At the end of 2004 Gabriel disappeared as a separate webservice. It was incorporated into The European Library, a new pan-European library service, launched in the beginning of 2005.
Gabriel - GAteway and BRIdge to Europe's National Libraries - is the joint webportal of all European National Libraries represented in the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL). In total there are 43 National Libraries in 41 countries (Italy and Russia have two). The website is available in English, German and French.
Besides practical information about the National Libraries (access and opening hours, functions, history etc.) Gabriel provides information about for instance the collections, the online public access catalogues (OPACs) and specialised webservices of each library. A particular treat for the eyes on Gabriel is the joint online exhibition "Treasures of Europe's National Libraries" : an illustrated selection of rare and precious treasures that can be seen in National Libraries. Furthermore Gabriel offers a central search engine with which the websites of all National Libraries can be searched simultaneously.
The Gabriel service has the following major objectives:
- to provide information on the World Wide Web about National Libraries in a uniform way in several languages;
- to provide convenient online links to sources of information about their services and collections;
- to give access to all their online services where appropriate;
- to be a bulletin board with news items about the National Libraries
- to give access to all the WWW servers of the National Libraries through a single search service;
- to build collaborative links between European National Libraries in the networking field;
The first version of Gabriel was launched in 1995. It proved to be highly popular: its pages were requested hundreds of thousands of times in the first year and growth continued in the years following. As of 1st January 1997 Gabriel has become the official website of CENL.
After six years the original Gabriel version became outdated. In 2001-2002 Gabriel has undergone a radical refurbishment both in appearance and functionality. A major improvement is the implementation of a central database holding all vital information about all National Libraries. Each library can view - and if necessary - edit its own data at any time, thus making the information on Gabriel always up-to-date.
The website is managed by a Board, which comprises the directors of five National Libraries. Day-to-day work on Gabriel is the responsibility of a small service team, which comprises representatives from the National Libraries of Finland, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. The editorial maintenance of Gabriel is a reponsibility of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands.
Gabriel is available at five webservers across Europe.
For more information, please contact the Gabriel Editor Olaf Janssen