The European Library is an Internet service that allows access to the resources of 49 European

national libraries A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant w ...

and an increasing number of research libraries. Searching is free and delivers metadata records as well as digital objects, mostly free of charge. The objects come from institutions located in countries which are members of the Council of Europe and range from catalogue records to full-text books, magazines, journals and audio recordings. Over 200 million records are searchable, including 24 million pages of full-text content and more than 7 million digital objects. Thirty five different languages are represented among the searchable objects. The content of the European Library was frozen on 31 December 2016, with no new updates after that date.

History and concept

The European Library of today has evolved from a number of earlier projects. Its starting point was in 1997 when the GABRIEL (Gateway and Bridge to Europe's National Libraries) project set out to establish a joint web portal of European national libraries. At a basic level, the portal provided information about each library's collections and access to their online public access catalogues (OPACs). GABRIEL was followed by the TEL (The European Library) project, which ran from 2001 to 2004 and created a framework for access to key national and deposit collections within Europe. The project was part-funded under the

Fifth Framework Programme The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the Europea ...

of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

. The national libraries involved in the TEL project were those of Finland, Germany, Italy (Florence), Italy (Rome), Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland and United Kingdom. This led to the launch of TheEuropeanLibrary.org portal on 17 March 2005. Between 2005 and 2007, the TEL-ME-MOR project helped to incorporate 10 more national libraries from new European Union member states as full partners of The European Library. By the beginning of 2008, a further nine national libraries within the European Union and the European Free Trade Association had joined the service. The European Library took a further step towards its enlargement with the EDLproject, during which national libraries continued to join The European Library. The project also focused on multilingualism, undertook the first steps towards a European Metadata Registry and created a roadmap for potential digitization efforts in the national libraries.

The European Library and Europeana

The European Library provided much of the organization and support required to launch

Europeana Europeana is a web portal created by the European Union containing digitised cultural heritage collections of more than 3,000 institutions across Europe. It includes records of over 50 million cultural and scientific artefacts, brought togeth ...

– a European Commission initiative that makes millions of digital objects from libraries, museums and archives accessible to the public via the Europeana website. When the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adop ...

called for Europeana to be established, the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL), under the auspices of the

National Library of the Netherlands The Royal Library of the Netherlands ( Dutch: Koninklijke Bibliotheek or KB; ''Royal Library'') is the national library of the Netherlands, based in The Hague, founded in 1798. The KB collects everything that is published in and concerning the N ...

and CENL's service The European Library, were asked to submit for a project under the eContentplus programme. Work began on a prototype in 2007 and Europeana was launched in November 2008. Europeana now operates independently but The European Library continues to work closely with Europeana. The European Library is the aggregator of digital content from national libraries for Europeana and delivers digital content from national libraries on a monthly basis to Europeana. As of July 2012, The European Library was the second biggest content provider to Europeana, with 3.45 million items added to the Europeana database. Some human and technical resources are also shared between Europeana and The European Library.

Virtual exhibitions

In addition to its search engine, The European Library pulls together themes from the collections of Europe's national libraries and displays them in virtual exhibitions. These exhibitions unite geographically disparate objects in a single online space, offering Pan-European sources on the topic. *Manuscripts and Princes in Medieval and Renaissance Europe: 34 manuscripts from the royal collections of the Carolingian Emperors, French King Charles V and his family, and the Aragonese kings of Naples. *Travelling Through History: Centuries worth of travel memorabilia from 13 European libraries, including photographs, sounds, maps and books. *Reading Europe: Almost 1,000 books selected by

, with curatorial information and full-text versions in most cases. *A Roma Journey: Texts, photographs, paintings and recordings of traditional songs showing the heritage of the

Romani people The Romani (also spelled Romany or Rromani , ), colloquially known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, traditionally nomadic itinerants. They live in Europe and Anatolia, and have diaspora populations located worldwide, with sig ...

in Europe. *Napoleonic Wars: A selection of portraits, military maps, city plans, letters, books and other material from the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. *Treasures of Europe's National Libraries: A collection of objects selected by Europe's national libraries as some of the most outstanding items in their collections. *National Library Buildings: Images of the National Libraries that are partners of The European Library.

