Fleur Stigter Bridging Worlds conference 2008

2. What is The Future of Library Portals? Bridging Worlds 2008

3. P olitics E conomics S ocial T echnology L egal E nvironment Bridging Worlds 2008 PESTLE

4. meeting user needs finding a sustainable business model investing in ongoing innovation Bridging Worlds 2008 Critical Success Factors

5. 1. Who, What, When.. 2. Pan-European 3. Different Cultures to Serve 4. Portal, Widgets, APIs

6. Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, ”The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom CENL < Council of Europe

7. Also known as TEL or Gabriel Free, multilingual access to the combined resources of Europe’s national libraries Owned by Conference of European National Librarians (CENL) Vision: “Provision of equal access to promote world-wide understanding of the richness and diversity of European learning and culture.” Bridging Worlds 2008 The European Library

8. Live since 2005 Roughly over 150 million bibliographic records By the end of 2008 all members of CENL will have joined The European Library (42 - currently 34) Bridging Worlds 2008 Some more backgrounds

9. Bridging Worlds 2008 In Membership, Content and Targeted audience… Primary target group: (European) Librarians and members of Academic societies A look at the organisational structure of The European Library, and methods used… Pan-European

10. . The European Library OFFICE Contacts Working Group CENL The European Library Management Board The European Library Executive Group Editorial Working Group Language Working Group Technical Working Group

11. National marketing by partner-libraries Metrics Key Performance Indicators focusing on marketing & overall performance User studies, log file analysis… Office in The Hague creates overall marketing plan, coordinates and supports partners, and looks after the portal (technical, user-friendly…) Bridging Worlds 2008

13. No communities on the portal But… we are developing additional services for librarians Working more closely with a large group of library professionals from all over the world At this point: access to Handbook, Metadata Registry, and Participation in our Linking Program Widgets… APIs… Bridging Worlds 2008 Communities, Widgets, API’s..

18. 870 Faces put the mini library on their page, 43 are “Fans” of the application Ownership issues… Source of data Use of data supplied to other organisations Legal jurisdictions Another route = Providing content to Europeana Bridging Worlds 2008 APIs…

19. 1. What, Who… 2. Audiences 3. Communities

20. Integrates the 4 cultural heritage domains: audio-visual collections archives museums libraries Comprises 85 partners representing: all EU Member States related Commission-funded projects An initiative of the European Commission Based on v 1.5 The European Library Bridging Worlds 2008 Europeana

21. To create a public domain access point To use digitised cultural and scientific heritage resources as input for a wide range of information products and services To play a key role in the future growth of sectors such as learning and tourism To inspire new creative enterprise and innovation To promote understanding of European connections and the sense of a European identity Bridging Worlds 2008 The Commission’s objectives

22. General user School students Teachers University undergraduates Graduate students, academics, scholars Professional users Bridging Worlds 2008 Audiences

23. … .towards its users Brings together materials held in different types of institution Mozart’s manuscripts, printed music, recordings, letters, objects, as well as books, films and TV programmes about him Brings together material held in different countries Rubens’ paintings from Madrid, Brussels, London, Paris, Vienna, Florence Tracks the movement across Europe of trade, empires and ideas … towards The European Library…. Bridging Worlds 2008 Added value of Europeana

24. Site demo launched 1 Feb 08 Beta prototype launched June 08 Final prototype launched 20 November 08 Funding proposal to Commission to develop Version 1.0 Link to >6 million digital objects by 2010 When..

25. bb Bridging Worlds 2008 … ?

26. Next.. Application Programmable Interfaces (API’s) Semantics User generated content Multilingual search results Bridging Worlds 2008

27. Europeana is built upon The European Library but they are not the same! An operational service Europeana is not (yet) A service of Conference European National Librarians (CENL) Europeana is European Commission funded National Library Service Europeana is a cross-domain service, involving over 100 partners (archives, libraries, museums, audio-visual institutions, etc.) The European Library is mainly targeted at librarians and members of the academic community Europeana focuses on a wide variety of user groups Bridging Worlds 2008 In Sum…

28. How The European Library tries to serve society at large… Listening to and working with users Cooperating with Partner Libraries Different routes to connect with target groups… Portal, partner in Europeana , and APIs Bridging Worlds 2008

29. Thank you