Since welcoming the proposal first suggested in April 2005 by six heads of state and government to the Presidency of Council and to the Commission, advocating the creation of a virtual European library, the Commission has laid down guidelines to ensure that the digital libraries initiative is a success.
Digital libraries are organised collections of digital content made available to the public. They can consist of material that has been digitised, such as digital copies of books and other ‘physical’ material from libraries and archives. Alternatively, they can be based on information originally produced in digital format, an increasingly popular storage method for scientific content. Both aspects – digitised and originally digital material – are covered by this initiative.
See Also: The European Commission adopted on 24 August 2006 a Recommendation on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation (EN text; PDF file). The Recommendation aims at bringing out the full economic and cultural potential of Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage through the Internet. It is part of the Commission’s strategy for the digitisation, online accessibility and digital preservation of Europe's cultural and scientific heritage as set out in the Commission Communication ‘i2010: digital libraries’.
“Our aim is to arrive at a real European digital library, a multilingual access point to Europe’s digital cultural resources”, commented Information Society and Media Commissioner Reding. “It will allow, for example, Finnish citizens to easily find and use digital books and images from libraries, archives and museums in Spain, or a Dutchman to find historical film material from Hungary online”.
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