The European Commission (EC) has released a report on its Europeana digital library project, urging EU member states to step up their efforts to put online the collections held in all their libraries, archives and museums. It stresses the benefits of making Europe's culture and knowledge more easily accessible. The report also points to the potential economic benefits of digitisation, including through public-private partnerships, for the development of innovative services in sectors like tourism, research and education.
The EC report endorses the Digital Agenda's objective of strengthening Europeana and suggests solutions for making works covered by copyright available online. The digital library currently offers free access to more than 15 million digitised books, maps, newspapers, paintings, photographs and other artifacts, placing it in competition with Google Books. The Google initiative also estimates that it has digitised 15 million books.
Orphan works - material whose potential right-holders are unknown or books that are out of print - are reportedly the main area of concern for Europeana. The latest report points out that it is primarily the role of rights-holders to digitise out-of-print works and exploit them. However, cultural institutions must have a window of opportunity to digitise material and make it available to the public, for which right-holders should be remunerated.
Last year, the EC sought assurances from Google that it would not infringe the copyright of authors. The company in turn tried to placate publishers saying that it would only display out-of-print translations of works that were still commercially available in Europe with the approval of their copyright holders. It also pledged to make greater efforts to ensure that books are truly out-of-print before making them available in digital form. Currently, Google digitises only public domain material in Europe, which means pre-1870 works.
Speaking at the launch of the report, Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes said that she welcomed the element of competition and that it would most likely lead to a better product. However, she added that member states need to considerably increase their funding for digitisation.
In terms of public-private partnerships, the report recommended a period of seven years for any agreement for preferential or exclusive use of the digitised material. This compares favourably with Google Books' 15-year agreements.
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