Reviewed:
8th December, 1996
By:
Lorcan Dempsey
This site is maintained by the Hardens, Sheila and Robert, and aims to provide a country by country listing of public library presence on the World Wide Web in Europe.
The listing is segmented into chunks of several countries, each with its own page. Under each country there are links to public libraries and to library organisations. Where lists of sites already exist, they are not duplicated but are pointed to. The Hardens' own excellent UK public library pages are an example here. Access is via a country-name index.
Sites in English and sights deemed by the Hardens to have 'out of the ordinary features' are flagged, which is especially useful for the casual (human) browser.
Screen shot of the Public Libraries in Europe pages
This site is maintained by the Hardens, Sheila and Robert, and aims to provide a country by country listing of public library presence on the World Wide Web in Europe.
The listing is segmented into chunks of several countries, each with its own page. Under each country there are links to public libraries and to library organisations. Where lists of sites already exist, they are not duplicated but are pointed to. The Hardens' own excellent UK public library pages are an example here. Access is via a country-name index.
Sites in English and sights deemed by the Hardens to have 'out of the ordinary features' are flagged, which is especially useful for the casual (human) browser.
The pages are well laid out, clear and uncluttered. They have been awarded the 'Speech Friendly Ribbon Award', signifying that their design is alert to the needs of the visually impaired.
That it is possible to put together the pages in this way is testament to the early stage of development of networked public library services. However, this is not to underestimate the effort that has gone into the location and assembly of resources.
A visit to many of the sites listed reveals a rather perfunctory presence. Some individual library pages show no more than brief informational or contact details, maybe hosted on some other organisation's server. However, there is also evidence of further development -- some web opacs are accessible -- and of the beginnings of some imaginative service construction. As one might expect, there are some interesting German and Nordic sites, interesting perhaps as much at this stage for their confidence in the public library role as for their content.
The sites are interesting individually; taken together they gesture towards the future. In a Europe of regions and cities the public library has a role in disclosing the cultural, business and information resources of its hinterland, for its immediate users but for potential users elsewhere also. Some seeds of this future are in evidence on these pages, and they may provide fruitful exemplars for those thinking of public library networking services in the context of the Library Association/Library and Information Commission bid for the Millennium Library.
The pages could be improved in various ways, ways which are already apparent to the Hardens themselves. The authors should be applauded for this valuable resource.
Reviewed by:
Lorcan Dempsey,
UKOLN,
Email:
lisld@ukoln.ac.uk
Material on this page is copyright Ariadne/original authors. This article last updated/links checked on 27-Jan-1997