The EU digital libraries initiative: Europeana (and more) Yvo Volman DG Information Society and Media 8th Ethical Forum of the University Foundation Brussels 19 November 2009 The digital libraries initiative Launched in 2005 with the aim to make Europes cultural and scientific heritage accessible for all Deals with digitisation, online accessibility and preservation Strong support from Europes Ministers responsible for Culture and the European Parliament Most visible part is Europeana Europeana Common multilingual access point to Europes digital cultural heritage Unprecedented collaboration between cultural institutions of different types Direct search in different types of collections (text, images, audio, sound); show synergies Multilingual interface More than 4.6 million digital objects accessible Some big issues Who pays for digitisation? Importance of public private partnerships next to public initiatives How to bring in-copyright works online? Orphan works, out-of-print Cross-border aspects way of thinking of university libraries? How to ensure that public domain material stays in the public domain once digitised? Accessibility of digitised public domain material Commission has underlined the need to keep public domain material in the public domain after a format shift In practice this is not always the case Wide range of approaches in Europe Legal question about rights created by digitisation Issue of principle about locking up public domain material: role of cultural institutions in the digital age Conclusion Europeana is there and will further develop in the coming years; important for research, for work and for leisure 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