You can currently try out how the site will work, beginning with Van Gogh's painting of his boots. © Europeana
Van Gogh’s down at heel boots were the first thing to appear today on the test version of the European digital library website, which its creators say will one day contain two million digitised items. A more fully featured working prototype will premiere in November 2008.
The website, called Europeana, will break new ground by bringing together millions of digitised resources from Europe’s archives, museums, libraries and audio visual collections through a single portal.
At www.europeana.eu users will be able to use sophisticated browsing and searching facilities to find paintings, photographs, objects, books, newspapers, archival records, films and sound that have been digitised by Europe’s heritage organisations. At the moment, the test site carries a demo video and a survey worth filling out - organisers are offering the chance to win an iPhone.
Dame Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library, is Chair of the Management Board of the European Digital Library. “Europeana will open up the unique collections of Europe’s cultural institutions to audiences worldwide,” she said.
“This pioneering web portal will radically transform the way in which global users interact with Europe’s rich heritage in the digital age. The British Library is proud to be part of this project, which for the first time unites Europe’s diverse cultures.”
Van Gogh’s Pair of Shoes, from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, is the starting point for Europeana’s promotional web video, on the site now. It is designed to encourage more European institutions to participate by making their digital content available on Europeana.
“So many excellent digital resources lie below the surface of the web at present, and aren’t easily located by search engines. Europeana will make this material accessible as never before,” added Martine de Boisdeffre, Présidente of the European Regional Branch of International Council on Archives, which is another partner in the project.
