Electronic libraries: Germany has launched the largest online library

Germany has launched the largest in the country online library Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (DDB), said in the press release. From November 28 the beta version of the web site is available for Internet users. The project presentation took place on the same day in Berlin.

The library includes 5.6 million books, archives and photographs of monuments, art prints, sound recordings and films. Due to access to them, the process of research should become easier. The project has been implemented by a great team of specialists from summer 2007.

It is planned that the library will unite all the German cultural and research institutions with their online libraries and it will be integrated to European project Europeana, which has been existed for four years already. Currently, according to expert on culture and Mass Media of fraction CDU\CSU in the Bundestag Wolfgang Börnsen, DDB provides access to holdings of 1.8 thousand cultural and research institutions, and in the future this number should increase to 30 thousand.

Thus, library creators have to consider the copyright, applicable in Germany. In this regard art, literature and research works of the XX – early XXI centuries are presented rather sparingly, says Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.