Europe’s cultural heritage at the click of a mouse: Progress on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material and digital preservation across the EU

Summary

Europe’s cultural institutions hold a valuable resource representing Europe’s collective memory. Information and communication technologies can greatly enhance access to this heritage, benefiting all citizens by making it easier to appreciate their past and shared European history. This also has significant creative and economic potential, attracting new users and fostering media-rich services. Although many institutions have begun digitizing collections and improving access, more effort is needed to accelerate digitization and enhance accessibility and preservation of cultural information. The Digital Libraries initiative aims to coordinate digitization policies and strategies at both national and European levels. This paper supports the Commission’s “Europe’s cultural heritage at the click of a mouse” and provides additional background, based on progress reports from all 27 EU Member States received in early 2008.