Access to the feature articles. This page is intended for printing purposes. Note that the internal links to references will not work correctly.
Ingrid Cantwell and Magnus Enzell introduce the prototype for the ELVIL 2000 Project, an Academic Portal for European Law and Politics.
The European Legislative Virtual Library project (ELVIL) was conceived at the Stockholm University library back in 1995 [1]. The current library co-ordinator was teaching political science students the intricacies of using a telnet interface to access the Swedish Riksdag database and the thought arose that there had to be an easier way to access public information. Couldn't it all be done using the World Wide Web? A lot has happened since then but the basic ideas are still valid and the original problems are still pertinent: how can we increase the availability of public information by using the World Wide Web?
During the ELVIL project the team identified three variables of availability: access, education and communication. Access to public database had to be intuitive and user-centred. Users had to be educated about the content and role of public documentation. Since public documentation is often of a political nature there is also a need for forums to discuss the interpretation of it. The ELVIL-project was completed successfully in 1998 and was directly followed by the ELVIL 2000 project [2].
The general aim of the ELVIL 2000-project is to create and operate an Academic
Portal to European Law and Politics. Portal, because we combined
access to a number of different types of resources on the same platform. These
sources could be divided into three different categories but all intended to be
of a “slow nature” as opposed to “fast” information like
news. The sources include public documentation and official Web sites,
educational modules, discussion and work-platforms. Academic, because we
believed that academic standards and principles could greatly enhance the
quality of information and communication management on the Internet. The
principles of selection and validation could be useful for the Internet and
could also be used to a greater extent to ensure a higher degree of trust and
reliability on the Internet in general.
While focusing on virtues like speed, accessibility and rapid updates it is easy to forget that the Internet offers unique opportunities for the slower practices of accumulation and reflection on knowledge in a public sphere. ELVIL 2000 is aimed at building platforms that encouraged reflexivity, and the accumulation of “slow” knowledge. ELVIL 2000 has now finalised its second prototype (The “ELVIL-platform”) and will develop models and programs for use on the platform during the next six months.
The current ELVIL platform provides:
 Figure 1: European Union Encyclopaedia on the ELVIL prototype |
The current prototype is now available for viewing from the ELVIL site [3].
Ingrid Cantwell
Co-ordinator
Magnus Enzell
Project manager
For citation purposes:
Plamen Gradinarov, "ELVIL 2000", Exploit Interactive, issue
7, 2nd October 2000
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue7/emerge/>
Monica Brinkley provides an update on the EQUINOX project following on from an earlier article in Exploit Interactive. Progress on the development of performance indicators for electronic library services is reported. These performance indicators aim to enhance and complement the ISO 11620 library performance indicators. Management information software has been developed and tested by the EQUINOX project. The EQUINOX software tool is designed to help library managers implement quality management and performance measurement principles.
The EQUINOX project is a research project funded under the EC fourth framework Telematics for Libraries programme [1]. The project, now in its final phase, aimes to advance the field of quality management and performance measurement in European libraries. This has been achieved firstly by developing a set of performance indicators for electronic library services, which will enhance and update existing standards for performance measurement in libraries. And secondly by the project team developing a software tool for library managers, which aids and facilitates the implementation of performance measurement and quality management.
The EQUINOX project is a two-year project, due to be completed in November 2000. The project comprises both library and technical partners from a range of European countries. Background information about EQUINOX and its history are available from the project Web site [2] and in an earlier article in Exploit Interactive [3] that introduced the project. The current article reports the results and findings of EQUINOX to date.
Performance indicators provide library managers with a standard and manageable method of measuring the library’s performance as well as allowing benchmarking and comparison between libraries. Electronic library services have been increasing in importance in terms of the percentage of the library budget being spent on them and in terms of the ease of access that they provide to users. However, to date no standard method has been available for evaluating how this important section of library services is performing and whether value for money is being achieved. The EQUINOX performance indicators for electronic library services provide the library manager with a methodology for gathering valuable information about the quality of service being offered.
An initial set of performance indicators (PIs) was developed by the project team during the first phase of the EQUINOX project and published through the EQUINOX Web site [2], relevant mailing lists, the professional literature and at EQUINOX workshops. Feedback was received from a wide range of professionals from Europe and around the world. At the same time, the library partners in the EQUINOX project team tested these performance indicators in real library situations in terms of ease of data collection, applicability to the current situation in the library, relevance to library management, and so on.
Both the feedback received and the testing of the PIs showed that while this initial set was very useful, further revision of the PI list was required. Some PIs were felt to be too demanding of staff time in relation to the value of the information gleaned. Others were felt to be somewhat confusing and difficult to calculate. In many cases, the data required simply wasn’t available from many of the electronic library services currently in use in libraries. Following deliberation and discussion between project partners and with external interested parties and experts in the field, a revised set of performance indicators was developed by the project team. A discussion of the deliberations leading to this revision is available on the project Web site [4].
The revised set of performance indicators, together with a definition of terms used is listed below. The full definition and collection methodology for each PI is available on the project Web site [5]. The final phase of the project will further refine these performance indicators to reflect feedback received; comments are therefore welcome even at this late stage of the project, directly to the author or through the project Web site.
It must be noted that these PIs are designed to enhance and complement rather than to replace the ISO 11620 Library Performance Indicators [6]. The ISO 11620 indicator ‘User Satisfaction’ in particular should be measured in conjunction with these PIs. For example, user satisfaction with each electronic library service and electronic library services generally would provide enhanced qualitative management information, in particular when considered in conjunction with PIs such as numbers 2 and 5 below. By considering pairs of PIs together in this way the manager can elicit even more valuable information. For example, the cost per session of a particular service considered in conjunction with the number of documents downloaded per session can give a better indication of value for money than has been available heretofore.
The term ‘library’ is used throughout but can be taken to refer to an information service irrespective of its title.
Standard definitions have been used where possible. Whether the definition is taken from an ISO document or has been defined by the EQUINOX project is indicated in bold after the definition.
Cost: Acquisition, subscription and license costs for electronic library services made available by the library. Network and hardware costs should not be included. EQUINOX
Document: Recorded information or material object which can be treated as a unit in a documentation process. ISO/FDIS 5127 [NOTE: Documents can differ in their physical form and characteristics.]
