Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - 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 [SEC(08) 2372]
Date: 2008-08-11
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU programme, access to information, cultural heritage, digital technology, heritage protection, information service, virtual library

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 11.8.2008 
COM(2008) 513 final 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL, THE 
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

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 

[SEC(08) 2372] 

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COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL, THE 
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL 
COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS 

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 

1. 

CONTEXT AND AIM OF THIS COMMUNICATION 

Europe’s libraries, archives, museums and audiovisual archives have vast and rich collections 
that represent Europe’s history and cultural diversity. When made accessible on the internet, 
these  collections  can  be  consulted  and  re-used  by  Europe’s  citizens  for  leisure,  work  or 
studies. 

In  September  2005,  the  European  Commission  launched  the  Digital  Libraries  initiative,  the 
aim being to make Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage accessible online1. The initiative, 
which is part of the Commission’s i2010 strategy for the information society, received strong 
support from the European Parliament2 and the Council. 

The Digital Libraries initiative supports the development of Europeana – the European digital 
library  –  and  contributes  to  improving  the  conditions  for  the  online  accessibility  of  books, 
newspapers,  films,  maps,  photographs  and  archival  documents  from  Europe’s  cultural 
institutions.  Priority  areas  to  be  addressed  by  Member  States  were  identified  in  the  2006 
Commission Recommendation on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material 
and digital preservation3, and the related Council Conclusions4. 

This Communication describes progress towards the creation of the European digital library 
as  well  as  the  actions  deployed  by  Member  States  to  address  organisational,  financial, 
technical and legal issues, essential for making cultural material available on the internet. It 
calls on Member States and stakeholders to step up their efforts to make our common heritage 
more accessible, and confirms the Commission’s commitment to support this goal through its 
policy actions and funding programmes. 

2. 

EUROPEANA, A COMMON ACCESS POINT TO EUROPE’S CULTURAL HERITAGE 

2.1. 

State of play 

The  Commission  has  encouraged  Europe’s  cultural  institutions  to  join  forces  and  work 
towards  the  creation  of  a  common  multilingual  access  point  to  digitised  resources  across 
Europe. This European digital library, archive and museum is named Europeana. 

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See COM(2005)465 of 30 September 2005, which focuses on access to cultural material. The issue of 
access to scientific information is dealt with separately; see COM(2007)56 final of 14 February 2008. 
Parliament Resolution on ‘i2010, towards a European digital library’ of 27 September 2007. 
Recommendation 2006/585/EC of 24 August 2006, OJ L 236, 31.8.2006, p.28. 
Council Conclusions of 13 November 2006, OJ C297, 7.12.2006, p.1. 

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Users  can  access  Europeana  to  explore  and  combine  digitised  material  from 
museums,  archives,  libraries  and  audiovisual  archives  all  over  Europe,  without 
having to know about or go to multiple sites. They will have direct access to digitised 
books,  newspapers,  archival  records,  photographs  and  audiovisual  files  and  can 
consult or use them for leisure, study or work purposes. 

Several major steps were taken last year to create Europeana, from both an organisational and 
an operational point of view. On 8 November 2007, the European Digital Library Foundation 
was  established,  showing  the  commitment  of  the  different  cultural  sectors  to  achieving  this 
goal.  Founder  members  are  European  associations  of  libraries,  archives,  museums  and 
audiovisual  archives,  as  well  as  a  number  of  major  individual  cultural  institutions.  The 
operational structure supporting Europeana is hosted by the Dutch National Library. 

The development of Europeana is well under way. It builds on the results of existing projects 
and initiatives and is supported by a series of new projects co-funded under the eContentplus 
programme.  Work  is  geared  towards  launching  a  first  prototype  in  November  2008.  It  will 
give direct access, through a multilingual interface, to at least 2 million objects from cultural 
institutions  across  Europe,  thus  showcasing  the  potential  of  the  concept.  A  demo  site  was 
published for comments in February 20085. 

2.2. 

