As stated on the website in 1998: "Gabriel also recalls Gabriel Naudé, whose 'Advis pour dresser une bibliothèque' (Paris, 1627) is one of the earliest theoretical works about libraries in any European language and provides a blueprint for the great modern research library. The name Gabriel is common to many European languages and is derived from the Old Testament, where Gabriel appears as one of the archangels or heavenly messengers. He also appears in a similar role in the New Testament and the Qu'ran." In 1998, 38 national libraries participated in Gabriel: the ones of Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, (Former Yugoslav Republic of) Macedonia, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Vatican City. How did Gabriel begin? During the 1994 CENL meeting in Oslo, Norway, it was suggested that national libraries should set up a common electronic board with updates about their ongoing projects. Representatives from the national libraries of Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek), United Kingdom (British Library) and Finland (Helsinki University Library) met in March 1995 in The Hague, Netherlands, to launch the pilot Gabriel project. Three other national libraries joined the project, the ones of Germany (Deutsche Bibliothek), France (Bibliothèque nationale de France) and Poland (Biblioteka Narodowa). Gabriel would describe their services and collections, while seeking to attract other national libraries into the project. The original Gabriel website was launched in September 1995. It was maintained by the British Library Network Services and mirrored by the national libraries of Netherlands and Finland. In November 1995, other national libraries were invited to submit entries describing their services and collections. At the same time, more and more national libraries were launching their own websites and online catalogs. Gabriel also became a common portal for those. During the 1996 CENL meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, it was decided that Gabriel would become an official CENL website in January 1997. Gabriel was maintained by the national library in the Netherlands, and mirrored by four other national libraries, in United Kingdom, Finland, Germany, and Slovenia. Eight years later, in summer 2005, Gabriel merged with the European Library's website, as a common portal for the 43 national libraries in Europe. In March 2006, the European Commission launched the project of a European digital library, after a “call for ideas” from September to December 2005. This European digital library – named Europeana - opened its "virtual" doors in November 2008, with a crash from the server within 24 hours, followed by an experimental period with part of the collections.