[APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTING]

For Immediate Release
London, 27th July 1998

PRIDE makes the connection between people and information

EU Libraries project PRIDE will help users find and use networked
information services and resources which will be seamlessly interlinked
for the first time.

An international consortium has begun a two-year project, called People
and Resources Identification for Distributed Environments (PRIDE), to
build a service to support the identification and delivery of
information services over the Global Information Infrastructure
offering: 
7 unified access to a global range of information resources and services
7 identification of suitable resources and services as a prelude to
searches
7 declaration of personal profiles accessible to disclosure agents (e.g.
Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) Services)
7 authentication and authorisation for service access and electronic
payment
7 one-stop declaration of personal information rather than multiple
service registrations
7 integration with other interfaces to library services.

The service provider will be able:
7 to seek out potential service users through publication of collection
profiles and exploitation of user SDI profiles and 
7 to extend a secure service in terms of access control and payment
collection beyond the local user community. 

PRIDE is for:
7 library and information service intermediaries 
7 library system suppliers 
7 information service providers 
7 researchers within academe, commerce and administration. 

PRIDE will improve the interface between distributed library services
and the wider world of electronic commerce and information supply -
including digital lifestyle offerings such as tele-shopping,
entertainment and training. 

Key issues 

The main issues to be explored are: 
7 Library-based and networked service descriptions
7 Support for checking patron status on disparate remote systems, to
support interlibrary loans; 
7 Support for distributed alerting systems based on profiles (Selective
Dissemination of Information services); 
7 Support for Intelligent Query Routing, using forward knowledge of
remote systems

 Impact and results 

PRIDE will establish demonstration directory services in France,
Germany, Ireland, the UK, Hungary and Australia. Services will cover a
broad spectrum, although a focus on Business Information will better
illustrate the benefits within a particular domain.

PRIDE will give users a wider range of services, at the same time making
them easier to use and more powerful. PRIDE will make it easier to
discover catalogues which support the Z39.50 information retrieval
protocol, so that users can conduct more comprehensive and more precise
searches on the Web. Users will be able to do more for themselves when
requesting interlibrary loans or finding information, avoiding the need
to wait for staff assistance or visit multiple agencies to conduct
transactions.

The Consortium

The project is part funded for 24 months from 10th June 1998 by the
European Commission under the Telematics Applications Programme, and is
coordinated by London and South Eastern Library Region (LASER) in the
UK. Eleven partners include: Quercus Information Ltd; LITC at South Bank
University, London; Fretwell-Downing Informatics Ltd; UKOLN at
University of Bath; University College Dublin; CERLIM at Manchester
Metropolitan University; University of East Anglia; Macquarie
University, Australia; Bibliothhque de l'Universiti Reni Descartes -
Paris V; Otto-von-Guericke-Universitdt, Universitdtsbibliothek,
Magdeburg; IQSoft, Hungary. The British Library is a sponsoring partner,
and other commercial sponsors are also expected.

Technical approach 

PRIDE will build value added, standards based services (using protocols
such as LDAP) around the distributed applications protocols already
under deployment (e.g. Z39.50, ISO ILL) using scaleable open
architectures and pervasive interfaces (e.g. WWW/JAVA).
PRIDE will be a directory of Patron and Service information. The
availability of distributed Patron information (not restricted to the
local library automation system) will facilitate a range of services
that can be applied to users regardless of their library service
affiliation (membership). These include Agent Management, Certification,
Authentication, Payment (Credit, Debit, etc), Other Relationship
Services. The availability of distributed Service information (both
service and collection descriptions - like a catalogue of catalogues but
more widely applied) will facilitate all the services currently
envisaged for the global library space. Some of these services are
essential if the concept of the virtual, distributed or federated
library is to become a business reality, while others add significant
value to the opportunities. They are complementary to core services
(such as Search, Locate, Request & Deliver) and must interoperate
seamlessly with them.

Dissemination activities

As a major international development effort, PRIDE will liaise with many
other library projects and standards organisations, and will seek to
involve both system suppliers and sponsors from outside the traditional
library domain.

Official European project synopsis:
http://www2.echo.lu/libraries/en/projects/pride.html

PRIDE Website:  http://lirn.viscount.org.uk/pride/


Contacts
Project Co-ordinator:
Peter Smith, Deputy Director
LASER, London & South Eastern Library Region, Gun Court, 70 Wapping
Lane, London E1 9RL
Tel: +44 171 702 2020; fax: +44 171 702 2019
Email: [log in to unmask]

Publicity:
Robin Yeates, Senior Researcher
Library Information Technology Centre (LITC)
South Bank University, 103 Borough Road,
London SE1 0AA, UK
Tel:+44 1 71 815 7871; fax:+44 1 71 815 7050
Email: [log in to unmask]


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