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The European Library – pushing the boundaries of usability

Jill Cousins (The European Library, The Hague, The Netherlands)

The Electronic Library

ISSN: 0264-0473

Article publication date: 1 July 2006

1179

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to present an overview of The European Library as a portal and discuss the issues of usability this gives in delivery of multicultural, multilingual access to the cultural heritage in Europe's National Libraries.

Design/methodology/approach

The approach is a description of the service its business model, management structure and technical base with an emphasis on how this does or does not work for the user.

Findings

Portals are not great user experiences. This is further complicated in the case of The European Library by the language barrier for search and retrieval across national boundaries. However, the existence of The European Library is at least of accessing material that would otherwise remain only accessible within the library itself. It is also a big step towards the creation of a European Digital Library.

Originality/value

The paper discusses more of the effects of such a portal on the user than has elsewhere been published. The value is in its description of collaborative working, its example of a management and organisational structure, its working business model and the technical solution that sits behind it. As an example of creating cross country and cultural access to digitised information it has been successful to date.

Keywords

Citation

Cousins, J. (2006), "The European Library – pushing the boundaries of usability", The Electronic Library, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 434-444. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470610689142

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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