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.

 

Putting the shoe on the other foot

‘Formulating user requirements for Europe’s cultural heritage portals‘.

This is the topic and subtitle of a paper I am currently writing for ELAG 2008 Conference ‘Rethinking the Library’

It starts off explaining why libraries and other cultural institutions are ‘putting the shoe on the other foot’ and – as a result – are paying more and more attention to the needs and wishes of their users.
Next it explains how The European Library and Europeana – two of Europe’s most important cultural heritage portals –try to reflect the user demands in the services they (will) provide. Some of the main topics of debate such as personalization and API are also briefly addressed.

In short, the paper shows how users are also becoming kings in cultural heritage websites.

More details will follow soon. For the time being, please consider a visit to The European Library and Europeana. Starting today, the latter offers much more information about various topics. For instance, it now includes information about the usability testing done on the demo-version of Europeana.

Information about the Conference:

ELAG, the European Library Automation Group, brings together once a year people involved in library automation in the leading European libraries and information centres. The organization counts 450 members in 27 countries all over Europe. In the last few years over 100 colleagues attended the seminars each year.” (taken from their website)

The conference takes place 14-16 April 2008, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

You can find the full agenda at http://library.wur.nl/elag2008/

 

CENL Paper (22/08/07)

Paper ‘CENL in 2006 – 2007′ by Britta Woldering, CENL secretary

Presented Wednesday 22 August during 2007 Conference of Directors of National Libraries meeting

Location: Durban (South Africa)

Further information:

Site of the Conference of European National Librarians
Site of the Conference of Directors of National Libraries

 

Russian State Library joins The European Library

Last week the Russian State Library-Moscow signed the CENL letter of agreement on full membership of The European Library. As a result users of www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org will be able to search and retrieve material from the national library of Russia-Moscow. The European Library is a service of the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL).

The ‘Electronic Library of Dissertations’ is a collection that the Russian State Library will make available to the users of The European Library. Up to now it holds to 174026 documents (33594 abstracts and 140432 dissertations).

More information about the Russian State Library

More photos in The European Library web-exhibition space