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By Catherine Webb and Marieke Napier - January 2001
The complexity, variety and sheer bulk of information coming out of the European Union (EU) institutions could easily be described as ‘mind bending’. From the daily Official Journal to COM and SEC documents through to CD-ROMS, databases, internet sites and the plethora of free newsletters and leaflets, finding a way through the maze is a complicated affair and many people get lost on the way. Catherine Webb introduces the European Information Association (EIA), an organisation that takes on this challenge and Marieke Napier reports on a recent workshop on Electronic Sources of EU Information held by the EIA.
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European information
specialists in public, academic and commercial organisations have
been battling with the tide of EU information for many years. In
1991 however, those working in European Documentation Centres
based in UK universities decided to broaden their own
professional association to include people from other sectors
working with EU information. A result of their desire to share
experience with others was the formation of the European
Information Association (EIA) in 1991 [1].
The EIA is a professional organisation based in Manchester for people providing or interested in information with a European dimension. Our members currently include public, academic and government libraries, European Documentation Centres, Euro Info Centres, local authorities, publishers, companies and law firms. Members come from some 32 countries – including two in New Zealand and one in Australia!
We aim to bring members into contact with each other so they can exchange experience and expertise, discuss and solve common problems, become better trained, develop publications which will help them in their work, and lobby the EU institutions to influence decisions on European information provision.
We achieve these objectives in a number of ways. The directory of members gives details of people in the Association allowing them to make informal contacts. We encourage members to hold meetings locally and find out who their fellow EIA members are in their area. We organise an annual conference to which all members are invited along with guest speakers who are specialists in their particular field. This year’s conference which takes place in March, discusses enlargement of the EU and the information implications of that for existing Member States and applicant countries.
Our journal, European Information, is published quarterly and provides a published forum for debate, comment and analysis of the world of European information. EIA Update is a monthly newsletter keeping members up-to-date with the Association’s activities and new publications and Web sites in the field.
A particularly successful venture has been the creation of an e-mail discussion list called Eurotalk. This was set up in 1998 and allows members to get help with queries, pass on news and views – or gripe about the subject! The system works by using a central address to which members send their comments. Any message which is sent to this address is automatically circulated to the e-mail addresses of everyone else who has subscribed to the system. Examples of recent messages include:
Eurotalk is averaging 40 to 50 messages a month at present and members appear to find it a particularly useful resource due to the very quick responses they receive. They can get help with queries within hours, sometimes even minutes, of putting up a message. Eurotalk is a ‘closed’ list (ie members have to be subscribed by a listowner – they can’t just add themselves) so only members can access it and put up messages. This prevents the dreaded ‘spam’ and other inappropriate items from being circulated. Messages are mostly in English although other languages are also used from time to time and they are archived for two years. Anyone can access the archives from the JISC mail site [2].
We also run a programme of training seminars and courses primarily in the UK although we have also been invited to give these further afield. Our trainers have taken courses in Australia, Greece, Sweden and Denmark amongst others. Particularly popular are our Internet courses especially our ‘EU legal information on the internet’ which has attracted a wide range of delegates and which will be running again in two locations in 2001.
We also organise a prestigious annual conference in association with the European Institute of Public Administration in Maastricht called ‘Keep ahead with European information’ which takes place every November in Maastricht. This attracts delegates from a wide range of countries – both in the EU and outside it – and from a variety of organisations. The 2000 conference programme included speakers from the Commission, OECD, EuropaPlus, PreLex and ended with a fascinating account of the access to documents policy by the European Ombudsman. As the conference takes place over two days, the delegates have time to meet each other and ‘network’ which leads to more fruitful information exchange. The 2001 conference will take place on 19 and 20 November and promises to be another successful event.
The EIA also produces publications to help members locate EU information. These are all written by EIA members based on their experience of the subject and the problems they have encountered trying to find information or use particular sources. Our EIA Quick Guide series has been particularly popular for example. The guides which are just two sides of A4 explain very concisely how to use a range of European sources or find out more about the way the EU works. So, for example, titles include ‘How to trace a Directive’, ‘The European Commission, 1999 – 2005’, ‘How to trace EC case law’ and ‘EU information on the Internet’.
We also try to improve the production and dissemination of EU information through the prestigious EIA Awards for European Information Sources awarded annually. EIA members nominate sources they have found particularly useful over the past year and a small panel of experts judges the nominations. We have found this to be particularly influential in raising not only our own profile, but also that of the organisations who have received the awards. Certain Directorate-Generals within the Commission for example who have been award winners say that other departments have contacted them to find out what made their particular publication or website a winner and have then sought to emulate their product. In this small, but significant way, the Association is attempting to improve the overall standard of EU related sources.
