The European Library – Now open to research libraries across Europe

What is The European Library?

Is my library eligible to join?

Which libraries currently participate?

How will my library benefit from membership of The European Library?

How is the annual membership fee worked out?

What is the annual membership fee for my library?

How do I provide content to The European Library?

Who do I contact for further information?

WHAT IS THE EUROPEAN LIBRARY?

The European Library is a not-for-profit organisation managed by the national and research libraries of Europe, and steered by three influential library organisations : CENL, CERL, and LIBER.

We are committed to making the collections and intellectual output of our partner libraries as accessible as possible to a worldwide audience, and to promoting the development of a research infrastructure for Europe.

We are the official library aggregator for Europeana, the European Commission’s main digital platform for cultural heritage, and are represented on the boards of Europeana Foundation.

We also represent the interests and content of libraries in several European projects, notably ARROW  (focused on copyright clearance) and ENUMERATE (mapping the state of digitisation)

Originally founded in 2005 by CENL, we have an effective track record in delivering a wide range of valuable services to national library partners in 46 European countries.

Now, with the backing of CERL and LIBER, we are delighted to invite research libraries to join The European Library for the first time (see the form at the bottom of this page). 

Key benefits include greater usage of collections  and records (for example through exposure in The European Library portal and Europeana), considerable efficiency gains and economies of scale, access to an innovative best practice network, enhanced international profile, and the opportunity to participate in European-funded projects.

 

Is my library eligible to join?

Membership of The European Library is open to all national and research libraries in Council of Europe countries. See a list of our current members. 

 

Which libraries currently participate?

Our membership already includes national libraries from 46 European countries but, from January 2013, research libraries can become members for the first time. 

We are currently in discussion with many research libraries and library consortia across Europe, and leading libraries (such as University College London and KU Leuven) have already confirmed their participation in 2013.

 

How will my library benefit from membership of The European Library? 

Powerful, low cost aggregation and distribution services

As the library domain aggregator for Europeana, we have built a highly efficient aggregation infrastructure that saves our partner libraries significant time and money. 

We provide a convenient and cost-effective “one stop shop” service: from data manipulation and semantic enrichment to cost-effective distribution to multiple channels.

We can process data in any format, including semantic enrichment such as connecting individual names, places and research subjects.

The enriched data is then distributed to a variety of channels such as Europeana, research networks, library discovery service and search engines – as well as back to the contributing library.   It is also accessible via the new European Library portal and The European Library API (Application Programming Interface)

Increased discoverability and usage of content

As competition increases in the digital age, libraries need to work harder than ever to ensure that their content remains visible – and The European Library can help.

Our new European Library portal has been specially designed to offer the global research community quick and easy access to an impressive aggregation of trusted content from our library partners.  Over 200 million records are currently available, together with an expanding range of specialist tools and services – for example subject-specific searches and data mining. 

We also provide digital content to Europeana, and metadata will be “pushed out” to research networks, library discovery services and search engines.

Distribution to so many different channels would normally be costly and complex but, through our network, it is possible for even the smallest library to ensure effective promotion of their content on multiple international platforms.

Enhanced profile and influence

Through participation in The European Library, libraries are positioned at the heart of Europe’s research agenda by encouraging knowledge sharing and interdisciplinary research, and by supporting research—led teaching. 

As a joint network of hundreds of libraries, and through our representation on the board of Europeana Foundation, we form a strategic grouping that has real influence on the future shape of the European information landscape.

Our network is also active in building partnerships with leading consortia such as DARIAH and CLARIN to construct a powerful research infrastructure for Europe, capable of competing with the world’s best.

Access to a best practice network and opportunities for professional development

We are at the cutting edge of research and development in digital libraries – from data enrichment and clustering techniques to full text indexing and Linked Open Data.  

Knowledge is shared and developed through active working groups and regular meetings, all of which are open to partner libraries and which provide excellent opportunities for professional development and networking.

Opportunity to collaborate on EU-funded projects

As a partner in The European Library, your library will be well placed to collaborate on European-funded projects.

We have a very successful track record in winning and leading European-funded projects, which provides our partners with funding for digitisation of their content and the opportunity to build on their technical expertise

Our next European-funded project will focus exclusively on Europe’s academic research communities as we join forces with other domains — archives, museums and film — to establish a new service, Europeana Research.

We are also about to start work on a new initiative to establish a cloud-based infrastructure. This will enable easy sharing, enhancement and storage of content and data across the Europeana family of services, interested libraries and other content providers.

 

How is the annual membership fee worked out?

We have designed our fee structure to be as equitable and affordable as possible, and annual costs will range from €500 to €5000 per annum in 2013 depending on the size and location of the library.

Criteria	Weighting
Gross national income per capita $	15%
Purchasing power parity $ (a figure similar to GNP but factoring in the cost of living)	50%
Gross national income $	10%
Gross domestic product $	10%
Population	5%
Number of full-time equivalent library staff	10%

Discounts are available for libraries joining up via library consortia.

 

What is the annual fee for my library?

We would be delighted to provide you with a quote for your library.  Please complete the following form (it should take no more than 3 minutes), and we will get back to you by email within 10 working days.

Membership form