Developing the European digital library for economics

Project Information

DECOMATE II

Grant agreement ID: LB5672

Start date 1 January 1998

End date 30 June 2000

Funded under

• Specific programme of research and technological development and demonstration in the area of telematic applications of common interest, 1994-1998

Total cost € 0,00

EU contribution € 0,00

Coordinated by

Tilburg University Library
Netherlands

Exploitable results

Developing a European Digital Library for Economics (DECOMATE II)

DECOMATE II: Developing the European digital library for economics, develops an end-user service which provides access to heterogeneous information resources distributed over different libraries in Europe using a uniform interface. It will result in a visible example of interconnected library services, integrating various functions to provide a full-scale virtual library service to end-users. DECOMATE II is based on the results of the successful Decomate project, which has resulted in a service that provides end-user access, through individual libraries, to copyright materials distributed by publishers in electronic form. With DECOMATE II, this result is expanded to cover both heterogeneous materials (i.e. copyright and non-copyright materials of different types and formats) and distributed access (i.e. allowing users to access resources in any of the participating libraries through a single, uniform interface). DECOMATE II includes personalized user services (based on tools for document delivery, current awareness services and user profiling) and enhanced techniques for knowledge navigation. Access management and accountability facilities are the other main areas of DECOMATE II. DECOMATE II is a demonstrator and a test bed for license agreements with publishers and information providers, and for models of use of digital library services. Extensive user studies should develop new insights on user behaviour, among others by establishing long-lasting contacts with end users throughout the project. Finally, the DECOMATE II software release will be implemented in several European test sites to gain extensive knowledge on best practice installation and to gain knowledge of the costs and real efforts incurred, with an eye to find realistic exploitation scenarios after the project's end. Project URL : http://www.bib.uab.es/project/eng/decomat2.htm