EU's huge new [digital] library crashes hours after opening...

The BBC is reporting that the massive digital "library", Europeana, crashed shortly after its launch. This is interesting in several ways. First off, it is a nice hat tip to traditional libraries...while they occasionally burn, they do not crash. More importantly, it is a testament to the interest (at least in Europe) in cultural, literary and artistic history.

The site was built to be reasonably robust...able to support several million hits per hour. It is reported that before it went down, they were consistently running 10MM hph. I tried to poke about earlier and figured they were getting pounded...turns out I was right. They will be back in December...on much more robust hardware. I'll be there...

From the BBC report:

The Europeana website was attracting more than 10 million hits an hour - more than double the number which had been anticipated.

The site includes paintings, photos, films, books, maps and manuscripts from 1,000 museums, national libraries and archives across Europe.

It is expected to reopen in December after technological improvements.

From an AP article:

The Web site collected some 3 million artifacts — including books, maps, paintings and videos — from some of Europe's top museums, such as the Louvre in Paris and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It will be available in 23 languages including English, French, German and Spanish.