merrion street

Wednesday, 26th June—Jimmy Deenihan T.D., Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, will be in Trinity College Dublin this afternoon (4pm) to open the Archives Portal Europe Conference.

The Archives Portal Europe network of excellence (APEx) is the framework for European archives to collaborate for wider and enhanced accessibility of their content on the web. Funded and supported by the European Commission, APEx runs from March 2012 until February 2015. 28 European countries are represented in APEx by their national archives and national archives administrations.

The APEx website www.archivesportaleurope.net is an online research tool providing instant access to information on a huge amount of material held in archives across the continent. The portal helps users not only to further investigate their own fields of interest but also to discover new sources of potential research material by providing an overview of record holdings throughout Europe.

Speaking in advance of the conference, Minister Deenihan said: “This portal is a one-stop shop for information on archival sources for all who have an interest in culture, heritage and identity. It is a prime example of the wonderful opportunities that information technology and digitising tools can provide.”

The portal enables users to search and consult the archives of the 28 participating countries and to place the material within its original European archival and historical context. During the coming years, the Archives Portal Europe will be extended to include regional, local and other archival institutions within the countries involved.

The Minister remarked: “The work carried out by our own National Archives in providing online access to archival material has been excellent. Collaboration is critical to making the vision of easily accessible archival information a reality for all and I am happy to say that Ireland will continue to play a key role with APEx in constantly increasing the amount of content available online.”