This website is a digital archive project from the European Commission. I understand that when first launched it crashed within hours, but it is now back and able to withstand the onslaught of millions of hits per hour!

I gather the idea is that archives across the European Union contribute images to be included on the website therefore making them more easily accessible to the general public. Personally I found the website confusing I put in a search for London and came across some interesting old photographs, but when I clicked on them the images, which were quite small, couldn’t be enlarged so it was hard to view them properly.

I then organised my search by provider and chose British Library and the first few pages were sound recordings of interviews. I click on one at random and it told me that should I wish to I could hear Sophie born 1989 tell me what she and her friends did in their spare time. This seems rather a waste of an opportunity to display some of the best images from leading UK archives. I’m not saying that oral interviews such as that of Sophie aren’t important, but just that they aren’t likely to be as popular and useful as other documents and recordings that the British Library holds. Perhaps it’s just me and I have not been using the site in the best way, I’m be interested to heard what others think. Take a look and see what you think.

http://www.europeana.eu/portal/