EU launches online library.

• Position: LIBRARY - European Union - Www.europeana.eu

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The European Union has launched a massive online digital library that promises to bring Europe's cultural heritage to the world.

The Europeana online digital library--www.europeana.eu--allows Internet users to browse the British library without going to London or get close to the Mona Lisa without queuing at the Louvre.

Using the latest technologies, the European Union plans to include millions of digital objects, ranging from film, photographs, paintings, sound fries, maps, manuscripts, newspapers, documents and, of course, books.

Users will be able to find major literary works like Dante's Divine Comedy, masterpieces such as Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring," and the manuscripts of composers including Beethoven.

Europeana is a chance to "give greater visibility to all the treasures hidden deep in our libraries, museums and archives," said Viviane Reding, EU commissioner responsible for new technologies, and "compare masterpieces until now spread around the four corners of the globe."

Currently, the site is in prototype phase with 14 staff members and an annual budget of around 2.6 million [euro] ($3.15 million U.S.). The prototype contains about two million digital items, all of them already in the public domain. By 2010, Europeana is expected to be fully...