Further development of Europeana 

Over the next two years, the prototype will be developed into a fully operational service. This 
means first and foremost that more content from various types of cultural institutions will be 
added. By 2010, the number of digital objects accessible through Europeana is likely to go far 
beyond the 6 million originally envisaged. 

Initially,  the  material  accessible  through  Europeana  will  be  mostly  public  domain  material. 
One of the key challenges is to include in-copyright material, so as to avoid a ‘20th century 
black hole’ — a situation in which much cultural material from before 1900 is accessible on 
the web, but very little material from the more recent past. This requires good collaboration 
between  cultural  institutions  and  rightholders.  This  collaboration  can  take  shape  through 
agreements  between  national  cultural  institutions  and  rightholders  or  through  links  from 
Europeana to sites operated by rightholders. 

Further development of Europeana will also have to address multilingual search and retrieval, 
as well as integrating collaborative tools. 

The  European  Parliament  and  the  European  Economic  and  Social  Committee  have  stressed 
the  need  to  make  the  European  digital  library  widely  known  to  the  public  and  to  take  what 
steps  are  necessary  in  this  respect.  The  Commission  will  actively  promote  Europeana  and 
already  devotes  resources  to  raising  awareness  of  the  service  through  the  eContentplus 
programme. Member States and cultural institutions can also help to make Europeana known 
to the wider public. 

Furthermore,  Member  States  can  contribute  by  directly  sponsoring  the  European  Digital 
Library Foundation as associated partners, in addition to their efforts to fully implement the 
relevant parts of Recommendation 2006/585/EC and the related Council Conclusions. 

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See at http://www.europeana.eu/. 

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3. 

IMPLEMENTATION OF RECOMMENDATION 2006/585/EC BY THE MEMBER STATES 

3.1.  Monitoring  implementation  of  the  Recommendation  and  the  related  Council 

Conclusions 

In its 2006 Recommendation on the digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material 
and digital preservation, the Commission urged the Member States to take action in a number 
of selected key areas and to report on progress by February 2008. On 13 November 2006, the 
Ministers responsible for culture adopted Council  Conclusions showing the readiness of the 
Member States to work together on these issues. The Conclusions also added a timeline to the 
actions. 

Taking  up  a  suggestion  from  the  Council,  the  Commission  created  a  Member  States  Expert 
Group on Digitisation and Digital Preservation, which replaced an existing intergovernmental 
group  dealing  with  digitisation.  The  new  group  met  twice  in  2007  in  order  to  report  on 
progress in the relevant areas and exchange national experiences.  

The  following  observations  on  progress  are  largely  based  on  the  reports  that  the  Member 
States submitted in February/March 2008. 

3.2. 

Progress on digitisation (points 1-4 of the Recommendation) 

– 

Overviews of digitisation activities 

The creation of overviews of digitised material is essential to avoid duplication of effort and 
to achieve complementarity between digitisation activities. Since 2005, a majority of Member 
States  have  started  to  make  such  overviews,  in  various  forms.  A  few  countries  have 
established registries of digitised collections, sometimes backed by legislation, e.g. Slovenia. 

In other countries, national portals serve as a main point of reference. Several Member States 
cite  the  MICHAEL  project  in  this  context,  which  provides  descriptions  of  and  links  to 
digitised  collections  across  Europe.  By  its  very  nature,  the  development  of  Europeana  will 
also lead to a more detailed overview of digitised resources. 

The NUMERIC study, funded by the Commission, addresses the methodology for obtaining 
more reliable figures on digitisation in the future, which can help planning further digitisation 
efforts. Results of a first Europe-wide survey will be available early 2009. 

Despite  the  above  efforts,  the  existing  overviews  are  not  used  systematically  as  a  tool  for 
priority  setting  within  digitisation  policies.  Furthermore,  overviews  and  surveys  in  the 
Member States show that much of the digitised material is not yet accessible on the web, thus 
limiting its usability. 

