Europe’s Digital Library Europeana provides access to over 23 million objects from 33 countries and more than 2 200 institutions.
Over 2 000 digitized documents – manuscripts, photos, maps, early Lithuanian books – represent cultural heritage of Vilnius University at Europeana. The first printed Lithuanian book is among them.
World Digital Library WDL is an archive of digitized cultural heritage. By entering the internet address of WDL, users can access documents from all over the world in various languages. Here users can search for digitized copies of manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, audio recordings, pictures, photos and architectural drawings. At present 136 institutions from 72 countries are partners of the WDL. Vilnius University Library so far is the first and the only partner from Lithuania. Manuscripts from the 16–17th century – court year books – are presented on the web site of the World Digital Library.
Manuscriptorium is Europe’s library of digitized manuscripts. It is a virtual research tool providing access to digitized historical documents (manuscripts, incunabulas, rare printings, maps, codices from the Early Middle Ages and documents of other types). These historical sources held in various libraries of the world can be accessed through one digital library user interface, which provides access to more than five million digital images. This project is an outcome of effective long-lasting cooperation between two institutions from the Czech Republic – National Library and information technologies company AIP Beroun Ltd. This digital library is a part of UNESCO Memory of the World Programme and in 2005 it was awarded UNESCO Jikji Memory of the World Prize.
This digital library contains some manuscripts, old photos, maps from the collections of Vilnius University Library.
ePaveldas (eHeritage) – Virtual Electronic System of Heritage (VESH) – is an immense digital depository presenting digitized Lithuanian cultural heritage accumulated in country’s libraries, museums and archives. For those interested in national culture this site provides quick and convenient access to numerous art creations, books, newspapers, manuscripts, maps and audio recordings.
The system has An Integral Thesaurus of Historic Place-names, Personal Names and Historical Chronology. It is a rich basis of knowledge and an effective tool for semantic search.
Digital copies of the cultural heritage safeguarded at Vilnius University Library such as documents of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, church metrics, documents related to the history of Vilnius University, books in Lithuanian and foreign languages published in the 16th–18th centuries and the first printed Lithuanian book – Catechism by Martynas Mažvydas – are also accessible through Virtual Electronic System of Heritage.
Virtual Historic Lithuania is a virtual museum, where with just a few computer mouse clicks users can acquaint themselves with the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Through the means of textual, visual and audio material, users can follow along the path of Lithuanian history, acquaint themselves with cultural and historical phenomena, legends and real facts. The portal contains digitized copies of historical maps from the collection of Joachim Lelewel held at Vilnius University Library. It also provides new electronic services. A functional subsystem Mapedija is based on Wikipedia principle, which allows users to actively participate in creation of content, Map as a historical source is the other functional subsystem, which links digital copies of old maps with historical content. The portal has a geographic information system (GIS) designed to work with dimensional and descriptive information.
Virtual Exhibitions of Vilnius University Library presents virtual exhibitions of the cultural heritage held at Vilnius University Library, provides an opportunity for remote teaching and learning. It is an information source for users with various interests.
The database for the project "Virtual reconstruction of the oldest academic library in Lithuania (Virtus)", financed by the Research Council of Lithuania, contains a digital copy and transcriptions of an 18th-century manuscript catalogue of Vilnius Jesuit Academy Library (Catalogus Auctorum Ordine Alphabetico dispositus in Bibliotheca Collegii Academ[ici] Vilnen[sis]). During the course of the project we decyphered about 5,000 entries, identified the publications recorded in the catalogue, and implemented a search system in the database.