A cultural network of networks
According to Spiegel, on the 20th of November there should be 2 million objects online, linked to European culture, in a sort of gargantuan encyclopedia on the Internet.The number is supposed to grow to 10 million by 2010, in an effort to keep up with the competition started by Google book search, that has already digitised 10 million volumes.
Martin Selmayr, a spokesman for Reding's office at the European Commission, said the project involves organizing various digital projects already underway at Europe's state libraries and national archives, so the books and films and photos and paintings can be clicked through on a single site.
No one at the European Commission scans books. But Reding's office does have to smooth out compatibility problems, and make sure all the scanned files work with all the other scanned files. The libraries also need to avoid duplicating their efforts, since Europeana has no particular need for twenty-seven digital copies of Goethe's Faust.
The decision about what to scan first is not made by politicians, rather, the EU entrusted the decision to librarians and archivists, and each of them have clearly their different priorities.
Again, it seems to me, that the model for the organisation of this project is that of network of networks, and the main concern of the top level is compatibility and data durability. The metadata seem to be on the site.
Labels: Databases, Technology
posted by Galilei @ 2:15 pm
