CEC and libraries: an assortment of projects & studies
| Published date | 01 February 1991 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040455 |
| Pages | 25-29 |
| Date | 01 February 1991 |
| Author | Pat Manson |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
25
CEC and libraries: an assortment of
projects & studies
by
Pat Manson
LITC & INFOTAP
Luxembourg
T
hough
the
Call for Proposals for projects under
the libraries programme has only just been
launched
(July,
1991),
the
Commission of the
Euro-
pean Communities (CEC) has for the past three
years been supporting a number of projects which
provide essential preparatory work and support for
eventual projects under the programme. There is a
popular myth that CEC actions are shrouded, if not
in secrecy, then in an impenetrable fog of bureau-
cracy. However, for all work funded or supported
by the CEC, dissemination is regarded as a high
priority. Indeed, all projects have a contractual ob-
ligation
to
disseminate information about their
pro-
jects and their
results
as widely as possible.
Such dissemination, obviously, is undertaken on a
project-by-project
basis.
What
this article does is
to
bring together
in a
global picture information about
the wide range and scope of currently active, or
recently completed, projects.
The projects described below are a selected list.
They are all, in their technical content, relevant to
the traditional interests and scope of
VINE
though
they have not been particularly chosen with that in
mind. The descriptions, however, have been writ-
ten to highlight the technical outcomes and results
rather than
the
strategic or political goals.
Though the projects are interesting each in its own
right, they are more meaningful if seen in the con-
text of the libraries programme and its action lines.
To recap very briefly, there are
4
Action Lines.
Action Lines
Action Line 1 is dedicated to developing the basic
machine-readable bibliographic data which are the
primary access to the resources of libraries in
the
EC.
Its two parts address
respectively
the problems of
machine-readable national bibliographies and union
files, and
retrospective
conversion of collections of
international importance.
Action Line 2 addresses the interlinking and inter-
connection of library networks and systems and,
with Action Line 1, builds the infrastructure that
will help open up to users the resources in Euro-
pean libraries.
Action Line 3 promotes the development and de-
livery of new services to users, whilst Action Line
4 is intended to stimulate the development of tools
and systems which will encourage greater
cost-ef-
fectiveness in library functions and, by extension,
in the provision of services.
Projects must address the objectives of the pro-
gramme as a whole and of the Action
Lines.
They
must also contain certain core components if they
are to
meet
the
criteria established for R&D actions
in the EC. They must, firstly, be co-operative and
international, including partners from at least two
EC Member States; they must have an element of
innovation, though this need not be technical inno-
vation but organisational or service-related; they
must be able to demonstrate applications research;
and they must involve new information techno-
logies. These, taken together with the focus of the
Action Lines, make it clear that the projects that
will emerge should be highly pertinent to the inter-
ests of
VINE
readers.
Current projects
Though the projects which are running at present are
pre-programme projects, there is a deliberate corre-
spondence with the areas of activity defined in the
Action Lines. They are typically pilot/demonstration
projects. Funding
has,
as a rule, been made available
on
a
co-funding
basis:
the
CEC
provides
a
percentage
of the costs with
the
libraries and organisations them-
selves finding the remainder. So, even to date, there
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