Downloading transaction: Any procedure that aims at reproducing electronic data onto a local storage medium or printing facility. ISO/DIS 2789
Electronic library resources: Every document in electronic form which needs special equipment to be used. Electronic resources include digital documents, electronic serials, databases, patents in electronic form and networked audiovisual documents. ISO/DIS 2789
Electronic library services: A service which is either supplied from local servers or accessible via networks. Electronic library services comprise the OPAC, the library Web site, electronic resources, electronic document delivery and internet access offered via the library. ISO/DIS 2789
Entry: Bits of information, especially from reference databases or directories e.g. records, abstracts etc. ISO 5127-1
Information request: User enquiry that involves the knowledge or use of, or recommendations, interpretation or instruction in the use of, one or more information sources (such as printed and non-printed materials, machine-readable databases, the library’s own and the institutions’ catalogues) by library staff. The request can be delivered personally or by means of telephone, regular mail, fax or electronic media. Do not include directional or administrative enquiries e.g. locating staff or facilities, opening times or handling of equipment. Do not include enquiries about locating items in stock that have already been identified bibliographically. ISO/DIS 2789
Library computer workstation: Public access networked and stand alone computers, provided by the library, though not necessarily in the library, offering access to electronic library services. EQUINOX
Session: An established connection to an electronic service, usually by a log-in. [NOTE: connecting to a Web site is regarded as a session if its referring link is external to the Web site. Sessions to a general entrance or gateway page should be excluded.] ISO/DIS 2789
Population to be served: Number of individuals for whom the library is set up to provide its services and materials. For public libraries this will normally be the population of the legal service area: for academic libraries this will normally be the total of academic and professional staff plus students. ISO 11620
Rejected session: Unsuccessful session to an electronic library service which is not available because of requests exceeding the simultaneous user limit. [Note: Rejection of wrong passwords is excluded.] ISO/DIS 2789
Target population: Groups of actual and potential users appropriate to an individual library as the object of a specific service or as the primary users of specific materials. The target population may be the population to be served. ISO 11620
In conjunction with the development of performance indicators for electronic library services, the EQUINOX project team have developed a software tool to aid the library manager to implement performance measurement and quality management practices in their library.
The EQUINOX system works on the basis of a quality framework, which is devised by each library to reflect their local situation. This framework consists of one or more missions, out of which arise aims. Objectives are defined relating to each of these aims, and the objectives are measured in terms of specific performance indicators (ISO 11620, EQUINOX, or locally defined indicators).
 Figure 1: Quality Framework in the EQUINOX System |
For example, Figure 1 above shows one of the library’s missions as being: ‘To support the teaching and learning activities of academic staff and students’. One of the aims arising from this mission is: ‘To equip members of the institution with the skills needed for the Information Society’. One of the specific objectives devolving from this aim is: ‘To maximise the use made of the electronic library’. The EQUINOX system can measure and record whether this objective is being met, through the performance indicators which have been defined as constituting this objective, namely: ‘Percentage of the population reached by electronic library services’ and ‘Number of sessions on each electronic library service per member of the target population’. Each of these is calculated from the datasets shown in Figure 1 and according to a predefined formula. Target values, minimum and maximum thresholds can also be defined by the library. The system compares the value of a PI or objective to these thresholds and an alerting facility will alert the relevant staff if a threshold has been exceeded.
This quality framework or hierarchy and its constituent entities can be stored, viewed and edited with ease through the EQUINOX software. Colour coding distinguishes clearly between different levels in the hierarchy. Entities can be viewed in their own right or as part of the hierarchical structure. Links to qualitative or related documentation can be provided from entities anywhere in the hierarchy and will be automatically launched using the appropriate software when selected. For example, links might be provided to service level agreements or to an analysis of a user survey.
The EQUINOX software consists of two modules: an administrative module and a review module. The administrative module is used to input the hierarchical structure and to set up the system according to the library’s needs. This module is also used to input actual data relating to library activities and performance, which is then used by the system to calculate performance indicators and objectives. The review module is aimed at library managers. This module allows the library’s quality framework to be viewed and printed. The performance of the library can be assessed by viewing or printing graphs depicting the values of a specific performance indicator or objective over time, as shown below. These can also be copied for inclusion in reports.
 Figure 2: Graph of PI: Percentage of the population reached by electronic library services |
 Figure 3: Graph of Objective: To maximise the use made of the electronic library |
The EQUINOX system has been tested by the partner libraries in live library environments. These tests resulted in minor changes to the system followed by a second (or beta) test phase. The beta testing resulted in further enhancements being made to the system. Overall the libraries found the system easy to use and extremely useful for managing quality and performance measurement data. Forty European libraries and two libraries in the US are currently testing the final version of the EQUINOX software. This large scale demonstration trial is due to be completed during September 2000, and feedback received from these trials will feed into plans for the future exploitation of the EQUINOX system.
Overall the EQUINOX project has been a very successful project. Two valuable additions to the area of performance measurement and quality management in libraries have resulted from this project. Performance indicators have been developed and tested for electronic library services to enhance and complement the existing standard indicators for traditional library services. These have been disseminated to and discussed with an international audience, ensuring their relevance to the profession and their position at the leading edge of developments in this field. A prototype software tool to aid the library manager attempting to implement quality principles in his or her library has been developed and tested and has proven to be not only possible but extremely useful.
The remaining phase of the EQUINOX project will include consideration of future exploitation of these two products of the project. The performance indicators have already been discussed with the relevant ISO Committee and may be considered for future revisions of ISO 11620. The project has identified a clear need and market for a software product such as EQUINOX and commercial exploitation of this product is being investigated.
Monica Brinkley
Research Officer
Dublin City University Library
Dublin City University
Collins Ave, Dublin 9
Ireland
Email: mbrinkley@esatclear.ie
URL: <http://equinox.dcu.ie/>
Monica Brinkley is the EQUINOX Research Officer for Dublin City University Library. She has previously been involved in the research project BIBDEL: Libraries without Walls, which investigated the delivery of library services to remote users. Monica has worked both as an academic librarian and a lecturer in Library and Information Studies.
For citation purposes:
Monica Brinkley, "Performance Measurement and Quality Management for the Hybrid Library: An update on the EQUINOX project", Exploit Interactive, issue
7, 2nd October 2000
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue7/equinox/>
Libraries and survey data archives traditionally offer separate services through their respective catalogues and reference systems. Thus for people interested in social science information the way from articles and books to related survey data or vice versa used to be quite cumbersome. ILSES aims at a multi-level integration of both: bibliographic references for publications and meta-data for related data files, including direct access to the increasingly available body of electronic format or digitised documents. On the content side ILSES focuses on the emerging needs by comparative cross-national and cross-temporal social research for country specific and time series (meta-)data. The ILSES prototype was built on exemplary surveys from the European Commission's bi-annual Eurobarometer series and related publications.
The ILSES project [1] aims to develop a service
that enables end-users to retrieve and access publications,
documentary information and empirical data related to large-scale surveys
within an integrated system, allowing for vertical ("in depth")
search, either starting from publications or from survey data or from both
in combination, and offering subsequent horizontal expansion to related
data respectively publications. For content providers, libraries
and data archives, ILSES offers tools and procedures for the generation of
meta-data, conversion of existing formats, normalization, cataloguing and
networked common access to distributed holdings [2]
[3].
