Gabriel: A Gateway into Europe's Libraries

Okay, I have to admit right off the bat that this may be the coolest OPAC I've ever seen. It's called The European Library (formerly the Gabriel project), and it consists of a mega-catalogue including the collections (digital and physical) of 47 European national libraries from 45 countries in Europe. And here's the kicker--it's easy to use! Or at least no more difficult than any other OPAC. You can browse the entire database, or limit searches to particular countries, or particular types of materials (even theses and dissertations, for those future/current PhD students and research librarians out there). Searching the whole database (for "Harry Potter" for example), up pops a list of hits organized by country, with a sidebar on the left of the hits for each particular national library for easy reference and access.

This is a really good first step towards the (somewhat utopian) goal of a universal/complete repository of the world's knowledge. In the US, I can't think of anything comparable, with the exception of the Google Books project. In fact, the European Library explicitly defines themselves against Google Books, saying in their FAQ that "Being owned by public institutions guarantees its long-term preservation. Furthermore, quality and reliability are guaranteed." There have been a lot of concerns here in the US regarding issues of quality and objectivity in relation to the Google Books project. It seems that European libraries weren't satisfied with handing over the preservation of written knowledge to a commercial corporation.

Of course, a project this size requires backers and institutions willing to lead the way. For the Gabriel initiative, it was the national library of the Neatherlands that paved the way and shouldered the burden of a large portion of the startup costs. In the US, it was Google that stepped in to serve this role, rather than any government-sponsored institution. (Keep in mind that the European Library only holds the collections of national libraries, not the myriad private libraries, like those attached to private universities. National libraries in Europe are state-sponsored and primarily serve to gather works significant to that particular state. Therefore, they aren't wholly unbiased institutions, either.)

The European Library is by no means comprehensive, but it establishes an important precedent and builds the framework for further, more extensive projects of the like in the future. I just hope we Yanks aren't left behind.