EDILIBE project
| Pages | 11-14 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040520 |
| Published date | 01 January 1994 |
| Date | 01 January 1994 |
| Author | Margot Wiesner |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
EDILIBE project
by Margot Wiesner, Stadt-und
Universitätsbibliothek, Frankfurt am
Main
This article forms
a
revised
and
updated
version
of
a lecture presented
at
the
59th
IFLA Conference
in
Barcelona,
22-28 August
1993.
The current flow
of
information
in the
acquisitions process
is
described,
highlighting
the duplication
of
effort
involved;
the
ideal
data
flow is
then
presented.
The aims
of
the
EC-funded
EDILIBE
project are
reported,
together with developments
to date.
Cooperation between libraries
and their suppliers
Automation of business procedures in the book
trade and in libraries has already reached quite an
advanced stage, at least as far
as
cataloguing and
circulation in
libraries,
and accounting and order-
ing procedures in
the
book trade are concerned.
The small number of international library suppliers
is most advanced in this area.
Acquisitions is usually the last stone to be laid in
the automation mosaic in
libraries.
When auto-
mated catalogue systems were being introduced it
was planned from the very beginning that several
libraries would participate in forming a central
database to be used jointly. Each title would only
be entered once and the title record would
be
used
by all participants. This is also the deciding factor
for
the
acquisitions module. Booksellers, however,
have hitherto not been taken sufficiently into
consideration, although acquisition is closely
connected to the book trade.
It is
obviously not easy to strike a balance between
the interests of the trade and those of libraries.
However, there has been some success. The
Acquisitions Commission of the Deutsches
Bibliotheksinstitut, for
example,
works closely
with the Börsenverein
des
Deutschen Buchhandels
(German Booktrade Association). A joint publica-
tion was produced in 1988 "Considerations on
cooperation between libraries and booksellers
based on automated procedures".
The dynamic development of electronic communi-
cation and electronic publishing on the one hand,
as well as poor funding of libraries, price in-
creases, especially for scientific
journals,
pressure
of costs in the book trade and not least the single
European market, require cooperation over and
above the usual exchange of
views.
Only in this
way will all libraries and their suppliers benefit
from the rationalisation potential and take advan-
tage of technological progress.
In 1982 the working party ELP (European Librar-
ies and Publishers), which was initiated by the
Directorate General XIII of the Commission of the
European Communities, was given the task of
promoting cooperation between publishers and
libraries, especially with new technologies in
mind. This was realised in joint statements, the
fourth of which appeared in
1989
under
the
title
"One world of information: OSI and
EDI",
which
recommended various systems to be linked by
using international communication standards in the
European book
trade.
The EDILIBE project puts
part of
this
recommendation
into
practice.
The flow of information
Cataloguing these
days
is unthinkable without the
use of external data. Union catalogues provide title
records for transferring to local systems according
to the principle that a title, which has been entered
once,
ought to be available to many users.
Bearing these aspects in mind, the acquisitions
process currently operates as follows:
• A German title appears which is
subsequently acquired by a German library.
The publisher reports the forthcoming
publication in writing to the Deutsche
Bibliothek as part of the 'Cataloguing in
Publication Programme'.
• The title is entered according to the rules for
alphabetical cataloguing and
made
available
via printed lists, catalogue cards, magnetic
tapes and diskettes in
MAB
(exchange)
format to other libraries and also to book
suppliers. The publishers also report
publication to German Books in Print.
Records are then produced in another data
format according to completely different
rules.
The publisher records the title in yet
VINE
94(March 1994)—11
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