The Directorate-General ‘Information Society and Media’ has set up a High Level Expert Group on Digital Libraries with a Commission Decision of 25 March 2009 published in the Official Journal of the European Union (28.3.2009  L 82/9)

Group objectives

The group’s tasks shall be:

• To advise the Commission on how to best address the organisational, legal and technical challenges at European level.
• To contribute to a shared strategic vision for European digital libraries.

Composition and mandate

The Group will be composed by a maximum of 20 members and it will set up until 31 December 2009. The members will come from:

• Memory organisations (libraries, archives, museums).
• Authors, publishers and content providers.
• ICT industry (e.g. search engines, technology providers).
• Scientific and research organisations, academia.

Background: the origins of the digital libraries initiative

The Digital libraries initiative (DLI) was launched in 2005 as part of the Commission's i2010 strategy to boost the digital economy. It builds on work already done by the Commission over a number of years.

Documents relating to the DLI:

• Commission policy paper – i2010: Digital Libraries – 2005
• Commission recommendation on digitisation and online accessibility of cultural material – 2005
• Commission policy paper on "Scientific information in the digital age" (2007)