EU takes first big step into making online research a precise science

November 25, 2008 at 9:26 am · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: digital archive, European Union, Google

There has been a longstanding debate around the now established trend of students and professionals conducting research online, primarily using Google as the key portal for their work. The area of contention around this is the lack of regulation of information sources online and the thought that more rigorous assessment of data is needed during research before it can be thought of as accurate.

In sharp contrast to these concerns is the obvious point that information via Google is far more accessible and searchable than information held within hardcopy publications. As a result, accurate research has required an uncomfortable mixture of on and offline delving. But no longer.

Yesterday, the European Union launched Europeana, a searchable online portal hosting over 2 million digitised books and other pieces of cultural or historical importance held in more than 1,000 institutions in the 27 EU states. The archive includes the likes of Dante’s Divine Comedy and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and has made these prized works available to a far greater audience than ever before, whilst providing a service that enables accurate research online.

The service has proven incredibly popular receiving a frequency of 10 million hits an hour, a volume of traffic which served to freeze the site on its first day in service.

Initiatives like Europeana are a great step forward in making the Internet a valid source of information, an important step in the social integration of online technologies. This is a barrier that needs to be broken down to drive the mainstream adoption of the Internet as a utility for more than just email and online news.      

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