LinkedIn Groups

We have created a LinkedIn Group for Europeana and The European Library. You can only join us if you are involved in either one of these organisations/networks.

 

New Project Leader

Welcome Shamilla!

Ms. Shamilla Verholt-Landa has joined the Europeana team as project leader.

Originally from London, Shamilla has been living in The Netherlands for approximately 6 years working as a specialised ICT consultant in the field of enterprise content management (ECM). She has worked at various international organisations using skills that have been aided by her studies in Information Management and International Studies. Shamilla will be responsible for the development aspects concerned with the Europeana portal.

With the arrival of Shamilla we now only have one vacancy: For EDL Foundation we are still looking for a dynamic, self starting Business Developer Director, with international experience. Further details.

 

A bit more about EDL Foundation

In previous posts I have been making references to “EDL Foundation”. Some people have asked me to say a bit more about this, and to explain how it fits in with EDLnet, Europeana and The European Library. So, here we go….

1. EDLnet project is developing a multi-lingual and cross-domain website (a public prototype) that gives access to 2 million digital objects from across Europe: “The digital content will be selected from that which is already digitised and available in Europe’s museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. The prototype aims to have representative content from all four of these cultural heritage domains, and also to have a broad range of content from across Europe.” Source: www.Europeana.eu

2. Last week we held a big conference during which the first prototype of Europeana (as the service is called) was launched. Different to the demo version that was presented last February in Frankfurt, the prototype is not a mock-up but really works.

3. EDLnet project is being governed by EDL - European digital library – Foundation. It brings together the legally-founded associations that represent a wider membership. Key European cultural heritage associations from the four domains. Any organisation that’s a member of one of these ‘umbrella’ groups is automatically affiliated to the Europeana partnership.

4. CENL is one of the members of EDL Foundation and - as I hope you remember - The European Library is owned by CENL. To make this concrete: The European Library is one piece in the bigger Europeana puzzle. But let’s not forget its special role: the Europeana service is being built upon the framework of The European Library. A key piece, yes, this is a more appropiate term.

If you are interested in more details please check EDL Foundation website. Here you can find for instance a complete list of members, criteria of membership, board of participants and statutes.

 

Do Library Portals Have a Future?

Not long ago The European Library announced that it had formed a Users Advisory Board. As the press release phrased it: “Trying to meet user demands better, their advice will help shape the development and strategy of The European Library portal.”

Last May this newly-formed Users Advisory Board of The European Library was put into action for the first time when it met National Library representatives and members of different partner library organisations to discuss Do library portals have a future?

While considering user expectations for digital library services, the strategic possibilities of portals to fulfil the role of gateways to electronic resources was examined. The discussions were structured via a PESTLE analysis.

The workshop generated a number of interesting insights into ways forward for library portals. The general view was that there is uncertainty over whether users actually want library portals. However, there is no doubt at all that they want to access the information that such portals are able to aggregate.

The value of local portals was recognised, particularly since they are more likely to be placed within the user’s workflow. At the same time, a pan-European project like Europeana can provide a vision for the development of standards and an impetus for digitisation. It can play a key role in motivating governments to participate in programmes and to fund them.

It is still to be resolved who plays the coordinating roles for the aggregation of library content into Europeana. A roadmap is needed for where the library community goes from here in supporting Europeana’s development. Both LIBER and CERL feel they could play a role in the coordination of activities, working alongside other partners.

Overall, it was suggested that portals such as The European Library and Europeana may be stepping stones to an alternative long-term solution.

After the weekend we will upload the full report on The European Library portal - Users Advisory Board page.

 

Ireland says yes to The European Library

Want to know more? Go to the newsletter page of The European Library. Here you find a brief presentation by Mr. Aongus Ó hAonghusa, Director of the National Library of Ireland, about the role and position of the National Libarry of Ireland in Europe…

 

EDL Gets Local and Regional Dimensions

EDLocal - The Start of A New Project

From next week onwards also local and regional cultural institutions from across Europe will work with EDL Foundation. Together they will find ways through which the institutions can easily make their content available to Europeana. Or to use the official terminology - the projects aims to improve the interoperability of the digital content held by these institutions and to make it accessible through the Europeana service of the European Digital Library and to other services.

