how to prepare a european digital library. olaf janssen speaking during the 2007 international...

How to prepare a European Digital Library

Olaf D. JanssenThe European Library OfficeThe Hague, The Netherlands

ICADL Dec 2007

1. National libraries in Europe

2. The European Library (TEL)2.1 What is it?2.2 Demo2.3 How does it work?

3. TEL as basis for European Digital Library (EDL) 3.1 Introduction to EDL3.2 Strenghts of TEL3.3 Weaknesses of TEL

4. From TEL to EDL – recent developments

Structure of presentation

Europe – relevant institutions

European Union (EU)- Founded 1992- 27 members states- Major project funder

More www.eu.int

• Council of Europe (CoE)- Founded 1949- 47 member states, 800M people - Aim: to achieve a greater unity

between its members.

More www.coe.int


National libraries• By law 1 per country (Russia & Italy 2)

• Roles: Deposit library (national bibliography) Scientific library Sometimes also university library (eg FI, SI)

• Preserving, managing & opening national cultural heritage (documents)

• Promoting & supporting national & international co-operation

• Research & development (national & international)


National library e.g. British Library

47 official national libraries – 45 countries(Council of Europe)

20y collaboration, consensus & trust Since 1987, since 1995 online

Latest collaborative project is The European Library

National libraries in Europe


More info:

www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/libraries


Commercial break

A new

exhibition

Architecture of

Europe’s

National Libraries

Is now live

!!!

www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org/exhibition

This commercial breakwas sponsored by

TheEuropeanLibrary.org

http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/exhibition





5. Future plans


TheEuropeanLibrary.org =- service of all 47 European national libraries

- to provide access to their

- catalogues & digital collections

- via 1 central multi-lingual web interface

- (= portal)

What is The European Library?

2.1 Introduction to The European Library

www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org

Background• Origin in 2001: 2.5y feasibility study funded by EU

• Intended to create operational service from start, so business plan was part of feasibility study

• TheEuropeanLibrary.org is live since March 2005

• Funded by the national libraries (NOT EU)

• Development + maintenance by The European Library Office (Netherlands – 9 FTE)


Vision

“Provision of equal access to promote world-wide understanding of the richness and diversity of European learning and culture.”

“The European Library exists to open up the universe of knowledge, information and culture of all Europe's national libraries”

Mission


Members of The European Library – year by year

2005 : Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, Finland, France, Germany, Portugal, Italy-Florence, Italy-Rome

2006 : Malta, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia Austria, Serbia, Croatia, Denmark

2007 : Belgium, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Russia-Moscow

end 2008 : Bulgaria & Romania

end 2008 : Albania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Ukraine

end 2008 : Turkey + Russia-StPetersburg

9

23

33

35

43

45


What’s good about The European LibraryFor end-users

Have integrated access (1-stop-shop) to catalogues & digital collections of national libraries of Europe

Quality-controlled deep web resources

310+ collections - 170M bibliographic records - millions digital objects

For the national libraries International showcase for collections

Wider access to their collections & content

Combined political mass greater marketing and negotiation power.






5. Future plans


www.theeuropeanlibrary.org

2.2 Demo – searching in The European Library

Homepage in English

Homepage in Icelandic

…. or 23 other languages

1. Basic search


Movie from Hungary about Vietnam

Photo from Austria about Vietnam

2. Themed

search

Theme = religion


Photo from The Netherlands about religion in Hanoi

3. Search all collections from

Estonia (in Estonian interface)


End of demo






5. Future plans


2.3 How does it work?Common standards

A. Access protocols

2. The European Library

B. Metadata D. Multilingual access

C. Collection descriptions

The European Library = hybrid portal = federated search tool

• Overall goal of The European Library = COLLABORATION Low implementation barrier for libraries is key!!

TEL uses well-known access protocols 1. OAI-PMH2. Z39.50 3. SRU 4. OpenURL

• The European Library portal queries 100 harvested collections in 1 central index via OAI-PMH

210 remote collections via Z39.50 & SRU

2.3.A Access protocols in The European Library

Techniques / protocols used (1)

1) OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting)

OAI enabled collections have their metadata harvested, indexed and stored in TEL central index

Queries in these collections are queries in TEL central index!


2) SRU (Search Retrieve via Url)SRU enabled collections are queried on-the-fly

using this protocol Direct communication with TEL-portal

3) Z39.50Z39.50 enabled collections are queried on-the-fly

via a Z39.50/SRU gateway

Z39.50/SRU gateway = translator


Techniques / protocols used (2,3)

4) OpenURL for linking to external webservices


Techniques / protocols used (4)


A. Access protocols




All 170M records in The European Library are in same metadata format!!

Metadata TEL Application Profile -- for Objects

Basis = Dublin Core+ Expanded with elements from other metadata sets+ Custom TEL elements

2.2.B Metadata in The European Library

Dublin Core

More info about metadataThe European Library Handbook

www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/handbook

2.2.B Metadata in The European Library

http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/handbook


A. Access protocols




All 310 collection descriptions in The European Library are in same format!!

Collection descriptions TEL Application Profile -- for Collections

Help users to select collections they want to search in

Each collection description translated in 24 languages

2.2.C Collection descriptions in The European Library

Collection description from Iceland

More info about collection descriptionsThe European Library Handbook

www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/handbook

2.2.C Collection descriptions in The European Library

http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/handbook


A. Access protocols




Multi-lingual access1. Portal interface in 24 languages : done!

