Issue 2

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Regular Articles

Beyond the Old Limits - New Roads Ahead for Europe's Libraries

Katarina Steinwachs walks us through the European Library conference in Leipzig last March; a major event to start off the European EXPLOIT project. The three key-note addresses looked at the importance of libraries from different angles: Michael Naumann - The political task for the transfer of knowledge in Europe; Bob Fryer - Libraries in the learning society - access to knowledge and information for skills, democracy and social change; Frans de Bruine - The role of libraries in the information society. Presentations by Lorcan Dempsey and Barbara Lison described the two main fields in which European co-operation adds distinctive value to the work of libraries.

Introduction

This conference was the major event to start off the European EXPLOIT project, a project funded under the 4th framework research programme of the European Commission to promote its libraries programme and to encourage take-up of research results of this programme by the libraries and other related players in Europe. The partners within the project are the Deutsche Bibliotheksinstitut (German libraries institute), the UK Office for Library and Information Networking, the British Council and die Deutsche Bibliothek. Other activities will include workshops, a database with detailed information about research projects and their results, and a web-based magazine 'Exploit Interactive' with articles and features from the European library world.

The conference was aimed at decision makers at a political level as much as at an audience directly or indirectly concerned with the application of new technologies in the fields of knowledge production, storage, dissemination and use. The three key-note addresses looked at the importance of libraries from different angles while the two presentations by Lorcan Dempsey and Barbara Lison described the two main fields in which European co-operation adds distinctive value to the work of libraries: the development of a technological infrastructure, and the development of new services for users. The panel discussion then looked at the technical and human elements of a European cultural network and what has to be done to make it really happen.

Michael Naumann

The political task for the transfer of knowledge in Europe

In his presentation Michael Naumann, State Minister for Culture and Media, Bonn, concentrated on three aspects: the role of libraries in society, the impact of new technologies on libraries and their services, and the achievements and prospects of the European Telematics for libraries programme.

There are about 96,000 libraries in the countries of the European Union of which 25,000 are of medium or large size, and they have an important role to play in the fields of science and academia, research, continuous learning, pastime, entertainment, lifestyle etc. However, their approximately 1.5 billion publications are not necessarily freely accessible for the public: many are either too valuable or in a state of decay or the existing (print) catalogues are not detailed enough to provide access to all the information that exists.

The new digital technologies make it possible to overcome the following three limitations of print material: the material link between content and form, the linearity of texts, and the limited mobility of printed texts. Information in digital form, on the other hand, can easily be changed, can be searched for certain pieces of information, and be accessed from and transferred to anywhere in the world. By using new technologies access to existing print material can also be improved by providing widely accessible data (electronic catalogues) about these materials. By employing new technologies libraries will be in a position to offer "electronic access" to information for their users, i.e. direct access independent of time and place; multiple access to much used information; easier access to information that has been difficult to find; and virtual links to multimedia resources.

Two major challenges which also have to be addressed by politics are the archiving of information (i.e. making sure that digital material can always be accessed with the existing hardware and software) and free access to information for all citizens, ensuring its "fair use".

The European programme Telematics for libraries has over the last 10 years developed Europe-wide links and co-operation between libraries (recently also including libraries from Central and Eastern European countries), supported about 100 research and development projects for telematics applications for libraries as well as concerted actions and accompanying measures which involved altogether about 400 institutions, helped public libraries to develop new services, supported the development of common standards for data exchange, and made access to digitised material (e.g. valuable manuscripts) throughout Europe possible.

The continuation of the programme under the 5th framework programme for research and development of the European Commission will even go further. It will encourage the traditional "memory institutions" like museums, archives and libraries to collaborate in the development of an integrated access to decentrally held collections in whichever format, eventually leading to an electronically linked network of these institutions throughout Europe.

Much still remains to be done: communication and co-operation beyond system boundaries (for example with publishers, learned societies) and the quality of services must be improved, decisions must be made regarding uniform standards, open system interfaces, the use of the Internet, and models must be developed for the long-term archiving of materials. And it is important to always remember that technology is the means for the transfer of and access to knowledge and culture, not an end in itself.

Bob Fryer

Libraries in the learning society - access to knowledge and information for skills, democracy and social change

Bob Fryer, who was Chair of the group advising the UK Secretary of State on matters concerning adult learning and who is the author of the report Learning for the twenty-first Century (1997) spoke about the role of libraries in the learning society.

Lifelong learning is viewed by politicians in the UK (and elsewhere) as a vital means to support individual development, make people active citizens, contribute to social cohesion, combat social exclusion and contribute to the development of a profound skills base and prosperity of a people. In a risk society, characterised by ubiquitous change, uncertainty, globalisation, an information explosion, contested knowledge, a challenge of sustainability and dangers of division and conflict, learning has to take new forms.

Libraries can be key players in the learning society, meaning a society in which learning throughout one's lifetime is a normal thing. They can provide access to information and communications technology, provide advice and guidance. To be most efficient and effective they need to link with other institutions in the education field to build a network of learning centres and local strategic partnerships and plans. All these institutions need to change to be welcoming and accessible, flexible and diverse. They must invest in research and development on a national and European scale and engage in dissemination and application of information, also by means of new technologies.

Governments, on the other hand, have to change as well. They must learn to work together between their individual departments, launch sustained campaigns, have a clear and focused policy and work with other governments on a European and international scale. The UK government's Green Paper "The learning age" making explicit reference to the role of libraries in our era, and the paper "The new library - a people's network" are encouraging steps in this direction.

Frans de Bruine

The role of libraries in the information society

The emerging Information Society was the first emphasis of this presentation. It is characterised first by the developments in the technology field, like data compression and broadband technologies, secondly by the convergence in the information industry characterised by digitisation and multimedia, thirdly by competition in the information market through internationalisation and deregulation, and fourthly by the increased choices for the user. The different forms of content of the past (photography, telephony, publishing, computing and video entertainment) make way for the concentration on function in the future, characterised by the convergence of the different media forms.

In Europe the private sector is leading this process through infrastructure, applications and content development, but the public sector, and especially the EU are facilitating the new media environment through the development of a vision, the creation of appropriate conditions (e.g. legal framework, encouragement of experimentation) and the catalysing of the transformation processes.

The fifth framework programme for research and development (1998 - 2002) is one integrated programme for information and communication technologies, divided into four key actions: development of services for the citizen, electronic commerce, multimedia content, and essential technologies and infrastructure.

Traditionally libraries were the gatekeepers to information, knowledge and learning, the custodians and organisers of the cultural and intellectual record, safeguards of equality of access and keepers of the heritage of the past and the present for the future. In the future, and under the new framework programme, libraries will have to integrate themselves into the networked society and co-operate with other cultural institutions like museums and archives. They will have to develop new economic strategies, better understand user needs and demands, develop skills of staff and users and develop new services. The research priorities will lay in the field of integrated access to distributed and diverse resources, large repositories, preservation and access strategies. The general focus is on content rather than on form. Libraries must understand the political agenda to make sure they are strong players in the information society.

Lorcan Dempsey

Computing and networks - infrastructure and institutions in a shared network space

While the first speakers looked at the big picture regarding the role of libraries in our times Lorcan Dempsey looked at the necessary infrastructure and the institutions to deliver effective information services.

He spoke of the emergence of a shared network space in which offerings (contents) have to be filtered, integrated and managed to be useful resources. Supply and use chains converge, labour with regard to content production and dissemination of information is divided in new ways, and active users require learning environments and support for the re-use and re-packaging of information. Roles and relationships of information producers, users and intermediaries are repositioned.

Technology has helped to automate certain tasks (like circulation, access to databases) and to manage collections, without necessarily changing workflows or roles substantially. So far the question has been: "What effect does technology have on this or that (traditional) task?" But technology is also used to create repositories of data and metadata, to enable the flow between different repositories and repositories and the user, to control access, to provide authentication to documents and to start off electronic commerce.

Lorcan Dempsey differentiates between three main areas in which technology is being developed: the technology of trust and identity (referring to the authentication of documents, encryption technology, preservation of authors' rights and to identifiers); the technology of community (making communication easier and more personal), and the technology of memory (used to preserve information). Many issues still remain unresolved, like the necessary transfer of information from one software platform to a more advanced one in order to retain its accessibility and not to build on a "house of cards" which may collapse one day.

For the traditional institutions like libraries new questions arise and roles and relationships to other cultural and educational institutions and to their customers and stake-holders and the commercial world have to be redefined.

The European libraries programme has so far concentrated on three areas: the development of the technology (Z39.50, EDI, SGML, shared space, interconnection, infrastructure), of new services and access to information (combined building blocks, automated supply chains, brokerage of access to information), and has looked at the development of issues related to the roles and relationships of libraries and on issues of copyright and commerce.

In the future the physical, digitised and the born-digital parts of intellectual records need to be managed complementary and must be preserved. Equal access must be ensured, taking into account the interests in the whole production and dissemination chain (authors, publishers, libraries, users). Users and the resources should be brought together in congenial "assembly places".

Barbara Lison

Innovation through international co-operation - the telematics projects as a chance for modernising Europe's libraries

Networked library services are developed through three different but interlinked foci: within the context of their own local environments; through international networking of libraries and of libraries and publishers; and by developing libraries into a value-added interface to the networked information world of the internet.

The first steps in creating a Europe-wide infrastructure are to interconnect libraries with each other, to provide access to computerised catalogues on an international level, and to develop innovative services, new tools and products for libraries.

Barbara Lison presented the (projected) results of some of the projects supported under the EU libraries programme, selected because they either develop a new library service or revolutionise an existing one:

ILIERS (integrated library information education and retrieval systems) is a multimedia library information system for users of a public library which provides access to electronic information of different provenience through a single user interface. LISTED (library integrated system for telematics-based education) widens the traditional service spectrum of public libraries by integrating access to multimedia material designed for continuing education activities. CHILIAS (children in libraries: improving multimedia virtual library access and information skills) is a multimedia children's library connected to the traditional services but extending those by providing tools for the development of multimedia competencies and creativity of children. TESTLAB (testing systems using telematics for library access for blind and visually handicapped readers) improves access to electronic library catalogues for visually handicapped library users. ONE II (online public access catalogue network in Europe) will create a Europe-wide catalogue for library and museum collections with functionality for ordering, issuing and electronic document delivery. DIEPER (digitised European periodicals) develops an online-infrastructure for the provision of a central access and full-text retrieval functionality for digitised journals. BALTICSEAWEB (geographical user interface for network-based Baltic marine environment information system) develops an integrated system for access to different databases with elaborate retrieval facilities.

Developments through projects like those and the relationships established between libraries in Europe during such activities will now provide the building block for further research and development activities under the new framework programme 'Creating a user-friendly information society'.

Panel Discussion

Participants:

• Dr. Michael Naumann, State Minister for Culture and Media, Bonn, Germany
• Ariane Iljon, DG XIII, European Commission
• Prof. Knut Föckler, Director Multimedia, Deutsche Telekom, Germany
• Prof. Dr. Reimar Lüst, President, Alexander-v.-Humboldt-Stiftung, Germany
• Dr. Michael Olson, Harvard University, Cambridge (Mass.), USA
• Arnoud de Kemp, Springer, Germany
• Prof. Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, President, Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Germany (Chair)

The participants of the panel discussion were invited by Prof. Lehmann to discuss the theme of and make recommendations for a European cultural network. Each of the participants gave a short statement followed by a discussion between the members of the panel and with the audience.

The term 'European cultural network' refers to a whole system of factors and relationships, operating in a complex and changing environment. It resists an easy and concrete definition. 'Network' refers to both, a physical infrastructure and to links between individuals and between institutions and organisations and the relationships between those. 'Cultural network' includes in addition a reference to the contents exchanged or used over the networks and, possibly, also to the types of organisations involved in their development. Consequently the discussion concentrated on a number of individual factors within this complex system, and on their interrelation.

With regard to the physical infrastructure those were mainly the developments in information and communication technologies, the consequences of those developments for society as a whole and the library sector in particular, and the role of Europeans and certain sectors of societies in this global process; With regard to the links between individuals and organisations reference was made to the history of research co-operation in the libraries field in Europe and in the individual member states as well as the links between researchers and professionals as a result of joint research activities. The networks are established to provide wide access to content which is increasingly produced in new ways. Its production and dissemination as much as its new format and the importance of the integrity of this format were discussed, as was the whole issue of protecting the rights of the creators of intellectual works and the necessity of providing access to them in new forms. There are many organisations involved in building the European network of culture, of which libraries and the librarians are only one player. How they with their traditional organisational structures will have to change in order to stay in the game was discussed, as were the new requirements for the librarians with regard to their capability of managing and developing the infrastructure, structuring the contents, and assisting their users in accessing the contents and finding the information needed in the new environment.

This report attempts to summarise the discussion according to the aspects defined, in terms of a cultural network with reference to the wider environment in which those processes are happening.

The wider environment

Ariane Iljon put the assumption for discussion that the new information and communication technologies (ICT) will not just be new tools in our social fabric but that they are becoming a factor which will change our way of life and the organisation of our societies from the inside. The purpose of public cultural and educational institutions like libraries in this century has been to help maintain a democratic value system for the society. Value systems now have to be mutated to the new order of things with the help of these institutions, which also have to change at the same time. For Ms Iljon the key question for the institutions is not the "why?" or "what?" of the changes, but how organisations should go about changes, which is always difficult to assume and requires time, particularly for public institutions with set practices and habits. She stressed her belief that public cultural and educational institutions must work together. 'Convergence' of the purposes of those institutions or at least a common approach is desirable. Other issues mentioned include the question of the future role of those institutions in society, and on whether there is such a thing as a 'European cultural resource'.

Michael Naumann, admittedly only an amateur user of computers and the internet, drew attention to the fact that 3.6 billion Euro will be spent in the ICT field over the next four years by the European Commission, while the budget for the cultural programmes will consist of about 167 million Euro only. He put this down also to the fact that decision makers believe to have discovered a new source of added value, and to another psychological side effect: according to Naumann most managers both in politics and in the private sector, do not find the time to read and thus suffer from intellectual 'malnutrition'. They hope, maybe subconsciously, that by using networked resources knowledge can be accessed easily by just pressing a button. This hope is then also applied to the solution of economic problems.

Arnoud de Kemp in his contribution referred to the strong political will to support the development of ICT applications, sometimes with the danger of paying too little attention to the real needs and sustainability of projects and project results, and thus risking the loss of existing services or institutions.

Ariane Iljon, however, pointed to the fact that the percentage of the budget in the ICT field had in fact slightly gone down over the last 10 years. She also emphasised that the principle of subsidiarity, i.e. the principle that the European Commission should only support activities that cannot be better handled at national or even regional level but to which European co-operation would add value, is more often applied to cultural issues than to research in the ICT area, where the added value of international co-operation is obvious.

Klaus-Dieter Lehmann emphasised that there has not been a parallel development on a European level with regard to the aspects of the contents stored on the networks, like copyright, access gateways or structure of contents, but that activities have so far concentrated mainly on the infrastructure.

Network Infrastructure

Ariane Iljon reminded the audience of a European hearing on libraries 12 years ago prompted by a Resolution of the Council of Ministers at which many of the questions were asked that are still relevant today. It was accepted that, notwithstanding national responsibilities in this area, there was indeed a need for action on a European level which would bring benefits both in economic and cultural terms. This hearing gave impetus and led to the so-called Libraries programmes under the research framework programmes III and IV.

Knut Föckler spoke from the perspective of the private sector and the role telecommunication companies play in providing the networks and harmonising their approaches on a European level. But also for the network providers it is obvious that it is the contents that matter, and they therefore also support initiatives for the production of content (e.g. between schools in Europe).

Arnoud de Kemp emphasised the importance of good planning and co-ordination of all projects in the area of network infrastructure, be it on national or European level. Project stake-holders and participants must address the question of what will happen to the project and possible pilot applications once the project budget has been used up. He also requested better co-ordination, especially between the different Länder in Germany, and between national and European activities.

Personal networks are developed and strengthened by joint research projects. Ariane Iljon believes that the many co-operative projects launched over the last 10 years in the libraries area have been instrumental in changing perceptions within that area. The new Fifth Framework Programme will provide new opportunities for experimentation and of a new type. It can also be used to experiment with and develop common approaches between different cultural and educational institutions and thus help to build new personal networks between members of those organisations on a European level.

