National Library Of The Netherlands Research Articles

Preserving electronic publications

Scientific journals are more and more published electronically. Gradually the amount of e-books increases and on Internet a vast amount of digital information is being published. Electronic publishing offers major opportunities for dissemination and for access but at the same time imposes new challenges on national libraries and other deposit institutes in charge of preserving countries' cultural heritage. The challenges that have to be addressed are preservation of the electronic publications.In the past years national libraries have taken the lead in developing practical solutions for digital preservation. Together with IBM both the Koninklijke Bibliotheek - national library of the Netherlands - and the British Library - national library of England - are developing an OAIS compliant deposit system. The system of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek will be operational at the end of 2002 and will be the core of the Electronic Deposit of the Netherlands.As a deposit system could not be bought of the shelf, the approach chosen was to team up with a major ICT partner and jointly develop the deposit system. Parallel with the development of the deposit system, the aspects of long-term access were investigated. A proof of concept was done by IBM with 'data preservation' using a Universal Virtual Computer (UVC). The Koninklijke Bibliotheek and IBM jointly will soon publish a series of reports on the long-term preservation aspects of a deposit system.

Marketing Strategy at the National Library of the Netherlands (Koninklijke Bibliotheek) in the Light of an External Evaluation

The Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands, was evaluated by a committee of external experts in 1998. The verdict of this committee was, briefly, that the KB was strategically on the right course, supplied high-quality products and services and was technologically in the vanguard. At the same time the evaluating committee diagnosed that actually more intensive use could be made of the collection. The KB then plotted a marketing strategy for an approach directed at specific target groups, with services geared to the needs of the customer. Strengthening of the external communication was also part of the marketing strategy. The mission of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek is to provide access to the knowledge and culture of the past and present to everyone. The core tasks connected with this mission are preservation of Dutch cultural heritage and support of research, study and cultural experience. This support takes place in the field of the humanities, more particularly Dutch history, language and culture, in a wide international context. The KB aims to implement these core tasks by developing the following four social functions: classic (physical) library, virtual library (library at a distance), cultural institution, and knowledge and service centre. The new policy shows a shift of a part of the focus to other target groups, such as secondary education. A marketing task force has been set up to implement the project.

Identification and resolution systems for networked access to information

This article provides an overview of state of the art developments and emerging infrastructures to discover, identify and access information published on the web. It is based on an earlier discussion paper (Werf‐Davelaar, 1999) of work carried out in the context of the following projects: DONOR, which aims to establish an enabling infrastructure for improved information management and retrieval on SURFnet. SURFnet is the academic network in the Netherlands that provides Internet access to over 250 research and higher education organisations. DONOR is an initiative of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands. The project ran from 1998‐1999, with funding from the Steering Committee for Innovation in Scientific Information Provision in the Netherlands (IWI). The project‘s home page is at www.konbib.nl/donor; DESIRE, which aims to enhance existing European information networks for research users across Europe through research and development in three main areas of activity: caching, resource discovery and directory services. DESIRE runs from 1996‐2000, with funding from the European Commission‘s Telematics Application Programme. The project‘s home page is at www.desire.org; NEDLIB, which aims to construct the basic infrastructure upon which a networked European deposit library can be built. The objectives of NEDLIB concur with the mission of national deposit libraries to ensure that present electronic publications, including web resources can be used now and in the future. NEDLIB runs from 1998‐2000, with funding from the European Commission‘s Telematics Application Programme. The project‘s home page is at www.konbib.nl/nedlib.

Developing the Depository of Netherlands Electronic Publications

Since 1994 the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), the national library of the Netherlands, has been developing and implementing electronic library functions. These include a high quality user environment for electronic information and a depository for storing and preserving electronic publications as part of the cultural heritage of the Netherlands. In order to extend the task of the depository library to include the rapidly growing number of electronic publications, a number of conditions had to be fulfilled. These conditions were to develop a policy, make appropriate changes to the organization, obtain resources and acquire knowledge and skills. In addition, a specific management approach was necessary to develop the Depository of Netherlands Electronic Publications (DNEP) because of the complicated and continuously changing setting, resulting from the rapid development of technology and its impact on the information field. By following a step-by-step approach, the KB was able to make good progress in developing and implementing the DNEP. A facility has been realized to store and give access to electronic publications deposited by publishers. At the moment the KB is developing high quality control for this digital store of electronic publications. Another major challenge will be to develop and implement functionality for the long-term preservation of electronic publications.

A Single Access Point to Information Resources

ABSTRACT The Advanced Information Workstation (AIW) pilot project at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), the national library of the Netherlands, led to the development of a multimedia workstation with special attention to needs of researchers in the humanities. After consideration of types of information resources, how users retrieve information, and the growing importance of the Web, the core of the first version of AIW is a new catalogue that helps locate many important secondary sources including fifteen specialized online catalogues within the KB. The second version of the AIW will include a billing facility so that scholars can access external online databases that charge fees and will be integrated with the KB's Web server.

The ‘Nachtwacht’ is not a restaurant: the DutchESS guide to quality information on the Internet

DutchESS (Dutch Electronic Subject Service, formerly NBW) is an Internet guide for the academic community produced by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (the national library of the Netherlands) in co-operation with a number of Dutch academic libraries. The resources are selected by subject specialists who evaluate Internet information according to academic quality standards and make selections relevant to their own specific user groups. DutchESS has (as yet) no geographical restrictions, although it aims to cover Dutch resources as completely as possible. The service includes all disciplines, but the content depends on the contributions of individual subject specialists as well as on the bias of the participating libraries. A large number of art sites can now be found on the Internet, but many of them are superficial, lack substantial informative content, and/or are not relevant for academic research. Only a relatively small number meet the quality criteria of DutchESS and have been added to the database so far. Future developments of DutchESS may include participation in a European network of subject-based Information Gateways.

Are Dutch Academic Libraries Keeping up with Research Material? The Coverage of Foreign Academic Publications in Dutch Libraries

The National Library of the Netherlands inititated a research project that aimed to assess the coverage of the aggregate collection of Dutch libraries. Their collections of foreign publications of an academic nature in some 20 subjects were compared with the collections of several authoritative German libraries. A sample of recently published monographs and current periodicals in various subjects that were owned by the German library with special collection responsibility in each subject was searched in the shared cataloguing system developed by Pica. On average, the coverage was c.50% for recently published monographs as well as current periodicals. In the second stage, two subject specialists were asked to judge the relevance for academic research in the Netherlands of the missing titles in each subject. After excluding non-relevant titles, the coverage was still rather low, on average 70%. Some disciplines in the humanities score substantially lower. As a solution for shrinking collections, coordinated collection development, international library loan and information technology, important though they are, are inadequate in the short or medium term. To break the current impasse, additional financial measures are imperative

Access to Library Services by Means of End-User Technology

Titia van der Werf is member of the editorial staff of SURFnet InfoServices and KB Alexicon, the net worked information services of SURFnet (National Research Network Organisation of the Netherlands) and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands), respectively. She can be con tacted at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, POB 90407, 2509 LK The Hague, Netherlands.

The Koninklijke Bibliotheek: National Library of the Netherlands

The Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) had been functioning as the national library of the Netherlands for some time before it was designated as such in 1982. In 1987 the library was given more autonomy. The appointment of the present National Librarian in 1991 coincided with severe budget restrictions, which necessitated a drastic reorganization; this involved the establishment of new departments, for library automation and new technology, for library research and for policy development. Pica has developed new library automation products to meet KB's requirements, including interlibrary connections; in 1993 the transition to the new systems was completed. A strategic planning process has been initiated; difficult choices have to be made, but the main thrusts are likely to be the promotion of a single national infrastructure for access and delivery of information in printed and electronic form, maintaining a broad collection in the humanities and social sciences (cooperating especially with three other major Dutch libraries), setting up new facilities for the retrieval and desktop delivery of electronic documents, building and managing a repository for electronic material, and preserving the Dutch cultural heritage (including a coordinated microfilming programme). The KB is actively involved in several European projects.

Producing a bibliographic database through scanning and OCR: the Online Contents Project in the Royal Library of the Netherlands

The Koninklijke Bibliotheek (national library of The Netherlands, KB), in a joint project with the Library of the Catholic University of Brabant in Tilburg (KUB) and Pica (Dutch Centre for Library Automation), is creating a database with tables of contents of current periodicals. The information is scanned from the table of contents of the original periodical issue and converted by an OCR program into an ASCII file. This file is manually corrected and marked with tags. Subsequently an input file is created for the conversion that strips off all noise and creates a structured record. This record is the input for the database that will be presented as part of the OPAC to the library users. Sub‐projects are the research into the possibilities for the creation of a distributed database for nationwide use and a comparison of scanning and OCR techniques with manual input. When the outcome of the project is satisfactory the Online Contents database will be made operational for the KB on a regular basis. There are also plans for a national database, with nationwide input.