The thinkMOTION project as part of Europeana leads to the world’s largest, free access digital library of content in the field of motion systems, which is essential for all technical domains. The thinkMOTION project helps to make a significant improvement in the quantity and quality of digital content and establishes a new kind of digital library in Europeana with focus on technical knowledge. It covers both the cradle of technical knowledge of mankind and the rapid technical progress.
The collected material will be processed and presented immediately in a multilingual interactive portal via Europeana. Here, the techno-cultural heritage and the current developments in motion science will be preserved and made accessible for a wide
range of European user groups like interested laymen, engineers, scientists, lecturers, students.
The provided interactive material leads to a deeper understanding and motivates to learn more about the scientific and technical background in a European society of lifelong learning. Very different types of content like textual sources, physical models and drawings will be collected by partners in several European countries whereby the connections to the national communities and institutions ease the acquisition of content and the rights of use.
In the library, new ways of content representation, information retrieval
(supported by a multilingual semantic network) and cross linking are supported. The thinkMOTION project as part of the Europeana has also a worldwide dimension. It allows the first publication of forgotten “treasures” to honour the creative genius of the countless European inventors and engineers, which have enabled the technical progress and our high standard of living. It is time to accept that the European cultural heritage is not only defined by artworks or philosophic and religious essays but also defined by technical developments. The thinkMOTION project understands itself as the initial project in this direction.