Europos skaitmeninė biblioteka: vizija ir įgyvendinimo perspektyvos

LTEuropos skaitmeninė biblioteka yra viena reikšmingiausių šiuolaikinių iniciatyvų kultūros paveldo srityje. Straipsnyje iniciatyva yra nagrinėjama strateginiu ir praktinio įgyvendinimo aspektais, ypatingą dėmesį skiriant nacionalinėms bibliotekoms, kurios šiuo metu aktyviausiai prisideda prie Europos skaitmeninės bibliotekos kūrimo. Kritiškai vertinamas nacionalinių bibliotekų indėlis į Europos skaitmeninės bibliotekos kūrimą bei jų potencialas prisidėti prie šios iniciatyvos plėtros.

ENThe European digital library is a large-scale initiative aiming to bring cultural heritage of Europe online. The article covers political and implementation aspects of this European project. Currently national libraries are the most active players and contributors to the Digital Library. They have already provided sustainable practical solutions in terms of technological and organizational infrastructure. Considering their role and achievements, the aim of the article is to analyze political and practical development of the European Library through the prism of national libraries' efforts. The article discusses several main subjects: 1) the political dimension of the European Digital Library, and the role of the European Commission and the EU Member States in the implementation of the stated vision; 2) current large-scale initiatives of national libraries, which are acknowledged to become operational infrastructure for the European Digital Library, and 3) current achievements and gaps related to the management of cultural heritage at European national libraries in the digital environment. The vision of the European Library is to build more attractive, accessible, and sustainable access environment for cultural heritage resources. Implementation of this objective is inseparable from finding solutions to major problems in the domain of digitization, digital preservation, and accessibility of cultural heritage content. Challenges in these areas cover legal, organizational, and technological issues. In order to concentrate the efforts of building the European Digital Library, the European Commission and the European Council of Ministers of Culture of the EU Member States agreed on their roles in order to boost current activities.The responsibilities of both parties include political coordination, creation of effective legal management, and funding frameworks for digitization, digital preservation, and accessibility of cultural resources. In spite of the European Digital Library being a relatively recent initiative, there are large-scale efforts in Europe aiming to bring cultural heritage online. Up to now, the most significant of these are lead by national libraries and the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL). These initiatives are implemented through a series of EU funded projects (namely, TEL, TEL-ME-MOR, and EDL). National libraries have created the European Library portal, which is a sustainable service supported by the member consortium and CENL. Analysis of the achievements and failures of European national libraries is based on the research performed within TEL-ME-MOR project. The survey covered national libraries-CENL members. The results of the research reveal that the strategic objectives of the national libraries are in line with the European goals and that institutions have well-developed technological infrastructure. Lack of digitized content and the absence of collaborative culture with users while creating and exploiting digital libraries, however, remain the major problem.Current analysis of the political dimension of the European Digital Library initiative reveals its narrow information orientation and ignoring social and cultural goals that such a library should serve. It is concluded that limitations of the initiative arise from the deep split between the EU cultural and information policies. Collaboration between policy makers in different domains is crucial for the success of the European Digital Library. On the national library level, it is important to develop co-operation with the new EU Member States, who are equal partners in the development of infrastructure and making methodological solutions.