TEL, The European Library - The Gate to Europe's Knowledge : Milestone Conference, April 29

The goal of the "The European Library" project is to establish the technical, legal and organisational foundations for a pan-European information services on the basis of distributed catalogues of both the digital and conventional collections of the participating national libraries. Future users will be able to search the collections of the European national libraries and access documents through a single interface using a single search query. They will also have direct access to electronic publications. Focal points of project work are the definition and clarification of issues relating to copyrights and licensing as well as the development of a business model. The project homepage is: www.europeanlibrary.org

TEL began one year ago and has since achieved good progress, although the pace of work on the various action packages has differed. The results accomplished and ideas developed to date were presented to the public at an international conference: "The European Library (TEL) - The Gate to Europe's Knowledge: Milestone Conference". Interim project results were presented in four thematic areas relating to the project action packages, each consisting of a TEL presentation and a complementary presentation by a guest speaker. A fifth thematic area devoted to "European Information Networks" served to place TEL within a broader European context.

The conference was opened by Elisabeth Niggemann (Die Deutsche Bibliothek, Germany) who welcomed the participants and presented a brief outline of the goals and functions of the TEL project.

Pat Manson, the European Commission delegate responsible for providing guidance for the TEL project, delivered the opening address: Digital Culture in the Knowledge Society. She talked about the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission, which is currently under development, and discussed the strategic goals of the Information Society Technologies Programme. The fundamental principles underlying these goals will be an emphasis on user orientation and the vision of the availability of digital contents "any time - anywhere - any place". Work is to focus on the development of intelligent systems for dynamic access to and preservation of digital and conventional cultural and scientific sources.

Pat Manson explained the strategic position of the TEL project between the 5th and 6th Framework Programmes. TEL is a accompanying measure concerned with the building of consensus, the establishment of networks and infrastructures and the development of business models and approaches to interoperability. This means that TEL involves research and development as well as business and political decision-making. According to Pat Manson, TEL is a very ambitious project comprising a diversity of objectives that should not be underestimated.

Information on Key Action 3 of the IST Programme of the European Commission can be found under the following URL: http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka3/digicult

Session 1: National Libraries and Publishers: Safeguarding Digital Information

The first thematic area focused on relationships between national libraries and producers of digital publications. The initial objectives of Work Package (WP) 1 of the TEL project are to review and assess procedures currently in common use in the collection and submission of digital publications. The goal of WP 1 is to establish a shared basis of understanding and a common approach to the treatment of digital publications among European national libraries. In addition, agreements are to be reached in this context with publishers and publishers' organisations.

Liesbeth Oskamp (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Netherlands) presented the results of two surveys conducted by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek for TEL: one of members of the Conference of European National Librarians (CENL) and the second of members of the Federation of European Publishers (FEP). The results of the survey of national librarians showed that digital documents are handled in quite differently at the various European national libraries. Policies differ with respect to the types of documents to be collected, cataloguing rules and modes of access to archived documents. This study clearly shows that considerable progress must be made in harmonisation among the national libraries if they are to offer common access to digital publications in Europe.

The results of the survey of European publishers were less than satisfactory due to the poor response rate, making it difficult to assess responses reliably. The questionnaire emphasised such issues as access to digital publications and the matter of fees. The findings showed that most publishers support the minimum standard for the use of mandatory deposit copies of digital documents set forth in the Code of Practice established in negotiations between the CENL and the FEP: International declaration on the deposit of electronic publications. There is no agreement among publishers with respect to any of the possibilities that go beyond this minimum (single workstation use restricted to national library reading rooms). Some could imagine permitting users to view documents free of charge and requiring fees only for downloads and printouts, while others would prefer to charge a fee even for reading. Agreement on a common policy between publishers and national libraries at the European level does not appear to be within the realm of possibility at this time.

The second presentation devoted to this thematic area was delivered by Peter Coebergh (Kluwer Academic Publishers). Kluwer sees opportunities for co-operation with national libraries and supports the CENL/FEP Code of Practice. Provided a future TEL service incorporates a user-authentication system, Kluwer can imagine providing access to Kluwer contents archived at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague for all TEL libraries.

