Europeana.eu is about ideas and inspiration – in a digital format. It currently links to 2 million digital items, and the site isn’t even officially launched yet. This website is a prototype. Europeana Version 1.0 is being developed and will launch in 2010 with links to over 6 million digital objects. The following types of digital files will be found at Europeana.eu
Images – paintings, drawings, maps, photos and pictures of museum objects Texts – books, newspapers, letters, diaries and archival papers Sounds – music and spoken word from cylinders, tapes, discs and radio broadcasts Videos – films, newsreels and TV broadcasts
The digital items found at the website come from Europe’s museums and galleries, archives, libraries, and audio-visual collections. Click here for a look as this astounding list of organizations that are involved. It’s pretty impressive. Included with the list are links to the archive websites. Try a few of the links. You’ll find all kinds of cool stuff!
When launched, you will be able to use My Europeana to save searches, and set bookmarks.
Europeana.eu is funded by the European Commission and the member states.
It looks to me like this site may have some tremendous potential for genealogists. Because of the nature of the site – digital items from libraries, archives, and such, the items will be historical in nature – and may include items that have both direct and indirect links to our ancestors.
You can already search on 2 million or so items. Try a search or two.
Thanks to my friend, Jeff Bockman, for bringing the site to my attention.