In summary - as you have read, the EIA is a very active association run by a committee of six EIA members and managed on a day-to-day basis by a small staff in Manchester. We aspire to be a very practical organisation producing products and services, which are of practical use to our members. If you are an information worker who has to face EU enquiries, or if you are simply interested in EU information generally and would like to find out more about the EIA and how we can help you, then please contact me or visit our Web site:
The Electronic Sources of EU Information workshop given by the EIA was held at City University, London on Wednesday 6th December. There were about 20 of us attending the course, consisting mainly of Academic, Law and Business librarians. The majority of attendees were from the UK but there was also an Estonian lady from Tartu University and a Norwegian lady from Telenor, the leading Media Company in Norway, which gave a more European feel to the day.
Ian Mayfield, a European Documentation Centre (EDC) librarian from Portsmouth University, presented the workshop. Ian gives similar sessions about 3 times a year at different venues; obviously, in our constantly evolving digital world, the content of these sessions regularly changes.
After we had all introduced ourselves and given our aims for the day Ian began with an introduction to electronic sources of EU information. The actual EU information focused on during the workshop was to include:
Ian pointed out that he would be concentrating on Web based material and not covering CD-ROM's. This was mainly due to the sheer volume of information now available on the Web.
The sources to be covered were:
After agreement by the workshop attendees that it would be useful Ian gave a brief overview of the various European institutions and their publications. As someone with no formal training on European matters it was quite a relief to have explained to me who the actual decision making bodies are and what powers they possess. An introduction was also given to the key publications that they produce.
Over the morning some time was spent on the main official information databases for legal and judicial information. A considerable while was given to CELEX [3], the main legislative database for the EU. Ian also covered EUR-LEX [4], a free Web tool that was introduced about 18 months ago and EUDOR [5] which is more of a document delivery system. Rumours have recently been flourishing that next year a common portal to all three will be available. Two databases, The Legislative Observatory (OEIL) [6], PRE-LEX [7], that trace the progress of legislation were also discussed. Although the perspective is a UK one a number of the databases are available in languages other than English. All the databases were demonstrated in as much detail as was possible given the inconsistent factor of Web speed. As part of the documentation workshop attendees are provided with a comprehensive sheet comparing the different databases and detailing their URLs.
After a much needed coffee break time was provided for a hands on session, allowing everyone try the databases out for themselves. A list of example queries were available to get us started. There were enough PCs for one between two, which encouraged further interaction between us all. I was lucky enough to find myself sat with someone who worked as a European information specialist for Nottingham Trent University and had areas of interest already in mind. Passwords were available to give us access to the non-free services.
The rest of the morning was spent covering an extensive number of official non-legislative databases and key Web sites. Some of those more useful to people working in research and development include the Cordis Web site [8], ECLAS [9]- the main database of the Central library of the Commission, EUREKA [10], and new services like RAPID [11] and Euractive [12].
At 1pm we broke for lunch and were led through what seemed like the City University labyrinth to one of the refectories. After an extensive buffet and a big piece of chocolate gateaux those of us who managed to find our way back to the Open Learning Centre continued with commercial databases. Most of the librarians attending the day use at least one of the commercial databases available and all were forthcoming with feedback. The majority of commercial databases seemed to be versions of either Celex or SCAD with idiosyncrasies. During the day there was some discussion over the merits of different products and many attendees seemed to have their favourites. Ian recommended that although familiarity is one reason for keeping a product you should be willing to trial out new ones. However the consensus was that once you find a database that you are happy it is worth sticking with it, whilst keeping an open mind about the other products out there.
A number of the databases constituted what a colleague of Ian's had coined as 'New generation services'. The last session was spent investigating these. By 'New Generation' Ian meant services that were Web based, drew on information from a number of sources and included the full text. These databases also often included value added information such as commentaries, were highly customisable, frequently updated and sometimes possible to personalise. The main examples of these were EU Direct [13], EU Interactive [14] and Know Europe [15]. A new product called WestLaw [16] was also introduced by some of the Law Librarians. The day ended with another hands on session and time for more questions.
The workshop is an excellent overview for people already working in the EU information retrieval area and for those who just needing a summary of what's out there. Although it was very focused it would be possible to make it through the day with no previous EU information experience, though you may feel that you start reaching saturation point around lunchtime (probably just after the gateaux!) The documentation provided was excellent and the workshop atmosphere was very inductive to questions asking and sharing experiences.
To find out more about when the next Electronic Sources of EU Information course or other similar courses are being held consult the EIA Web site [17].
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Catherine Webb
EIA Manager
European Information Association
Central Library
St Peter’s Square
Manchester
M2 5PD
UK
eia@manchestergb.demon.co.uk
URL: <http://www.eia.org.uk/>
Phone: +44 161 228 3691
Fax: +44 161 236 6547
Marieke
Napier
Information Officer
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
England
BA2 7AY
m.napier@ukoln.ac.uk
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk>
Marieke Napier is editor of the Cultivate Interactive Web magazine.
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For citation purposes:
Webb, C. & Napier, M "The European Information Association – Helping You through the EU Minefield", Cultivate Interactive, issue
3, 29 January 2001
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue3/eia/>
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