ANALYSIS/ To understand the difficulties of the virtual library, click here

  • 14 December 2004 Google launches Google Print
  • 23 January 2005 Reaction from the president of the French National Library (BNF), Jean-Noël Jeanneney, in the newspaper Le Monde.
  • 28 April 2005 Six European leaders send an open letter to European institutions demanding the creation of a virtual European library
  • 7 July 2005 The President of the Commission, Durao-Barroso, responds positively to the request and explains that the EU is willing to coordinate the project.
  • 30 September 2005 –20 January 2006 The EC launches an online consultation in all the affected sectors, both public and private.
  • 25 August 2006 Recommendation from the Commission to member states.

Future predictions

  • 2006 Cooperation between national libraries within CENEL, the Centre for New Literary Spaces.
  • 2008 The library will offer multilingual access to a minimum of 2 million electronic books from the collections of national libraries.
  • 2010 The library will have minimum holdings of 6 million electronic documents, including numerous museum archives, libraries and publishing houses.