Spotlight on a training centre

Abstract

The famous German poet Heine once said that in Holland everything happens fifty years later. He may have been right in many cases, but in one respect Holland is bang up to date. As of 1979 the SOVIN training centre in Utrecht has been in full operation and has become famous both inside and outside the Netherlands. A large number of facilities are available for the users of this centre, e.g. seven terminals, five monitors, seven telephone lines, self service restaurant, projectors and manuals of the most commonly used online vendors and databases. In addition SOVIN has passwords available for most of the online vendors and networks. The presence of the training centre has definitely resulted in better coordination of courses which are organised in the Netherlands, since those aimed at the same group of users are no longer organised simultaneously at different places in the Netherlands, thus inconveniencing both users and organisers. Furthermore it is now possible to obtain information about planned courses, and in many cases also the application forms, from one place, i.e. COBIDOC. Information about online courses taking place elsewhere in the Netherlands is also gathered making possible the publication of a national training agenda in Login, the journal of the Dutch online user group (VOGIN).