The EU launched its Europeana digital library yesterday, an online digest of Europe’s cultural heritage that aims to draw together millions of books and other items.
Inspired by ancient Alexandria’s attempt to collect the world’s knowledge, the project will use the latest technologies to allow users anywhere access to films, paintings, photographs, sound recordings, maps, manuscripts, newspapers and documents as well as books kept in European libraries.
From its opening, users will be able to find major literary works like Dante’s Divine Comedy, or masterpieces such as Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring or the manuscripts of composers including Beethoven.
The Internet and digitalization techniques will “enable a Czech student to browse the British library without going to London, or an Irish art lover to get close to the Mona Lisa without queuing at the Louvre,” said Viviane Reding, EU commissioner responsible for new technologies.
Europeana is a chance to “give greater visibility to all the treasures hidden deep in our libraries, museums and archives,” said Reding, and “compare masterpieces until now spread around the four corners of the globe.”
With 14 staff members and at an annual cost put at around 2.5 million euros (US$3.15 million), Europeana — which can be found at www.europeana.eu — is set for humble beginnings.
Soon after its launch the Web site froze, its servers overwhelmed by the volume of 10 million hits an hour.
The prototype contains around 2 million digital items, all of them already in the public domain, as the most recent items are plagued by problems linked to copyright and their use online.
By 2010, the date when Europeana is due to be fully operational, the aim is to have 10 million works available, an impressive number yet a mere drop in the ocean compared to the 2.5 billion books in Europe’s more common libraries.
The process of digitalization is a massive undertaking.
Around 1 percent of the books in the EU’s national libraries are now available in digital form, with that figure expected to grow to 4 percent in 2012. And even when they are digitalized, they still have to be put online.
The size of the task proved daunting even for Internet giant Microsoft.
The US computer firm launched its own online library project at the end of 2006, but abandoned it 18 months later after having digitalized some 750,000 works.
Google, one of the pioneers in this domain on the other hand, claims to have 7 million books available for its “Google Book Search” project, which began in earnest at the end of 2004.
Indeed Europeana was first seen as the 27-nation bloc’s response to Google. Based on a proposal from France, several nations came together in 2005 to call for the creation of such a library at the EU level.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus. Its uncontrolled entry was confirmed by both the Russian Space Agency and EU Space Surveillance and Tracking. The Russians indicated it came down over the Indian Ocean, but some experts were not so sure of the precise location. The European Space Agency’s space debris office also tracked the spacecraft’s doom after it failed to appear over a German radar station. It was not immediately known how much, if any, of the half-tonne spacecraft survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said ahead of time
RSS