For most of its history, the National Library of Estonia, which marks its 90th anniversary, has played a leading role in the research and development activities of Estonian libraries.<\/p>\n
With Estonia\u2019s accession to the European Union, cooperation with European libraries and universities has increased. One of the most important undertakings is the participation in the creation and expansion of the European Library, a pan-European information portal. The preservation and dissemination of our cultural legacy by way of the e-Library are func-tions where smooth cooperation and good partnership with other institutions in both the Estonian and international area have decisive importance.<\/p>\n
\nIn the last ten years, the development of the National Library has been affected the most by the compelling growth of information and communications technology. One of the most important areas in the development activity pursued at the National Library has been the development of the e-Library, which encompasses a wider sphere of activity \u2013 from the digitization of vulnerable texts to archival of online publications and long-term preservation of digital materials. For instance, the DEA (dea.nlib.ee<\/a>) \u2013 an integrated database for digitized Estonian periodicals \u2013 and the DIGAR (digar.nlib.ee<\/a>) \u2013 an archival effort in the field of digi-tal archiving. One of the most important development projects is the creation of the National Library\u2019s information portal. In 2009 the library would like to offer its readers the possibility of conducting all information queries pertaining to electronic resources through one envi-ronment.<\/p>\n