Juha Hakala (The Helsinki University Library - The National Library of Finland) commented on the two preceding presentations and introduced several new issues into the discussion of relations between national libraries and publishers, including questions relating to intellectual property rights, changes in the publication chain from author to reader and the necessity of maintaining close contact with publishers regarding the development of technological standards.

Session 2: The Business of Digital Libraries

The second thematic area related to Work Package 2 of the TEL project, which is concerned with the development of "Business Plans and Models". An important objective of this work package is the identification and harmonisation, to the extent possible, of the services offered by the participating partners. Within the context of this Work Package, Mel Collier (Northumbria University, Great Britain; University Library, Tilburg, Netherlands) has begun a series of interviews with executives of participating TEL libraries focused on visions and goals for digital libraries and the expectations and desires of TEL partners with respect to a future TEL service. Although this survey has not yet been completed, the speaker was able to outline several early tendencies. The results of this survey are to form the basis for a co-operative TEL business model. In general, it is evident that the process of digital library development is far from completed, which means, on the one hand, that the possibility of achieving international agreements on a timely basis is still open and, on the other, that a number of policies still need to be harmonised.

The TEL partners regard the digital library as an opportunity to preserve their holdings, to expand their collection mandate and to broaden the use of their collections, and they recognise the need to promote the use of digital libraries. To the extent possible, the partners wish to make the entire digital libraries available to the future TEL service. The primary target groups of TEL are scholars, scientists, students and "informed citizens". TEL partners expressed a number of different views on the question of whether specific geographic groups should be addressed. The TEL partners want to play an active role in European integration through the TEL service and to offer end users a single, uniform means of accessing the "knowledge of Europe". The opinions of TEL partners differ with regard to such questions as whether TEL should have its own specific contents and emphasis on the strength of TEL as a trademark.

Following her presentation of the interim results from WP 2 by Linda Banwell (Information Management Research Institute, Northumbria University, Great Britain), who took over for Mel Collier on short notice, Graham Jefcoate (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Germany) offered insights into his visions of the future of libraries as both real and virtual "information spaces". The hybrid library has long since become an established concept that encompasses both the conventional and the digital library. The advent of new media has also changed the ways in which users work. Jefcoate emphasised that this does not make real library spaces and collections superfluous, but that approaches to their use can change and that library architecture may have to respond to these changes.

In the concluding presentation of this session, Elisabeth Freyre (Bibliothèque Nationale de France, France) discussed activities of the French national library devoted to establishing a digital library. The BNF is an interested observer of the TEL project and a potential beneficiary of results achieved under the project.

Session 3: Description and Handling of Digital Publications

The third thematic area focused on metadata. The first speaker, Theo van Veen (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Netherlands) began with a discussion of links between WP 3 and the other Work Packages. He then went on to outline the procedural approach taken in WP 3. The action began with a survey of the project partners, the results of which revealed differences in the interpretation of terminology relating to the various types of metadata, with distinctions being made between administrative, technical, bibliographic, structural metadata and metadata required for archiving and the administration of publication rights. The absence of a common bibliographic format for all project partners requires the development of a shared data model, the purpose of which will be to enable the project partners to exchange metadata and access both digital and print publications. The Dublin Core Library Application Profile (DC-Lib) is to serve as a basis for this model. In order to determine which specific metadata are needed and to identify requirements for additional metadata, potential TEL functionalities and services are to be correlated with the individual metadata elements in DC-Lib. The objective here is to develop a TEL application profile in which both DC Lib and TEL-specific metadata can be incorporated. Metadata syntax will be XML-based. Theo van Veen pointed out that collection-level description and metadata linking with digital collections and individual resources will be of particular importance in this context.

Michael Day (UKOLN, University of Bath, Great Britain), who stood in for Rachel Heery, reported on metadata application profiles. After offering definitions of the terms "schematic models", "application profile" and "name space", he went on to show that, like TEL, many other projects and initiatives find themselves faced with the need to reach agreements on common metadata sets. This explains the increasing use of different metadata profiles, in which the attempt is made to respond to the requirements of specific domains. "Registries" represent an important approach to the task of obtaining an overview of the name spaces and application profiles in use. However, Day added, the increasing number of such registries now makes it desirable to establish co-operation in this area between registry providers and standard-setting bodies and to create automated tools to support the development and publication of schematic models. The most important element in this context is ultimately the human factor. The "information professional" is the crucial contributor to the creation of an infrastructure that will make it possible to share and use such common schematic models in the future. The goals of these efforts should be to consider the needs of users in evaluating schematic metadata models in terms of their suitability for effective retrieval and the costs of developing them, while ensuring adequate interoperability.

