European online library crashes

[Allegra]

BBC NEWS | Europe | European online library crashes

A new digital library launched by the European Union has crashed within hours of opening - forcing its closure.

The Europeana website was attracting more than 10 million hits an hour - more than double the number which had been anticipated.
The site includes paintings, photos, films, books, maps and manuscripts from 1,000 museums, national libraries and archives across Europe. It is expected to reopen in December after technological improvements.

Europeana - Connecting Cultural Heritage That's going to be a cool site!

[Allegra]

Oh it's back!

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Arts & Culture | EU's new online library reopens:

The European Union's huge digital library Europeana, which crashed last month just hours after its launch, is back online.
The website's server capacity has been quadrupled to cope with demand, European Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr told reporters.
But the homepage - at Europeana - Homepage - warns that "the user experience may not be optimal in this test phase".
The site gives multilingual access to cultural collections across the EU.
The site was swamped by users on its launch on 20 November, with a volume of 10 million hits an hour, triggering a crash.
Europeana brings together more than two million books, maps, recordings, photographs, archive documents, paintings and films.
Many of Europe's top museums, such as the British Museum and the Louvre in Paris, have contributed to the project. It is hoped 10 million works will be available on the website when it is fully operational in 2010.

[Rosemary]

I hope they keep a good 'back up' and which is updated on a regular basis.

It sounds like a good idea, although if I were able I would before to go to the Museums. Obviously there would be a lot of people like me and would visit the site often.