Europeana online again!

Europeana is online again in a beta version. Which means, as far as I can tell, that not all the links work, and the search functions are a little wonky. But, even at this stage, it's pretty darn wonderful.



This YouTube video gives an idea of what will be available on the site once it's up and running properly (although their choice of background music is questionable). The other videos listed on the sidebar under theeuropeanlibrary will give you an idea of how Europeana came about, especially this one, which is a little bit dry but try to bear with the speaker until the end when she describes how a search will work. This video made for the American Library Association is probably only of interest to library staff and librarians, but it does provide a nostalgic reminder (pleasant or not) of PowerPoint presentations.

As you may have heard, Europeana crashed badly when it first went online in November. Evidently they vastly underestimated interest in the site. Now they don't expect to be "fully operational" until 2010. In the meantime, wandering around the site should keep you occupied until then.

Or you can search the collections that aren't directly available from Europeana yet. You can find them through the European Library search. Don't expect English everywhere but what is available in any language is amazing.