The focus on end-users and content providers is reflected in the modular construction of ILSES, with a central data base administrator (ADMIN-ILSES) as its technical heart containing the meta-data dictionary, with the library and data archive content provider tools for local meta-data import and administration (LIB-ILSES, DAT-ILSES), and with the end-user modules E-ILSES, a locally installed client interface, and NET-ILSES as an additional WWW interface with a subset of basic facilities.
 Figure 1: Structure of ILSES |
The arrows on the left and on the right represent the access to real survey data, electronic documents and publications; the 'communication' of end-users with the meta-data database (ADMIN-ILSES) is effected via E- or NET-ILSES.
The integration of bibliographic information and survey meta-data, in principle created separately in libraries and data archives usually neglecting the interrelated nature, is realised in ILSES through indexing from a common (domain specific) thesaurus ("soft links") and through direct intellectual cross-referencing ("hard links"), both down from the study (survey) level to the variable (individual survey question) level.
For the ILSES prototype it was decided to use the internet based HASSET thesaurus [4] which was developed by the UK data archive starting from the "UNESCO thesaurus for social sciences, education, communication, and culture". ILSES also allows for the application of multiple, subject specific thesauri. The about 10000 thesaurus keywords and their hierarchical relations are stored in ADMIN-ILSES and assigned to publications via LIB-ILSES and to survey questions via DAT-ILSES. The end-user can select and combine keywords from the thesaurus list to start a structured search without being familiar for example with the actual question wording or publication titles. Free-text search interfaces on all levels (publication or study abstract, author, title, variable labels or question text) complement the ILSES information retrieval facilities.
 Figure 2: E-ILSES screen illustrating integrated data and publication retrieval For an enlarged view click on the image |
Publication and variable hit lists with results from an integral thesaurus guided search for the keyword "democracy"; meta-data for a selected variable (variable name and label, study number and title, question and answer text, aggregate results etc.) are displayed; publications directly linked to the selected variable are listed separately; bibliographic information for a selected publication is displayed.
In general, ILSES provides a pre-coordinated collection building which is controlled with common indexing and consistent cross-referencing between related information. While other systems (e.g. NESSTAR [5]) concentrating on critical mass and accepting a lowest common denominator in contributing material, show decreasing rates of completeness the deeper the search level, ILSES in principle maintains quality and consistency in vertical and horizontal direction. The price to be paid is the required amount of intellectual input which is concluded to be worthwhile only for selected data collections with recognized major importance. Therefore ILSES is anticipated to be an appropriate complement to other tools such as NESSTAR, for accessing specialized, complex and mixed media social scientific information content that needs integration beforehand.
Once relevant topics (i.e. publications and survey data units) are identified, ILSES provides, beyond bibliographic information and data documentation, direct access to electronic documents and data ordering. Full text publications are made available through their respective internet addresses, original documents such as the national field questionnaires on dedicated ftp servers.
"Custom-made" data sets containing exactly the information needed in a particular research framework, can be directly ordered from participating data archives. Last but not least ILSES supports the integration (combination) of time series data from different surveys through controlled data manipulation and harmonisation. The necessary SPSS code is created in the background to be run at the data archive. These data matching procedures can be stored and modified or extended at any later stage.
 Figure 3: E-ILSES screen illustrating the matching of time series data For an enlarged view click on the image |
Variable hit list with results from a free text search for "satisfaction" in variable labels of pre-selected studies (surveys); several steps are shown of preparing a time series data extraction from different surveys (match variables) by software supported comparison of variable labels and values: (1) variables which do not match at all, (2) variables with minor differences in labels or values (necessary manipulation is supported by a recode interface), (3) variables with identical labels and values ready to be matched, (4) checking variables to be matched (former recode procedures are tracked)
ILSES provides meta-data import from standard formats of bibliographic information (UNIMARC carried by the 2709 format), from statistical standard software (SPSS) and imports standard codebooks (detailed survey data documentation). ILSES is considering the emerging social sciences Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) standard [6], written as a DTD in XML [7], both for meta-data import and export and for exchange with complementary systems (e.g. NESSTAR). The DDI-DTD element definitions have already incorporated most of the ILSES requirements for handling cross-national and longitudinal comparative data. DAT-ILSES goes beyond the present DDI-DTD in country specific elements at the study and variable level of description and in time series elements. LIB-ILSES still supersedes the DDI in cross-referencing between publications and data from survey questions. Forementioned elements, as well as addressing better inclusion of thesaurus indexing terms at all possible levels, can be expected for consideration in future DDI-DTD developments.
The ILSES project has been running within the European Commission's Telematics for Libraries programme from September 1996 to September 1999. The project has been carried out by a consortium of Dutch, German, French, and Irish institutes. In accordance with their respective expertise, iec ProGAMMA (Groningen) was responsible for software development and the overall project management, NIWI (Amsterdam) for the design of the library module and the bibliographic input, Zentralarchiv (Cologne) for the design of and meta-data loading by the data archive module, and University of Amsterdam's Department for Political Sciences contributed the end-user perspective, seconded by Trinity College (Dublin) and CIDSP (Grenoble) in the organisation of end-user and content provider user validation workshops.
ILSES has been developed as an open system using different software modules assembled around a central data base. Software and underlying data base work locally or centrally over the Internet (ftp and http protocol). The software is written in C++, the user-interfaces (screens) have been developed in Delphi. ILSES has been developed under Paradox but with it's client-server model any relational database capable of understanding SQL (e.g. Oracle) can be used and manipulated.
Complementing the traditional publication retrieval with own (re-)analysis of relevant survey data, sharpening the perspective on selected data through relevant publications, inspecting the translation of indicators in the original language field questionnaires in cross-national survey programs, controlled build-up of cumulative time series data sets, all these facilities make ILSES a unique service for comparative social research. Cross checking own findings, general quality control and avoidance of double work are only some of the relevant aspects for Social Science Research in general. With ILSES, the building of integrated research databases around important large scale data collections such as Eurobarometer [8] [9], International Social Survey Program (ISSP), World Values Surveys, or National Elections Studies can be managed intellectually and in terms of sharing the workload, in close collaboration between all parties involved: data collectors, researchers, authors and publishers. With LIB and DAT-ILSES each would have the networked tool for creating meta-data, thesaurus indexing and information linking. Because of the added value following from building integrated databases and because of giving end-users their own tools (E and Net-ILSES), the archive’s and library’s support burden per information or data request, can very well be expected to be considerably reduced as well.
