In order to preserve its rich heritage for future generations, the FIA will digitise its archives, creating an e-library that will be accessible to all in 2024, when the FIA celebrates its 120th anniversary. Today, a beta version of the e-library was presented for feedback to the FIA Member Clubs at the FIA Annual General Assembly in Bologna, Italy.

The e-library will combine the 120-year-old Motor Sport and Mobility databases, making these facts and figures searchable and comparable. It will be an important tool for the FIA University’s work and by making it public, it will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in the history of Motor Sport and Mobility.

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem stated: “I am delighted to officially launch the FIA archives digitisation and e-library project.

I know that it will be a valuable resource for our staff, our Member Clubs, academics, journalists, researchers and Motor Sport enthusiasts. By offering easy access to historic Motor Sport and Mobility documents, the e-library will contribute to our key Manifesto objective to make the FIA a knowledge-led federation. I encourage all FIA Member Clubs to join us in this endeavour by testing the beta version launched today and sending us their feedback so that, together with them, we can build an efficient and practical tool to preserve the FIA’s heritage for future generations.”

The beta version of the e-library is the result of months of hard work from the FIA team composed of representatives from the Sport and Mobility Divisions, IT, Communication and Legal Departments as well as Digitisation and Archiving Experts. Together, they found the appropriate technology to scan easily damageable unique documents, employing contemporary up-to-date classification and cataloguing principles, which would serve both professionals’ and the general public’s interests.

The FIA benefited from the support and insights from Founding Members: the Royal Automobile Club (RAC — United Kingdom), Koninklijke Nederlandsche Automobiel Club (KNAC – Netherlands) and the Real Automóvil Club de España (RACE — Spain) that had already digitised their archives. Commenting on the cooperation, Founding Members’ Club (FMC) President Carl Höhner said: “As historic Automobile Associations and Founding Members of the FIA, we need to preserve our heritage, share it with young generations and use it to shape our future. At KNAC, we decided to digitise our archives a few years ago and we were happy to share our experience with the FIA. We hope it will help the Federation build a performant e-library, offering access to valuable historic documents for the benefit of society at large”,

FIA Member Clubs are invited to test the beta version of the e-library and share their feedback with the FIA team to make the tool as user-friendly as possible. The objective is to make the e-library accessible to everyone for the 120th anniversary of the Federation in 2024.

As part of the FIA archives digitisation and e-library project, a Max Mosley Memorial Library will be built at the FIA headquarters in Paris. The FIA team will also publish interesting stories discovered while digitising the Federation’s centennial archives.

FIA Member Clubs are invited to test the beta version of the e-library and share their feedback with the FIA team to make the tool as user-friendly as possible. The objective is to make the e-library accessible to everyone for the 120th anniversary of the Federation in 2024.