Dear colleagues
A few people have asked me for the latest information regarding the
development of a web-based version of European Access (to be called
European Access Plus), and the relationship between European Access
Plus and Know Europe.
European Access Plus
A free taster site is now available at:
http://www.europeanaccess.co.uk
This comprises an integrated database which includes all
bibliographic references from the Recent references part of the print
European Access in 1998 and 1999 (up to and including the June issue
of European Access). In addition, the items contained in the current
awareness features such as Single Market Update, Finance from Europe
News and Education, and R&D funding news are also integrated into
this database, as are the abstracts of new information sources that
are listed in the Recent publications of interest features, the
commentary features and the features from EU information
developments. All these items can be searched using an 'Easy Search'
or 'Advanced Search' procedure, the latter allowing for searching by
subject, author, title, ISBN, EC No., with the possibility of
further refinement by date of publication and source type,
Hyperlinks have been made to many of the sources available on RAPID,
EUR-LEX and various other individual documents. At this stage the
links are to the front pages of RAPID and EUR-LEX, while we continue
to examine the issues relating to linking to specific sources on
RAPID, EUR-LEX etc. A selection of ' Bibliographic snapshots' are
also included on the free taster site, as is 'Europe on the
Internet', which has now become the largest and most up-to-date
structured listing of sites relating to the European Union and the
wider Europe (the latest update was last week).
The process of changing the concept of European Access from a print
source to a web-based source, with a print offshoot, is a significant
and exciting challenge, as very different procedures of compilation
and data storage are necessary. What you now see in the free taster
version has come from data first assembled for the existing print
version of European Access. As a result the information in the 'Get
the latest' section, for example, is only a sample and not how the
full service will look or operate from this autumn, when the service
becomes a subscripton service.
As of now the new procedures for compiling European Access Plus are
becoming operational and these will allow for significant
enhancements from the autumn. These will allow for significantly more
hyperlinks to full text sources (where freely available on the web),
hopefully links to specific documents in RAPID and EUR-LEX, and links
between the events and initiatives noted in the Chronology and the
full text of appropriate specific documents. In addition all records
currently in the non-searchable 'Europe on the Internet' will be
integarted into the database and thus fully searchable.
Also from the autumn we will be significantly expanding the number of
current awareness features in the 'Get the latest' section to cover
essentially all major policy areas and institutional developments.
The current awareness features and the full database will
from that time be updated weekly, thus allowing you to use European
Access Plus to find information sources to very recent developments,
and often being directed to the full text of those sources.
In terms of including information sources from earlier than 1998 in
the database the current policy is to include EU legislative sources
that have been in European Access in the 1990s and to include all
bibliographical references that have been included in all
Bibliographic reviews and snapshots since 1988. Together, this
will mean that older information sources in all the major policy and
institutional areas will be included. We are also examining the
possibility of indexing the key academic journals of European
integration published in languages other than English.
Any service which attempts to provide hyperlinks to Internet sites
not in the control of the service must deal with changing urls and
failed connections. The announcement from European Commission
President-designate Romano Prodi that he is to dispense with numbers
for departments after his substantial re-organisation presumably
heralds a significant changing of urls in due course. We will be
establishing procedures to note and rectify failed connections, but
we also think that it will be inevitable in a service providing
structured access to very current and often transient events and
developments that some links will not remain permanently available.
However, we are determined to monitor this situation carefully and
attempt to ensure optimal linking to external sites.
When all these developments are fully operational from the autumn we
feel that European Access Plus will be a major added-value current
awareness service to the European Union and the wider Europe. My
colleagues at Chadwyck-Healey and I are very keen that you all try
out the free taster site during the summer. If you have any comments
or suggestions relating to content, presentation and use of the
service please contact me directly. If you want price details or want
to be kept up-to-date on further developments please contact
[log in to unmask]
Know Europe
Know Europe will be a completely new web-based service, which will
integrate full text information from a wide range of existing
print-based information sources to offer a fully-integrated service
on the web of information relating to the instititions, structures,
policies, peoples and processes of the European Union and the wider
Europe. European Access Plus will be available within this service,
but Know Europe will also include a huge amount of
full-text information from directories, news
sources, statistical sources and reference sources from other
publishers and organisations. All this information will be fully
integrated and searchable in a single procedure. In addition, we
intend to create 'trails' whereby we will draw together information
within the service on key policy and institutional areas (plus links
to other web-sources). Three of the sources to be included in Know
Europe - European Voice, the Penguin Companion to European Union and
European Access Plus are already available in the free Know Europe
taster site (http://www.knoweurope.net), but note that at this stage
the content from these sources has not been integrated. This will be
available in the autumn with the full service.
For further information of this service please contact by email:
[log in to unmask] Editorial enquiries can be sent to
myself.
Know Europe will be formally launched in the autumn and I will be
giving an in-depth talk about the background and objectives to Know
Europe (+ demonstration) at the EIA/EIPA 'Keep ahead of European
Information 2' conference in Maastricht on 22-23 November 1999
Best wishes
Ian
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Ian Thomson Tel: 44-(0)29-2087-4262
European Documentation Centre Fax: 44-(0)29-2022-9740
Cardiff University E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
PO Box 430
Cardiff CF10 3XT
United Kingdom
Manager, European Documentation Centre, Cardiff University
Information Consultant, Wales Euro Info Centre (WEIC)
Editor, European Access
President, European Information Association
Chairman, UK European Documentation Centres
Creator of `Europe on the Internet':
http://www.europeanaccess.co.uk
See also: http://www.knoweurope.net
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