Libraries in the digital world: Library projects in the European Commission's Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme

摘要

Traditional libraries could be inward looking; dedicated to their users, but unaware of the broader picture of library activity. While some co-operation did exist, it took the new computing and telecommunications technologies that were developed from the 1970s onwards to facilitate the widespread sharing of resources beyond a national level. The European Commission (EC), aware of the need to share library resources across Europe to the benefit of libraries and their users, funded research into the use of new technology to facilitate this in libraries under the Telematics for Libraries Programme (1990 to 1998). This work of this programme continued under the Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme.