Tietolinja

Tietolinja
2/1998


PÄÄKIRJOITUS

ARTIKKELIT


UUTISIA,
AJANKOHTAISTA

EXPLOIT project
ready for take off

Klaus Reinhardt


During the last days the contract concerning the EXPLOIT project was signed by the European Commission and the German Libraries Insitute (DBI) as coordinator. EXPLOIT stands for Pan-European Exploitation of the Results of the Libraries Programme. It is an accompanying measure under the Libraries Programme which is part of the EU Telematics Applications Programme. The other main partners of the project are The British Council and UKOLN at the University of Bath (UK Office for Library and Information Networking).

Summary

The results of the 70 plus projects and actions funded under the Libraries Programme are now ripening. Exploitation and the encouragement of take-up among libraries within the member states is becoming a key issue. The existing and potential users include: libraries, publishers, book trade, industry, research associations and policy makers all over Europe.

Introduction

There will be two main Phases of the Accompanying Measure:

  • firstly, a process of self-assessment by projects followed by analysis and clustering of results,
  • followed by a range of inter-linked activities including:
    • the development of presentations of results to be used at key events by professionals in the sector,
    • the establishment of a European Web magazine and a database of relevant European and national projects,
    • a series of Exploitation Workshops which coincide with the major European events in the libraries and related sectors in EU and CEE (Central & Eastern Europe) countries (e.g. the Frankfurt Book Fair),
    • the facilitation of additional presentations at national events and
    • a structured programme to enable mainly key CEE professionals to attend key events in the EU.

A mid-term project evaluation workshop will be held in Luxembourg.

For conducting this Measure, a close cooperation between all NFPs (National Focal Points) and the Project Consortia is planned. As close cooperation with the Commission is at the same time an imperative, the collaboration of the NFPs with the Commission shall be guaranteed for the next two years.

The consortium of EXPLOIT includes 11 institutions from 9 European countries.

Challenges encountered

A number of problems are involved: although projects are responsible for the exploitation of their results, it has proven difficult for many project consortia to take a wider market perspective; awareness of and access to information on project results is not adequate at present; and there is no multi-project forum available to discuss (rather than just present) these results. The projects launched to date have been of a relatively small scale and the libraries scene in Europe is in general somewhat fragmented. There is a need for additional mechanisms which can increase the impact of the activities under the Telematics for Libraries Programme.

The development of effective mechanisms for the exploitation of emerging results from the Telematics for Libraries Programme across the EU has become a major priority if the programme is to have the envisaged impact. Similarly, the transfer of know-how in this area to those CEE countries which have applied for accession to the EU is important if organisations in this sector are to catch up and apply European standards. The EXPLOIT Accompanying Measure will provide integrated pan-European activities designed to meet this need, building in features which are sustainable following the completion of the Measure.

Solutions identified

There are five main areas of activities to disseminate the results and foster the exploitation of already developed Telematics Applications:

A series of regional and national workshops by the project consortium

There will be seven European Exploitation Workshops. They will be organised in conjunction with major conferences and events in the libraries field wherever this is possible. The benefits of this approach are seen as greater cost effectiveness and impact.

Key stakeholders from the libraries sector and related fields (librarians, publishers, book traders, representatives from industry and research associations, policy makers) will be invited to the Workshops and where appropriate given opportunities to provide input. The themes of each workshop will be developed sequentially, to take into account progress in projects and their exploitation as the Measure proceeds. They will feature appropriate case studies from projects and innovatory actions on European and national level. It is envisaged that each Workshop will combine about 50% of 'new' material and the same amount of 'standard' material. 'New' material means material specific to this workshop (e.g. themes of specific interest and/or additional national/international activities). 'Standard' material is common material for all workshops (e.g. history and structure of TAP and Libraries Programme). The costs of presenters will be reimbursed, otherwise the events will be organised on a cost-recovery basis. Themes and dates of the Exploitation Workshops will be coordinated with the activities of the Concerted Actions.

Additional presentations at national events by national key experts

In those EU and CEE Accession Agreement countries where no other EXPLOIT event will be organised, high profile international and national events such as national library days or conferences, where exhibition stands may also be organised, will be targeted. Key national professionals in the CEE and EU will be identified and facilitated to attend these events and enabled to make use of the presentation "toolkit".

