National libraries project on CD‐ROM
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045014 |
| Published date | 01 June 1990 |
| Date | 01 June 1990 |
| Pages | 412-414 |
| Author | Robert Smith |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Article
National libraries project
on CD-ROM
Robert Smith
The British
Library,
National Bibliographic
Service,
2
Sheraton
Street,
London
W1V
4BH,
UK
Abstract:
January
1990
saw the beginnings of a joint
initiative by seven European national libraries founded in
part on the goodwill that existed between
the
British Library
and
the
Bibliothèque Nationale following a joint pilot
CD-ROM project undertaken during 1988-1989. The new
project aims to encourage the exchange of bibliographic
records in Europe and results will include prototype
software for linking CD-ROM products to other
applications: further CD-ROM pilot discs and a series of
surveys and reports.
The
project is
being
part-funded by the
CEC's IMPACT programme.
1.
Introduction
Last year saw the publication of the national bibliographies of
the UK, France and West Germany on CD-ROM in com-
patible forms and with a commitment to keep the products in
step wherever possible. Encouraged by the success of this
cooperative venture and confident in the suitability of CD-
ROM as a distribution medium for bibliographic data, the
national libraries began to formulate a new cooperative
project.
From the outset it was agreed that any cooperative project
should have clear, practical and achievable aims. Aside from
any perceived 'political' advantage to cooperation between
European national libraries (although this political advantage
should not be underestimated) there will, therefore,
be a
series
of tangible results in the form of reports, feasibility studies,
prototype softwares and further pilot CD-ROM programmes.
The key aims of
the
project are:
"to promote better and easier access by more users to
European national bibliographies; to promote econ-
omies in library cataloguing through an improved in-
terchange of bibliographic records between national
bibliographic agencies (irrespective of different
MARC formats); and to develop shared approaches to
strategies, applications and formats for bibliographic
data on CD-ROM".
The first of these aims is not, of course, necessarily de-
pendent upon CD-ROM technology. Nevertheless, it was
widely felt that CD-ROM presented us with an opportunity to
achieve greater access to national bibliographies and to en-
courage the exchange of data more widely and successfully
than the MARC exchange tape programme has achieved.
2.
The Action Plan for Libraries
It was during the course of the joint British Library/Biblio-
thèque Nationale pilot project (Smith & McSean 1989) that
ideas for
a
wider cooperative project were first mooted. It was
realised early on that the ambitious nature of these first
thoughts meant that some external funding would be needed.
Our early planning (late 1988 through to spring 1989) coin-
cided with the Commission of the European Communities'
(CEC) preparatory work on its Action Plan for Libraries.
The Action Plan assumed a joint role — as catalyst and
guiding principle for this project. This is not the place to dis-
cuss the Plan in depth; that has been done effectively else-
where (Manson 1989). Briefly, the Plan comprises four 'ac-
tion lines' which may be summarised as follows:
Action Line One
This deals with projects in the area of machine-readable na-
tional bibliographies and union catalogues, and includes the
retrospective conversion of major collections.
Action Line Two
This relates to the linking of systems including pilot projects
on OSI.
Action Line Three
This deals with
the
provision of innovative services using new
information technologies.
Action Line Four
This encourages the development of commercially available
products and services specifically for libraries.
The project we were looking at, concentrating as it does on
the national bibliographic data of European countries, clearly
fell into Action Line One (with some reference to Action Line
Four).
Discussions with the CEC indicated at an early stage that
the project we were considering was the type that would at-
tract funding. From that point on we were to an extent guided
by the Commission in the definition phase of
the
project.
3.
'Partners required'
The first imperative was to get some partners. In particular,
the CEC likes its funding of projects to show clear benefits to
the 'less favoured'
countries.
To
cut a long and diplomatically
fraught story very short, we ended up with a total of seven
participants, listed here in no particular order!
412 The Electronic Library, Vol. 8, No. 6, December 1990
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