The future of ILSES depends on both content and software development. The prototype contains meta-data for five Eurobarometer surveys (study description, SPSS variable and value definitions, question- and answer text, aggregate results by country etc. for over 3000 Variables) including thesaurus controlled indexing and cross-linkages to national field questionnaire pages. It also contains about a hundred indexed and cross-referenced, related publications (from among a larger pool of roughly 600 bibliographic references of associated literature). As a start the present five could be expanded to make more than 50 Eurobarometer surveys with all related information, available through ILSES. On the software side rapidly increasing user expectations would ask for on-line data browsing and simple pre-analysis facilities. For content providers, standard developments ask for direct access from ILSES to Z39.50 databases and for new modules to accommodate for example the DDI data documentation standard.
(including links to the project partners)
Meinhard Moschner
Zentralarchiv für Empirische Sozialforschung (ZA)
University of Cologne, Germany
Tel: +49 (0)221 47694 21
Fax: +49 (0)221 47694 44
E-mail: moschner@za.uni-koeln.de
URL: <http://www.za.uni-koeln.de>
Meinhard Moschner is responsible at ZA for data preparation, data documentation, user advice and data service for the Eurobarometer survey series.
Repke E. de Vries
Netherlands Institute for Scientific Information Services (NIWI),
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 20 4628600
Fax: +31 20 6685079
E-mail: repke.de.vries@niwi.knaw.nl
URL: <http://www.niwi.knaw.nl/us/research/research.htm>
Repke de Vries is participating in the NIWI Research Programme "Exploring the future of Information and Communication in Research" and studies ICT related changes in work- and information environments for researchers.
For citation purposes:
Meinhard Moschner and Repke de Vries , "The ILSES Project: Integrated Library and Survey Data Extraction Service", Exploit Interactive, issue
7, 2nd October 2000
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue7/ilses/>
David Fuegi, John Sumsion and Phillip Ramsdale describe the LIBECON2000 Project and summarise the project’s Millennium Report. Funded by DG13 under FP4, Libecon2000 is fully described on its own Web site [1] where statistics on the libraries of 29 European countries [2] are found, constituting an indispensable resource for policymakers and others with an interest in libraries at the European level. This has been achieved with the assistance of EBLIDA, IFLA, UNESCO and colleagues throughout Europe. During 2000, one more year of data will be added. The Millennium Report evaluates the main trends and lessons from the financial and statistical data collected over the last 10 years.
LIBECON2000 ensures that data is recent, formulated to a common standard, validated and grossed up in appropriate cases to produce valid trend lines. Financial data is standardised on the Euro to allow comparisons between countries and over time. The Web site provides quick and easy access to the data and to the sources. Besides providing a tool for research, monitoring, benchmarking and comparison, the project has impacted on the revision of ISO2789 [library statistics] and influenced a number of countries to adopt ISO2789 or to carry out surveys for the first time or in an improved format.
The Millennium Report and the Web site cover Central and Eastern Europe, the EFTA countries and the European Union and all library sectors - schools, higher [tertiary] education, national, public, special [broken down for the first time into sub-sectors] and other major non-specialised. For the sake of brevity, comment is here restricted mainly to the public library and tertiary education sectors. For details and for the full text, please visit the Web site.
Libraries are developing an ever increasing role in the supply of knowledge and it is estimated that in the main countries of Europe, total expenditure on libraries now amounts to 16 billions euros per year. As we enter the new millennium, rapid progress in methods of distributing knowledge by electronic means is being made and librarians are playing a key role in managing this information revolution. In this context, we have a concern to monitor the economic place which libraries occupy to better inform policy judgements and investment appraisals by international, national and local governments. A network of mainly professional contacts has been established in each country to co-ordinate the return of statistical information on a regular basis and these data, and useful source references, are maintained on the LIBECON 2000 Web site. Our aim is to create a virtual community of those who create and use library statistics of European countries. There are a number of advantages arising from this approach:
The European focus of the project arises from the policy aims of our funding body, the European Commission and the work could usefully be extended more widely if a way could be found to do so. For instance data collected in last year’s surveys have already been passed to UNESCO for incorporation in the United Nations Statistical Year Book, and if the LIBECON surveys were extended to other countries a precedent already exists to channel such data through to the main international agencies.
A major problem in assembling meaningful statistics is gaining access to information prepared to consistent definitions. UNESCO pioneered standardisation in this field and have been publishing library statistics of many countries for many years and formulated the six standard sectors [3] which they respectively survey on a three-year cycle. ISO, the worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies) undertakes the work of preparing International Standards through its technical committees. International organisations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work of refining the definitions, and LIBECON2000 is seeking to inform the standards debate. Our ability to do this arises from the fact that we are one of the few to have attempted to collate and compare library statistics from many countries and thus have first-hand experience of the pitfalls.
What LIBECON2000 does is both more extensive and more limited than UNESCO. More limited in that we cover only 29 countries, whereas UNESCO aims to cover the whole world. We are more extensive in that we ask more questions and attach importance to financial data which are presented in standardised form [euros] and not in national currencies. We also have the resources to check more thoroughly with our sources and, unlike UNESCO, we gross-up to account for missing data and provide a bibliography, list of contacts and translations of major column headings in the original publications. Like UNESCO, LIBECON2000 surveys countries, not libraries. In other words, we do not undertake primary survey work. We go beyond UNESCO also in publishing a commentary on trends. Previous publications in the series include Library Economics in Europe [4] and Library Economics in Central and Eastern Europe [5].
i. Staff
We estimate that about 374,000 staff were employed in libraries, an increase of 3.7 % since 1991. This increase in staffing numbers is weighted towards the professional staff whose numbers increased by 4.9 % over the period. The increase in Trained staff occurs mostly in EU States.
The number of trained librarians in all sectors of libraries (206,000) is higher than previous estimates for the mid-1990’s (175,800 for 1991). However, the number of other support staff is substantially lower than previous estimates. Proportionately the returns for ‘Other Staff’ are appreciably lower in the CEE than in the EU.
Table 1 Staff FTE * (000s)
| Qualified | Other | Total | |
| 1991 | 196 | 165 | 361 |
| 1992 | 195 | 163 | 357 |
| 1993 | 191 | 164 | 355 |
| 1994 | 195 | 163 | 357 |
| 1995 | 199 | 162 | 361 |
| 1996 | 201 | 159 | 360 |
| 1997 | 206 | 160 | 367 |
| 1998 | 206 | 168 | 374 |
* Full Time Equivalent, i.e. part time staff count as fractions in proportion to hours worked
ii. Materials
The overall position and trends are summarised in this table:
Table 2 Trends in Materials Provision (millions)
| RESOURCES | 1991 | 1998 | % change |
| Book stock |
2,778 |
2,944 |
+ 6 |
| Audio Visual stock |
104 |
127 |
+ 22 |
| Periodical subscriptions |
19.5 |
21.3 |
+ 9 |
| Manuscripts |
29.5 |
32.0 |
+ 8 |
| Microforms |
316 |
313 |
- 1 |
| ANNUAL MOVEMENTS: | |||
| Book Additions |
171 |
171 |
= |
| A/V Additions |
9.7 |
12.1 |
+ 25 |
| Inter Library Loans (received) |
15.2 |
29.0 |
+ 91 |
The trends in annual additions to stock appear to vary between sectors. National libraries report a growth in their annual additions in books and audio-visual materials. Public libraries book acquisitions fell between 1991 - 1995 but have since stabilised, while their audio-visual materials have increased steadily. With a large increase in the population served by Tertiary Education, so have their book acquisitions grown hugely, but there has been a decline in audio visual additions.
