Europeana – a Fading Identity or a Possibility to Show Estonia?
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Head of Public Relations Department, National Library of Estonia, member of Estonian Europeana project
Europeana (www.europeana.eu) is a digital library, museum and archive that realises the aim of European memory institutions to make the rich and diverse culture of this part of the world available to everybody.
The idea of a virtual European library emerged in 2005; the project itself was launched two years later. By 2015, Europeana should have altogether 30 million digitised objects. The article gives an overview of the history of Europeana, the problems with software and the important projects, introduces the content of the four main websites of the institution and compares the contributions of member states. Estonia has been in Europeana from the very beginning. From Estonia, the Ministry of Culture, the National Library, the Estonian Film Archives, the Estonian National Museum and other museums, the National Heritage Board, the Ministry of Education and Research and the University of Tartu participate or have participated through different projects. Around 70,000 objects from Estonia are available in Europeana.