Financing and ownership

The European Library is financed by its owners, the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL). The portal is maintained by The European Library Office located in the premises of the

Dutch Royal Library The Royal Library of the Netherlands (Dutch: Koninklijke Bibliotheek or KB; ''Royal Library'') is the national library of the Netherlands, based in The Hague, founded in 1798. The KB collects everything that is published in and concerning the Ne ...

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

. Its programme director is Jill Cousins.About Us
''TheEuropeanLibrary.org''. Accessed 18 January 2011.

Partner libraries

The 48 National Libraries who participate in The European Library project are: *Albania: Biblioteka Kombëtare e Shqipërisë *Armenia: Հայաստանի Ազգային գրադարան *Austria:

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek The Austrian National Library (german: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in center of V ...

*Azerbaijan: Mirzə Fətəli Axundov adına Azərbaycan Milli Kitabxanası *Belgium: Koninklijke Bibliotheek België *Bosnia and Herzegovina: Nacionalna i univerzitetska biblioteka Bosne i Hercegovine *Bulgaria: Национална библиотека „Свети Свети Кирил и Методий *Croatia:

Nacionalna i sveučilišna knjižnica u Zagrebu National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) (, NSK; formerly , NSB) is the national library of Croatia and central library of the University of Zagreb. The Library was established in 1607. Its primary mission is the development and preservat ...

*Cyprus: Κυπριακή Βιβλιοθήκη *Czech Republic: Národní knihovna České republiky *Denmark:

Det Kongelige Bibliotek The Royal Library ( da, Det Kongelige Bibliotek) in Copenhagen is the national library of Denmark and the university library of the University of Copenhagen. It is among the largest libraries in the world and the largest in the Nordic countri ...

*Estonia:

Eesti Rahvusraamatukogu The National Library of Estonia ( et, Eesti Rahvusraamatukogu) is a national public institution in Estonia, which operates pursuant to the National Library of Estonia Act (). It was established as the parliamentary library () of Estonia on Decembe ...

*Finland: Kansalliskirjasto *France:

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national reposito ...

*Georgia: საქართველოს პარლამენტის ეროვნული ბიბლიოთეკა *Germany:

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...

*Greece: Εθνική Βιβλιοθήκη *Hungary: Országos Széchényi Könyvtár *Iceland: Landsbókasafn Íslands – Háskólabókasafn *Ireland: Leabharlann Náisiúnta na hÉireann *Italy-Florence:

Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze The National Central Library of Florence ( it, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, BNCF) is a public national library in Florence, the largest in Italy and one of the most important in Europe, one of the two central libraries of Italy, alon ...

*Italy-Rome: Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale *Latvia: Latvijas Nacionālā bibliotēka *Liechtenstein:

Liechtensteinische Landesbibliothek The Liechtensteinische Landesbibliothek (in English: ''Liechtenstein State Library'') is the legal deposit and copyright library for Liechtenstein. Legal basis and tasks The Liechtenstein State Library, locally known as the State Library, was e ...

*Lithuania: Lietuvos nacionalinė Martyno Mažvydo biblioteka *Luxembourg:

Bibliothèque nationale de Luxembourg The National Library of Luxembourg (french: Bibliothèque nationale du Luxembourg), abbreviated as BnL, is Luxembourg's national library. It was founded in its current form in 1899, as a result of a series of different institutions originating in ...

*Macedonia: Национална и универзитетска библиотека „Св. Климент Охридски" *Malta: Bibljoteka Nazzjonali ta' Malta *Moldova: Biblioteca Naţională a Republicii Moldova *Montenegro: Centralna narodna biblioteka Crne Gore *Netherlands: Koninklijke Bibliotheek *Norway:

Nasjonalbiblioteket The National Library of Norway ( no, Nasjonalbiblioteket) was established in 1989. Its principal task is "to preserve the past for the future". The library is located both in Oslo and in Mo i Rana. The building in Oslo was restored and reopened i ...

*Poland:

Biblioteka Narodowa The National Library ( pl, Biblioteka Narodowa) is the central Polish library, subject directly to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. The library collects books, journals, electronic and audiovisual publicat ...

*Portugal: