Fourth Framework Programme of European Community activities in the field of Research and Technological Development "Telematics Applications Programme" Sector: Libraries FINAL REPORT FROM: APRIL 1, 1998 TO: SEPTEMBER 31, 2000 Project Number: LB-5609 Project Acronym: EULER Project title: European Libraries and Electronic Resources in Mathematical Sciences Project coordinator Michael Jost Dept. Math. & Comput. Sci. Fachinformationszentrum Karlsruhe Franklinstr. 11 D-10587 Berlin Germany Tel. +49 30 3999340 Fax +49 30 3927009 E-mail [email protected] List of Partners Organisation Role Country FIZ - Fachinformationszentrum Karlsruhe C DE TUB - Technische Universität Berlin A DE MDC - Université J. Fourier, MathDoc Cell C FR NetLab - Lunds Universitet, Library C SE SUB - Universität Göttingen, Staats- u. Univ.Bibliothek C DE CWI - Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica A NL UNIFI - Università degli Studi di Firenze A IT EMS - European Mathematical Society X FI FHK - Fachhochschule Köln X DE FHHH - Fachhochschule Hamburg X DE DRAFT, July 30, 2001 EULER Final Project Report Table of Contents Executive Summary ________________________________________________________________________________ 3 Starting Point ____________________________________________________________________________________ 3 Goals __________________________________________________________________________________________ 3 Integration Approach ______________________________________________________________________________ 3 Consortium______________________________________________________________________________________ 3 Work Done______________________________________________________________________________________ 4 Main Achievements _______________________________________________________________________________ 5 Major Problems __________________________________________________________________________________ 5 Outlook ________________________________________________________________________________________ 6 Project Workplan and Work Actually Carried Out______________________________________________________ 7 WP-0 Project Management _________________________________________________________________________ 7 WP-1 Requirements Analysis _______________________________________________________________________ 7 WP-2 Resource Adaptation _________________________________________________________________________ 9 WP-3 EULER Engine And User Interface_____________________________________________________________ 12 WP-4 Evaluation And Demonstration ________________________________________________________________ 14 WP-5 Information Dissemination And Exploitation Preparations ___________________________________________ 15 Assessment of achievements ________________________________________________________________________ 16 Overall Performance _____________________________________________________________________________ 16 Main Achievements ______________________________________________________________________________ 16 Workpackage Performance ________________________________________________________________________ 17 Validation activities ______________________________________________________________________________ 18 Major Problems _________________________________________________________________________________ 18 Deliverables Completed___________________________________________________________________________ 19 Impact of results and Exploitation plan _______________________________________________________________ 20 Results of the Final Project Review__________________________________________________________________ 23 Outlook _______________________________________________________________________________________ 24 APPENDIX______________________________________________________________________________________ 25 Background Information___________________________________________________________________________ 25 Compliance of the Project with Objectives of the Libraries Workprogramme _________________________________ 25 Consortium_____________________________________________________________________________________ 26 Involvement in and Relationship to National, EU or Other Relevant Programmes ______________________________ 27 Modifications of Workplan_________________________________________________________________________ 28 Modifications and developments following the interim reviews ____________________________________________ 28 Further Problems and Decisions, Changes to the Workplan _______________________________________________ 28 Concertation activities in the Telematics for Libraries sector _____________________________________________ 29 Dissemination Activities ___________________________________________________________________________ 30 p. 2 EULER Final Project Report Executive Summary From April 1998 to September 2000 the European Commission has been funding the EULER project in the framework of the `Telematics for Libraries' sector from the Telematics Applications programme. The main goal of EULER was to integrate different, electronically available information resources in the field of mathematics. EULER has constructed a digital library in mathematics from existing heterogeneous sources. This Final Report from the project summarizes the activities and achievements at the end of the project. Starting Point There was, and still is, a rapid increase in the number of networked resources with information on scientific results and ongoing developments in the field of mathematics. Today, the user has to switch between a growing number of systems with heterogeneous user interfaces: • Scientific literature databases • Library OPACs and document delivery services • Electronic journals from academic publishers • Archives of preprints and grey literature • Quality controlled subject information gateways on the Internet • Robot-generated indexes of other relevant Internet resources These resource types are considered to be the most frequently used when conducting searches for scientific results. They are rarely interconnected and users have to search them one by one. Goals The aim of the EULER project was to offer a one-stop-shopping site for users interested in mathematics. One single integrated networked based access point has been developed, covering a representative collection of the mentioned publications-related information resources in mathematics. A common user interface, available on the World Wide Web, allows homogeneous access to all integrated information types. The interface was developed in close cooperation with the mathematical user community. Only one search is necessary to generate a broad range of (mixed) hits, irrespective of resource type and information provider. The EULER services were developed starting with selected important information sources from the consortium partners. The goal was to design an open architecture. New sources of data from other information providers and libraries can be added easily. Integration Approach The integration approach makes use of common resource descriptions based on the Dublin Core (DC) element set and access to those descriptions via the Z39.50 protocol. Technically, all information providers have produced DC metadata for their resources and offer them as distributed databases, which are located at the providers' sites. The central EULER Engine queries these databases in parallel via a common Z39.50 profile and performs result set merging, de-duplication, and presentation formatting. The integration approach takes into consideration the requirements of the user community and the different information providers. Participating institutions are still autonomous in deciding on their scientific and organisational policies, while at the same time providing a common access strategy to their information services. The foremost requirement to achieve such an aim was to choose and apply suitable standards, formats and protocols. Consortium The consortium includes four libraries from different European countries, which also represent different types of libraries: A library with national responsibility in the field of pure mathematics (SUB Göttingen, Germany) A research library of a national research center (CWI Amsterdam, The Netherlands) A university library with its distributed department libraries (UNIFI, University of Florence, Italy) A library specialised in digital libraries and netbased information (NetLab, University of Lund, Sweden with subcontractor DTV - Technical Knowledge Center & Library of Denmark) In addition, a national center for coordination and resource-sharing of mathematics research libraries and mathematics departments (MDC, Cellule de Coordination Documentaire Nationale pour les Mathématiques, Grenoble, France ) has represented libraries (subcontractors: Bibliothèque Mathématique de Strasbourg, Bibliothèque Mathématique d'Orsay ) and library users in EULER. p. 3 EULER Final Project Report The most comprehensive international abstracting and reviewing service for mathematics participated (FIZ Karlsruhe / Zentralblatt MATH). FIZ was coordinating partner of the project. The project was an initiative of the European Mathematical Society (EMS), which represents the mathematical community from the whole of Europe. EMS was represented in EULER through Prof. Dr. Bernd Wegner (Technische Universität Berlin, TUB), member of the EMS Committee on Electronic Publishing, member of the Committee on a European Database and Scientific Coordinator of the European Mathematical Information Service (EMIS)