Central Library-Activity Report 1999
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Rapport 20 pp EN 9/06/00 15:00 Page 16 EUROPEAN COMMISSION Education and Culture Central Library Activity Report 1999 Rapport 20 pp EN 9/06/00 14:57 Page 2 CONTENT Foreword 1.Highlights: Creation of a Documentation Centre Unit 2.The European Commission's Central Library in 1999 - library activities - services to readers - data processing 3.European Documentation Centres (EDC) 4.SCADPlus 5.Programme and outlook for 2000 Annexes - Annexe 1: Mission statement - Documentation Centre Unit - Annexe 2: Main staff responsibilities - Documentation Centre Unit - Annexe 3: Resource fact sheet - Documentation Centre Unit - Annexe 4: Budget resources 1993-2000 - Central Library - Annexe 5: Cataloguing - language distribution 1999 Central Library Activity report 1999 Rapport 20 pp EN 9/06/00 14:57 Page 3 2 Central Library | Activity Report 1999 Rapport 20 pp EN 9/06/00 14:57 Page 4 FOREWORD Without doubt 1999 was a year of great changes for the European Commission : twenty new Commissioners took up their posts in the institution under the authority of President Romano Prodi. The Central Library of the European Commission is now under the authority of Commissioner Viviane Reding, who is responsible for Education and Culture. I became Director General for Education and Culture on 1st January 2000, and therefore am privileged to write this introduction. The citizen is at the heart of the new Commission policy, particularly in the fields of educa- tion, training, respect for culture and language, and access to knowledge generally. It is vital to encourage the development of libraries and the dissemination of information for use by the discerning citizen. Indeed the fundamentals of democracy based on freedom of expression depend on citizen access to these knowledge tools. Libraries are " significant sources of memory, pathways to knowledge, signals of the impor- tance of culture, and areas where the community gathers in a symbolic sense ".1 The Central Library of the Commission has been steadily evolving for many years. It is working in partnership with other libraries, with internal networks and also networks outside its insti- tutional authority. Its collections make use of databases, its catalogue is available on the Internet, and it makes use of electronic means of communication, research and consultation. Today, at this stage of its development, it seems appropriate for me to reflect on the long-term future of the Library from the point of view of the closer relationship of the Union with the European citizen, seeking to give the Library the means to become an even more powerful tool for dissemination of information. In order to achieve this aim, the Directorate-General will focus its efforts on drafting this year a Commission project communication proposing a " virtual inter-institutional research library ". I am convinced that closer collaboration between EU institutions will allow readers to have a wider access to Community documentation. I hope that in the Introduction to the Central Library Activity Report for 2000 I can report on a positive outcome to this effort. Nikolaus G. van der Pas Director-General May 2000. 1 Bibliothèques, Editions du Cercle de la Librairie, Paris, 1997. Ouvrage et volumes, Anne-Marie Bertrand et Anne Kupiec, Collection.. Central Library | Activity Report 1999 3 Rapport 20 pp EN 9/06/00 14:57 Page 5 HIGHLIGHTS There were many changes in 1999. On the political on the Unit’s Libraries’ site in 1999. and administrative level, the Commission led by President Prodi took over from the Commission of Numerous projects were completed. Contracts were President Santer. In the domain of documentation, established after two calls for tender, one for binding the SCADPlus team joined the Central Library and work and one for subscriptions to newspapers. European Documentation Centres (EDC) to create a Documentation Centre within the Directorate General In December 1999 a new project was launched. It for Education and Culture (EAC-D-3). initiates the first phase in the computerisation of periodicals in the Library collection. The computerised informatics systems achieved transi- tion to the year 2000 without serious difficulties for the The Luxembourg library team completed their move MultiLIS library management software or for the online from the Jean Monnet building to the Joseph Bech catalogue ECLAS. There were also benefits in 1999 from building in September 1999. additional research capacity and access to information. SCADPlus enhanced its presence on the Europa inter- European Documentation Centres launched a web site net server in 1999. 