The EU digital libraries initiative: Europeana (and more)

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1 The EU digital libraries initiative: Europeana (and more) Javier Hernandez-Ros DG Information Society and Media Digitisation of cultural material Madrid, 12 April 2010

2 The digital libraries initiative Launched in 2005 with the aim to make Europe s cultural accessible for all Deals with digitisation, online accessibility and preservation - including copyright related questions Strong support from the European Parliament (resolution 2007) and Europe s Ministers responsible for culture Most visible part is Europeana

3 Europeana Common multilingual access point to Europe s digital cultural heritage Direct search in different types of collections Launched in November 2008 Now 7 million digital objects accessible books, maps, manuscripts, photographs, museum objects, audiovisual fragments, sound aim: 10 million objects in 2010 content still unbalanced Unprecedented collaboration between cultural institutions of different types Europeana office in The Hague

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5 Europeana next steps Communication 28 August public consultation deadline 15 November Three issues General development Europeana More content for Europeana, including in-copyright content Funding and governance of Europeana Overview of the results available online 118 replies, 59% from cultural institutions, 19% rights holders, 12% government bodies

6 General development Europeana Europeana is seen as a positive endeavour Strong support for the orientation as a common multilingual access point to Europe s cultural heritage Priorities: increasing the content, improving the functionalities Key functionalities: multilingual features, improving search, implementation of web 2.0 services Awareness raising necessary

7 More content for Europeana Increase the number of digital objects; better geographic balance, more in-copyright content; not just focus on books Masterpieces/classics vs. broad range of cultural objects Europeana should not become a commercial endeavour itself Agreement that content should not be locked up in national silos of information (not on the method) General acceptance that public domain material should stay in the public domain once digitised Some cultural institutions would like (and need) to maintain a stream of income Uncertainty around possible new rights created by digitisation is confirmed, guidance may be necessary

8 Financing issues Who pays for digitisation? Member States and cultural institutions Some funding at European level (CIP, structural funds) Private funding (sponsorship, private digitisation projects) Importance of public-private partnerships next to public initiatives What are the boundary conditions (e.g. exclusivity, territorial limitations)? Funding the central Europeana portal Project funding until 2013, some contributions by MS

9 Copyright and public domain related issues How to bring in-copyright works into Europeana? From the start a key issue in the Digital Libraries initiative Two models: links to sites of the rightholders or licenses Orphan works, out-of-print works: communication copyright in the knowledge economy Oct 2009 Cross-border aspects How to ensure that public domain material stays in the public domain once digitised?

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11 Accessibility of digitised public domain material Legal question about rights created by digitisation Level of originality needed In practice you see a wide range of approaches in Europe Commission has underlined the need to keep public domain material in the public domain after a format shift Issue of principle about locking up public domain material: role of cultural institutions in the digital age

12 What is next? Continuous efforts of MS and cultural institutions (MS reports published soon) Overview/Communication by EC Own initiative EP report (vote end April) CIP call for proposals, closing date 1 June Launch of Europeana 1.0 (10m objects) European Digital Agenda end April 2010 Impact assessment on orphan works Council Conclusions 11 May 2010

13 Conclusion Europeana is there and will further develop in the coming years; important for research, for work and for leisure Common endeavour, joint effort! Work ongoing on basic conditions for digitisation, online accessibility and digital preservation Importance of cross-border access to digitised material, and the risk of locking up the public domain