Europeana has been marketed as Europe’s move to counter Google Book Search, thought by some eurocrats to have an American or Anglo-centric bias. When the prototype was launched on 20 November it crashed. What will you find when the site re-opens and will it be worth the wait?

At the moment of writing, visiting Europeana brings the following message: “We are doing our utmost to reopen Europeana in a more robust version as soon as possible. We will be back by mid-December.”

10 million hits an hour were too much for it.

This is surprising. Why were they not prepared for the traffic? And why should it take three weeks to fix whatever ails Europeana?

This doesn’t bode well for this much awaited product. But there is hope.

The Europeana project is funded by the European Commission and is a partnership of 90 representatives of heritage and knowledge organisations and IT experts from throughout Europe.

The prototype website will give users direct access to some 2 million digital objects, including film material, photos, paintings, sounds, maps, manuscripts, books, newspapers and archival papers.

The interface will be multilingual. Initially, this may mean that it is available in French, English and German, but the intention is to develop the number of languages available following the launch.

The Europeana project website does not contain more information about what to expect than what is summarized here.

A YouTube search turned up a 3 minute video, highlighting the user centered development process that has been adopted. This is cause for optimism.

Another video (below) shows how Europeana plans to integrate a wide range of media, art forms and languages and it does look interesting.

Even though I am a European, Google Book Search doesn’t intimidate me — it fills me with curiosity, an ardent desire for knowledge. And I don’t think European culture needs a rescue mission. It is alive and well both in real life and online.

Still, I’m curious to see what Europeana will bring and I hope it will be a treasure trove for students, teachers, researchers, librarians and anyone else with a need or desire to explore European culture.