4 Central Library | Activity Report 1999 Rapport 20 pp EN 9/06/00 14:58 Page 6 AN OVERVIEW OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION'S CENTRAL LIBRARY IN 1999 • Library activities The Central Library in Brussels made 7,286 acquisi- Commission on libraries, on budgetary and personnel tions in 1999, covering the purchase of monographs, questions, on the future development of the manage- CD-ROMs and standing orders, as well as the receipt ment software MultiLIS, and on the effectiveness of of gifts or exchanges. This amount is slightly greater the ECLAS database which is accessible on the than that for 1998 (6,857) and is close to the Internet. amount for 1997 (7,479). It is an indication of a cer- tain stabilisation in the number of acquisitions, tak- In this context of interdepartmental co-operation, the ing into account the budgetary resources of the Central Library organised 10 training sessions for net- Library. work members in 1999 covering the use of MultiLIS software for cataloguing, indexing, loan management, 128 newspaper titles representing 1,367 subscrip- purchases, periodicals, serial publications and local tions were ordered at the beginning of 1999 (com- lists. pared with 135 titles representing 1,017 subscrip- tions in 1998) and 2,019 specialist periodical titles, The Central Library held the Presidency and provided representing 3,199 subscriptions were added. The the secretariat functions for EUROLIB , the group of Library’s first contracts for suppliers of newspaper European Institution or associated libraries. The XVth subscriptions entered into force on 1 January 2000. General Assembly of EUROLIB was held on 26 and By tender procedure, the Library chose five suppliers 27 April 1999 at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. of newspapers. The newspapers are for use by all the An interim working meeting was held on 21 and 22 Commission departments in Brussels. October 1999 in Luxembourg at the headquarters of Eurocontrol, the Institute of Air Navigation Services. The Luxembourg library handled approximately 700 Again in 1999 members exchanged experiences and purchase orders during the year and 950 subscrip- worked on projects affecting the administration of tions and standing orders. libraries. This year the accent was placed particularly on the development of interactive services and the The MultiLIS software, used for managing the collec- Libraries site presenting a EUROLIB Internet page on tions, enabled 193,825 entries to be processed (all the EUROPA website. modules together) during 1999 for the entire RESEAUBIB inter-library network. The Central Library participated in various external events, among which were the Annual Congress of Central Library librarians alone created 15,877 new users of DRA-MultiLIS which was held from 28 entries in 1999, 11,403 of which were carried out by February to 3 March 1999 in Saint Louis (U.S.A.), the Brussels and Luxembourg libraries and 4,474 by the General Assembly of the users of the DRA-Multi- the libraries of other Directorates-General. LIS in Europe which took place from 23 March to 2 December 1999, the meeting of US depository A breakdown of all the entries by language is pre- libraries which was held in Pittsburg from 2 to 5 June sented in annex 5. 1999, and the Publishers’ Forum held at the Book Fair in Frankfort from 14 to 16 October 1999. RESEAUBIB, the network of libraries and/or documen- tation centres of DGs and Commission services, now During the year 1999, Mr. Stephen Wiles, a librarian has more than 25 members. The General Assembly of from the Documentation Centre of Harvard Law RESEAUBIB was held on 1 December 1999 in School (U.S.A.) visited the Library for a period of Brussels. The discussion concentrated on the effect of work and exchange of experiences, especially in the the ongoing administrative reorganisation of the fields of electronic access and online periodicals. Central Library | Activity Report 1999 5 Rapport 20 pp EN 9/06/00 14:58 Page 7 Mrs Qian Xiao Ping, Librarian at the Institute of 40,055 works were taken out of storage for consulta- European Studies of the University of Social Sciences tion at the library in 1999. of Peking, began a six month study course in the Central Library in December 1999. Her main interest 240,262 free photocopies were made for internal is the ECLAS thesaurus. readers in 1999. These figures, when compared to those for preceding • Services to readers years, show two tendencies. First, a steady decrease in the number of visitors, internal and external, to the The main purpose of the Central Library of the library premises at the Commission; secondly, a pro- European Commission in Brussels and in Luxembourg gressive increase in distance contacts. is to offer its services to the officials of the institu- tions. They are not open to the public and only give These tendencies, which are seen in other libraries, access to a limited number of external readers match- are the result of a steady improvement in the quality ing certain criteria. of information communication systems (the world- wide web) and of their increasing use by the reading In 1999, the readers card office of the Brussels public. It must be said also that the reader accommo- Library issued 851 access authorisations to outside dation offered in the current Commission Central readers, 313 of which were given to students, 242 library premises in Brussels is not very attractive.