TEL-ME-MOR - The European Library: Modular Extensions for Mediating Online Resources
This project supported the National Libraries of the ten new EU Member States of 2004 in becoming part of The European Library (TEL), a networked service that provides unified access to the electronic resources of many National Libraries across Europe. TEL-ME-MOR also included activities in the new Member States to raise awareness on the opportunities for participation in EU-funded IST research.
- Project type: Specific Support Action
- Start date: 1 February 2005
- Duration: 24 months
- Funding: € 1 400 000
- Number of Partners: 16
- Project co-ordinator: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- Contact: Britta Woldering
Project description
The main objective of the TEL-ME-MOR support action was to increase the potential of the National Libraries in the Member States of the 2004 enlargement as actors in the knowledge society. This should be achieved through promoting their involvement in IST activities in the EU research framework programme and by ensuring better access to their resources.
Specifically, the project extended the networking services offered by "The European Library" (TEL) to the National Libraries of the ten countries. "The European Library" is a portal hosted by the Conference of European National Librarians offering access to the online catalogues and collections of – today - more than 45 European National Libraries.
The implementation of the TEL infrastructure was prepared through studies on the technical and organisational status of the libraries and on their user requirements. An important activity related to this goal was to further develop the localisation and multilingual capabilities of the TEL service: cross-language access options, subject systems and practices to increase interoperability were analysed, and the TEL interface and metadata levels were translated into nine new languages.
Building awareness and providing an electronic information space for research partnerships was another TEL-ME-MOR activity, aiming at helping key actors in the knowledge society in the new Member States to use the opportunities of research partnerships and of a potential contribution to the shaping of research agendas. Methods used included linked websites in the languages of the new Member States, regional conferences, newsletters and a European conference in order to widen the impact of the knowledge network to other national libraries in EU, CIS and Balkan countries.
Project results
By the end of the TEL-ME-MOR project in January 2007, the National Libraries of all the ten new EU Member States were members of 'The European Library' and their collections searchable through an interface in each of the national languages.
The work preparing the new TEL-memberships also reinforced the partnership among the National Libraries and will contribute to future collaborations towards the goal of making Europe's cultural resources more accessible.
Publishable version of final report (PDF, 61KB)
Consortium
- Deutsche Nationalibliothek (The National Library of Germany) - project co-ordinator
- Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The National Library of the Netherlands)
- The British Library
- Schweizerische Landesbibliothek (Swiss National Library)
- Conference of European National Librarians CENL foundation
- Eremo srl
- Národní knihovna Ceské republiky (National Library of the Czech Republic)
- Kypriakí Vivliothíke (Cyprus Library)
- Eesti Rahvusraamatukogu (National Library of Estonia)
- Országos Széchényi Könyvtár (National Széchényi Library of Hungary)
- Latvijas Nacionala Biblioteka (National Library of Latvia)
- Lietuvos Nacionaline Martyno Ma?vydo Biblioteka (Martynas Mazvydas National Library of Lithuania)
- Bibljoteka Nazzjonali ta Malta (National Library of Malta)
- Biblioteka Narodowa (The National Library of Poland)
- Slovenská národná kni?nica (The Slovak National Library in Matica slovenská)
- Narodna in Univerzitetna Knji?nica (National and University Library of Slovenia)