Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Thursday, April 08, 2004

Introduction to The European Library

Britta Woldering, The European Library: Integrated access to the national libraries of Europe, Access, March 2004. Excerpt: "The European Library (TEL) Project [was] completed at the end of January 2004. The key aim of TEL was to investigate the feasibility of establishing a new Pan-European service which would ultimately give access to the combined resources of the national libraries of Europe....The European Library service will be a portal which offers integrated access to the combined resources of the national libraries of Europe. It will offer free searching for both digital and non-digital resources and will deliver digital objects - some free, some priced....The publishers' view on The European Library is mixed. On the one hand, they see the possibility of new distribution channels by including their networked electronic publications in the national bibliographies and consequently in the catalogues of the national libraries. On the other hand, they fear that their commercial interests could be jeopardised."