The Commission adopted a Recommendation last week that intends to stimulate the digitisation of cultural works and artefacts.

EU Member States are asked to make more resources available and enter into partnership agreements with the private sector to increase the number of cultural artefacts available online. The initiative, which invites member States to add 11 million cultural items to the 19 million objects currently available on www.europeana.eu in the next four years, also aims to consolidate Europeana’s position as “Europe’s digital library, archive and museum”. Europeana is part of the EU’s digital infrastructure platform which will receive increased funding in the 2014 – 2020 budget period. The document further includes some encouraging policy recommendations, in particular:

• Member States should create legal conditions that enable large-scale digitisation and cross-border accessibility of out-of-commerce works;
• Member States should adapt their legislations to ensure that no technical protection measures are used that impede librarians from preserving the material

You can find the full press release here.