Huge Europeana online library crashes on first day

An online library that pulled together collections from more than 1,000 institutions, including the British Library and the Louvre, has crashed on its first day.

The system was swamped by an unexpected 10 million user requests per hour shortly after its launch Thursday and could not handle the volume.

The Europeana digital library remains down while technicians work to create a version that can handle that kind of demand.

"We are doing our utmost to reopen Europeana in a more robust version as soon as possible. We will be back by mid-December," said a message on the library website.

The Europeana library was created by the European Commission and is run by the European Digital Library Foundation.

It is expected to give internet users access to more than two million books, maps, recordings, photographs, archive documents, paintings and films from Europe's foremost cultural institutions.

Among the items that will be available online:

• Rare books and manuscripts from national libraries all over Europe.
• Paintings from the Louvre in Paris and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
• 80,000 broadcast recordings from France's Institut National de l'Audiovisuel, including early footage shot on the battlefields of France in 1914.
• A copy of the Gutenberg Bible from the British Library.

When the Europeana collection is fully available in 2010, it expects to offer access in all EU languages.