Europeana to be boosted, could develop into a serious alternative to Google Books

The ministers of the EU member states have decided to establish a committee charged with accelerating digitising European cultural heritage.  The committee will emphasise the importance of a digital library with member states and will oversee the development of a coherent policy on this subject.

There already is an EU institution that is tasked with making digital copies of cultural heritage, Europeana. Europeana was established in the autumn of 2008 and has digitised around 4,5 million works. However, the institution lacks a clear focus and is completely dependent on member states for extending its catalogue.

The European ministers will have jealously regarded the rapid progress of Google Books. The French minister of Culture Frederic Mitterand denies that forming the committee is a reaction to the American company’s approach. “It is not only up to the private sector to decide on digitising our cultural heritage,” says Mitterand on Tweakers.net.

According to Mitterand, Europeana is likely to play an important part in the solution that the new committee will propose.

Following severe protest from mostly French and German origins, Google limits itself to creating a repository for books from the English-speaking hemisphere. A court in the United States has provisionally approved the agreement between Google, publishers and authors. The final ruling will occur in February 2010.  Objections can be filed until the end of January.