A presentation highlighting key projects and their results, will be developed for use at the proposed events. Already existing presentation parts prepared by the Commission will be re-used. The presentation will probably consist of a Powerpoint slide sequence with script incorporating a short history of the Libraries Programme and its action lines; information about relevant projects and their description; and a short description of results. Handouts will also be produced and re-used, including: project synopses; a technical description of project results and the completed self-assessment sheet from each project. For each defined 'cluster' there will be a specific presentation consisting of a comparing overview of all projects present under the TAP Libraries Programme in this cluster. So for each cluster there will be a kind of state-of-the-art presentation. The set of materials will be organised so as to enable their use on a 'modular' basis, depending upon whether a given presentation is on a European, national or thematic level. The "toolkit" will be open for additional presentation on national level and it will be accessible via Internet.

Appropriate organisations or professional associations will be approached with a view to arranging the translation of the material into national languages. The common part of the „toolkit" will be prepared in three languages by the members of the consortium: English, French and German.

A European Web magazine

An electronic WWW-based magazine (EXPLOIT-MAG) will be established by UKOLN (UK Office for Library and Information Networking, University of Bath) to provide unified access to information concerning European and national library projects. The magazine will carry: commissioned articles, project reports, reviews and comments and regular features. Each contribution can be put in as an abstract or as a whole in more than one language. Working language will be English. The magazine will have an editorial board drawn from the project consortium, DG XIII/E-4 and other experts as appropriate. It will have a dedicated staff member, whose time may be split across technical production, development work and editorial work.

UKOLN will continue to host the resources for a period of at least 2 years after the project has completed. The resources will be available for use by other EU or national projects, such as current awareness services. EXPLOIT-MAG will be freely available. Guidelines will be available to a restricted audience.

A one-stop database presenting standardized information

A SQL database of European and national library projects with standardized key data (EXPLOIT-CRIS) will be developed by German Libraries Institute (DBI). The database will be implemented with WWW Browsers as front end. As a first step there will be included the projects of the TAP Libraries Programme. In a second step the database will be open for national and international based projects in the field of library and information science and practise, too. The database will be open for multilingual presentation of projects. The working language will be English.

EXPLOIT-CRIS will seek to offer a single access point for all projects and developments concerning the electronic world of libraries. Input and updating within the timeframe of the Accompanying Measure will be undertaken by project personnel. The database itself will contain standardized key information about each project and will be linked to other databases and Web pages where more detailed information can be found. During the course of the project we will reduce step by step the effort to a helpdesk function. At the end of the Accompanying Measure we expect to have a self-explanatory tool which enables the staff of national, international and European projects to give input and update information on their own. Technical support will be continued. There will be a qualitiy check for inputed and updated information. If quality problems will occur access for data will be restricted by guidelines.

The database will be designed to require a low level of maintenance focused on technical support. A self-registering system is envisaged. In constructing and structuring the database, existing systems will be assessed for possible re-usability.

Involvement and support in CEE countries

The British Council will administer a structured programme for CEE library experts to participate in major EU events in the context of the Libraries Programme, Information Society and related activities.

An initial list of events will be drawn up by The British Council in consultation with staff from DG XIII. This list will be added to during the life of the project as more events are identified. This "rolling" list of events will be made available on the Web magazine. Suitable participants who will be in a position to promote the programme in their countries or will be able to actively participate in present or future Telematics for Libraries projects will be identified.

Participants will be encouraged to use all means possible to disseminate information obtained. Methods of dissemination to include - presentation of papers at local, national and international events (where appropriate using the demonstration "toolkit"); articles written for professional or trade journals; information added to institutional or individual Web pages.

Conclusions and recommendations

The impact and benefits of this accompanying measure EXPLOIT is to strengthen the visibility of the development of telematics application in the libraries at a European level during the last years. It will also connect the development at European level to the development at national level.

It is planned to continue the exploitation activities via the NFPs and other national experts beyond the lifetime of the project using the infrastructure built up during the project.

The start-up workshop of this project will be held in Frankfurt/M. at October 6th 1998, the day of the opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair. The workshop will bring together decision makers and leading practitioners to present and consider the contribution and role of Europe's libraries in the networked information society.

Dr Klaus Reinhardt
Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut (DBI),
Luisenstr. 57, D-10117 Berlin, Germany
email: reinhardt@dbi-berlin.de

Arbeitsbereich Europäische Bibliotheksangelegenheiten im DBI:
http://www.dbi-berlin.de/bib_wes/dbi_euro/eurohome.htm

Tietolinja 2/98