Traditional institutions and services belong to the infrastructure, too. Reimar Lüst described how the recipients of scholarships by the Humboldt-Foundation need libraries and reading rooms to slowly find their way into the German society. 'They first make friends with the library and thus get to know Germany step by step'. Various of the speakers pointed to the danger that budgets for traditional library services and the acquisition of print material are being cut to provide money for the development of the new infrastructure.

Content

Michael Naumann drew attention to the fact that the 'content world' must be looked after and that the genesis of content must not be endangered. Threats include the fact that existing copyright was not created for an electronic world and now has to be adapted.

Arnoud de Kemp said that new rules are necessary for the use of information in electronic form. At the moment authenticity and integrity of electronic documents is not always guaranteed.

A contribution from the audience made a strong plea for democratic copyright regulations for electronic documents. The rights of the authors must not be exaggerated and the general public must have democratic access to information in all formats, not just for study purposes. Fair licensing agreements and a legislation for the utilisation of information are necessary. Michael Naumann replied that one needs to be careful not to limit the rights of the weakest link in the chain - the authors.

Michael Olsen reported from the US that Internet has become one of the biggest libraries. Many pupils and students in the US only use resources they can access through the internet. It is easy to use, cheap (at least in the States) and available 24 hours a day (contrary to most libraries). The obvious problems connected with this are that much knowledge, still only produced in print form, is neglected. Also there is much problematic material on the internet, and the reliability of the material cannot be guaranteed.

He is convinced that the printed word will not soon be obsolete, as it is a genius invention; not everything can be digitised, and there is a preference for reading printed paper rather than a computer screen.

However, the experience with US pupils and students seems to demonstrate that the young generations in this society get used more and more to only using content available in electronic form. The same may happen in Europe in just a few years time and will have implications on the balance between print and electronic information.

Players

Knut Föckler emphasised the importance of public-private partnerships in the ICT sector and described the "Schulen ans Netz" (connecting schools to the net) initiative of Deutsche Telecom which has already connected about 12,500 schools to the internet over the last 3.5 years. He sees many areas for co-operation with the public sector such as libraries, especially in the area of content and access provision and thus the development of new services. He also pointed to the main deficit encountered today: the lack of suitably qualified personnel to produce multimedia contents. His department now spends about 30% of the budget for training measures, and it is still felt that the competencies of users, especially also 'multipliers' such as teachers, are insufficient.

As already described above Ariane Iljon pointed to the possible convergence of purpose of different public cultural and educational institutions such as libraries, archives and museums when tackling issues of ICT applications like interoperability and standards as well as preservation of the cultural heritage of Europe and the training of staff and users in the new applications. All these institutions are potentially important players in the development of European cultural networks. The new research framework programme of the European Commission takes this into account (or possibly stimulates it from the outside).

Klaus-Dieter Lehmann urged librarians to articulate themselves and tell the public what it is they want to develop and offer in the future. Librarians have to gain competencies in the application of ICT, they must understand the end-users' needs and help the end-user to develop the skills necessary for the use of the new technologies. This was echoed by Arnoud de Kemp who thinks that libraries have an important role to play with regard to helping to increase acceptance of the new media, and with regard to structuring contents for the networks and thus making them accessible.

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

Author Details

Katarina Steinwachs
Head of Information
The British Council
Hahnenstraße 6, 50667 Köln
Tel: 0221 20644-0
Fax: 0221 20644-36
Email: katarina.steinwachs@britcoun.de

Katarina Steinwachs is Head of Information at The British Council in Köln.

For citation purposes:
Katarina Steinwachs, "Beyond the Old Limits - New Roads Ahead for Europe's Libraries", Exploit Interactive, issue 2, 20  July 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue2/leipzig/>

Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS3)

Christine Dugdale gives an overview of the third international CoLIS conference which was held in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Digital Libraries: Interdisciplinary Concepts, Challenges and Opportunities

'Digital Libraries: Interdisciplinary Concepts, Challenges and Opportunities' was the theme of the third CoLIS conference held at the beautiful venue of the medieval walled city of Dubrovnik in Croatia [1], 23-26 May 1999.

Despite reports of its bombardment during the 1991/92 conflict, Dubrovnik remains a beautiful city and is on UNESCO's list of the world's cultural heritage sites. It once lay on the cross-roads of several medieval empires and was the only independent city-state on the Adriatic Sea other than Venice. It remained an independent republic of merchants and sailors until the Napoleonic invasion of 1806. Although little evidence could be seen of the 1991/2 war from street level, views from the city walls did reveal a patch-work of varying roof colours amongst the once famous uniformly honey-coloured tiles as well as building "gaps" behind shuttered facades. The Deputy Mayor reported that many library buildings had been destroyed and that, in the Inter-University Centre, 30,000 books had been lost. Although many books survived, they are still, today, stored in boxes awaiting suitable buildings and shelving. Despite these difficulties, however, the public library never closed for a single day during or after the conflict.

The botanical documents of nearby Lokrum Island, however, were less fortunate; being largely destroyed. The botanical garden was established in 1959 in order to research and grow, from seed, American and Australian trees, shrubs and plants that were thought to be potentially suitable for Dubrovnik's climate. The garden and library buildings received 50 direct hits and many species and most documentation was lost.

Dubrovnik's quiet (just before the start of the tourist season) squares, palaces, churches, small intriguing hill-hugging streets and pedestrian-only traffic encased within the intact medieval walls contrasted sharply with thoughts surrounding digital libraries and global networks around which the conference themes were centred.

The conference was held in the Hotel Excelsior that was renovated in 1998 and has breathtaking views of the Old City and the Island of Lokrum. The modern conference facilities proved an interesting contrast to those of the Inter-University Centre closer to the Old City, which was the venue for the shorter papers, workshops and poster sessions. The Centre was created 26 years ago to facilitate academic exchange and is a consortium of many domestic and foreign universities.

Despite worries about the present Balkan conflict, attendance was reasonably high with only one speaker withdrawing at the insistence of their institution. There were 114 participants representing 19 countries and all papers were presented to the full conference instead of to groups of varying sizes that can result from an over-ambitious attempt to provide too many parallel sessions. The only excitement arose from the failure of the electricity supply followed by the automatic generator cutting in only to die within a minute. Although this was a relatively short-lived and not repeated problem, the candle and box of matches provided in bedrooms suggested that other conferences might not be so fortunate!

A second conference (Information Technology and Journalism - 'Education and new journalism', 26-29 May (http://www.fpzg.hr/itn)), timed to start immediately after CoLIS 3 so as to maximise benefits for those travelling to the area with more stamina than I could muster, found that far more delegates withdrew. The Croatian speakers all thanked participants for continuing with the conference as many others had been cancelled or postponed - which must beg the question whether LIS professionals are particularly brave, stubborn or ill informed!

This year's conference was extremely well organised by the University of Zagreb, Croatia, the University of Tampere, Finland (hosts of CoLIS 1), the Royal School of Library and Information Science, Copenhagen, Denmark (hosts of CoLIS 2) and Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA. A very full 3-day programme of papers was organised with a full day pre-conference tutorial and 2 post-conference workshops. Indeed, the conference was, perhaps, too intensive. I for one was "burnt-out" at the end and had to cancel a planned attendance at what promised to be an interesting workshop on scanning in favour of a relaxing 3-island cruise. Each day was very full of papers. In addition, there was a wonderful concert given by the Dubrovnik Chamber Choir in the Rector's Place and a banquet at the Konavaski Dvari Restaurant in the hillside above the fishing village of Cavtat.

The declared general aim of the CoLIS conferences is to provide a broad forum for critically exploring and analysing library and information science as a discipline and as a field of research from historical, theoretical, and empirical perspectives.

The specific goal of CoLIS 3 was to critically explore the evolving concepts, research, and development of issues related to digital libraries from the perspective of a number of approaches and disciplines. Digital libraries can be studied from a whole variety of perspectives and models within different communities that hold different ideas, aims and concepts. The conference's declared aim was to focus on fundamental and integrating issues and problems that reflect efforts and thinking from a number of disciplines and countries. Although the conference was held in Europe, however, speakers presenting a large percentage of the 23 research papers were from the USA with a consequently heavy emphasis upon pure rather than applied research. I ended the week with a greater understanding of work in the US than in Europe and was disappointed that I had not heard more about real-life projects and systems. There were very few descriptions of ongoing practices and very few presentations from practitioners amongst the many research papers that the Conference Chair described as extensive empirically based papers. In particular, the only one mention of the central issues discussed at UK conferences - hybrid libraries and integration - came from a British speaker. It was good, however, to hear a number of references to the eLib Programme and eLib projects. Nevertheless, there was very little discussion at all centred on more practical issues. Copyright, for example was hardly mentioned and never discussed as an important issue in its own right. The 12 short papers mainly sought to describe specific approaches and examples in some institutions in a number of countries; revealing the wide breadth of digital library projects around the world.