– 

Plans for digitisation and related financial resources 

Quantitative  targets  for  digitisation  will  help  to  focus  activities  and  contribute  to  the 
efficiency of digitisation across Europe.  

Most  Member  States  have  digitisation  strategies  and  plans  in  place,  often  as  part  of  wider 
strategies  for  the  information  society.  Several  others  are  working  on  such  plans.  However, 
with a few exceptions, these strategies and plans do not contain clear quantitative targets for 
digitisation  as  indicated  in  the  Recommendation  and  the  related  Council  Conclusions. 
Establishing quantitative targets and the associated financial planning is an area where more 
efforts by the Member States are needed. 

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The financing  of digitisation is a key issue. Over the last few years, several Member  States 
have allocated considerable new resources to digitisation which will lead to the digitisation of 
millions of new objects. 

Between  2003  and  2007,  Greece  supported  180  different  digitisation  projects  from 
museums, libraries and archives with total funding of €100 million . Under the Greek 
national  digital  strategy  for  2008-2013  a  similar  amount  is  earmarked  for 
digitisation. 

The Netherlands has allocated €90 million to  the digitisation of audiovisual archives 
alone for the period 2007-2014. 

Other Member States have been less ambitious. Sometimes the picture is not clear, given that 
budgets for digitisation are fragmented and ‘hidden’ in the budgets of cultural institutions. 

In  several  cases  (e.g.  Lithuania  and  Finland),  the  European  Structural  Funds  are  used  to 
support digitisation. Member States and regions could further explore this means of financing 
digitisation projects. 

– 

Public-private partnerships for digitisation 

One  way  of  funding  digitisation  could  be  private  sponsoring  or  public-private  partnerships. 
Private companies are indeed involved in digitisation activities in several Member States, but 
often  merely  as  service  providers.  There  are  also  several  examples  of  real  public-private 
partnerships or private sponsoring of digitisation, for example by technology firms, banks and 
telecoms companies. 

These  examples  could  inspire  Member  States  to  forge  similar  partnerships  and  cultural 
institutions  and  private  sponsors  to  find  ways  of  collaborating,  taking  into  account  the 
guidance given by the High Level Group on Digital Libraries on this issue. 

– 

Large-scale digitisation facilities 

To bring Europe’s cultural heritage online, the rate and capacity for digitisation needs to be 
stepped up. Several Member States report on digitisation centres that have been established in 
different  shapes  and  sizes.  Sometimes  they  are  linked  to  a  university  (Germany),  national 
library  (Finland,  France,  the  Netherlands),  archive  (Sweden,  Greece),  audiovisual  archive 
(France), ministry (Italy) or private company (Hungary). Generally speaking, these Member 
States expect the output of digitisation to rise considerably over the coming years. 

In support of these activities, the Commission co-funds a network of competence centres for 
the digitisation of different types of material across Europe (see section 5). 

In  addition  the  EU  Publications  Office  is  engaged  in  a  major  digitisation  project 
which will treat about 130.000 publications by October 2009. This digital library of 
all EU publications since 1952 will be accessible through the EU bookshop website 
and in due course also through Europeana. 

3.3. 

Progress on online accessibility (points 5 and 6 of the Recommendation) 

– 

Access to content through Europeana 

Member  States  can  contribute  to  the  success  of  Europeana  by  encouraging  cultural 
institutions to add their digitised material. This can be done through specific funding criteria 
for digitisation, an approach adopted in Spain and the Netherlands. 

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Thirteen Member States report that they have set up or are in the process of setting up national 
portals.  Such  portals  can  have  an  important  role  as  aggregators  for  the  common  European 
access point, provided that they implement the right standards. 

A majority of the Member States report ongoing work in relation to the standards needed to 
achieve interoperability across Europe. Again, funding criteria could play a role in this, as in 
the  Netherlands.  The  EDLnet  and  Minerva  projects  are  mentioned  as  important  points  of 
reference for standardisation work. 

