Thursday, November 20, 2008

Now Online: "Europeana", Europe's Digital Library

According to this press release, Europe's digital library is open to the public today:

Europeana, Europe’s multimedia online library opens to the public today. At www.europeana.eu, Internet users around the world can now access more than two million books, maps, recordings, photographs, archival documents, paintings and films from national libraries and cultural institutions of the EU's 27 Member States. Europeana opens up new ways of exploring Europe’s heritage: anyone interested in literature, art, science, politics, history, architecture, music or cinema will have free and fast access to Europe's greatest collections and masterpieces in a single virtual library through a web portal available in all EU languages. But this is just the beginning. In 2010, Europeana will give access to millions of items representing Europe's rich cultural diversity and will have interactive zones such as communities for special interests. Between 2009 and 2011, some €2 million per year of EU funding will be dedicated to this.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

From the link provided:

"The Europeana site is temporarily not accessible due to overwhelming interest after its launch (10 million hits per hour). "

"We are doing our utmost to reopen Europeana in a more robust version as soon as possible. "

"We will be back by mid-December."

well everyone will certainly be anxious to see the website now... good marketing ? :-)