Berthold Weiß (Die Deutsche Bibliothek, Germany), summarised the most important points covered by the two preceding presentations and thus provided a lead-in for a discussion focused primarily on (digital) collections and how they should be handled within the TEL project.

Session 4: The European Library: Proof of Concept

In the fourth work package within the TEL project, which is devoted primarily to technical aspects, the European national libraries are concerned with the goal of testing various different concepts for the realisation of a uniform standard means of retrieving information from distributed databases. "The European Library" is to present the collections of all participating national libraries under a single "roof", uniting the many different technical systems, individually designed user interfaces and languages spoken in the Community. As an accompanying measure, the primary emphasis of the TEL project is not placed on developing a new, innovative technical infrastructure.

Christine Boßmeyer (Die Deutsche Bibliothek, Germany) introduced this action package. WP 4 is devoted to the implementation of a variety of different technical scenarios which, although they compete with one another, will be required to ensure interoperability on the basis of a common interface for end users. The first scenario is based upon the principle of transmitting search queries via a standardised protocol (Z39.50) to distributed servers and receiving responses in a prescribed form. Die Deutsche Bibliothek plans to set up this scenario in collaboration with four other TEL partners by expanding the existing Z39.50 gateway.

In contrast to the first alternative, the second test environment involves the development of an additional central database for shared retrieval in a total of four partner-library collections. Under the code name "HTTP/XML", the Koninklijke Bibliotheek of the Netherlands is creating a test environment in which metadata can be "collected" using the protocol of the Open Archives Initiative (OAI).

The common TEL portal, with its end-user interface, will integrate the two different technical approaches and present their resources in a homogeneous form to the user. End users will be able to select the data collections they wish to include in their searches at the portal level. In addition, the system can call users' attention to specific resources that are appropriate to their specific area of interest. Users are to be allowed to select the "working language" of their choice both for subject searches and in their interaction with the system.

Theo van Veen (Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Netherlands) provided a detailed explanation of the structure of the HTTP/XML test scenario.

Janifer Gatenby (OCLC-PICA, Netherlands) expanded on the two presentations devoted to TEL project work by offering a comprehensive examination of the context in which "The European Library" will have to find its way. Her presentation represented a continuation of the discussion focused on the various methods available for consolidating heterogeneous metadata resources within a homogeneous user interface.

The vast majority of metadata relating to information resources held by libraries are inaccessible to commercially available search engines today. Consolidation of the primarily high-quality metadata of the "deep web" from online publications, databases and a variety of closed data-archiving systems is still the domain of library co-operation and information networks.

In view of end-user preference for the comfort afforded by comprehensive range of services offered by a minimum number of providers, the consolidation of small data collections through physical and virtual integration will be an absolute necessity. Success will depend on the quality and services provided to end users and upon the response of end users to these services, which are to be provided on the basis of an infrastructure composed for the most part of standardised modules.

The discussion following these presentations was introduced by José Borbinha (Biblioteca Nacional, Portugal), who discussed various issues relating to a "digital library" and the collection and archiving of digital publications from the Portuguese perspective, as viewed from his position at the interface between professional library work and competence in the field of information technology.

Participants in the discussion indicated that they found the "grand scale" suggested by the project's name lacking in the presentations of project contents and goals. The representatives of the project took the opportunity to remind all participants that activities within the framework of an accompanying measure like "The European Library" can only be understood as individual steps along the way toward the development and implementation of a common European vision.

Session 5: European Information Networks

This sessions featured presentation of three European projects of importance to TEL.

Geneviève Clavel-Merrin (Schweizerische Landesbibliothek, Switzerland) began the session by introducing the MACS (Multilingual Access to Subjects) project. The goal of MACS is to provide a multilingual subject search system. The user will be able to perform a subject search in his/her own language, regardless of the language in which the subject headings for a document are cited. In order to achieve this objective, the three subject heading systems used by the project partners are to be linked: Regeln für den Schlagwortkatalog / Schlagwortnormdatei (Rules for Subject Cataloguing, RSWK / Subject Authority File, SWD), Répertoire d'Autorité-Matière Encyclopédique et Alphabétique Unifié (Rameau) und Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). The project partners are the Schweizerische Landesbibliothek, Die Deutsche Bibliothek, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and The British Library.