2. Collection descriptions in 24 languages : done!

Multi-lingual search & retrieve1. Subject headings / controlled vocabularies

prototype ready

2. Free text / uncontrolled vocabularies : major challenge!!

2.2.D Multi-linguality in The European Library

Portal interface in 24 languages

English

2.2.D Multi-lingual access in The European Library


Danish



Greek


Collection descriptions in 24 languages

English


Collection descriptions in 24 languages

Maltese






5. Future plans


European Digital Library

- yet to be built - pan-European - multi-lingual portal - giving access to digital

cultural heritage- from European libraries

AND museums & archives

3.1 Introduction to the European Digital Library

The European Library

- operational - pan-European - multi-lingual portal - giving access to digital

cultural heritage- from European

libraries only

• December 2004 : Google announces its Google Print initiative (digitse 4 major US libraries + Oxford UK)

• January 2005: comments by Jean-Noël Jeanneney (president BnF) : Anglo-American dominance

• Large press coverage: “Europe’s cultural war with Google”

• French call for safeguarding the European cultural heritage support from European Union

• European Union 2005 : “Creation of a European Digital Library is a strategic priority“

Short historical context


EU 2005 “Creation of a

European Digital Library is a strategic priority“

EU 2006 “The European Library

is a good starting point for a European Digital Library”

Vision of the European Union


To go from

here


To here


The European Library

is a good starting point for a


Why?






5. Future plans


Why?

The European Library already has already created

Operational technological platform (TEL portal)

Based on common open standards for access (OAI, Z39.50, SRU)

Based on common open standards for metadata (Dublin Core)

Firm cooperative organisational framework (20 years consencus &trust between European national libraries)

3.2 Strenghts of TEL

BUT…

A successful


needs more ingredients ……

3.3 Weaknesses of TEL





5. Future plans


Weakness 1The European Library is about

ACCESS

not

DIGITISATION & PRESERVATION


Mass-digitisation of as many materials as possible

Long-time digital preservation of digitised materials

Problem Only 5-10% of content in TEL are digital

objects

Even lower %-tage is digitally preserved


Solution

national programmes +

Europe-wide network of competence centres

(funded by EU)



FEDERATED SEARCHING

not

CENTRALISED SEARCHING


• Federated searching (Z39.50, SRU) sub-optimum user experience

• Central database (OAI-PMH) better user experience

• Advantages of 1 central database : Google-like searching

Speed

Sorting - Ranking - de-duplication

Virtual collections


Solution

Large-scale implementation of

OAI-PMH


OAI - 2006

OAI/central index

SRU

Z39.50 gateway60%

20%

20%

OAI - 2006

OAI/central index

SRU

Z39.50 gateway

40%

26%

34%

OAI - 2007


MULTI-LINGUAL ACCESS

not

MULTI-LINGUAL SEARCH & RETRIEVAL


1. TEL has multi-lingual access portal interface in 24 languages collection descriptions in 24 languages

2. TEL has limited multilingual subject access controlled vocabularies

But the holy grail is ……

3. TEL has no multi-lingual search & retrieval e.g. Searching in German, finding texts in Spanish uncontrolled vocabularies/free texts


No solution

True multi-lingual

search & retrieval

is still distant



LIBRARIES ONLY

not

MUSEUMS & ARCHIVES


For a successful European Digital Library

you need

1. Collaboration between libraries, museums and archives

… to agree on….

2. Technical & Interoperability strategy3. Organisational models & Funding structure4. Ownership & governance5. Sustainability


Solution

EDLnet






5. Future plans



EDLnet ≠ The European Library

EDLnet ≠ The European Digital Library EDLnet ≠ Operational service

EDLnet ≠ Content of libraries only


EDLnet = Feasibility study concertation exercise, consensus building, proof-of-concept , prototypesto build The European Digital Library

EDLnet = 4 domains Archives + Museums + Libraries + AV-archives

EDLnet = cross-domain cooperative network since Sept 07


EDLnet - Cross-domain cooperative network

‘Coalition of the willing’ - 84 partners• Archives• AV-archives

• Museums

• Libraries

• Universities• And more…

EDLnet - Fields of work I

1) Building a large trusted & committed cross-domain community - of archivists, librarians and museum people - committed to make the European Digital Library a reality

2) Produce clear and usable recommendations- on political, human, technical, semantical, metadata interoperability between 4 domains- on organizational and business models


EDLnet - Fields of work II 3) Building a fully working prototype (‘maquette’) - multilingual access to - collections from museums, (AV-) archives & libraries- covering over 2 million digital items based on - 1st Theme = ‘Cities’

4) A proposal for funding & planning– to create an operational European Digital Library servicefrom 2009 onwards



Interoperability

is key!

Summary

Common and open standards for access and interoperability are essential for a European Digital Library

The European Library is the forerunner

Building a European Digital Library is a much a political & social game as it is a technological

Willingness to collaborate is key!!


Find out more on

EDLnet website

www.digitallibrary.euwww.edlnet.eu


www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org

www.digitallibrary.eu

Questions? [email protected]

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