Europeana (European Digital Library) will make available to the public 112 works of the Digital Library and 4,350 parish records of the Azores Culture portal (http://www.culturacores.azores.gov.pt), an initiative developed by the Regional Directorate for Culture/Azores Knowledge Centre.

The partnership between the Regional Secretariat for Education, Science and Culture and Europeana is based on a protocol signed in 2012 between the Regional Directorate for Culture and the Portuguese National Library; the latter, through the National Registry of Digital Objects (RNOD), provides all Portuguese documents, in standard digital formats, to the European Digital Library (http://www.europeana.eu).

Europeana gives access to 30 million digital objects, a goal that was reached only five years after its inception. The project is developed in partnerships with several European countries that have joined efforts with the aim of providing public access to knowledge and culture in compliance with the recommendations issued by the EU Commission on the digitization and dissemination of cultural heritage in digital format.

The Azores Culture portal currently provides 934 203 searchable files. The vast majority of the contents can be found at the Digital Library and the Genealogy Library.

Between January and November this year, the portal registered 72,039 visits. The most visited areas were the Genealogy Library, the Azorean Encyclopaedia and the Cultural Agenda.

The knowledge on the history and reality of the Azores as well as the preservation, digitalisation and dissemination of the Azorean cultural heritage, in line with European recommendations, have been the main priorities of the Azorean Government for this area. The Government's actions have been implemented by the Regional Secretariat for Education, Science and Culture, particularly through the Regional Directorate for Culture.