iii. Use and users
The count of Registered Members increased in total from 126 million to 139 million - an increase of 10.5 per cent. As this count includes those who use several libraries the proportion it represents out of the total population (484 million) - 29 per cent - is disappointingly low. But the trend is moving upwards. Estimates for Loan Transactions at 3,543 million and Visits at 3,468 million are close and show only a small difference in trend: + 5.2 % against - 1.3 %. When taken together the ratio for Loan Transactions per Registered Member point to high intensity of use - moving from 26.8 to 25.5.
iv. Modernisation
Overall total estimates show the following: Workstations for users increased more than fourfold from 74,000 in 1991 to 310,000 in 1998. The stock of CD ROMs went up exponentially during the second half of the period, going from an estimated 456,000 in 1991 to 2,500,000 in 1998. The percentage of catalogue records automated is estimated to have gone up from 36 to 46 per cent.
v. Service points
Including all sectors, it is estimated that in 1998 there were 224,000 service points throughout the study area. There has been a considerable contraction since 1991, averaging 7.1 %, but this has taken place particularly in the Central & Eastern European countries (CEE) where the proportionate drop was 14 % and where the main closures took place in public libraries.
[6] There has been greatly increased activity in Tertiary Libraries and lack of growth - overall - in the Public Library sector, with modest growth in National Libraries. The obvious expectation from this is that levels of expenditure have increased more in the Tertiary sector than in others. Here we look at the situation overall.
Table 3 Main trends in financial results (All sectors of library)
| (e millions) EXPENDITURE | 1991 |
1998 |
% change |
| Staff | 5,007 | 6,697 | + 34 |
| Materials | 2,342 | 3,121 | + 33 |
| Electronic information | 317 | 528 | + 67 |
| Total revenue exp. | 10,347 | 13,965 | + 35 |
| INCOME ITEMS | |||
| Fees & Charges | 382 | 648 | + 70 |
| Other (i.e. special funds) | 432 | 1,034 | + 139 |
| CAPITAL PAYMENTS | 487 | 695 | + 43 |
Since staffing costs represent the largest part of the budget, expenditure on staff has increased at a rate reflected by the charge in total expenditure.
The total expenditure on conventional materials also shows an average increase, but this average conceals an estimated + 64 % for Special Libraries, + 40 % for Tertiary, + 27 % for National, + 33 % for Schools, and only + 1 % for Public Libraries.
The data show a dramatic (67 per cent) increase in expenditure on electronic materials. This is heavily concentrated in the Tertiary and Special Libraries sectors - and Special Libraries are more fully represented in these statistics than ever before.
It is significant, however, that the 1998 results show electronic information still at only 15 per cent of total materials expenditure - so confirming that conventional materials are still dominant.
Perhaps the most surprising revelation in this set of statistics lies in the specifically identified ‘Income Items’. The magnitude of the increase in Fees & Charges - 70 per cent - is impressive, and the pattern is virtually universal across all countries. This is a new trend.
i. The importance of the library sectors
One would expect, even over a lengthy period, to find little change in the relative size of the various library sectors. Estimates in previous surveys showed that, between 1981 and 1995 public libraries and higher education libraries increased their share of total spending on libraries - with the share of other sectors largely unchanged. In this survey we find a very different result - as illustrated in this table:
Table 4 Library sector shares
| SECTOR | by total expenditure | by total staff | ||
| PREVIOUS ESTIMATE | PRESENT ESTIMATE | |||
| 1981 * | 1995 § | 1998 | 1998 | |
| National | 6.0 % | 5.9 % | 5.4% | 4.1% |
| Higher Education | 15.3 % | 16.9 % | 19.9% | 16.5% |
| Public | 47.3 % | 49.5 % | 45.0% | 45.2% |
| Special | 8.6 % | 8.6 % | 21.3% | 16.7% |
| Other Major | 4.9 % | 4.5 % | 0.8% | 2.2% |
| School | 17.8 % | 14.7 % | 7.7% | 15.5% |
* EU States only § estimated in The Historic Database, Libecon2000 Project Deliverable D, 1998
The main reason for these changes is the stricter application of sectoral definitions and better returns for the Special Library sector in this later canvass. In view of this major change Table 4 above also includes a column to show how different the sector proportions appear when analysed by the numbers of staff employed rather than by expenditure.
ii Tertiary education sector
Between 1991 - 1998 staff plus Student totals in Tertiary education went from 1,534,000 to almost 2 million. Changes in expenditure are as shown in the following table 5.
Table 5 Tertiary libraries expenditure and income - all states
| Responses No. | % | EXPENDITURE | 1991 e millions | 1998 e millions | %ge change | 1991 % | 1998 % |
| 16 | 86 | Employees | 799 | 1,210 | + 51 | 44.7 | 43.5 |
| 22 | 93 | Materials | 559 | 780 | + 40 | 31.3 | 28.1 |
| 5 | 30 | Electronic materials | 17 | 81 | + 376 | 1.0 | 2.9 |
| 4 | 34 | Automation | 59 | 81 | + 37 | 3.3 | 2.9 |
| 6 | 36 | Premises | 170 | 277 | + 63 | 9.5 | 10.0 |
| 5 | 53 | New Building & Ref’t | 2 | 5 | ** | ** | 0.2 |
| 17 | 56 | Other expenses | 183 | 347 | + 90 | 10.2 | 12.5 |
| 17 | 62 | TOTAL EXP’RE | 1,788 | 2,780 | + 55 | 100 | 100 |
| INCOME | |||||||
| 13 | 53 | Institutional | 1,686 | 2,466 | + 46 | 94.0 | 88.7 |
| 12 | 51 | Fees & charges | 38 | 77 | + 103 | 2.2 | 2.8 |
| 12 | 51 | ‘Other income’ | 64 | 237 | + 270 | 3.8 | 8.5 |
| 7 | 32 | CAPITAL PAYMENTS | 83 | 78 | - 5 | 4.6 | 2.8 |
i. National Library Sector
Financial trends for national libraries are as shown in the following table.
