New Online Discovery Service For Researchers
Research communities worldwide now have unrivalled online access to the collections of national and university libraries from 46 European countries following the launch of the new European Library portal.
Providing a single point of access to over 200 million high quality sources, plus excellent search and retrieval tools, The European Library enables researchers to find, use and share a vast range of materials (including digital and multimedia content) with speed and ease.
The service will be officially launched at the 41st Annual LIBER Conference in Tartu, Estonia in front of an audience of over 320 participants from across Europe. The National Library of Estonia and Tartu University are both participating in this important pan‐European initiative.
“We are very pleased that this invaluable new online service will be launched at Tartu University during the LIBER conference,” said Ermel Malle, Director of Tartu University Library. “We are also delighted that by participating in The European Library, our collections will be more accessible internationally than ever before.”
Janne Andresoo, Director of the National Library of Estonia, also welcomed the new service and said it would be a valuable academic resource.
“The launch of the new European Library opens up exciting opportunities for researchers worldwide. For the first time, collections from university libraries can be cross‐searched alongside collections from national libraries. This means that an even larger critical mass of high quality materials can be cross‐searched simultaneously.”
From rare books and manuscripts to images and video, The European Library offers access to over 10 million digital items. There are also 24 million pages of full‐text content in every subject in addition to bibliographic records.
Due to its involvement in the Europeana Libraries project the National Library of Wales is one of 19 leading European research libraries designated as new contributors to the European Library. As a result of its involvement in this project over 250,000 digital objects from the NLW’s collections, including photographs, topographical prints and 19th century journals, will be accessible via the European Library website.
“We are working towards tomorrow’s library,” said Erland Kolding Nielsen, Chair of The European Library Management Committee, and Director General of The Royal Library of Copenhagen. “Research communities depend on us and we exist to serve them so we have completely redesigned The European Library portal to meet their needs.”
“In order to maximize opportunities for access by researchers, content will also be made available free of charge for re‐use by research networks and websites through API feeds. As a result, the new possibilities for research are staggering,” added Louise Edwards, Director of The European Library.
Andrew Green National Library of Wales Librarian said:
“The launch of the new European Library website is an exciting event that represents another important development in the way researchers can gain access to digitised sources from Europe’s national and research libraries. The launch also holds a special significance for the National Library of Wales as we are named as a contributor to the European Library for the first time. As an institution we are proud to be able to extend access to some of our main digital collections to the European stage”
Notes for Editors Further informationAubéry Escande, Communication and Editorial Manager for The European Library email: Aubery.Escande@kb.nl phone: +31 703 140 824 Friedel Grant, Editorial Officer for The European Library email: Friedel.Grant@kb.nl phone: +31 703 140 625 1. About The Launch The new European Library will be launched at the Dorpat Conference Centre in Tartu (http://www.utlib.ee/liber2012/index.php?id=prog_soc#wed) on 27 June at 20:00, during the 41st Annual LIBER Conference. The launch event will feature: Erland Kolding Nielsen, Director General of the Royal Library of Copenhagen & Head of The European Library Management Committee Paul Ayris, LIBER President Ulf Göranson, CERL Chairman Harry Verwayen, Europeana Business Development Director Please contact Kristina Pai (Kristina.Pai@ut.ee – Phone number: +372 55544740) if you would like to attend. 2. About The European Library (www.theeuropeanlibrary.org) The European Library was originally established in 2005 as a service of CENL (The Conference of European National Libraries). It offered access via a federated search to the collections of national libraries across Europe. The new European Library is the result of an innovative partnership between CENL nd three other leading library organisations: LIBER, CERL and the Europeana oundation. aFIt offers quick and easy access via a central index to the collections of Europe’s national libraries and an expanding range of university libraries. There are also tools and services for researchers, such as the ability to export records to reference management services and to download high‐quality metadata for data mining and exploitation. Finally, it is the library aggregator for Europeana.