thinkMOTION

The thinkMOTION project helped to make a significant improvement in the quantity and quality of digital content and established a new kind of digital library in Europeana with focus on technical knowledge. It covered both the cradle of technical knowledge of mankind and the rapid technical progress.

The collected material was processed and presented immediately in a multilingual interactive portal via Europeana. Here, the techno-cultural heritage and the current developments in motion science is preserved and made accessible for a wide range of European user groups like interested laymen, engineers, scientists, lecturers, students.

The provided interactive material led to a deeper understanding and motivates to learn more about the scientific and technical background in a European society of lifelong learning. Very different types of content like textual sources, physical models and drawings have been collected by partners in several European countries whereby the connections to the national communities and institutions ease the acquisition of content and the rights of use.

In the library, new ways of content representation, information retrieval (supported by a multilingual semantic network) and cross linking are supported.

The thinkMOTION project as part of the Europeana has also a worldwide dimension. It allows the first publication of forgotten "treasures" to honour the creative genius of the countless European inventors and engineers, which have enabled the technical progress and our high standard of living. It is time to accept that the European cultural heritage is not only defined by artworks or philosophic and religious essays but also defined by technical developments. The thinkMOTION project understands itself as the initial project in this direction.