Internet users have received with great enthusiasm Europeana, the EU digital library that brings together two million works from national libraries, museums and other cultural archives, which was inaugurated this morning. The success of the public has forced the temporary closure of the website, which has been overwhelmed by queries.
"We had 10 million clicks per hour and at 11:30 we had to close the website to double its capacity," explained the spokesperson responsible for the Community Executive's Information Society, Martin Selmayr.
Despite this reaction from the EU, the problems with access to the website have been repeated throughout the day, so it seems that they have not yet resolved the technical issues to respond to the millions of requests from Internet users.
The Europeana launch ceremony was held at the Royal Library of Belgium in the presence of the President of the Commission, José Manuel Durao Barroso, and the majority of EU Culture Ministers, including the Spanish César Antonio Molina.
The Information Society Commissioner, Viviane Reding, has pointed out that the inauguration of the library is only the first step and that the number of objects available must be rapidly increased. "I am convinced and I bet that after a year we will have a minimum of five million objects" digitized, she assured.
Half of the library's content comes from France, the most advanced Member State in terms of digitization, while Spain only contributes 1,4% of the funds, which come from the National Library.
Molina has downplayed the low Spanish contribution and has assured that the Spanish Government "has been working for a long time" on the digitization of its archives, a field in which "Spain
has been a pioneer." In addition, the minister has ensured that all the archives and museum collections in Spain will end up being included in Europeana.
Google Welcome
The idea of a European digital library was launched in April 2005 by several European countries, led by France, to compete with a similar initiative by the American search engine Google.
The search engine does not seem to perceive Europeana as a competitor and has released a statement in which it welcomes Europeana, which it considers an initiative that complements its book search tool.
The community executive wants that in 2010 the European digital library includes at least 10 million books, maps, recordings, photographs, archival documents, paintings and films from libraries and cultural institutions of the Twenty-seven.
The operation of Europeana, which is managed by around fifteen people, will be financed mainly with EU funds. Between 2009 and 2011, Brussels will pay 80% of the two million annually needed.
At the moment, only 1 percent of items from European cultural institutions are digitized. The Commission has already repeatedly called on governments to invest more in digitalisation.
Engravings by Dürer, paintings by Vermeer and scores by Mozart
Among the contents that can be found in Europeana are engravings by Dürer, posters from the Spanish Civil War, a history of the kings of Spain written by Prudencio de Sandoval and published in 1634, letters and original scores by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, several paintings by Vermeer, like »The Girl with a Pearl Earring», or the Declaration of the Rights of Man prepared in France in 1789 after the revolution.
France contributes 52% of the digital library funds, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom 10% each, and Finland 8%. However, material from Spain is limited to 1,4%, and that from Italy and Germany to 1%.
Those responsible for the library explained that they expect these percentages to vary significantly in the coming weeks because there is already a lot of digitized content pending introduction into Europeana.
This is the case of the Spanish virtual library Miguel de Cervantes, whose funds have not yet been able to be incorporated due to technical problems. The Prado Museum is not yet in Europeana either.