[eIFLoa] European Commission funds more digitization for OA, calls on member states to do the same

[Iryna Kuchma]

FYI

http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2008/08/ec-funds-more-digitization-for-oa-calls.html

Opening soon: a digital library for Europe, a press release from the
European Commission, August 11, 2008. Excerpt:

Europe's cultural diversity in books, music, paintings, photographs, and
films open to all citizens at the click of a mouse via one portal – this
dream of a European Digital Library could become reality this autumn.
However, further efforts by the EU Member States are needed, said the
Commission today in a new Communication on making available digital versions
of works from cultural institutions all over Europe. Digitisation of
cultural works can give Europeans access to material from museums, libraries
and archives abroad without having to travel or turn hundreds of pages to
find a piece of information. Europe's libraries alone contain more than 2.5
billion books, but only about 1% of archival material is available in
digital form. The Commission therefore called on Member States to do more to
make digitised works available online for Europeans to browse them
digitally, for study, work or leisure. The Commission itself will provide
some € 120 million in 2009-2010 for improving online access to Europe's
cultural heritage.

[S]aid Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media:
"...[E]ven though Member States have made significant progress in making
cultural content accessible on the Internet, more public and private
investment is needed to speed up digitisation. My goal is to have a European
Digital Library, called Europeana and rich in content open to the public
before the end of the year."

The Commission today confirmed its commitment to help Member States bring
their valuable cultural content online. In 2009-2010 € 69 million from the
EU's research programme will go to digitisation activities and the
development of digital libraries. In the same period, Europe's
Competitiveness and Innovation Programme will allocate about € 50 million to
improve access to Europe's cultural content....The Commission today called
on Member States to raise digitisation capacities to make their collections
available for Europe's citizens....

Some Member States have taken exemplary steps to accelerate digitisation of
cultural collections....

However, the Commission's assessment also shows that in many cases there is
a gap between the objects which have been digitised and their online
accessibility....

Background:

The European Digital Library is part of the i2010 initiative adopted by the
Commission on 1 June 2005 (IP/05/643)....

The World Digital Library
http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org/project/english/index.html

The European Library
http://search.theeuropeanlibrary.org/portal/en/index.html

Europeana.... http://www.europeana.eu/

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/08/1255&type=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/ict_psp/index_en.htm

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/05/643&format=HTML&aged=1&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Posted by Peter Suber at 8/11/2008 01:34:00 PM.