It was emphasised that, though the concept of digital libraries is little more than a decade old, they have already raised a large number of very important issues and challenges as well as developments, research and practical applications that cut across many disciplines throughout the world. Yet, the concepts, philosophies, theories and research about many issues pertinent to digital libraries are still quite new and evolving. The greatest challenge facing digital libraries is to define where they stand in the global information infrastructure. Digital libraries should be goal-driven and not technology-driven. The expertise built up by people using other systems should not be discarded lightly. Technological advances have been great, but there is a great deal of uncertainly about what is happening in the digital world.

One speaker suggested that there was no common meaning behind the words "digital library" and made a plea for understanding and agreeing definitions. There could be endless debates about what a digital library actually means to each person. It is important to understand what we are all trying to achieve through the development of digitisation. It was repeated over and over again that the digital revolution might be as far reaching for the world's development as Gutenberg's invention has proved to be. A number of speakers touched upon the idea that the term "Digital Library" is often used when the term "Digital Collection" would be more appropriate. It was felt that a "collection"  was a "holding of documents" whereas a "library" was a "service". It was suggested that, if all information was digital, no information would ever be lost, everybody would be connected to anybody and anything and any individual could retrieve any information directly without recourse to a mediator from any source at any time, always, immediately, directly and automatically. Anyone could also send information and publish anything without mediation.

This, of course, contrasted with the discussions about whether or not there was so much digital information that it might become impossible for users to find what they required without the help of a mediator to retrieve that information and to help evaluate the quality of information. Digitisation allows us to preserve everything. There is a great deal of uncertainty about the validity and safety of using much of the information available digitally, although one small-scale study suggested that some scholars were less reluctant to publish material online than previously. If libraries, however, were to provide their users with access to everything and not select, it was not possible for them to guarantee quality. This idea gave rise to further discussions about trust in information and the possible difficulties posed by too much preservation and by the fact that the Net allows for any number of specialised interfaces which might prevent users from gaining general access.

The inevitable discussions about the possible development of a 2-tier access to information also took place. A number of speakers considered the possibility that costs and the development of infrastructures meant that the least privileged in society would have less and less access to information, although it was pointed out that web servers at Kosovo refugee camps had provided essential email links to help families locate each other.

One speaker suggested that mediation for users might be difficult since there was a dearth of Digital Library related courses on the curricula of library schools. This raised interesting discussions as to whether Digital Libraries should be considered in isolation or whether information about them should be more closely integrated into other tuition and whether or not it was already so integrated.

Papers were based upon the central themes of: context, relations, evaluation, management, design, representation, interaction, information retrieval and digital libraries and mass media.

In the somewhat rarefied atmosphere of concepts, theories and philosophies surrounding these themes, it was good to hear one of the opening speakers conclude by extolling delegates to remember users. This was, indeed, picked up by a number of speakers, though the question of users was largely absent in the discussions and one speaker actually remarked upon the fact that issues directly related to users and their behaviour was rare at international digital library conferences. Another speaker pointed out that the technology for collecting, selecting, preserving, storing, abstracting, copying, recording and disseminating information might have changed, but that the technology for creating users had not. This was the greatest continuity in libraries. Digital libraries can move away from the constraints of information systems to information provision and, therefore, focus more upon the user. One speaker emphasised that we should concentrate more upon usability by pointing out that information seeking is always in context whereas information systems are context-insensitive.

It was suggested that there are constant changes in culture, time and technology. As these changed, so libraries must change with them. Consequently, digital libraries have developed and with them new opportunities, new threats and new challenges. Digital material can be duplicated cheaply with costs independent of scale of use. Material can be part published and cheaply published on-line, but the pricing of digital material bears no relation to costs. Often people do not value what they do not pay for. Digital information costs might be totally related to the value that is placed upon it and libraries are often caught in a pricing trap.

There was a long panel discussion about the possibility of creating global interaction for what might often be national systems, but could so easily be global ideas and systems. It was felt that there is little communication between digital libraries and that coherent, integrating concepts and approaches had not yet emerged. There was some discussion as to whether we actually needed these and this resulted in substantial agreement about the necessity for global interaction, but little practical outcome. One speaker had already suggested that there were cultural differences in countries on computer use and that computers made a different social and cultural impact in different countries.

It was concluded that the development of the digital library still held many challenges. These included hybrid integration, the sharpening competition for scarce resources, the sharing of communication, access costs, the differences between public access that might be offered as a "taster" to be followed by expensive public access and the bewildering variety of models, degrees of access and levels of subscription. It is necessary to develop sustainable models for digital libraries. There are a number of different digital library models such as the library model, network model, association model, newspaper model, that based upon the publishers' perspective and that based upon the replacement of the scholarly journal model. The development of the digital library might also involve an exchange of roles. It might call for a different relationship between librarian and publisher. The library, for example, might enter publishing whereas publishers might find they are providing "shelf space". Digital libraries might also bring about other cultural changes such as the blurring of professional roles in educational institutions such as those between librarians and academics and IT professionals. Digital libraries might well redefine the role of the librarian and information specialist.

Further Information about CoLIS 3 is available at: http://www.ffzg.hr/infoz/colis3/

CoLIS 4 will be held at the University of Washington in Seattle early in August, 2002

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

References

1. Dubrovnik
   URL: <http://www.hr/dubrovnik/>

Author Details

Christine Dugdale
ResIDe Electronic Library
University of the West of England
Email: Christine.Dugdale@uwe.ac.uk
URL: http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/itdev/reside/
Tel: 0117 965 6261 ext 3646

Christine Dugdale manages the ResIDe Electronic Library at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Funded as an eLib short loan project, the ResIDe Electronic Library sought to explore such issues surrounding the implementation of an electronic reserve as copyright and collection management systems. ResIDe has expanded to include a current awareness database and a past examination paper database and is now a permanent part of the University's Library Services.

For citation purposes:
Christine Dugdale, "Conceptions of Library and Information Science (CoLIS3)", Exploit Interactive, issue 2, 20 July 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue2/coliscon/>

Digital Cultural Heritage Workshop, Maastricht

Paul Miller reports on a recent workshop in the programme of the Amsterdam Maastricht Summer University.

Maastricht

Amidst temperatures unexpectedly high for Northern Europe, some thirty people gathered in the Dutch city of Maastricht to spend three days exploring issues facing us in the move to make cultural heritage information widely available in digital form.

Perhaps best known in Europe for its treaty, Maastricht is in fact an ancient and lively city dating back to the Roman Empire, and associated more recently with Charlemagne and Marx. To this day, over 1,500 historic buildings fill the city centre, and medieval churches such as the impressive Romanesque Basilica of Saint Servatius loom over cafe-filled squares.

This workshop formed part of the extensive programme of the Amsterdam Maastricht Summer University [1], and was jointly initiated by the Summer University, the newly formed Dutch Digital Heritage Association (DEN), and the Maastricht McLuhan Institute (MMI), which also acted as our host in the city [2].

Of the participants, most came from across Europe, but individuals were also present from Russia, Africa, and from Indonesia. European countries outside the Union were well represented, including Estonia, Poland, Norway, and Romania.

The Canadian Heritage Information Network

The workshop began with a perspective from outside Europe. Patricia Young from the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) [3] presented some of the work done by this Federal government organization, and outlined a number of the experiences gained within CHIN since their creation in the early 1970s.

Seen by many as the pioneers in this field, CHIN began by hosting the collection management systems of various Canadian museums. With the falling price of hardware and software, and increasing knowledge of computing within museums, the role of CHIN gradually changed so that it no longer directly manages the collections of any member museum. Instead, CHIN offers advice and training, and a variety of union databases, each built from data contributed by member museums. These databases include the Great Canadian Guide [4], Artefacts Canada [5], and a wide range of frequently changing on-line exhibits [6].

