PULMAN: A Europe-wide Thematic Network

Rob Davies announces the likely funding of PULMAN, a successor support measure to PubliCA, the Concerted Action for Public Libraries which ended last year.

PULMAN

Those who followed the story of PubliCA, the Concerted Action for Public Libraries [1] which ended in late 1999, will be interested to know that a proposal for a successor support measure - PULMAN - has been submitted to the EC. PULMAN plans to build on the earlier work by establishing a Europe-wide Thematic Network. The greatly expanded consortium, led by Antwerp public library, has heard informally that the proposal was positively evaluated and - subject to the Commission’s final decision-making procedures - is likely to be funded.

PULMAN will focus initially on the development of a series of Digital Guidelines Manuals to promote best practice in the delivery of innovative public library services. The Guidelines will cover ‘social’ aspects of services in key areas such as support for: education and lifelong learning; digital literacy; social inclusion; business and the economy; citizen participation in new forms of civic governance; access to cultural content; access and services for people with physical disabilities; access to music and non-print material; management practices and models for co-operation and partnership; funding and financing opportunities; copyright, licensing initiatives and rights transactions.

The Digital Guidelines Manuals will also cover key technical issues for public libraries such as: resource description; discovery and retrieval; digitisation; multimedia digital service delivery; applications of newly developing technologies; developments in integrated library systems; performance measures and evaluative tools; tailoring of services for citizen interaction and participation; privacy, data protection, IPR; and multi-lingual issues. An ongoing public library Technology Watch will be established.

PULMAN will also support and develop the dialogue between practitioners and policy makers at local, national, regional and European levels, in order to stimulate consideration and appropriate adoption of the Guidelines and their incorporation into strategic thinking and planning. An important goal will be to develop interaction and scenarios for co-operation between public libraries, museums and archives and other cultural institutions, through a programme of events, training workshops and advocacy, culminating in a European Policy Conference.

The 18 partners in PULMAN include a number of Europe’s leading municipal public library services, including some of the PubliCA participants, EBLIDA, representatives of earlier Concerted Actions such as HARMONICA, ECUP, CAMILE and LIBECON2000 and a number of specialised research bodies. 26 European countries will be represented by a partner or a national co-ordinator. It is hoped that work will be able to start early in 2001 with a planned duration, under EU funding, of 24 months.

References

1. For information on PubliCA: The Concerted Action for Public Libraries see articles in Exploit Interactive issues 1 to 4.

Author Details

Rob Davies
MDR Partners.

Email: rob@robdavies.plus.com

For citation purposes:
Robert Davies , "PULMAN: A Europe-wide Thematic Network", Exploit Interactive, issue 7, 2nd October 2000
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue7/pulman/>

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