Transatlantic Digital Library Cooperation: Introduction

The New Transatlantic Agenda (NTA) was signed in Madrid in December 1995. It calls for expanded cooperation between the United States and the European Union and its member states in four areas: promoting peace and stability, addressing global problems, expanding trade and investment, and building bridges across the Atlantic. In May 1997 the United States and the European Union co-sponsored a conference, "Bridging the Atlantic: People-to-People Links," which brought together over three hundred prominent Europeans and Americans to propose new initiatives for transatlantic cooperation under the NTA. Specialized working groups in four areas -- electronic exchange, civil society, culture and youth, and building partnerships in the global economy -- helped to organize the conference, prepare its agenda, and ensure follow up.

The electronic exchange working group recommended that interested organizations on both sides of the Atlantic explore the establishment of a transatlantic digital library with content relating to U.S.-European relations. The working group also recommended that the digital library be linked to the proposed Transatlantic Information Exchange System (TIES). Organizations that expressed interest in participating in a transatlantic digital library project included national libraries in Europe and the United States, the National Digital Library Federation, the Council for Library Resources, the United States Information Agency, the National Library of Education of the U.S. Department of Education, and the European Commission.

These organizations and other potential partners discussed a number of topics considered to be inherently transatlantic and likely to be of interest to European and American librarians, educators, students, and researchers. These topics included the Marshall Plan, the founding of transatlantic and European institutions in the early postwar period, immigration and emigration, and European exploration of North America.

To demonstrate the feasibility and value of the digital library concept, the Library of Congress and the National Library of the Netherlands jointly developed a pilot project devoted to the fiftieth anniversary of the Marshall Plan. This project was featured at the May 1997 "Building Bridges" conference. A second pilot project dealing with immigration is in progress. The transatlantic digital library is intended to complement existing projects underway in Europe and the United States, as well as other international cooperative projects, including the Bibliotheca universalis launched under the auspices of the G7 in early 1995.