A View from the United Kingdom

The author then gave a presentation [7] in which a number of the key descriptive metadata developments, such as Dublin Core, of relevance to the cultural heritage sector were introduced. These developments are important if we are to move beyond the current trend whereby a small number of institutions make their proprietary internal systems searchable via a web interface towards a situation in which the holdings of many institutions can be made meaningful and useful to the remote user.

Thesauri as Tools for the End User

In a second presentation, Pat Young outlined the work of the J. Paul Getty Trust's Vocabulary Programme, of which she was Head until the end of 1998. The Vocabulary Programme is well known in a number of fields, and makes three main resources available for use locally and via the Web. These resources, which are continually updated, are the Art & Architecture Thesaurus [8], the Union List of Artist Names [9], and the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names [10].

Tools such as the Getty thesauri are often used as cataloguing aids, allowing the cataloguer to ensure that they have spelled terms correctly, or to enforce the selection of one preferred term over a variety of synonyms. Pat's talk, though, illustrated their equally important role as discovery tools for the end user. Imagine, for example, that a searcher wishes to recover the works of Leonardo da Vinci, but is aware that the artists' name is recorded differently by different people. Rather than having to manually submit each form of the name to the resources being searched — or require that each resource catalogue the name in only one form — use of a resource such as the Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) allows the user to enter the name form that they know ("Leonardo da Vinci") and have ULAN automatically pass this and its alternate name forms ("L. Davinci", "Leonardo d'Avinci", and "Leonardo Davinci") to the resources being searched; thus retrieving records incoporating any of the alternate name forms for this single individual.

A Vision for the Future

In his presentation, Kim Veltman of the Maastricht McLuhan Institute offered an inspiring vision of the potential for scholarship and the furtherance of knowledge in an environment where the resources of the cultural heritage community were widely and electronically available.

Backed by a wealth of slides (real ones, not Powerpoint!), and an impressive demonstration of his System for Universal Media Searching (SUMS), Kim showed much of what will be possible when we resolve our ongoing problems with technical issues such as metadata and distributed searching, and the political or human issues related to releasing the valuable information from within our cultural heritage "memory organizations" in the first place. It is useful to be reminded from time to time about what we are doing all this work for, and Kim's presentation served as one of those timely reminders.

Education and the Museum 'Visit'

Showing how one of the first museums to be represented on the World Wide Web continues to go from strength to strength, Pierre Coural of the Louvre in Paris demonstrated some of the work the Louvre is doing in terms of supporting school groups from outside Paris who are not always able to visit the Louvre in person.

Pierre demonstrated the site [11], and showed a variety of flexible ways in which the visitor can interact with a part of the Louvre's permanent collection. The user is able to search for art works based upon a number of criteria, and to assemble high quality images and associated text together for printing, or for inserting into course work in a variety of media.

Access to the site is currently restricted, with school visitors charged 5 French Francs (0.76 Euro, or about 50 pence) for a 36 hour visit and any associated support. This nominal charge, as well as financial support from a subsidiary of France Telecom and the French Ministry of Education, means that the start-up development costs of the site are likely to be met within a few years, allowing effort to then be expended upon new features.

Is the Internet Any Use?

Derek Law from the University of Strathclyde gave the last formal presentation, arguing both for the importance of cultural heritage institutions maintaining control over the rights they currently hold in their collections, and that the anarchic nature of the Internet makes it far from ideal as a medium for the dissemination of knowledge in any structured fashion.

Discussion

The presentations were interspersed with periods of discussion, in which all participants took part. This discussion culminated on the final day with presentation of locally important issues by a number of the participants; a series of presentations which I sadly missed as I needed to return to the UK early for meetings.

Two points seemed especially interesting in the discussions. Firstly, Sandra de Wet from Museum Africa in Johannesburg suggested that it is proving cheaper to deploy Internet access into South African townships than to construct the infrastructure required to build museums and libraries in these areas. She also suggested that there is proving to be little or no resistance to the new technology here, unlike in more well-established areas where the population has come to expect interaction with physical libraries and museums, and their contents. What implications might either of these points have in Europe?

Conclusion

This workshop provided an opportunity for cultural heritage practitioners from around the world to gather together and debate some of the issues facing us as we move increasingly into a digital environment. Many problems were raised, and we perhaps started along the road to a number of solutions. I hope that some of the work started here can continue, in order that the wealth of Europe's cultural heritage can be made more accessible and useful to all.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Kim Veltman at the MMI for inviting me to speak at this event, and for his ceaseless hospitality during my stay; I can safely say that the finer restaurants of Maastricht are truly wonderful!

Thanks also to Rachel Feuchtwang of the Amsterdam Maastricht Summer University for her extremely efficient organization, and for the excellent care she took of all the speakers. The Anglo-/Franco-/Canadian squabbling over who could tempt her away with the most lucrative job offer was only half in jest!

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

References

Author Details

Paul Miller
Interoperability Focus
UKOLN: < http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/>
Tel: +44 1482 466890
Email: P.Miller@ukoln.ac.uk
Address: UKOLN, c/o Academic Services: Libraries, University of Hull, HULL, HU6 7RX, United Kingdom

Paul Miller is employed as Interoperability Focus at UKOLN (the UK Office for Library and Information Networking). His responsibilities include advising on the development of interoperable solutions within and between such diverse communities as libraries, museums, and archives.

For citation purposes:
Paul Miller, "Digital Cultural Heritage Workshop, Maastricht", Exploit Interactive, issue 2, 20 July 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue2/maastricht/>

ELAG 99: The European Library Automation Group

Rosemary Russell reports on this year's ELAG seminar in Slovenia.

The European Library Automation Group (ELAG) [1] 1999 seminar was held this year in Bled, Slovenia, from 21-23 April. It was organised by the National and University Library, Ljubljana, where the event was originally to be held (it was moved to Bled due to limited availability of meeting space). However the stunning lakeside location, surrounded by mountains, more than made up for the non-library environment.

This was ELAG's 23rd annual meeting, presided over by Paula Goossens of the Royal Library Belgium, the driving force behind ELAG. It is a rather idiosyncratic invitational event, composed largely of European librarians and systems managers and attracts an interesting group of participants, some of whom are regulars and others new. Given the location, there were more people from East European countries this year, although the total number of participants was lower than usual - around 60 (it seemed that some were nervous about the proximity to Kosovo...). The topical meeting theme was ‘Managing Multimedia Collections’[2].

There was a range of papers on the theme, as well as a couple of presentations on local issues. Local papers included retrospective conversion, in fact a widely-shared problem. Theme papers included a metadata update by Juha Hakala (University of Helsinki). Metadata is urgently needed to improve resource discovery on the Internet, but not many web search engines support Dublin Core fully - this undermines much of the indexing effort being undertaken. Most people using DC so far are probably cataloguers, even though it is specifically designed to be applicable to the lay person. Updates on DC development included proposals to reduce the number of elements in DC 2.0 by combining several elements, although some opposing views are held. Discussions on core qualifiers also continue; efficiency in indexing is the primary aim. An interesting initiative in Finland is the introduction of a Word macro to enable ‘non-voluntary’ DC metadata creation; staff cannot create a Word document until they complete a basic metadata form.

The author presented a paper on the Agora project [3], with some background on eLib and the phase 3 programme. Agora is developing a ‘hybrid library’ system to provide managed, integrated access to distributed heterogeneous information services. The project is based on concepts which emerged from the MODELS project [4], MOving to Distributed Environments for Library Services, which is continuing to work in parallel. The central part of the Agora framework is a layer of broker services or middleware based on open standards, which shields the user from the complex and repetitive tasks involved in interacting with individual services. Collection level descriptions are being implemented to help direct users to relevant resources.

Poul Henrik Jorgensen (DBC - Danish Library Centre [5]) spoke about the Matilda system - ‘a three-tier electronic materials selection system based on distributed Active/X Objects, Z39.50,  RDF and the IFLA Entity-Relationship Model’. The three layer design is broadly similar to the MODELS Information Architecture (MIA) model. Matilda is a test bed for a new version of the DBC online system; it therefore searches an existing centralised catalogue, not distributed databases. The system has an EDI gateway for requesting and uses XML in EDI messages to suppliers (i.e.: instead of EDIFACT, although conversion to EDIFACT is possible). There is a trend to replace community-specific solutions such as EDI with XML.

