European Commission adopts preservation recommendation

The European Commission is asking member states to step up their efforts, pool their resources and involve private partners in digitising cultural material and making it available through Europeana.

The European Commission’s Recommendation on Digitisation and Digital Preservation invites member states to put in place solid plans for their investments in digitisation and foster public-private partnerships to share the gigantic cost of digitisation (recently estimated at 100 billion euros).

It also aims to make available through Europeana 30 million objects by 2015, including all Europe's masterpieces which are no longer protected by copyright, and all material digitised with public funding. In addition, there is the aim to get more in-copyright material online, by, for example, creating the legal framework conditions enabling large-scale digitisation and cross-border accessibility of out-of-commerce works.

The recommendation also urges member states to reinforce their strategies and adapt their legislation to ensure long-term preservation of digital material, by, for example, ensuring the material deposited is not protected by technical measures that impede librarians from preserving it.