Action is taken in some Member States to involve private content holders and thus facilitate 
the  availability  of  in-copyright  works.  Examples  are  an  agreement  between  the  national 
library  and  the  national  publishers’  association  in  France  within  the  context  of  Gallica  2, 
activities  relating  to  the  ‘Libreka!’  portal  set  up  by  German  publishers,  and  an  agreement 
between the State and a publishing house in Italy. 

– 

Orphan works 

Orphan works are copyrighted works whose owners are difficult or even impossible to locate. 
This  poses  problems  of  rights  clearance  for  digitisation  and  for  online  accessibility  of  the 
material. 

Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Hungary have mechanisms of extended collective licensing in 
place  which  can  be  used  to  handle  orphan  works.  Both  Denmark  and  Hungary  are  in  the 
process of changing the legislation to introduce a stronger mechanism for dealing with orphan 
works.  Germany  is  also  preparing  legislation  within  the  context  of  wider  adaptation  of 
copyright rules. 

In spite of these examples, overall little practical progress is reported. In most cases, the issue 
is  still  under  consideration,  often  through  working  groups  that  consider  the  orphan  works 
issue  together  with  other  copyright  related-issues  within  the  digital  libraries  domain.  Some 
Member States indicate they would welcome a solution or guidance at European level. 

The reports do not show any substantial work on databases of orphan works in most Member 
States.  Nevertheless,  actions  at  European  level  -  such  as  the  ARROW  project  in  which 
rightholders  and  cultural  institutions  together  address  the  creation  of  databases  of  orphan 
works - should be backed up by national efforts. 

Overall more efforts by Member States on the orphan works issue are needed. 

– 

Works that are out of print or out of distribution 

Costs  for  rights  clearance  for  digitising  and  bringing  works  that  are  out  of  print  or  out  of 
distribution  online  can  be  very  high.  In  order  to  facilitate  rights  clearance,  rightholders, 
cultural  institutions  and  collecting  societies  must  work  together.  The  Member  States  can 
contribute by providing a platform for this collaboration.  

Although there are examples of cultural institutions ― in particular in the audiovisual sector 
―  that  have  obtained  the  agreement  of  rightholders  for  the  digitisation  and  accessibility  of 
their collections, Member States’ actions in this area have hardly taken off. 

When clearing rights for works that are out of print or out of distribution, it is essential for 
cultural  institutions  to  obtain  the  rights  for  making  the  material  available  beyond  national 
borders. An approach that limits access to digitised material to users within a specific national 
territory runs counter to the basic idea of a European Digital Library. 

– 

Barriers to the use of public domain works 

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Provisions  in  national  legislation  may  contain  barriers  to  the  use  of  works  that  are  in  the 
public  domain.  These  barriers  could  limit  the  accessibility  and  usability  of  the  material,  for 
example through Europeana. 

This  issue  is  addressed  by  a  minority  of  the  Member  States’  reports.  The  low  response  in 
relation to this specific area seems to indicate that no action has been taken in many Member 
States and that it requires further attention. A few Member States point out that they have not 
encountered  any  barriers  to  the  use  of  public  domain  material  in  their  legislation.  Some 
Member States note that barriers have been identified, but that they are justified. 

In  this  context,  it  is  important  to  stress  the  importance  of  keeping  public  domain  works 
accessible after a format shift. In other words, works in the public domain should stay there 
once digitised and be made accessible through the internet. 

3.4. 

Progress on digital preservation (points 7-11 of the Recommendation) 

– 

Strategies and plans for digital preservation; exchange of information 

The absence of clear and comprehensive policies in many Member States was identified in the 
Recommendation as a threat to the survival of digitised and born-digital material. 

Most Member States have started working on digital preservation strategies, through special 
committees  or  working  groups  involving  the  main  memory  institutions,  and  in  some  cases 
there  are  specific  digital  preservation  plans  in  place.  However,  very  often  the  operational 
follow-up to and financial backing of high-level infrastructural and organisational strategies is 
limited.  More  effort  is  needed  in  this  area  to  preserve  valuable  information  and  content  for 
future generations. 

