The European Library has revealed appointments to its new User Advisory Board. The board originate from across the library and academic worlds and includes well known Open Access backer Peter Suber, a senior researcher at Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC). Of the nine board members, advice will come from contributors such as Mathias Schindler a member of the board at Wikipedia Germany, Dr. Zinaida Manžuch a lecturer at the Institute of Library and Information Science at Vilnius University and Margus Lääne a librarian of the State Archive in Estonia.

The role of the board members will be to advise on the European Library’s online portal site design including its functionality and monitoring ongoing research user requirements. These could include social networking and other web 2.0 technologies.

Formerly known as the European Digital Library, the European Library was conceived as a free service to the Conference of European National Libraries (CENL). The material of 33 national libraries of Europe is made freely available through the online gateway of European Library portal.

Commenting on the announcement, Lynne Brindley, Chair of the Executive Group of the European Library and head of the British Library said, “We need to pay careful attention to the user’s points of view as we continue to develop services for the researcher and information-seeker”. Brindley also added, “It is significant that so many leading librarians, academics and web 2.0 experts have accepted our invitation to join the Advisory Board. Its formation symbolises an important step in the development of the European Library. In a very practical way, the Board will give a voice to the user.”