The group's mandate is to advise the Commission on how to best address the organisational, legal and technical challenges of a future European digital library, and to contribute to a shared vision for European digital libraries. The Commission has enlisted the expertise of pioneers in bringing books online, such as Brewster Kahle, the founder of the Internet Archive and Arora Nikesh of Google, who will bring his experience from Google books.
However, the Conference of European Libraries (CENL) is the only library association to send a representative. EBLIDA, the umbrella organisation of libraries from all around Europe will have no say in the 20-member expert group, nor will The European Library, the online portal of 45 European national libraries. The Online Computer Library Centre will send its Trustee Elisabeth Niggemann, who will speak on behalf of the CENL.
At the first meeting of the High Level Group, Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding said: "Our goal is to make Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage available to all European citizens and researchers for their studies, work or leisure." However, neither scientific nor general users are represented in the High Level Group.
Discussions at the first meeting of the group were around the problems that the increasing use of copy-protection technology creates for libraries in the digital age. Archives and libraries say that so-called 'digital rights management' often prevents digitisation and preservation of works. Holders of copyright, on the other hand, say that the present rules, which explicitly disallow copyright exceptions for online delivery, are sufficient and must be protected.