A feature of ELAG is the large amount of time devoted to the in-depth workshops, with participants attending several sessions of the same workshop over two days. Johan van Halm (manager of the German Digibib project [6]) and the author co-chaired a workshop on the topic of access to heterogeneous information sources. A Digibib demonstration (which is broadly similar to a regional hybrid library) helped to visualise the type of system which is needed to manage and integrate hybrid resources; it also includes elements such as consortial agreements on full text journal access.

Other workshops included digital preservation; XML (XML browsers are badly needed, as well as standard templates and more authoring tools); metadata (recommendations included enhancing library systems to handle Dublin Core and the translation of DC into local languages); physical and virtual union catalogues (‘real’ and virtual union catalogues can and will co-exist and complement each other).

The theme of next year’s ELAG meeting (to be held in Paris) is ‘archives, libraries and museums convergence: issues and challenges’ - so should be interesting.

Slovenia appears to be a well-kept secret for travellers in the know, so it would be a mistake to elaborate further on the post-seminar weekend of stunning scenery, good food, minimal tourists...

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

References

Author Details

Rosemary Russell
MODELS Project Manager
UKOLN: UK Office for Library and Information Networking
ULCC
20 Guilford Street
London, WC1N 1DZ, UK

Tel: +44 (0)171 692 1302
Fax: +44 (0)171 692 1234
Email: r.russell@ukoln.ac.uk
URL: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/dlis/models/

For citation purposes:
Rosemary Russell, "ELAG 99: The European Library Automation Group", Exploit Interactive, issue 2, 20 July 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue2/elag99/>

EUNIS '99: the 5th European University Information Systems Organization Conference

Christine Dugdale gives an overview of EUNIS '99: the 5th European University Information Systems Organization Conference which was held in Espoo, Finland, 7-9 June 1999.

Information Technology Shaping European Universities

The fifth EUNIS conference took as its theme, 'Information Technology Shaping European Universities'. There were 170 delegates from 30 different countries - most of them European countries, but a disappointing number of librarians. Most speakers that I heard addressed issues surrounding University-wide administration systems. One speaker, admittedly, did say that information strategy might be seen as an administrative process, but that it is important for teaching and learning too!

Indeed, the word "library" was only uttered once during the entire first day during the sessions that I attended (and there was no mention of "librarians" or "information centres" or "learning centres" at all). This may have been the result of my selection of individual sessions, but it seemed to be very much the trend of the conference.

The picture did change somewhat on the second day, but one did wonder how so many speakers could emphasise the importance for integration and co-operation between internal university information systems without considering library management systems at all. There were only three presentations about library systems/services in total. Indeed, I was left wondering if IT managers did understand library management systems or their purposes when it was suggested that an integrated information system (presumably run by IT personnel) and those controlling it could move behind the scenes leaving all end-user support to those "who are best at it" - namely librarians. I assumed that the thinking behind this embraced a genuine admiration for librarians' skills in supporting end-users, but also a vague belief that future IT information systems would lead to virtual libraries without books. Consequently, librarians would become redundant as libraries became merely physical spaces in which students could meet and exchange ideas - like academic coffee shops!

Interestingly, many speakers outlined the frustrations and difficulties they constantly experienced in persuading policy makers to understand and adopt their ideas and to integrate systems without feeling any apparent need to understand libraries and their systems. Clearly, many appeared to believe that IT was the complete answer to students' future information needs without any clear understanding of an electronic and print 'hybrid' library future. I was left with the impression that libraries might long be destined to remain support services rather than key players in helping to shape their institutions' teaching and learning strategies unless they began to take a much more pro-active role themselves.

JISC and the eLib Programme, however, did achieve several mentions later in the conference. I was, however, surprised that there were so few references to the Telematics Programme at a European Conference which stressed European co-operation and IT.

I had also hoped to learn a great deal more about Finland's different library systems as I had understood that they have some impressive electronic libraries with their own equivalent of a more highly funded eLib programme that is concerned with subject gateways, OPACs and a number of various hybrid library issues. I had also understood that they were much more integrated in terms of access to wider communities so that, for example, every public library in Helsinki has several free Internet-access PCs. I did not have the opportunity to check this out during the conference, however, although I did manage to see the Helsinki University of Technology Library which was very impressive - particularly since it has grown to its present position and level of service from a pile of rubble following extensive damage in 1939 and 1944 from Soviet bombs. These more or less destroyed the University of Technology and most of its books. An interesting exhibition and photographic display charted its development from the bomb damage to the facilities in the new building with such 'highlights' as the first self-service copying machine in 1970 - always a reminder just how far technology has advanced in so short a period!

What impressed me most, however, was a number of less high-tech facilities such as the large lobby-sitting area with its newspapers and easy chairs and tables and, especially, the area equipped with a round table for the library clients' children (something that many of our academic libraries need with the growth in part-time and mature student numbers). It is possible, however, that the 20 year old 'client' sitting alone at this table in the picture might have been less than pleased had he understood the translated caption, "Complete with Donald Duck to delight children of all ages!"

Certainly, the population seemed to be very much into technology as far as mobile phones are concerned. When the Director of the University told us that 60% of the population had mobile phones I was staggered to learn that he meant that 60% owned them rather than were permanently speaking into them! I often felt I was the only person walking down a street or sitting on a bus who did not feel an overwhelming need to ring someone up and inform them of the fact! Sharing a taxi back to the airport I found that I was sitting silently whilst my fellow passenger was giving a friend a description of the journey and the driver was simultaneously using both his car radio and personal phone whilst driving! All this information, however, is no guarantee against mis-information as I found to my cost when, carefully following the hotel's instructions to bring up the EuroNews channel on my TV, I strayed into a porn channel!

Like all EUNIS conferences, the fifth one aimed to bring together all those involved with information technology in education - managers, staff, researchers, administrators and users of information technology services in HE and scientific research institutions to discuss evolving issues and applications of information technology in the academic world. And this fifth EUNIS conference did seem to achieve this general aim.

Figure 1: Helsinki University of Technology

It was organised by and took place on the campus of the Helsinki University of Technology. This is located in the city of Espoo which is only 9 kilometres west of the centre of Helsinki. The campus merges with nature in a way that one would think impossible for any city let alone one so close to a country's largest city. The site had a generous supply of trees and, of course, a closeness to the sea that is almost impossible to avoid near Helsinki. It was a truly beautiful setting for a conference.

The same, however, could not be said of the weather which seemed to fluctuate violently between hot sun and very cold winds, not to mention thunder storms and downpours! We were able to enjoy all this variety on the evening cruise to the island fortress of Suomenlinna. We had been warned that Finland was experiencing an exceptionally cold spring (Helsinki is on the same latitude as the tip of Greenland), but had not been warned about the heavy rain or the fact that days of extreme cold were punctuated with moments of very hot sun!! It would have taken a nature more generous than mine to rejoice with our guide who was so happy that it was raining and she did not have to water her plants after 4 weeks of dry weather!

It was a very well organised conference with excellent housekeeping arrangements - particularly in respect of preparation rooms for speakers. I was very impressed with the chairs' determination to start and finish every session on time, simply cutting off verbose speakers and allowing no questions. Unfortunately, however, it was organised around parallel sessions which meant that I was not able to go to hear all the papers that I would have chosen to hear. I also felt that the very large lecture theatres equipped with screens sufficiently large to map all the world's airways must have been more than a little daunting for some speakers.

The three keynote speakers all presented very interesting thought-provoking papers, but I did wonder why an essentially European conference was being addressed by two American speakers. Their papers were both highly informative and entertaining, but addressed largely American University issues - particularly those revolving around funding models. Obviously, competition and the pressures of finance are important to us all and their discussion of funding models was in the context of competing educational programmes provided, for example, via the InterNet. Again, these are issues which effect us all. The specific details, however, were not directly related to situations faced by European universities who are recipients of state funds.

