New EU members put Euro digital library vision at risk

Significant gaps in the digitisation capabilities of new EU member states are threatening the European Commission’s vision of a shared European heritage network, a study has found.

A report by Tel-Me-Mor , the body that set up the European Library portal, points to a range of factors hindering the digitisation of resources by new member states, with only four of the 10 libraries surveyed having significant amounts of digitised
content. 

Tel-Me-Mor has called on the European Commission to create the conditions needed for international collaborative information networks.

The report was presented to the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL), although when European commissioner Viviane Reding addressed the conference on the need for a European digital library she made only passing mention of the portal efforts of the European Library.

Adolf Knoll, director for science, research and international co-operation at the National Library of the Czech Republic , and co-author of the report, denied that the European Library had been overlooked in the  rush towards EC digitisation. “I think it is being recognised slowly,” he said.

According to Knoll, CENL has offered to build on the European Library model, creating something that could become a European digital library.

The report discovered a series of barriers to digitisation including intellectual, financial and organisational issues, the lack of management experience of digitised and born digital content, the size of digital collections, application and adoption of
international standards, and technological infrastructure.

However, Knoll said that some of these barriers were breaking down quickly.

The report also highlights metadata issues being a potential barrier to Europe-wide digitised resources.

“Very few of the new member states have Dublin Core-compliant data,” says the report. “Many have Marc21 records, which in theory can be converted, but it is difficult to assess how achievable this will be.”

According to Knoll, fears that metadata issues will prevent an integrated European digital library may be premature.

“Practical work can solve some points that seem problematic,” he said.

Knoll’s latest research suggests that some new EU member states may be more advanced than existing members.

“I hope to prove later in this year that the division between old and new members is nonsense. I know it in many areas practically, but now we will be able to show it.”