Search

The purpose of this article is to explain what academic and national libraries can do to continue to offer services and facilities at a time of economic difficulties. It identifies a number of methodologies and opportunities that are open to libraries and takes the view that it is never wise to waste a good crisis, because all threats are really opportunities in disguise. This paper draws on themes used in both presentations, and introduces a new one on the topic of copyright reform. The paper looks at the initial economic context for European research libraries and then examines ways in which libraries can tackle the threats which the current financial crisis poses. Joint procurement is one way in which libraries can achieve value for money, and the paper examines the role of JISC Collections in the UK. Innovation through collaboration, and shared services, are also ways in which libraries can innovate/make savings in a cost-effective way by sharing the burden of costs around the partnership. The paper gives two examples one which is now well established, the DART-Europe portal for Open Access e-theses; and one which is in the early stages of being discussed a cloud-based solution for true collaborative cataloguing amongst the UK's research and national libraries. The European Research Area (ERA) and the contributions that libraries can make to this infrastructure through innovative EU project funding are analysed in some detail by looking at LIBER's EU project portfolio. Finally, change and growth can come through changes to legal frameworks, and the paper looks at the Hargreaves review of copyright frameworks in the UK and the launch of the new library-based EU lobbying group for copyright reform, Information Sans Frontières (ISF). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the problem of the computer- based searchability of databases containing both catalogue records and full-text documents. The question arises whether such old and prestigious classification systems as the Universal Decimal Classification should still remain in use in the age of ontologies, machine translation and natural- language context analysis? At the current level of the development of information technologies, the answer is: yes. The next question is, how can good quality controlled and natural-language search tools co-operate in the same search system? The first part of the paper presents the UDC system, as the most popular classification system also used in the countries of Central Europe. The following chapters deal with the differences between free text search solutions and search tools based on classification categories. The application of both types of searches in the same system means a great challenge for librarians. The paper offers one practical solution in the context of the ALEPH 500 integrated library system, a newly created search tool at the National Technical Information Centre and Library (BME OMlKK), operating at Budapest University of Technology and Economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the use of the esp@cenet patent database, the paper demonstrates that, in many cases, the use of classification systems is a condition to good quality searching. Efficient search tools relieve the user of the in-depth familiarizing with the classification system, yet they carry out the search with the appropriate classification symbols. In the esp@cenet database, classification symbols are provided automatically, in the result lists of natural language keyword searches. These symbols are then exported into the advanced search interlace with one click. Through the search examples, readers of the paper get acquainted with the tools of patent search, while they are also provided with further information on the European Patent Office's network of databases, the applied classification systems, as well as the services of the Patent Library of the Hungarian Patent Office. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]