The keynote speakers did, however, raise a number of important issues that were addressed throughout the conference by other speakers. As always, the rapid growth in technology was stressed. It was pointed out, by a later speaker, that technological changes have been so rapid as to even leave linguistic problems in their wake in Finland where there is, apparently, no word to describe "information literacy" at all and only one word to describe "data", "information" and "knowledge". This led, inevitably, to the oft aired thoughts about whether such rapid advances mean that humans might not be ready for the changes they would bring to their life and work styles. Like most speakers, the keynote speakers emphasised the changing educational scene and, particularly, competition in education with virtual universities leading to non-traditional competition that will become an increasing challenge to established colleges and universities. In order to meet this challenge we all need to change our thinking; becoming more adaptable and more willing to create new alliances. It was often stressed that EUNIS was itself built on collaboration and could become a chrysalis for change. One of the keynote speakers, for example, spoke of "coopetition" as a symbol of change and new thinking. This encompassed the idea that, in the future, we will need to co-operate in some areas as well as compete in others with institutions that we currently see as our competitors.

The keynote speakers were Jorma Routti, Director General of DG XII, EU who gave a paper entitled, EU Research and Education Programmes, Impacts on European Universities, Richard N Katz, President of EDUCAUSE who gave a paper entitled, Dancing with the Devil: Information Technology and the New Competition in HE, and Michael R Zastrocky, Research Director/Academic Strategies, Gartner Group who presented a paper entitled, The Information-and Technology-Enabled University of 2004.

The proposed conference themes were quite wide-ranging and centred around: Enhancing Learning Through Technology, Changes and Challenges in Staff Development and Training, The Role of Information Technology in Universities, The New Library role with Evolving Technologies, Security, Co-operation Within and Between Universities, Distributed Computing and Network Technology and Bridging Theory and Practice. In the event, there was a heavy concentration upon information strategies and how they are designed and implemented (or not).

The key issues that emerged over and over again in most papers were the ideas surrounding integration, collaboration, developing technology and information strategies within individual institutions, national programmes and international groupings. The need for integration and collaboration was repeatedly stressed and many speakers highlighted the need for an integrated approach within and between individual institutions nationally and globally. It was interesting to note that whether a paper was about a national system, a very local system, a university-wide administrative system or a library system, the same issues arose. There was the same emphasis on the need for integration and co-operation and the same emphasis upon the need to explain systems, to overcome cultural barriers, to "convert" managers and other personnel to their advantages and to overcome any fears about "threats" to traditional ways of working. Whatever the declared intent for introducing a new system, it appeared that most were actually designed to address the two (possibly conflicting issues) of improving quality whilst decreasing costs.

Many speakers came back to the same point, albeit in different guises, that the technology already exists to underpin most uses and the needs of most users, but that the will to implement that technology along with the acceptance of any new system might not exist. Implementing an information strategy is often a political process. The same problems were constantly outlined by many speakers - the lack of money, possibly the lack of networks, but always the lack of communications and collaboration. One speaker discussed the failure to make any significant headway with one system because managers were pessimistic, harassed as they were by financial shortcomings and concerns about organisation change. Indeed, one of the keynote speakers suggested that trying to introduce a new information strategy was like running into a jelly mountain. It was possible to make an initial impression upon colleagues and managers, but, after a while, the organisational structure re-formed into its earlier shape. It was, therefore, essential to change the thinking of managers and leaders.

It was also stressed that there is a growing need for accountability in universities world-wide. This might result in a reluctance to implement new information systems since it means that there is a corresponding need to be seen to be effective in spending on IT.

Despite this gloom, however, it was refreshing to hear about information systems that have actually been developed and not just about theories and ideas that are so often a feature of conferences such as these. It was also very encouraging to hear such a large number of speakers who were so enthusiastic about the need to implement new information systems despite the problems and discouragement that they felt that they had received in attempting to do so. A number of speakers stressed the importance of preparing information strategies - even where they were convinced that no-one would actually implement them - because it was very important to raise debates and encourage thinking about such strategies within institutions. A significant number of papers about existing systems often provided a graphic picture of ad hoc developments that had not been co-ordinated in the past. There is an obvious need for information strategies if we are to develop a more dynamic, cost-effective integrated approach in the future. It was, however, also stressed that technology often changes in ways that take us by surprise and that any information strategy should, therefore, be flexible. The importance in developing one must, therefore, always lie in the stimulation of debate rather than the creation of a document outlining firm details.

I was left with one uneasy thought at the end of the conference - although no-one actually made this point. Many of the systems that were described were intended to save time and effort and to provide a better service for staff and students - and often to save money. Their efficiency and, sometimes, their flexibility was emphasised, but I also felt that they could lead to rigidity rather than flexibility. Some were so detailed as to suggest a strong picture of controls and checks with timetables recording the whereabouts of personnel during every part of the day. Such systems would represent too great a shift in thinking to be acceptable. I could not help thinking that they were always doomed to failure since, however effective and helpful, they made IT the master rather than the servant of humans.

The sixth EUNIS conference, EUNIS 2000, Towards Virtual Libraries, will be held in Poznan, Poland, 13-14 April 2000. It will be organised by the Poznan Supercomputing and Network Centre. Further information will be available from September 1999 at: URL:<http://www.man.poznan.pl/>

Earlier EUNIS conferences took place at:

• EUNIS95 Dusseldorf, Germany
• EUNIS96 Manchester, UK
• EUNIS97 Grenoble, France
• EUNIS98 Prague, Czech Republic

Further Information

1. Further Information about EUNIS
   URL: <http://www.lmcp.jussieu.fr/eunis/>
2. Further Information about EUNIS '99 conference
   URL: <http://www.hut.fi/Misc/EUNIS99/>

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

Author Details

Christine Dugdale
ResIDe Electronic Library
University of the West of England

Email: Christine.Dugdale@uwe.ac.uk
URL: http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/itdev/reside/
Tel: (44) 965 6261 ext 3646

Christine Dugdale manages the ResIDe Electronic Library at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Funded as an eLib short loan project, the ResIDe Electronic Library sought to explore such issues surrounding the implementation of an electronic reserve as copyright and collection management systems. ResIDe has expanded to include a current awareness database and a past examination paper database and is now a permanent part of the University's Library Services.

For citation purposes:
Christine Dugdale, "EUNIS '99: the 5th European University Information Systems Organization Conference", Exploit Interactive, issue 2, 20 July 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue2/eunis99/>

PubliCA Training Placements

As previewed briefly in Exploit Interactive's News and Events page (issue 1) PubliCA is carrying out a programme of training for library managers in Central and Eastern Europe, the PubliCA Training Centres Initiative. In this timely article, Sue Welsh describes the initiative in more detail. Places in the programme are being booked now.

Background

In 1998 PubliCA's mandate was renewed and updated by DG13. Specifically, PubliCA was extended to the ten Central and Eastern European countries with pre-accession agreements: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. As part of the new remit, PubliCA engaged to set up a training programme for public library service managers from Central and Eastern Europe, based in "centres of excellence" around Europe.

The Aim of the PubliCA Training Centres Initiative is to:

By enabling library managers and service heads to see exemplary services in action it is hoped that they will be empowered to develop their own ideas locally. In addition, those trained will be able to disseminate knowledge and skills to their colleagues.

Surveying Needs

In order to address the priorities of potential participants accurately more detailed knowledge of training needs was required. A preliminary questionnaire was circulated to PubliCA contacts across Europe asking for information on training strategies and needs, and responses were received from 23 countries. A graphical view of the results of the survey is shown below in Figure 1. A detailed description of the results from the questionnaire is available on the PubliCA web site [2].

Figure 1: From the Training Needs Survey

Subsequently a more extensive and detailed consultation exercise was performed focusing on the Central and Eastern European countries only. PubliCA country co-ordinators were asked to consult with colleagues in the public library sector and prioritise over 30 broad training areas. The input from each county was used to produce a table training needs, ranked according to the priorities expressed by each country. High scoring training areas included:

• establishing regional and national initiatives
• business and financial planning
• integrating CD-ROMs, Internet and other electronic/audio-visual and print services
• integration of public libraries with local/regional development strategies
• demonstrating the value and impact of public libraries
• development of library web sites and gateways

These training needs were then used to inform and evaluate potential centres of excellence.

Choosing the Centres of Excellence

Potential centres of excellence were invited to apply to join the programme. Once application period closed, PubliCA rated the proposals against published criteria [1], which ranged from addressing one of the identified training needs to providing adequate support (for example accommodation).

