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National libraries in Europe – A case study of collaboration

1. Introduction: Europe, European national libraries

2. Collaboration of European national libraries in 4 steps – a case study

3. Future steps NLB Conference, Singapore, 15-11-2005Olaf D. Janssen Web & New Projects managerThe European Library Office, The Netherlands

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Europe – relevant institutions

• European Union (EU)- Founded 1992- 25 members states- Group of 10 New Member States joined in 2004- Major project funder

More www.eu.int

• Council of Europe (CoE)- Founded 1949- 46 member states, 800M people - Aim: to achieve a greater unity

between its members.

More www.coe.int

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Nature of a national library• By law 1 per country (Russia & Italy 2)

• Roles: Deposit library (national bibliography) Scientific library Sometimes also university library (eg FI, SI)

• Preserving, managing & opening national cultural heritage (documents)

• Promoting & supporting national & international co-operation

• Research & development (national & international)

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• Collaboration since 1987, since 1995 online

• CENL : Conference of EuropeanNational Librarians (directors of NLs)

• Regional subgroups (Northern, South-East)

• CENL is umbrella of many European projects & task groups

National libraries in European context

• 45 official national libraries – 43 countries(Council of Europe)

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Roles & tasks of CENL

• Setting policies- Harmonisation & innovation of national policy concerning libraries- To increase and reinforce the role of national libraries in Europe

• Innovation & Standardisation Standardisation and implementation of effective and innovative communication & information networks, for, in & between national libraries

• Maintaining cultural heritagePreservation and conservation of important collections in Europe

• Education & cultureLibraries are suited to promoting cultural heritage (e.g. schools)

• More info http://www.cenl.org

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European collaboration in 4 steps

A. 1995-2005 : Gabriel = Web guide to Europe’s national libraries

B. 2001-2004 : TEL Project = Feasibility study for searching catalogues & collections of national libraries

C. 2005 : The European Library = Operational result of Feasibility study (sum of A+B)

D. 2005-2006: TEL-ME-MOR = Extension of The European Library with 10 European Union New Member States

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A 1995 – Start of

Web guide for/of/by Europe’s national libraries

Gabriel

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Gabriel : Guide to European national libraries

• GAteway and BRIdge to Europe's national Libraries

• 1995 pilot, online since 1997

• Non-EU funded – own means

• Maintained & hosted by NL of Netherlands, 4 mirrors (Finland, Germany, Slovenia, UK)

• Is no longer alive Content movedto TheEuropeanLibrary.org

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What could you find on Gabriel?

• Practical information about the European NLs: addresses, opening hours, history, contact info, etc.

• Information about online services: OPACs, national bibliographic databases, websites, periodicals…

• Exhibition of (digitized) treasures of the 43 NLs

• Search all websites (NOT: catalogues) of all 43 NLs in one query

• Available in 3 languages: English, French & German

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Pros & cons of Gabriel

Pros• Only pan-European library service

• All NLs had a presence on the web (e.g. Malta did not have a website until 2003!)

• Co-operation, share knowledge, networking, political

Cons• Not able to search the catalogues & collections of the

NLs Enter TEL Project (2001)

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B 2001 – Start of

Feasibility study for searching catalogues & collections of national

libraries

TEL Project

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• 2001-2004: Feasibility study = is it possible to create one central service for searching the catalogues & collections of all European NLs ?

• 8 pilot libraries: Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

• Intended to create operational service from start, so business plan was part of project

TEL Project (2001-2004)

• Financed by European Union (30 months) + own recources = 2M Euro (~4M S$)

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• Creation of technical infrastructure

• Developing metatada models

• Relations with publishers - copyright issues - open access vs. restricted access

• Multi-linguality (37 languages in CENL)

• Business models - market research - financing - is there a need for a European Library?

• Consensus building – recognizing & clearing political hurdles

TEL Project – task fields

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• Pilot libraries + France commit for 3 years initially to create operational service = TheEuropeanLibrary.org (portal)

Results of TEL Project

• 31-1-2004: Feasibility study ended successfully - other NLs can participate too (France)

• New collaborative effort between national libraries in Europe start of

• Creation of a European Library Office, hosted by National Library of The Netherlands

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C 2005 – Start of

Operational result of Feasibility study

The European Library

TheEuropeanLibrary.org = service of all European National Libraries to provide access to their (deep web) catalogues & collections via 1 central multi-lingual web interface (= portal)

What is The European Library?

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Vision

“Provision of equal access to promote world-wide understanding of the richness and diversity of European learning and culture.”

“The European Library exists to open up the universe of knowledge, information and culture of all Europe's national libraries”  

Mission

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• TheEuropeanLibrary.org live since 17 March 2005 (beta)Alfa release expected for 24 November

The European Library – current status

• Funded by the national libraries, owned by CENL• Development + maintenance by European Library

Office (KB – 4.5 FTE)

• 12 Full Participants: National libraries of - Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland (2004) - Austria, Serbia, Croatia (June 2005)- Catalogues & collections searchable (160+ collections, 500K digitised objects, 15M records) + basic Gabriel information

• 33 Basic Participants- Catalogues & collections not searchable - Only basic information – as on Gabriel

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Advantages of The EuropeanLibrary• Give integrated access to national collections across

Europe - digital (500K) and non-digital (14.5M items)

• Deliver integrated results

• Increased visibility of national collections on the web

• Open standards - development & sharing

• Access to native resources held in other countries

• Political – all NLs operate as one force (more weight than individual NLs)

• Mechanism to extend collaboration

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D 2005 – Start of

Extension of TheEuropeanLibrary.org with

10 EU New Member States

TEL-ME-MOR

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TEL-ME-MORGLOBAL FACTSHEET

• Funded by European Union - 1.4M Euro kickstart (2.8 M S$)

• 2 main objectives:1. Facilitating & stimulating the 10 EU NMS to apply for future EU funding (creating momentum)

2. Making the 10 NMS national libraries Full Participant of The European Library (except Slovenia)

• Project started 01-02-2005 – Duration 2 years

• National libraries of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Malta and Cyprus (& Slovenia)

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TEL-ME-MOR - Hurdles

• Lack of staff (esp. smaller libraries)

• Lack of knowledge TEL Office + Full Participants to assist (workshops, teleconferences, email support…)

• Technical hurdles (infrastructure, metadata, collection descriptions, charcater sets/diacritics)

• Financial + organisational (first EU project for most)

Possible hurdles for NMS libraries to join The European Library

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• New resources for users - Collections in The European Library today : 165 - New collections added by NMS by end of 2006: 47

• Extension of network and collaboration (open standards, development & sharing knowledge)

• Extended profile of The European Library (snowball effect) possible future extension to other European cultural institutions

TEL-ME-MOR - Benefits

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Next steps (2006 - …)• Offering more digitized content

- Currently relative low % of content is digital material- The European Library is seen as ideal point of entry to digitised material - CENL will develop a network of digitisation activities- European Digital Library? ( Google Print)

• Nov 2005: Project proposal to EU to include all remaining EU member states

• 2006-2007 : more (non-NMS) NLs to join TheEuropeanLibrary.orgJanuary 2006 : Moscow, DenmarkJuly 2006 : Spain

• Beginning of 2007: 25-30 national libraries searchable(200-300+ collections, 10-100M records)

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www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org (beta)www.telmemor.net

www.cenl.org

olaf.janssen@theeuropeanlibrary.orgolaf.janssen@kb.nl