Remembering the First World War

Europeana Collections 1914-1918 will create by 2014 – the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War - a substantial digital collection of material from national libraries and other partners from eight countries that found themselves on different sid

The First World War was a conflict on an unprecedented scale that affected the every-day lives of virtually all Europeans and many people living in other parts of the world. The memory of the war, its events and consequences, its victims and victors, remains very much alive today. It has become part of the individual and collective memory of Europe.

The three-year project will make over 400,000 WWI sources publicly and freely available online for the first time – content that is often rare and highly fragile because of the deteriorating quality of the paper it was produced on and generally only accessible in reading rooms.

The digital collection will span the full range of national library collections including books, newspapers, trench journals, maps, music sheets, children's literature, photographs, posters, pamphlets, propaganda leaflets, original art, religious works, medals and coins.

This material will highlight the importance of the First World War for a common European identity and reflect the experiences of people from different ethnic, linguistic, political, social and religious communities on all sides of the conflict, including those opposed to the war. It will permit new interpretations of history that go far beyond traditional military history and include artistic and cultural reinterpretation of the experiences of 1914-1918.

Professor Sir Andrew Motion commented on this project: "It is wonderful to learn that the British Library will work with partners from across Europe to digitise material relating to the First World War, and to make this accessible to all online. This is a tremendously important project that will transform access to Europe's shared cultural heritage in the run-up to the anniversary of the War's outbreak in 2014."

All the digitised collections will be made available through Europeana.eu, where they will join related material from other institutions as well as family papers and memorabilia from the war digitised by private individuals in Germany and the UK.

Jamie Andrews, the British Library's Head of English and Drama said: "I am delighted that the British Library is working with Europeana, and with colleagues from across Europe, to build an online collection of material relating to all aspects of the First World War, and the ways that it touched civilians and servicemen from all parts of the world."

For more information contact:

Evie Jeffreys
British Library
t:+ 44 (0) 20 7412 7105
e: evie.jeffreys@bl.uk

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest research libraries. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. The Library's collection has developed over 250 years and exceeds 150 million separate items representing every age of written civilisation and includes books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, photographs, newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken languages. Up to 10 million people visit the British Library website - www.bl.uk - every year where they can view up to 4 million digitised collection items and over 40 million pages.

Europeana.eu is Europe's digital library, museum and archive. It currently provides access to 20 million books, photographs, paintings, films, sound recordings and archival resources digitised by memory organisations in every country of Europe. The search and browse interface is in 28 languages and an automatic translation tool helps users translate the details of their search results into 37 languages.

Europeana Collections 1914-1918: Remembering the First World War is a three-year project (2011-2014) uniting 12 partners from eight countries: Austrian National Library; Berlin State Library; the British Library; Central Institute for the Union Catalogue of Italian Libraries and Bibliographic Information, of Rome; Clio-online/Humboldt-University Berlin; National Central Library of Rome, Italy and National Central Library of Florence, Italy; National Library of France; National Library of Serbia; National and University Library at Strasbourg; Royal Library of Belgium; Royal Library of Copenhagen, National Library of Denmark