Progress is mostly made by countries that have one or more organisations with a long track 
record in the area of digital preservation and which do not work in isolation but collaborate 
with other national institutions and institutions abroad. 

In  the  UK,  the  Digital  Preservation  Coalition,  which  includes,  among  others,  the 
British  Library,  the  Joint  Information  Systems  Committee  and  several  research 
institutions,  provides  a  forum  for  the  development  and  coordination  of  digital 
preservation strategies at national level. 

The  Member  States’  reports  mention  Community-funded  projects  as  well  as  the  Member 
States’  Expert  Group  on  Digitisation  and  Digital  Preservation  as  useful  platforms  for  the 
exchange of information between the Member States. 

– 

Multiple copying for preservation purposes 

A large majority of Member States already allow multiple copying for preservation purposes, 
thus taking into account the need for migration between formats. Some of the Member States, 
where multiple copying for preservation purposes is not allowed, are considering legislative 
action to change the present situation (e.g. the United Kingdom, as part of the implementation 
of the Gowers Review on copyright legislation). 

– 

Legal deposit 

A large majority of Member States have updated their legal deposit legislation or have made 
practical  arrangements  to  also  cover  born-digital  material.  However,  the  types  of  material 
covered  in  the  deposit  legislation  (e.g.  CD-ROMs,  static  web  publications,  dynamic  web 
content) vary considerably from one country to another, as do deposit criteria. 

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The reports highlight exchanges of experience between deposit institutions and participation 
in  EC-funded  projects  on  digital  preservation  as  ways  of  reducing  the  risk  of  divergence  in 
depositing arrangements. 

– 

Web harvesting 

About half of the Member States have implemented legislation that allows web harvesting ― 
the active collection of web material ― by selected cultural institutions. Provisions relating to 
mandatory web harvesting are normally included in legislation related to the legal deposit of 
born-digital material. In most cases, the organisation responsible for harvesting is the national 
library. 

Access  policies  in  relation  to  web-harvested  material  are  generally  restrictive,  owing  to 
considerations of intellectual property rights and privacy. 

3.5. 

Key areas for attention 

Commission Recommendation 2006/585/EC and the related Council Conclusions have set a 
range  of  tasks  for  the  Member  States  to  make  cultural  information  accessible  to  all  on  the 
internet and preserve it for future generations. Much has been achieved in the meantime, but 
much  also  remains  to  be  done.  On  the  basis  of  the  above  analysis,  the  following  areas  and 
aspects need particular attention: 

- Financial resources and quantitative targets for digitisation. 

-  Solid  support  from  the  Member  States  for  Europeana,  ranging  from  criteria  for  financing 
digitisation to setting up national aggregators and work on standardisation. 

- Legislative and practical mechanisms facilitating the digitisation and accessibility of orphan 
works, and measures to encourage voluntary agreements on works that are out of print or out 
of distribution, taking into account cross-border aspects. 

- Financial and organisational aspects of digital preservation. 

4. 

WORK WITH STAKEHOLDERS 

In  February  2006,  the  Commission  set  up  a  High  Level  Expert  Group  on  Digital  Libraries. 
The group brings together cultural institutions, publishers, technology firms and academics to 
find ways forward that are agreeable to stakeholders on potentially difficult issues. There are 
three  subgroups  active,  on  public-private  partnerships,  on  scientific  information  and  on 
copyright issues. 

The  High  Level  Group  has  found  common  ground  in  several  areas  and  given  practical 
guidance on issues addressed in Commission Recommendation 2006/585/EC. It has drawn up 
‘do’s and don’ts’, for example for public-private partnerships for digitisation, and endorsed a 
model licence for the digitisation and accessibility of out-of-print works. 

The results of the High Level Group, in particular on copyright issues, have been discussed 
and taken forward with a wider group of stakeholders. For the issue of orphan works, sector-
based groups have been active and have established due diligence guidelines, in other words, 
a common understanding of what measures have to be taken before a work can be considered 
to  be  orphan.  On  4  June  2008  stakeholders’  organisations  signed  a  Memorandum  of 
Understanding in this respect. 

