The information economy
| Pages | 215-216 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045641 |
| Date | 01 March 1998 |
| Published date | 01 March 1998 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
THE
INFORMATION
SOCIETY
Australia
Cultural network
Australia's 'Cultural Network', an initiative of the
Australian Government which is managed by the
Australian Federal Department of Communications
and the Arts, is a public access gateway to
Australian cultural organisations, resources, activi-
ties and events. It is also an exchange centre for
resources, ideas and information where cultural
workers and organisations can communicate with
each other to improve and develop their use of
online services.
Over 500 Australian cultural Web sites and over 400
current events are available through the site's Web
site finder and Event finder respectively. Cultural
organisations can add their Web sites and cultural
events to the network's databases. The site's main
search engine enables content searches across all
500 Australian cultural Web sites or sub-sets by var-
ious locations and cultural categories.
The Web site was launched officially by the
Australian Federal Minister for Communications, the
Information Economy and the Arts on 15 April 1998
in Sydney, Australia, and its URL is
http://www.acn.net.au/
Central and Eastern Europe
Convergence on expenditure
Figures presented at a European Commission work-
shop held in Luxembourg in December 1997
indi-
cate that library spending in Central and Eastern
Europe is close, as a percentage of GDP, to that in
the European Union (0.14% of GDP in the former
case compared with 0.16% in the latter). These
fig-
ures,
among others, are results of a study on Library
economics in the Central and Eastern European
countries that covers those countries which signed
an Association Agreement (Europe Agreement) with
the EU in 1995. The study looks at libraries' costs
and activities, principally during the years 1990 to
1993.
It was compiled through national statistical
agencies and organizations who were asked to com-
ply with a standard format in returning their data in
order to ease Europe-wide comparison.
Library expenditure in the Central and East
European Countries in 1993 is estimated at ECU
296.4
million,
of which ECU 140 million went on staff
and ECU 67 million went on
stocks.
Around 35.6
mil-
lion borrowers took out some 684.7 million items.
The workshop proceedings are to be found at
http://www.echo.lu/libraries/en/statwks.html,
and the
report is Library
economics
in
Central
and Eastern
Europe:EUR
18042; ISBN 92-828-1562-5. (Source
Cordis
Focus,
23 March 1998, pp. 6-7).
European Union
Lighting up
A new European digital libraries project called
CAN-
DLE (Controlled Access to Network Digital Libraries
in Europe) was launched on 4th March in Madrid. It
will develop library-mediated access to electronic
journals. CANDLE will demonstrate how the
CaseLibrary digital resource management system,
developed under the European Commission's Third
Framework Programme of research, can be used to
enable the library to act as a trusted distributor for
electronic journal publishers, guaranteeing the rights
of authors and publishers to appropriate reward for
their efforts.
Among the spin-off benefits from the project should
be improved targeting of end users for publishers,
greater facilitation of management, control and secu-
rity for libraries, and the provision of user-friendly
interfaces for users.
The project is part funded for 30 months by the
European Commission under the Fourth Framework
Programme, and will be led by EnWare, S.A. of
Madrid,
an information system consulting company
and software house, experienced in client-server
and Z39.50 systems. The Library Information
Technology Centre at South Bank University,
London will assist EnWare by providing project
man-
agement reporting and dissemination functions and
will test and demonstrate the system along with
other European universities. A project synopsis can
be found at http://www2.echo.lu/libraries/en/pro-
jects/candle.html,
and the Candle master
Web
site at
http://www.sbu.ac.uk/litc/candle/
Third World
Off the phone, on the Net
What some used to call the phenomenon of com-
bined and uneven development recently resurfaced
in a couple of stories from Reuters. For while tele-
phones remain a comparative rarity in huge areas of
the Third World, the World Wide Web plays host to
the propaganda of the wretched of the earth.
In a report issued for a key ministerial conference
held in Malta at the end of
March,
the United Nations
agency International Telecommunications Union
states that one quarter of the world's population lives
in countries where there is less than one phone line
for every 100 people. More than 600 million house-
holds are phoneless world-wide, including six million
in the United States.
Within the 'Third World' there are significant dispari-
ties.
Singapore boasts
51
lines for every 100 people,
which is actually more than Australia. Indonesia, on
the other
hand,
has a rate of teledensity of just over
Continuing
our
review
of
government initiatives
and
projects
that will
help the
growth
of
the
Information
Society.
If
you know of
such
a pro-
ject,
or
are
involved
in
one
that
you
would like
to see
here,
please con-
tact the Journals Editor
at
the
publisher's
address or by
e-mail
at
tel@learned.co.uk.
The Electronic Library, Vol. 16, No. 3, June 1998 215
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