PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

Niels Ole Pors, Library Link Convenor for Europe.

Introduction

One of the things I have got during the latest 5 to 6 years is respect for the work they are conducting in The European Commission DGXIII.

They have supported some really impressive and ground-breaking programs throughout Europe and they are normally extremely supportive to the partners in the projects. More important, they are really interested in diffusing the obtained knowledge and interested in getting a concerted effect out of the projects and the interplay between the projects.

The DGXIII arranged a meeting on 8 March 1999. The objective of the meeting was to ensure mutual awareness of the different library projects. In total 7 projects were presented and discussed.

The projects

The status of the PubliCa project was delivered. The overall objective of this programme is to support development of public library services throughout Europe including Central and Eastern Europe.

The ILIERS project is an acronym for Integrated Library Information Education and Retrieval System and it has developed a multimedia library information system. The objective is to give users effective access to information both in the local public library and in the local community. The project will be commercialised in Scandinavia in the near future.

CHILIAS is an acronym for Children in Libraries: improving multimedia virtual library access and information skills. The project is already continued by a project called VERITY, which is directed towards information skills training for young people in a web-based environment.

These projects are prototypes, but they both take the public library and its services into the electronic and web-based area.

LISTED (Library Integrated System for Telematics-based Education) aimed at developing the latest technology as a support for adult independent learners in public libraries. It has covered the development of test sites for distance learning in public libraries in Europe and it has developed an interactive catalogue.

DERAL (Distance education in Rural Areas via Libraries) looks at the possible roles for public libraries in relation to distance learning. The target group is elderly people, socially disadvantaged people and the unemployed. The overall objective of the programme is to provide a gateway to distance learning resources on the Web as well as guidelines for users and librarians and tools for phenomena like video-conferencing. The role of librarians as brokers becomes evident in this project. One of the first tasks this programme has to face is of course the identification of the users and their needs.

The last two programmes are HERCULE (Heritage and Culture through Libraries in Europe) and LIBERATOR (Libraries in European Regions - Access to Telematics and Other Ressources). Hercule is oriented towards producing a Web site for European school children as library users and thus provide opportunities for them to share their experiences, be it curricula questions or local cultural questions. The LIBERATOR project is about developing regional information services.

Quite a lot of these programmes relate to the PLIS-study. I have written about it earlier in this Library Link site. It is still one of the most influential studies conducted under the auspices of DGXIII. A nice feature about the conference here was that the public library situation and development in 4 countries (Ireland, Finland, Italy and Spain) was described. It can be seen as a supplement and updating of the country - reports in the PLIS - study.

Most of mentioned programmes have their own Web site. They can be found through the following address: http://www.echo.lu/digicult

Further work

This kind of meeting and action is very recommendable. It is good to see actions taken to ensure the integration of European funded programmes and projects and the emphasis on exploitation and dissemination of results is also very promising. Above all, the fear some librarians had a couple of years ago concerning the role of the public library in the digital culture seems unfounded. Most countries and professional associations throughout Europe have the public library as a very central element in the information policy and strategy.

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