The MACS system is an external-link database in which the links between the equivalent subject headings used in the three subject heading systems are established and administered. There is no central office for link editing and administration. Instead, each partner is responsible for verifying and authorising links to its own subject heading system.

Subject headings from the fields of sports and the theatre in the three subject heading systems were linked for the prototype of the MACS system. The prototype can be tested at the following URL (registration required; users are assigned a password): http://infolab.kub.nl/prj/macs/

The next speaker, Hans Jürgen Becker (Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, Germany) discussed the Renardus project. Renardus is an EU-sponsored project scheduled to run for 30 months (January 2000 � June 2002). Twelve partners from seven countries as well as numerous subject gateways are currently involved in Renardus.

The goal of Renardus is to develop a pilot system that will provide central access to selected reliable, high-quality Internet resources in Europe through existing subject gateways. This system is designed to meet the needs of users involved in learning, teaching and research at the university level. The participating subject gateways encompass a wide range of disciplines, ranging from agricultural science to electrical engineering, from mathematics to English language and literature.

In the last presentation relating to this thematic area, Jutta Weber (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Germany) discussed the LEAF (Linking and Exploring Authority Files) project. LEAF is also an EU-sponsored project scheduled to run for three years (March 2001 - February 2004).

Partners in the LEAF project are developing a model architecture for a search system which compiles information on the names of persons and corporate bodies from distributed databases and consolidates them within a general name and corporate-body authority file.

Project partners include 15 libraries, archives and research institutes from 10 different countries as well as numerous "observing partners" and special sponsors who support the project by supplying data: K.G. Saur, which provides biographical data from the World Biographical Index, the Autografenhandlung Stargardt of Berlin and the Library of Congress

The MALVINE (Manuscripts and Letters via Integrated Networks in Europe) search engine will serve as the test platform for the LEAF system. Further information can be found at the following URL: http://www.leaf-eu.org

Summary

"The European Library (TEL) - The Gate to Europe's Knowledge: Milestone Conference" provided the first opportunity to present the TEL project and a number of preliminary results of project work to a broad professional audience. The discussions following the various presentations, including in particular the critical comments offered, were regarded as very helpful by the project participants. The conference served as a reminder of how important it is to distinguish between TEL project goals and the TEL vision. The TEL project is an accompanying measure intended to lay technical, legal and organisational foundations for a pan-European information service. This means that no fully functional service system will be in place at the end of the project. Instead, the prerequisites for such a system will have been met. Problems which confront TEL and for which solutions are to be found in the course of project work were cited particularly in the presentations on WP 1, relations with publishers, and WP 2, business models. The questions posed and the criticism expressed during the conference were highly constructive and are to be taken under consideration in further planning. By the end of the project, the TEL partners hope to be able to present the basis for a user-friendly new service.

The authors

Linda Banwell, Director, Information Management Research Institute, School of Information Studies, University of Northumbria, UK. The University of Northumbria is subcontractor in TEL for WP2 (Business Plans and Models),
Linda Banwell
Hans Liegmann, ICT Department, Digital Publications, Die Deutsche Bibliothek, Germany,
Hans Liegmann
Liesbeth Oskamp, Research and Development Department, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Netherlands, involved in the TEL project in WP1 (Publisher relations),
Liesbeth Oskamp
Berthold Weiß, Head Office for Library Standards, Die Deutsche Bibliothek, Germany, involved in the TEL project in WP3 (Metadata),
Berthold Weiß
Britta Woldering, Directorate General, Die Deutsche Bibliothek, Germany, involved in the TEL project in WP2 (Business Plans and Models), 5 (Dissemination and Use) and 6 (Management),
Britta Woldering
Programme, abstracts and presentations

		Britta Woldering
© The European Library Roberto Vásquez / 01.07.2002

The European Library (TEL) - The Gate to Europe's Knowledge:Milestone Conference

Britta Woldering, Liesbeth Oskamp, Linda Banwell, Berthold Weiß, Hans Liegmann