More libraries, more collections, more speed

By the end of 2006, it will have 23 European libraries with more than 200 databases. The European library started operating in its true version weeks ago. It happened with a delay of a few months, during which time the service collected feedback and obtained a number of data on user expectations through a survey.

We can now search 113 collections created by 12 libraries (including the National and University Library), and a further 30 collections can be accessed via a hypertext link.

By the end of 2006, 23 European libraries with more than 200 databases are expected to participate. Zoran Krstulović, Assistant Director for Professional Affairs at NUK, says that the European Digital Library was established in 2004 as a service with 4.5 employees, based in The Hague and under the auspices of the Conference of the Association of European National Libraries. It provides access to material held by European national libraries in electronic or printed form and it provides searches for resources and access to digital content that is free of charge. The service is now funded by the founders, namely the national libraries of Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom together with ICCU (The International Central Cataloging Institute from Italy) and CENL (the Conference of European National Librarians).

Of course, some national libraries have more, others less digitized material, compared to the British National Library, Slovenia is of course very small, but nevertheless the digitalisation project is constantly growing. “Last year, we digitized the entire Ljubljana Bell magazine. Sixty-one years means 15,000 bibliographic units, which is 1.23 terabytes of data. Everything is available on our home page and will soon be available through the European Library. In addition, we have several thousand digitized photographs of famous Slovenes, maps, 65 recordings of early music and several hundred digitized book titles. Here, care must be taken. For pragmatic reasons, libraries digitize books and publications that are outside copyright protection. We have started a project of translations from German to Slovene, but these are books that are no longer copyrighted.” The idea, which is still young and has not yet taken root, is the following: to reach an agreement with publishers and authors to offer their publications online. Libraries can be initiators, they can propose, but they have to find a model with external partners to pay for copyright. Especially within the walls of the library, it is necessary to maintain the possibility of unlimited insight and access to all the material that the library has, including digitally born.
The criteria for digitizing material are clear for now: first and foremost is the decisive demand (the Ljubljana Bell will be home to students and the world, which is already “waiting in line”), and it makes sense to digitize the most endangered materials. The criterion is also copyright with as few problems as possible. “Microfilms are the standard for permanent, centuries-long preservation, but they are hard to search for, micro-readers are time-consuming, and the user must be located in a specially prepared place,” says Krstulović.

The digital library is a completely new task for NUK, which requires new (and expensive) knowledges. But even the classical library is by no means dying, but it is evolving further. The influx of material is increasing, so is the visit, and now, in addition to the old services, they also need new ones. “With every new thing, investments are greater and digitalisation is also an area that is changing rapidly. Last year, we established an e-library service with three employees, we also plan to establish an IT unit.”

By joining the European Library, all members agreed to certain standards, says Krstulović, and these standards also helped in setting up smaller projects. Last year, NUK prepared the portal of the Digital Library of Slovenia www.dlib.si, which, like the European one, combines metadata of digital collections in Slovenia.

Digital collections are available in Slovenia free of charge, made for public money, as they should be says Krstulović. The practice abroad proves the same. “We provide files that are readable, printable, but not of such high quality that anyone would use them for facsimiles, for a commercial product. The possibility is being prepared that the material could also be ordered in exceptional quality and paid for at an additional cost.”

Krstulović is convinced that the next big challenge for the electronic library will be to find a way to the permanent preservation of electronic material. Websites are being born and dying, so around the world as well as in our country (NUK together with the Jozef Stefan Institute) are developing robots for automatic capture of the web and applications that would collect material, copy it and store it in a data warehouse. Here, however, a new dilemma arises… What to feed and what not? Will the completely private site of a student today one day represent the children’s world of a Nobel laureate? “If you look at it from that side, it’s not unimportant.”