Table 6 National libraries expenditure & income - all countries
| Responses No. | % | EXPENDITURE | 1991 e millions | 1998 e millions | %ge change | 1991 % | 1998 % |
| 19 | 68 | Employees | 272 | 373 | + 37 | 50.2 | 49.2 |
| 21 | 66 | Materials | 78 | 99 | + 27 | 14.3 | 13.1 |
| 10 | 8 | Electronic materials | 3 | 11 | + 267 | 0.5 | 1.4 |
| 13 | 79 | Automation | § 1 | 3 | ** | 0.1 | 0.4 |
| 11 | 39 | Premises | 41 | 51 | + 24 | 7.5 | 6.7 |
| 14 | 44 | New Building & Ref’t | 29 | 40 | + 38 | 5.3 | 5.3 |
| 19 | 77 | Other expenses | 120 | 181 | + 51 | 22.1 | 23.9 |
| 21 | 78 | TOTAL EXP’RE | 544 | 757 | + 39 | 100 | 100 |
| INCOME | |||||||
| 17 | 52 | Institutional | 434 | 608 | + 40 | 79.8 | 80.3 |
| 16 | 46 | Fees & charges | 73 | 103 | + 41 | 13.8 | 14.0 |
| 16 | 49 | ‘Other income’ | 35 | 44 | + 26 | 6.4 | 5.7 |
| 12 | 30 | CAPITAL PAYMENTS | 33 | 127 | + 285 | 6.1 | 16.8 |
§ ‘3’ in 1993
ii. Public libraries sector
Over the seven years, service points have decreased by 18 per cent. The scale of this decline is much influenced by the position in Poland (decrease from 10,300 to 3,565). But most countries show decreases between 8 and 15 per cent.
The following general conclusions emerge from the data:
Table 7 Public libraries expenditure and income - all countries
| Responses No. | % | EXPENDITURE | 1991 e millions | 1998 e millions | %ge change | 1991 % | 1998 % |
| 21 | 75 | Employees | 2,585 | 3,348 | + 30 | 50.2 | 53.3 |
| 22 | 77 | Materials | 758 | 762 | + 1 | 14.7 | 12.1 |
| 4 | 26 | Electronic materials | 0.8 | 4.6 | x 6 | 0 | 0.1 |
| 5 | 24 | Automation | 103 | 167 | + 62 | 2.0 | 2.3 |
| 7 | 30 | Premises | 726 | 808 | + 11 | 14.0 | 12.9 |
| 10 | 38 | New Building & Ref’t | 58 | 60 | + 3 | 1.1 | 0.9 |
| 21 | 63 | Other expenses | 914 | 1130 | + 24 | 17.8 | 18.0 |
| 20 | 59 | TOTAL EXP’RE | 5146 | 6279 | + 22 | 99.9 | 100 |
| INCOME | |||||||
| 15 | 37 | Institutional | 4870 | 5632 | + 16 | 94.6 | 89.7 |
| 13 | 44 | Fees & charges | 135 | 316 | + 134 | 2.6 | 5.0 |
| 13 | 32 | ‘Other income’ | 142 | 331 | + 133 | 2.8 | 5.3 |
| 12 | 51 | CAPITAL PAYMENTS | 353 | 448 | + 27 | 6.9 | 7.1 |
The report’s recommendations cover the need for further work and for improved statistical representation of information technology in libraries. More importantly, perhaps, they draw policy makers’ attention once again to issues such as the small average size of university libraries in some countries and of public library authorities in others. Disparities in provision are quite marked and stand out from the data. The report calls upon governments to use the information provided to benchmark aspects of their services with a view to improving to the standard of the best.
The future of LIBECON is surrounded by some uncertainties at the time of writing. UNESCO, which has pioneered the production of international library statistics since the 1970s is reducing the numbers of its statistical staff and it is not clear what the consequences of this might be for library and other cultural statistics. EUROSTAT, which collects statistics for the European Union, has recently been asked to compile cultural statistics at the EU level but has not included libraries in its programme. A considerable onus thus lies on LIBECON to first maintain the series of statistics and secondly develop their utility for policy makers. In this respect, we would like to extend our activities beyond Europe. Libraries and the world of information are changing rapidly as technologies change and governments emphasise the role of libraries in supporting education, social inclusion and economic growth as well as the more traditional cultural role. Our challenge is to develop the international framework for producing reliable statistical information to monitor the success or otherwise of libraries. We have made a start in Europe and hope to secure funding to continue the work.
The Libecon2000 Millennium Report and database are available on CDRom
at 60gbp including tax and postage.
It can be ordered on the Web site or
by post direct to:
J.Toop
IPF
NLA Tower
Addiscombe Road
Croydon CR0
0XT
United Kingdom
Fax +44 (0) 208 681 6741
IPF is wholly owned by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. The company provides an extensive range of services to over 1,200 public services under five main activity streams. These are:
David Fuegi
Email: david@fuegi.demon.co.uk
David Fuegi is a Consultant with IPF. He is joint author of “Library Performance Indicators and Library Management Tools” [1995] and of “Study of Library Economics of Central and Eastern Europe” [1998] both published in Luxembourg by the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. He is currently project manager for the LIBECON2000 project is joint author of the project’s Millennium Study. Other major current projects include business planning for the TACIS Russian State Library Project in Moscow and drafting public library standards for England for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. He manages the IPF metric and process benchmarking clubs in which over 100 UK library authorities participate. He is special adviser to the UK Committee on Public Library Statistics which he chaired for 15 years and is a member of the UK ISO [BSI] committee on library statistics and performance indicators [ISO 2789 etc]. Other European library projects in which he has worked include the Publica Project [DG13], ISTAR [DG5] and PLDP [DG16]. Formerly he was Library Advisor to UK government ministers responsible for Libraries and held senior positions in public libraries.
John Sumsion
John Sumsion took a first class degree in Modern History at Cambridge and then spent two years at (M.A. 1953) and Cornell studying and teaching Economics. After a long career in shoe manufacturing he was appointed in 1981 to set up the Public Lending Right operation and gained valuable knowledge of UK public libraries through operating and evaluating the PLR statistical sampling scheme. In his PLR work he developed new ways of analysing book loans and describing the Buying:Borrowing features of the book trade.
John then spent five years as Director of Library & Information Statistics Unit (LISU) at Loughborough University. He was an active member of the Library & Information Services Council (England) and his research covered public, academic and special libraries. On retiring from LISU in September 1996 he was appointed Senior Honorary Fellow in Loughborough's Department of Information Science - which is now his base for personal teaching, research and consultancy.
Phillip Ramsdale
Email: phillip.ramsdale@ipf.co.uk
Phillip Ramsdale is Executive Director of IPF. He headed each of the previous studies undertaken for DG XIII concerning the monitoring of library activities in Europe. He is a statistician who manages a portfolio of research contracts for a number of Government Departments in the United Kingdom and has considerable international research experience arising from work undertaken for DG V and DG X and UNESCO. He directs one of the most comprehensive public service databases maintained by any non-governmental organisation and has established a respected reputation for IPF in the statistical field.
For citation purposes:
David Fuegi, John Sumsion and Phillip Ramsdale, "LIBECON2000: The Millennium Report", Exploit Interactive, issue
7, 2nd October 2000
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue7/libecon/>
Paul Greenwood and Martina Lange-Rein report on TECUP. This project is concerned with the role of libraries, authors, publishers, collecting societies and subscription agents in the digital environment. The central question addressed is, how access to digital material can be provided using the latest technology without infringing copyright and in cooperation with all players in the value chain.
TECUP [1] (Test-bed Implementation of the European Copyright framework) is funded by DG Information Society (formerly DG XIII) of the European Commission under the Telematics for Libraries Programme. It started at the end of 1998 and will run until the end of 2000. TECUP is a meta-project, which gathers information on, and studies, projects of different kinds concerning digital uses. The feasibility of practical mechanisms for rights acquisition for the distribution, archiving and use of electronic products from different types of content owners and involving different types of libraries is analysed.
One of the main aims of TECUP is to bring together representatives of all the major players in the value chain. The project partners represent libraries, authors, publishers and collecting societies from across Europe.
TECUP evolved from a meeting of representatives of the main players in 1996, during the ECUP project. At that meeting there was disagreement as to the copyright exceptions needed for libraries in the digital environment, but at the same time a consensus emerged that all the players needed to work together in developing business models for licencing in the digital future. Further meetings followed at which first the outline and then the details of a new project were agreed and proposals were submitted to DGXIII of the European Commission for EU funding.
Between 1996 and 1999 the whole digital environment changed dramatically both in terms of the evolution of technology and, perhaps more importantly, in the thinking of those involved. The concept and aims of TECUP also changed. Originally it was seen as a means of testing and analysing models for the distribution, archiving and use of electronic products. It evolved into a meta-project which would not carry out testing itself but would feed off and analyse the results and methodology of other projects, both national and international, covering the whole spectrum of digital uses, with a view to identifying best practices in the interests of all the players.
In the first phase of the project, information was gathered on a large number of projects. We adopted a broad criterion for the interpretation of the term ”project”, to include licencing services available world-wide. From an original list of 70 projects 46 were selected for further study, divided into three broad categories, retrodigitisation, born digital and self publishing. We decided to adopt an empirical approach. First we assembled publicly available information, making extensive use of the internet. Then we sent a questionnaire to each project. On the basis of information assembled in this way we established a short list of 25 projects for detailed analysis from a legal, strategic, and technical point of view, and advisory boards have been established to examine each aspect. Of course the same project may be of interest from two of these aspects, or even all three. The Legal Advisory Board and the Technical Advisory Board have already completed their work. The Strategy Advisory Board, including international and European organisations representing all players, started its work at the end of May 2000.
The conclusion of the Legal Advisory Board was that contractual solutions need to be found to copyright and other issues. In some cases the appropriate contractual partner for libraries will be a publisher, in others a Reproduction Rights Organisation (RRO such as VG Wort in Germany) representing large numbers of authors as well as publishers. The fact that digital rights may be with authors as well as publishers needs to be taken into account. While licences can and do take into account exceptions to the exclusive rights in legislation, libraries cannot rely on copyright exceptions alone in the digital environment.
The LAG further concluded that there are no major problems of principle with licences except regarding perpetual access and warranty clauses, concerning which TECUP will be making recommendations.
The project held a workshop in Frankfurt at the end of October 1999 at which both TECUP and eight key projects under study were presented and discussed.
The programme included the following presentations:
TECUP / Emanuella Giavarra
New Journal of Physics (NJP) / Peter Reineker
Author funded electronic publishing of original research articles in
physics [2]
Elektra / Inkeri Salonharju, Helsinki University Library
and Jukka Pekka Timonen, KOPIOSTO (the Finnish RRO)
Finnsh joint project involving libraries, publishers, learned societies
and copyright organisations for electronic publishing and network access
to publications [3]
National Electronic Site Licence Initiative (NESLI) / Fred
Friend
Widespread delivery and use of electronic journals in UK universities
through a national licence based upon fair prices and terms [4]
Decomate II / Hans Geleijnse
EU project involving publishers, academic libraries and subscription
agents in various EU member states to provide the end-user with access to
heterogeneous information resources distributed over different libraries
in Europe using a uniform interface leading to a working demonstrator of
the European Digital Library for economics [5]
Laurin / Ingrid Mauritzen
Pan-European project involving libraries, universities and collecting
societies in various countries aimed at working out the technical,
organisational and legal prerequisites to support newspaper clipping
archives in their transfer from an analogue to a digital mode of operation
[6]
EZUL, EJOUR / Hildegard Schäffler
German project dealing with the provision of e-journal articles on a
national scale [7]
Higher Education Resources ON-demand (HERON) / Carolyn
Rowlinson
UK electronic Libraries Programme project designed to improve electronic
delivery of course materials within Higher education Institutions and to
enable HELs to market their own learning resources [8]
LINK / Thomas Rakow
Information service developed by Springer Verlag, Germany, offering high
quality information online [9]
The workshop was the culmination of the process of information-gathering which had been going on since the start of the project at the beginning of 1999. More information about this special event is available online [10].
The process of evaluation (detailed analysis of the legal, technical and strategic aspects) began after the workshop and will continue until the end of the project in December 2000.
The Strategy Advisory Group (SAG) held its first meeting of three in May 2000. Authors, publishers, libraries, RROs and subscription agents were represented at the international level. The SAG will define the key issues concerning the role of libraries in the digital environment taking into account the concerns and point of view of each of the players and drawing on the comparative analysis of projects developed by TECUP. Thomas Dreier, Professor at the Institute of Jurisprudence at Karlsruhe University / Germany, will develop a report in consultation with the SAG. The hope and objective is that not withstanding the different interests of the main players a consensus will emerge about the best way forward in the interests of all concerned.
A concertation meeting, where all results of TECUP will be presented, is planned for the 1 of December 2000 [11].
Paul Greenwood
International Affairs
Verwertungsgesellschaft Wort, Munich
Martina Lange-Rein
Projectmanager of TECUP
Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen
Platz der Goettinger Sieben 1
D-37070 Goettingen
Tel: +49 - 551-39 3855
Fax: +49 - 551-39 2361
e-mail: tecup@mail.sub.uni-goettingen.de
For citation purposes:
Paul Greenwood and Martina Lange-Rein, "TECUP (Test-bed Implementation of the European Copyright Framework)", Exploit Interactive, issue
7, 2nd October 2000
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue7/tecup/>
Alexandra Papazoglou gives a final report on Project Verity: Virtual and Electronic Resources for Information skills Training for Young people.