A workshop was organised to give the candidates an opportunity to present their ideas. This was held in Budapest in February 1999 and as a result six centres were selected for the programme. Successful centres are based in:

• Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Denmark)
• Helsinki City Library, (Finland)
• Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin (Berlin, Germany)
• Haram Public Library and Trondheim Public Library (Norway)
• The Oton Zupancic Public Library (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
• Information North (Tyneside, United Kingdom)

The centres chosen provide a good range of training, varying topically and in geographical scope (from the library to the regional view).

Where Are We Now?

Training programmes from the successful centres have been published on the PubliCA web site [3] and places are being booked via PubliCA country co-ordinators in Central and Eastern European countries. Training will take place during the period August - November 1999.

Funding

PubliCA itself will be providing financial support for attachments during the first year of operations, and in addition Soros Foundations are supporting placements in several countries. The total number of placements funded either by PubliCA, Soros Foundations or nationally is likely to be over 50. In future it is expected that external funding will allow the continuation of the programme and extension of numbers in future years.

For More Information

The PubliCA Training Centres Initiative is being co-ordinated by Education for Change. Contact Rob Davies (rob.davies@efc.co.uk) for more information.

Figure 2: PubliCA Site

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

References

Author Details

Sue Welsh
PubliCA Webmaster

Email: swelsh@library.croydon.gov.uk
URL: http://www.croydon.gov.uk/publica/

For citation purposes:
Sue Welsh, "PubliCA Training Placements," Exploit Interactive, issue 2,  20 July 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue2/citizens/>

Web Technologies: Report on the W3C Track at WWW8

At the International World Wide Web conferences, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) gives a series of presentations in which they review new developments to web standards. Brian Kelly attended the WWW8 conference and, in this article, reports on XML developments described at the W3C track.

Introduction

The Eighth International World Wide Web conference took place in Toronto from 11-14th May 1999. I attended the conference, together with the W3C Advisory Committee meeting which preceded the conference, as described in the Trip Report published in the Ariadne web magazine [1]. This article reviews news of recent developments to XML which were described in the W3C Track at the conference. Note that the slides given by W3C members of staff are available on the W3C web site [2].

Tim Berners-Lee's Keynote

Tim Berners-Lee's Keynote talk, entitled Challenges of the Second Decade, reviewed developments to the web since it began, 10 years ago. Although the web has, of course, proved to be tremendously popular, there are still some parts of the original dream which have not yet materialised - in particular universal writing and annotations of web documents. Although much research has been carried out in the area of collaborative editing and prototypes have been developed (such as W3C's Jigsaw server and the Amaya browser / editor), there is little evidence of mainstream solutions. This is due partly to the need to address authentication issues within the web protocols, but also due to the complexity of the software needed to implement application-independent collaborative authoring.

There is arguably a need for a slowing-down in the development of web standards in order to get things right. The growth in the numbers of web protocols and data formats, and their inevitable inter-dependencies is resulting in new technologies being developed at a slower pace than in the past. (A concrete example can be seen with XML and RDF schemas, which were developed independently of each other).

The slowing down in developments (and it was noticeable that, unlike WWW6 - which saw the introduction and XML - and WWW7 - which saw the introduction of RDF - this year there were no new significant new protocols revealed at the conference) is made worse by patent concerns. As described in Ariadne [1] there are a number of patent claims which cover W3C standards. Software vendors may be reluctant to deploy new technologies for fear that they will face large legal claims for implementing patented ideas.

Tim concluded his keynote talk by describing the semantic web - an idea he originally proposed at the WWW7 conference [3]. The current web uses HTML as a format for providing access to human-readable information. The semantic web will use XML and RDF to provide machine-readable information, enabling well-defined data documents to be used as the basis for automated transactions.

XML: From Markup to Meaning

From Tim Berners-Lee's keynote talk it can be seen that XML has a key role to play in the development of the semantic web. The W3C track on XML reviewed developments with XML and associated standards.

Dan Connolly's XML Update [4] gave an overview of XML developments. XML (which has been described as the ASCII of the future) will enable data to be reused. XML 1.0 became a recommendation in February 1998. Since then work has begun on several related areas, including Linking, Stylesheets, DOM, Fragments, Namespaces, Schemas, Query Languages and Signatures.

Although many of the XML working groups have been producing requirements documents, working drafts, etc. there is an awareness that there are many interdependencies in the work of the groups and with other W3C working groups such as SMIL, MathML, SVG, P3P, RDF, etc.

The challenge facing the XML community is the application diversity. HTML is the mainstream language of the web, easy to use and widely deployed. XML will enable novel applications to be deployed. Getting the balance between XML and HTML right will be a major challenge.

W3C HTML Activity

Dave Raggett gave a report on W3C's HTML Activity [5].

Although HTML has played a central role in the web, HTML must develop in order to cope with the growth in new ways of accessing the web (including digital TVs, PDAs, mobile phones, etc.). HTML faces several challenges: the prevalence of poor HTML quality resources; pressures to develop a subset of HTML (to support simple clients); pressures to develop a superset of HTML (to support richer clients) and the need to integrate HTML with other XML applications e.g. Maths, graphics, metadata, etc.

One of the developments we have seen recently is XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language). XHTML is a reformulation of HTML in XML. As part of the transition to XML, XHTML has the following requirements:

• all tags and attributes must be lowercase
• end tags must be included e.g. </p> and </li>
• a slash (/) must be added to empty tags, e.g. <br /> and <hr />
• all attribute values must be quoted e.g. <img src="logo.jpg" />

W3C's tidy utility [6] has been developed to help fix HTML errors and convert HTML documents to XHTML.

Other related developments include modularisation of HTML and development of document profiles. HTML modules are designed to enable subsets of HTML to be deployed, for example for use in thin clients. Document profiles will provide a set of machine understandable assertions which will provide the basis for interoperability. This may include details of the content types and formats supported by the browser and details about the browser capabilities.

The provision of machine understandable definitions of the browser is likely to result in the use of servers which can select a document variant matching the browser's capabilities. or apply a transformation to generate a suitable variant. The transformation may also be applied by a proxy server or within the browser itself (e.g. using a client-side scripting language such as JavaScript, or through the transformation capabilities of a style sheet language).

Building Trust on the Web: Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)

W3C are involved in the development of several applications which are based on XML and RDF. Daniel J. Weitzner gave a review of developments with P3P in the W3C track on Web Technologies Service Society [7].

A trust infrastructure is needed on the web in order to implement applications in areas such as ecommerce. W3C are developing a metadata architecture to provide richer context for web-based interactions. This includes privacy and authentication.

The privacy work, P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences), enables a web service's privacy practices to be defined in a machine readable format. This enables negotiations related to privacy preferences to be carried out between a browser and server. For example a browser may be configured to automatically upload personal information (e.g. email and postal address) to services which use the information to carry out the business function (e.g. deliver goods), but require user agreement if additional uses of the information are to be provided (e.g. notification of new services).

The P3P work aims to develop consumer trust, which will build confidence between users and ecommerce services. Once the trust has been established P3P will provide the seamless exchange of personal information, subject to the diversity of privacy policies around the world.

Other W3C Talks

Several other talks were given in the W3C Track which are not reported in this article. These include:

• RDF - Using XML to Describe Data by Ralph Swick [8].
• Query Languages by Massimo Marchiori [9].
• Style Sheets: CSS, XSL and CSS-OM by Bert Bos [10].
• Style Sheets: CSS, XSL and CSS-OM Current directions in Web style sheets by Bert Bos [11].
• SMIL: Multimedia for Everyone by Philipp Hoschka [12].
• Web Characterization Activity by Henrik Frystyk Nielsen [13].

In addition, on the Developer's Day (held on Friday, 14 May, after the conference itself had finished) the following W3C sessions were held:

• Towards CSS modularization by Bert Bos [14].
• Style sheets for Voice Browsers by Dave Raggett [15].
• The CSS Object Model by Philippe Le Hégaret.

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

References

Author Details

Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Tel: +44 1225 323943
Email: B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
Address: UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY

Brian Kelly is employed as UK Web Focus, at UKOLN (UK Office for Library and Information Networking) at the University of Bath, England. Brian's responsibilities include keeping the UK Higher Education community informed of web developments.

For citation purposes:
Brian Kelly, "Report on the W3C Track at WWW8," Exploit Interactive, issue 2, 20 July 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue2/web/>

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