Okay let’s think about this…All these different institutions hold an enormeous amount of digital resources. In fact, they give access to an amazing amount of material of all types, cultures and languages. And now with EDLocal access will also given via Europeana. Let me give you a figure: EDLocal will make over 20 million items available to Europeana.

A few more details

EDLocal is a so-called ‘Best Practice Network’, an eContentplus project that falls under the digital libraries inititiative. The project will run for three years. It builds on existing multiplier networks of local institutions to bring together a consortium that represents 27 countries with broad ranging experience of the cultural sector, digital libraries, standards and aggregation services.

The expected results include the establishment of a network of regional repositories that are highly interoperable with Europeana, an integrated Europeana-EDLocal prototype service and the development of thematic areas for Europeana services which integrate content from both the national and the local/regional level.

The element of “improving interoperability” entails the use of Europeana’s infrastructures, tools and standards (OAI-PMH repositories and Europeana Metadata Application Profiles initially, but moving forward to semantic web technologies later).

Rob Davies (MDR Partners) is Scientific Coordinator of the EDLocal Best Practice Network. (NB: The photo of mister Davies has been copied from this page)

About “Best Practice Networks“

The EU explains on one of her websites that these networks “should combine a consensus building and awareness raising function with implementation in a real-life context of the solutions discussed. Their main objective is to promote the adoption of standards and specifications for making digital content in Europe more accessible and usable.” Continue reading at the FAQ 2008 page of eContentplus projects

 

A nice promo

 

New Team Members

Tiziana Fazio has joined The European Library as Marketing and Editorial Assistant from May 1 2008. Tiziana is currently completing her Masters in Book and Digital Media Studies at the University of Leiden. We got to know Tiziana when she joined The European Library in November 2007 as an intern.

Also Magali Mermet has recently joined The European Library / EDLnet team. Magali is junior technical developer.

Want to join our team as well? Well, if you have experience in creating functional specifications from user requirements you may want to know we are looking for a project leader with development skills…. Click here to read more.

Or what about business development? For EDL Foundation we are looking for a dynamic, self starting Business Developer, with international experience. This foundation is involved in several successful projects aiming at developing Europeana: the European digital library.

Among others you need to have an understanding of the techniques of internet publishing, have a grip on European cultural heritage strategy and the ability to convince at all levels. You will also have fund raising experience.

The business developer will develop the business of Europeana, its partners, models, and policies. This person (you??) will oversee all projects relating to Europeana, initially these include: Arrow, (publishers and libraries), an Archives Portal, EDLlocal (regional museums, libraries, archives), Athena (museums) and EFG (European Film Gateway). Further details

 

Users Advisory Board holds first meeting

ANNOUNCEMENT

May 20th the recently formed Users Advisory Board will meet National Library representatives from across Europe to discuss the future for library portals and specifically the future of digital library services over the next 2-3 years.

Chair: Genevieve Clavel, Swiss National Library.

Location: the National Library of the Netherlands.

 

Presenting Cool Stuff

The European Library is gradually bringing more content to the surface. Next to reacting to the continuous demand for information on library and IT related issues - for instance by making its handbook and metadata registry publicly available - various browsing experiences are being developed.

An important objective of these efforts is to inform users what they can find in a national library and to show what often remains hidden in the deep-web. Or to use plain English: to present all the cool stuff one can find in a national library. To ensure that it matches user  demands much attention goes out to the concept and the form of presentation (visual, media-rich, etc.). Without question, this area is ‘work in progress’.

Currently the portal presents several national treasures that are stored in one of Europe’s national libraries, a webexhibition on the library buildings, and information & updates per national library.

For instance via the page of the National Library of Sweden you can find an unique treasure such as the ‘Codex Gigas’  (Giant Book or Devil’s Bible),  information about the library (opening hours, history, collections) and a link to their own exhibition-page (’what’s on’ in the  Swedish KB).

Maybe Aubéry Escande, editorial manager of The European Library can tell a bit more about all these efforts, and what we can expect in the future….   

 

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Tags: browsing, services, exhibition, sweden, editorial