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Within the context of the Parliament and Council Recommendation of 16 November 2005 on 
film  heritage,  the  Commission  is  acting  as  a  facilitator  for  an  agreement  between  film-
archives and rightholders for the use of deposited films in archives. 

5. 

TECHNICAL ISSUES 

Progress on technical issues is a prerequisite for the development of digital libraries in general 
and the improvement of the services of Europeana in particular. 

First  of  all,  there  is  a  need  for  cheaper  and  better  quality  digitisation  (including  optical 
character recognition, which is necessary to make full texts searchable) and cheaper and better 
preservation techniques for digital content. Within the Framework Programmes for Research 
and  Development,  these  and  related  problems  are  addressed  by  the  thematic  area  of  digital 
libraries and technology-enhanced learning.  

The  IMPACT  project  under  the  7th  Framework  Programme  for  Research  and 
Development supports a network of competence centres for digitisation. The project 
receives Community co-funding of €11.5 million, for a total budget of €15.5 million. 

The  eContentplus  programme  has  also  made  a  major  contribution  to  the  area  of  digital 
libraries,  by  addressing  notably  cross-domain  interoperability  issues  and  multilingual  access 
with a budget of some €60 million over the period 2005-2008. 

The  EDLnet  project,  co-funded  under  eContentplus,  directly  contributes  to  the 
creation of Europeana. It brings together the main content providers to Europeana 
and  helps  to  establish  an  interoperability  framework  underpinning  the  work.  The 
European  Film  Gateway  project  (earmarked  co-funding  of  €4.5  million)  helps  the 
national  film  archives  to  aggregate  content  across  the  Member  States,  and  thus  it 
can be easily brought into Europeana. 

Through  its  funding  programmes,  the  Commission  will  continue  to  support  projects  that 
enhance the online accessibility of cultural content and digital preservation and contribute to 
the  development  of  Europeana.  Within  the  7th  Framework  Programme  for  Research  and 
Development,  digital  libraries  and  digital  preservation  are  now  a  specific  objective,  with  a 
budget that is expected to be in the order of €69 million for the period 2009-2010. Within the 
eContentplus programme, some €25 million has been earmarked for digital libraries for 2008. 
In 2009 and 2010, an amount of a similar magnitude is expected to be allocated to the area of 
digital libraries within the Competitiveness and Innovation programme. 

6. 

CONCLUSION 

The  internet  has  created  an  unprecedented  opportunity  to  make  Europe’s  cultural  heritage 
accessible.  Through  the  Digital  Libraries  initiative,  the  Commission  is  giving  Europe’s 
cultural institutions the support they need to turn this opportunity into reality. Where cultural 
material has been made available by libraries, museums and (audiovisual) archives, there has 
been in general great interest from the public. 

Europeana, the European digital library, will be launched in November 2008 and will show 
the potential of a common access point to Europe’s distributed cultural heritage. The content 
and  services  offered  by  Europeana  will  grow  over  the  years  as  more  institutions  join  and 
more material is digitised. 

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Making  cultural  material  available  to  citizens  requires  work  on  the  basic  conditions  for 
digitisation, online accessibility and digital preservation. The Commission has recommended 
a set of priority measures to the Member States to support progress across Europe. Although, 
overall,  the  Member  States  have  made  significant  strides,  more  has  to  be  done  to  make  a 
critical  mass  of  digital  content  available  for  all.  In  particular,  the  key  areas  for  attention 
identified in section 3 on the basis of the national reports need to be addressed. 

The  Commission  will  continue  to  support  the  process  through  its  policy  initiatives  and 
funding  programmes  and  calls  on  the  Member  States,  their  cultural  institutions  and 
stakeholders  to work towards the common goal of  making  Europe’s  cultural  content  widely 
accessible on the internet. It will closely monitor the developments in collaboration with the 
Member States in order to assess in which areas further action is needed. 

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