A new chair of the Europeana Foundation Board, Bruno Racine, Chief Executive of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The press release also contains important news of the Commission's proposal for sustainable funding of Europeana.
 
The team would like to extend a warm welcome to Bruno Racine as he takes up his new role. We would also like to thank the outgoing chair, Elisabeth Niggemann, for the commitment, warmth and engagement she has bought to Europeana during these critical first years of our development.

Giovanni Solimine ci scrive per segnalare la situazione davvero insostenibile in cui versano le biblioteche italiane, con bilanci ridotti al lumicino e un rapido depauperamento delle risorse umane.

Come forse avrete letto sui giornali, martedi' 11 ottobre era prevista un'assemblea alla Biblioteca Nazionale per discutere di questa grave crisi: l'iniziativa era partita da alcune associazioni  (Associazione italiane biblioteche, Forum del libro, Generazione TQ etc.) e dai lavoratori dello spettacolo che hanno occupato il Teatro Valle.
All'ultimo momento il direttore ha negato l'autorizzazione e al nostro arrivo abbiamo trovato i cancelli sbarrati e un cordone di poliziotti in tenuta antisommossa.
Alle diverse associazioni che avevano promosso l'iniziativa sembra necessario un forte coinvolgimento, attraverso un appello pubblico, e l'avvio di altri momenti di discussione all'interno delle biblioteche.
Potete leggere l'appello seguendo questo link.
Tra i primi firmatari figurano gia'  due professori emeriti del nostro Dipartimento. Se ne condividete il testo, sarei molto contento di una vostra adesione, che potra' avvenire on line attraverso la pagina web che vi ho segnalato.Vi prego anche di far circolare l'appello fra i vostri conoscenti.

ECLAP is holding surveys in order to collect feedback about what people think of the current version of the ECLAP portal and the needs of (prospective) educational users, so we can further improve it to suit their needs. For this, we would kindly ask you to help us, by completing one (or both) of the two surveys we have prepared:

• A general survey aimed at all types of users, which is designed to collect feedback about the current version of the portal. It consists of 34 questions and it will take about 15-20 minutes to fill out. You can find this survey here.
• A survey for those involved in performing arts education as a teacher, researcher or student. This questionnaire is specifically aimed at identifying needs, interests and use of digital heritage in Performing Arts education and for which prior knowledge of the ECLAP portal is not required. The survey consists of 41 questions and it will take about 15-20 minutes to fill it out. You can find this survey here.

We will randomly give away three Amazon €50 gift vouchers to those that complete one or both of the ECLAP surveys!

Please complete the survey(s) before 10 December 2011. If you have any questions, please contact Lotte Belice Baltussen (lbbaltussen [at] beeldengeluid.nl).

Thanks in advance for your time and feedback.
 

• promote open access to the greatest possible extent through joint existing and new policies concerning content, data, and metadata
• collaborate regularly in developing specific aspects of our systems, beginning with: an interoperable data model, a shared source code, co-operative collection building.