The recently released "Next Steps" planning communication from the European Commission (EC) gives Europeana (www.europena.eu)a just praise as a showcase for European cultural artifacts. But it calls for much more collaboration to increase content, find digital rights solutions, and establish sustainable funding. The EC is asking for comments from individuals and organizations to guide the future development of its prime i2010 digital libraries project.
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It's not just more works that must be added. More equal participation from all member libraries is required, and original-language content must be increased. As of July, France is still the biggest contributor to Europeana, providing 47% of the content, though that is down from the 52% share it had on launch. Germany is next with 15%; the Netherlands and the U.K. each have contributed 8%; Sweden, Finland, and Norway (which is not even an EU member) hover at 4%-5%; and others trail far behind with 1% or less.
A more noticeable problem for many users-and an embarrassing one since Europeana prides itself on offering interfaces in the native language of all its members-is that many national treasures are not there in the original language. If you do a search on Da Vinci, for example, you will find 460 objects in French but only 140 in Italian. Shakespeare is represented with 606 items in French and only 317 in English. The Spanish writer Cervantes has 176 objects in French and just 43 in Spanish. And you might think that the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen was really German, with 387 items provided in German and only one in Danish!
The article goes on to discuss:
+ Copyright and Orphan Works
+ The 20th-Century Black Hole and Public Domain
+ Future Funding
+ Commissioner Reding's Support for Google Books
+ Collaboration Continues
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