A user analysis conducted prior to the project confirmed what many librarians have already experienced. Young people need help from the library in the selection of appropriate resources selected on the basis of their quality and relevance. They need a better search platform in order to locate OPAC and Web resources than the one normally available through traditional tools. They also need better training in developing their information skills. On the basis of these findings Verity attempts to offer a solution to this problem by providing a new search service called 'Virtual Resource Finder'
The Verity project first produced an English prototype called “Virtual Resource Finder” that has two parts:
 Figure 1: The Resource Finder |
The resource finder guides the user through a series of options that assist him in locating the correct bibliographic information both in the OPAC and from a database of selected web resources. For the purposes of the prototype the Web resources were chosen from two large subject areas: environment and social issues.
The idea of the project was to try to offer on line the type of support the user normally receives when assisted by a librarian in the library environment. After consideration of various possibilities it was decided that the best way to accomplish this objective, given the budget and time constrains of the project, was through the use of a thesaurus. A thesaurus offers links and suggestions similar to the ones offered by a librarian when trying to assist a user. For the particular needs of Verity, the EUROVOC thesaurus was considered. The selection was based on the fact that it is available in the 4 out of the 5 languages (English, German, Greek, Portuguese) of the project and it covers the subject areas of the environment and the social issues. For the Finnish prototype the partner had to provide a translation of EUROVOC in the Finnish language.
When the user queries the resource finder through a keyword search, the submitted term gets linked to a list of relative terms provided by EUROVOC . The user can stop and think if the keyword he used was the appropriate one, or whether one of the options provided serve better his purpose. In Figure 2 one sees that there is a variety of terms related to the query “population” that represent different aspects of the submitted keyword.
 Figure 2: Related terms provided after the initial keyword search |
The user can either continue with his original term of choose one of the related terms,
The outcome of the search could be a result screen or a no result screen.
The result screen can provide library catalogue resources from both the OPAC of the library and selected Web resources from the special database built by the library, or it can present resources from either the OPAC or the Web resources database.
In the example provided in Figure 3 the user is presented with both library and Web resources that correspond to the query “population”.
 Figure 3: Virtual Resource Finder Results screen |
When the result screen does not provide satisfactory resources because of too many or too few resources, or because of content quality, the user can choose to continue his search. Also available are options for selecting an encyclopedia in order to get better acquainted with the research topic, a dictionary to check the spelling of the keyword used, the “ask a librarian” option to directly ask a librarian for help by means of e-mail communication. The user can also make an “advanced search”, which is really a Boolean search screen that provides the Boolean operators.
By selecting the “continue” button the user is transferred to another screen, again EUROVOC supported which can provide a specific related term, a broader or a narrow term. By choosing one of these terms the user can go on and find more and better resources (see Figure 4).
 Figure 4: Related, broader and narrow terms screen |
The encyclopedia, the dictionary, the advanced search and the “ask a librarian” options are also available to the user in a no result screen in order to assist him in the search process. Help screens are also provided throughout in order to offer additional help in this process.
To further assist the user with their search needs and also train them in the information seeking process a special section called “infoskills” has been developed by the Verity project.
Infoskills includes the following three sections:
The Learning material is a guide for information seeking and processing specially designed for school assignment and project work. It teaches the user how to work effectively with information. The topics it develops are
An example of a model paper is included in order to allow a young person to follow it when writing his own paper.
The self-evaluation questionnaire section presents ideas concerning the writing process and provides a forty five questions questionnaire users can take to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in searching and writing. An explanation of the scores helps the user understand his problem areas. Users can take the questionnaire again to see how practice has contributed in the improvement of his information and writing skills.
Finally the Teacher’s guide discusses the challenges of education of the future and required conceptual changes. It offers guidance in encouraging collaborative work, how to construct new knowledge and understanding the knowledge-seeking goal.
After the completion and verification of the first prototype in English [1], additional prototypes were also produced in Finnish [2], German [3], Greek [4] and Portuguese [5].
Guided and assisted by the Virtual Resource Finder the user gets the support that the current commercial library catalogue softwares cannot provide and the quality and directness that search engines cannot offer. The features and concept of both the resource finder and the infoskills of the Verity project can and should be exploited by commercial companies in order to provide better service to young users. The Virtual Resource Finder can become a very powerful tool that would add quality to the search strategy and offer an effective search mechanism not only limited to young users.
For more information on the Verity project see the international home page [6]. An introduction article to the Verity project was given in Exploit Interactive issue 2 [7].
Alexandra Papazoglou
Director
Athens College Library
Email: papaz@ns.haef.gr
Alexandra Papazoglou gained a MLS in Library and Information Science from Simmons College, Boston USA. She then worked at Widener Library, Harvard University between 1976 and 1982. Since 1987 she has been Director of Libraries, of the schools and programmes for the Hellenic American Educational Foundation. She is the local project manager for the CHILIAS and VERITY (Telematics for Libraries 1994-1998, European Union) projects. She is also a reviewer for the Telematics for Libraries (1993,1994,1995,1997) and the IST (1999) Programmes.
Alexandra is secretary of the Section for School Libraries and Resource Centers, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (1997-2001) and a member of the Co-ordinating Board of the Division Libraries Serving the General Public (1997-2001) for the same organisation. She has worked as an expert on library issues for the Greek Ministry of Education, the Greek National Documentation Centre and the Union Catalogue of the Greek Academic Libraries. She works as a consultant to public and academic libraries in Greece and is the author of many professional articles, an editor of conference proceedings and professional Newsletters (Greek Library Association 1991-1995 and IFLA, Section of School libraries 1997- ).
For citation purposes:
Alexandra Papazoglou, "Project Verity: Virtual and Electronic Resources for Information skills Training for Young people: a New Online Library Service for Young People", Exploit Interactive, issue
7, 2nd October 2000
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue7/verity/>
Simon Musgrave introduces the FASTER project (and preceding NESSTAR project) that provides flexible access to statistics, tables and electronic resources held at social science data archives and other data publishers.
Data about society, whether economic or social, is collected by many government departments, research institutes and companies. Many of these data collections are available for re-use (secondary analysis). Within the academic sector social science data archives have been established in several European countries to provide researcher and students with ready access to these data [1]. Some of these archives have been in existence for 2-3 decades and house the largest collections of accessible computer-readable data in the social sciences in their respective countries. The primary goals of the archives have been to safeguard the data and make it as easily accessible as possible for teaching and research independent of whether the users are able to pay for the services or not.
The NESSTAR project (1998-2000) [2] aimed to increase the use of these data by developing a set of generic tools that make it easier to:
The social science data archives are rarely engaged in the collection of primary data, but serve as brokers between various data providers and the academic community. They not only preserve data for future use but also add their own value to the data: