Libraries' Information Services and the Internet in Germany
Christel MAHNKE (1)
Head of Library and Information Services, Goethe-Institut Tokyo1 Information Services provided by libraries
2 New challenges
3 Internet and WWW
4 Quality of Service
5 Evaluating and choosing WWW-Sites
6 Search engines and virtual libraries: indexing the Internet
7 Libraries in Germany and their activities on the Internet
7.1 University Libraries
7.1.1 Duseldorfer Virtuelle Bibliothek
7.1.2 HBZ Bibliographic Toolbox
7.1.3 IBIS and GERHARD
7.2 Public Libraries
7.2.1 Stuttgart
7.2.2 Berlin
7.2.3 Network Projects BINE and ILEKS
7.3 Special libraries
7.3.1 Max-Planck-Institut fur Bildungsforschung
7.3.2 ZPID (Zentralstelle fur psychologische Information und Dokumentation)
8 Information Services for Librarians
8.1 DBI Clearinghouse
8.2 INETBIB and RABE
9 International Cultural Exchange
9.1 Goethe-Institut
9.2 DAAD
9.3 Deutsche Kultur international
10 Success features for Internet Information Services
11 ConclusionAbstract
Information services provided by libraries are changing with the Internet. WWW sources are included in the information service, and information services themselves are changed by the influence of the Internet. New quality criteria have to be found. German libraries have started to make the WWW useful for their customers in many ways. They are taking part in international initiatives and developing adapted solutions for the German information market. Services for librarians on the Internet make networking easier and encourage resource sharing. In the field of international cultural exchange, the Internet plays a very important role. The WWW gives immediate access to resources about foreign countries and exchange programs. Looking at Internet information services, common success features can be found.1 Information services provided by libraries
All libraries provide information services. National libraries offer bibliographic data information, university libraries do scientific research, public libraries help their users in job-related or daily-life questions. Special libraries have distinctive target groups, whose information needs they try to cover.
With the growing number of books and other printed items and the emerging of other media such as microforms, videos, audio-materials, CD-Rom and online-databases, librarians have had to broaden their competencies. They developed new research abilities and integrated new media into their collections and bibliographies, but these systems and software applications were still defined and mastered by librarians. Users needed librarians to find their way through the sometimes labyrinthine libraries.
A conservative librarian might see the WWW and its information sources as just one more medium to be integrated into already existing collections. This would be a mistake. The Internet has an increasingly powerful influence on the presentation and use of information and therefore demands changes to the ways information services are managed by librarians.
Libraries have changed dramatically in the last years, and the changes are going to continue. We are living in the 'Information Age'; information is a vital economic factor. 'Information as Raw Material for Innovation' is the title of a German government program. The British Government installed a 'Life Long Learning' initiative. Libraries play a key role in these plans.
What new challenges are facing librarians?
Information has become a business. A lot of money has been invested in the expansion of the Internet, in multimedia development and electronic publishing. Libraries have to compete and sometimes fight for budgets. They seek to do business on new terms with data base vendors, electronic publishers and commercial providers. The new copyright laws which are discussed in the US and in the EU could have severe consequences for library activities. Libraries are no longer setting the rules of information storage and retrieval. They are only one stakeholder in a large field.
To rise to this challenge, libraries have developed not only new technical skills and systems, but new structures and new ways to work.
About ten years ago, libraries had a collection 'Just in Case': Should someone ask for a certain subject, there would be a stock of carefully chosen books, bibliographies and other materials readily available.
Five years ago, libraries began to work 'Just in Time': Since then, upon request, the best and most up-to-date materials are gathered to answer the demand.Today, we are heading towards service 'Just for You': Knowing the customer and his or her information needs, librarians will provide tailor-made services.
When what we call the Internet first appeared, it was basically a communication tool for the scientific community. Born as a project by the US-military in the late 60s to ensure the ability to communicate in the case of a nuclear war, it soon became the workplace and playground for scientists and computer freaks. Personal Computers were too weak to allow participation in the Internet. In the early 90s, rumors started to spread in Germany: 'Unlimited access to information is available.' 'It only takes a PC and a modem.' 'Total communication around the globe is now possible.' Public magazines started to write about the Internet. Still, some knowledge of Unix commands was needed to use services like Archie, Gopher or Veronica, all already ancient history for recent users of the net.
It was the WWW, which changed the picture in a way nobody had imagined. The integration of graphic elements and user-friendly interfaces made the Internet attractive and accessible for many people. Companies saw the possibilities of commercial applications and invested heavily in infrastructure and content of the WWW. Today, nearly everybody and everything is available on the web. An email address is a must for every professional and many people have private homepages. In Germany, all important institutions have a website and a great many companies too. Libraries are no exception. It is no longer possible to give an exact number of existing websites. IBM and Altavista estimate some 500,000,000 pages. The estimations for the number of users are 145,000,000 worldwide, 11,000,000 in Japan, 9,000,000 in Germany.
The WWW provides access to a huge and constantly growing amount of information. It was not designed, however, as an information source, but as a tool for communication. The quality of the content is therefore as good or bad as the match between the sender's input and the receiver's needs.
The Internet allows institutions to present their aims and mission to a large audience without significant costs for printing and mailing. Scientists can publish their work directly on the net. Libraries can open their catalogues and services to the public in a way that is cheap and easy, at least in comparison to printed catalogues or commercial databases.
The Internet, with email, ftp, telnet and the WWW, not only opens a new dimension in communication between libraries and their users, but also between the library and the information community. The answer to many questions is 'somewhere out there'. An expert for any given subject might be just a mouseclick away.
Information services might still be based on a reference collection; books and other media, bought 'Just in Case'. But more and more answers can be found 'Just in Time', and for free, on the web. The next logical step would be to integrate WWW sites into 'Just for You', tailor made information services.
The international norm ISO 8402 defines: "Quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied need." A proverb says: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Quality of information services is equal to the perception of quality by the customer. Therefore, librarians have to know the customers and their information needs.
To ensure good quality information services, the library must establish and clearly communicate quality standards. These standards include the accuracy and reliability of the information and some of these should be measurable, such as how long it takes to deliver a document, or how many demands for information could be answered within the same day. Benchmarking is also important to ensure quality and the Internet provides abundant material for benchmarking.The key to the evaluation of quality is the direct feedback of the customers.
The Internet helps to establish and maintain a relationship with the customer. A survey is much easier to conduct via email than by printed questionnaire. The number of pageviews on websites is a direct indication of the quality of the site. Advanced software allows one to track the visitor's path through a complex website thus enabling the librarian to see the document through the customer's eyes.
5 Evaluating and choosing WWW sites
WWW sites are not easy to evaluate:
WWW sites should be judged not only for their content but also for design, technical quality and functional structure. New quality criteria seem to be necessary. Guidelines to design effective and user-friendly websites can be found in many journals and on the net. Different approaches define quality criteria from the perspective of the creator and the user. One example can be found at Berkeley Digital Library (2). More detailed information about construction of quality online resources is available at the homepage of Matthew Ciolek(3), an expert in this field. The following criteria seem to be important:
6 Search engines and virtual libraries: Indexing the Internet
Anybody who uses search engines is aware of their shortcomings: Huge numbers of hits, many of them off-topic or outdated. Some engines established 'home-grown' classification schemes for the WWW, a dubious approach, which leaves these services far behind in covering the net. Today, it can take nine months or more until a new site is registered.
Librarians have expert knowledge to provide answers to the dilemma of too many pages and poor research tools. If they want to make Internet-resources usable for their customers, they have to choose, to evaluate and to index the material ﾐ in fact, do what they've always done. The virtual library of the not-so-distant future will provide access to printed matter both in the library's own collection and elsewhere, as electronic publications and WWW links. Information professionals could provide thesauri and guidelines for bibliographical description, at least in the field of scientific information on the Internet.
Librarians are concerned with the political implications of information, such as freedom of access and the diversity of the Internet. Many people complain about the English language dominating the net. With the growing number of web users outside the Anglo-American world, there is demand for websites in all languages. Librarians can encourage this variety by collecting and providing pages in languages other than English. Automatic translation tools like Babel Fish, though not perfect, can be useful and are continuously improving with the help of their users.
DESIRE - Dublin Core - CoOl: Three ways of indexing
DESIRE (Development of a European Service for Information on Research and Education)(4) is one of the largest projects funded by the Telematics for Research Sector of the Fourth Framework Programme funded by the European Union. DESIRE intends to provide:
One part of the project is the establishment of Subject Based Information Gateways (SBIG)(5) as part of scientific institutions.
In Germany, Dublin Core(6) has established some partnerships. Die Deutsche Bibliothek (German National Library)(7), and other German libraries take part in the initiative. The projects around Dublin Core in Germany are coordinated under the name 'Metalib'(8) . The proceedings of the last workshop in June 1998 are published by the DBI (German Library Institute)(9) . The next International Dublin Core Workshop will be held in October 1999, in the German National Library in Frankfurt. The German Dublin Core Conference, right after the workshop, will address a broad professional public and will provide updated information about the Dublin Core Metadata applications. The conference will offer an interdisciplinary forum for professionals from libraries, documentation institutions, archives, publishers, museums, and research institutions as well as software firms.
A quality information service needs all kinds of resources, not just the WWW. How to combine printed material, electronic publications and websites? An answer could be CoOL, the Catalog of Object Links(10) . Provided by the University of Braunschweig, it gives access to a variety of resources in different formats. The basis is not HTML, but a database in the 'Allegro' format. Allegro is used by some hundred library systems in Europe and the Goethe Institutes worldwide.
7 Libraries in Germany and their activities on the Internet
The German library and information landscape is fragmented in many ways, resulting from the federal structure of Germany. This situation leads to a broad range of interesting initiatives, but also to a lack of coordination. The following passage presents some examples.
7.1.1 Duseldorfer Virtuelle Bibliothek
The Duseldorfer Virtual Library(11) is one of the most advanced and useful collections of WWW-links for scientific information. Started in 1995, it contains now more than 200 pages with more than 6.500 Internet resources of academic and general interest. There are English, French and Spanish versions.It is constantly updated with the help of all the library staff of the University of Duseldorf, without central inspection. Each specialist is responsible for his or her own pages and does updates directly in HTML. The user has access to everything with two or three mouseclicks; to virtual libraries around the world, collections of haiku and pages about Italian cuisine. The site has a clear structure, is easily comprehensible and allows browsing and searching. Search forms for Alta Vista and Hot Bot are integrated. Help-buttons are available everywhere, the information is detailed, but not context-related. The design is not sophisticated and does not use frames or graphics, which ensures short loading times and easy updates. Many links are annotated. Every page contains the author's email address and the date of the last update. New links are indicated and a newsletter gives information about updates. The Duseldorfer Virtual Library won some WWW-awards in Germany.
7.1.2 HBZ Bibliographic Toolbox
The Online Utility and Service Center for Academic Libraries in North Rhine-Westphalia(12) gives facts about Germany, an introduction to library networks in Germany, links to all German libraries on the WWW and much more. The starting page comes with an animated graphic file (22 kb), and the design seems a bit heavy in gray and red. An alphabetic index gives the content of the page in a rather unsystematic way. The following pages also play with animated graphics and background style sheets but the content is sometimes worth the effort in reading it, for example, a page with more than 350 links to biographical databases. Another page about international book trade gives links to bookstores in 70 countries. For Cayman Island just one bookstore is listed, but the page offers a tropic landscape, two big flags and a running turtle (all together 37 kb). For Japan, there are more than 60 links to the most important bookstores, which seems to be a more reasonable relation to the graphics; waving flags, the usual kanji, a pointing hand (43 kb). It is a one-person-website with no help-function, almost no annotations and no other-language versions.Both services (and there are many others by university libraries), have their distinctive strengths and weaknesses. For visitors with some knowledge of the German or English language, these sites are the usable gateways to information on the Internet, even if they do not meet all quality criteria. They do, however, point out the lack of cooperation in the German scientific community.
7.1.3 IBIS and GERHARD
IBIS (Internet-based Library Information system)(13), is an approach to join forces, but the history of the project mirrors the problems of the German library community. Before it started, there was considerable discussion about which classification and subject index should be used. During the project, not enough manpower was invested by the participating libraries and input was low. Now IBIS is focused on the indexing of local resources, electronic publications of the universities, etc. The general indexing of scientific sources on the Internet seems to be a too ambitious project for a man-made service. There is an attempt at using machines to do it: GERHARD (German Harvest Automated Retrieval and Directory)(14) scans servers of universities and scientific institutes and automatically indexes sources. The system has its weaknesses ﾐ too many irrelevant pages are indexed. The solution might be a combination of collecting links by machine and man-made indexing.7.2 Public Libraries
Nearly every German town has a public library. In recent years, many public libraries have started to provide access to the Internet for their customers and launched their own proper homepages(15).7.2.1 Stuttgart
Stadtbueherei Stuttgart provides one of the most advanced Internet services(16). Designed by a professional, the site offers interesting contents:
The site won German and international awards. It is elegant and easy to use. Searching and browsing is comfortable; eight local search forms give access to common search engines. Loading time might be a problem in peak hours. There is no help-function, but each page bears the name of the authors.
In the Stuttgart Public Library, there are small teams (three staff members), responsible for one subject, for example economy. They decide independently from the general management about acquisitions, presentation and websites according to one subject. They have a degree of flexibility of budget and a space in the library to present job and business information for the customers; a special library within the library.
7.2.2 Berlin
With the reunification of Germany, Berlin libraries have also had to reunite. From the East-Berlin Stadtbibliothek (Berlin City Library), and the West-Berlin Amerika Gedenkbibliothek (America Memorial Library), a gift of the American Government to the citizens of Berlin after the war, the ZLB (Central and Regional Library Berlin)(20) emerged.Their joint Internet service offers:
Web design is up-to-date and functional; no fancy graphics are used. There is no help-function but each page bears the name of the authors. Searching and browsing is comfortable and the collection of links to search engines and search tools seems to be exhaustive (more than 100). An English language version is available. The links are carefully updated and cover a broad range from telephone and email directories to finance and stock markets, government information, arts and museums, theatre, music and films.
7.2.3 Network Projects BINE and ILEKS
BINE (Libraries + Internet = Navigation + Indexing), started in 1996. The Public Library of Bremen(21) explored the possibilities of indexing WWW resources. Other partners are Public Libraries in Berlin, Hamburg and Paderborn. Librarians began collecting links covering the subjects; computers, protection of the environment and language learning.The first test phase ended after 18 months but the outcome was disappointing. Many public libraries had set up their own collection of links during this time, with better results than BINE. The use of traditional classification systems and subject headings is probably not appropriate for WWW resources. The follow-up project is called ILEKS(22). Public libraries do not seem to do better than universities with IBIS.
7.3 Special Libraries
There is a great variety of special libraries in Germany. Many of them are part of scientific institutions or companies and work mainly for their organisations, others provide information services for the scientific community.7.3.1 Max-Planck-Institut fur Bildungsforschung (Max Planck Institute for Human Development)
The Max Planck Society(23) promotes scientific research in the areas of natural science, social science and the arts and humanities, independently from universities. There are about 80 institutes in Germany and abroad, one of them is the Institute for Human Development(24). Its library started in 1995 a clearinghouse for project-oriented Internet information for the research(25) to support the Institute's project topics. The choice of Internet resources is made according to the information needs of scientific members of the Institute.The website uses the corporate design of the Max Planck Society's homepage. It has a clear structure and uses simple HTML code for the link collection, (short loading time, easy update). The contents are very rich and constantly updated. The service is not intended to be exhaustive, but aims to provide an up-to-date choice of the most useful links for ongoing projects of the Institute. Indexing of sources uses Dublin Core Metadata. Keyword-search and browsing are possible; search is based on the Allegro-OPAC(26). Help-functions for the search are available.
7.3.2 ZPID (Zentralstelle fur psychologische Information und Dokumentation)
ZPID is the German Center for Documentation and Information in Psychology(27), located at the University of Trier. Internet services(28) provide access to resources as:
The listings do not claim to be exhaustive, but are a quality choice for the scientists and practicing psychologists. The site has a clear and ergonomic structure and rich content, both on a national and international scale. Links are carefully chosen and annotated, the last updates were just days before the visit. No search within the site, no help functions available.
The two examples of the services provided by special libraries show the possible future of Internet clearinghouses. Done by teams of specialists in the field, designed for practical use, they use adapted and simple classifications and functional design. They were created for German scientists, but include many international links and provide an English version of their homepage.
8 Information Services for Librarians
Librarians use the Internet for communication, resource-sharing and benchmarking. All library-related webpages (and many others), contain relevant information. However, there are some special services.
8.1 DBI Clearinghouse
DBI (Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut / German Library Institute)(29) is a central institution. It aims to coordinate and support all kinds of libraries. One of the services is a clearinghouse for library-related metadata(30). The homepage gives access to electronic directories of libraries, publishers and booksellers, bibliographies, database directories, event calendars and much more. The unique feature of this website is the user's capability for adding entries. In this way, everybody can contribute to the contents of this clearinghouse. Updates are mostly made by the users, not by a responsible webmaster or editor. Unfortunately, this strength can become a weakness. In May '99, the 'Last entries' page listed 19 items between November '98 and January '99. After that, nothing new is listed. The page is not based on HTML files but on a database. Possibilities for browsing are reduced and the search has to follow the given categories.8.2 INETBIB and RABE
Internet in libraries is the subject of the mailing list INETBIB(31). Started in 1994, it has now 2,400 participants. Discussions are sometimes lively. With an average of five emails per day, INETBIB provides a lot of information about Internet trends in Germany, new sites and projects. Yearly conferences(32) are a forum for face-to-face discussion and project presentation. This year's subject was, 'Books, Bytes and Libraries: Integrated information services on the Internet.'RABE (Recherche und Auskunft in Bibliothekarischen Einrichtungen)(33) is a German version of Stumpers-L: a mailing list for reference librarians. Installed in 1998, it has 600 participants. It is a rare example of successful cooperation between university libraries and public libraries.
9 International Cultural Exchange
A variety of German institutions is active in the field of cultural exchange.
9.1 Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut(34) is a non-profit, independent organization promoting the German language and culture. It is funded mainly by the German Foreign Ministry.There are 141 Goethe-Institutes in 76 countries, which
Today, nearly all Institutes have email; 94 have their own website. The sites are located on a central server in Munich but edited and updated by the institute's librarian or other staff members. There are at least two versions of every page; the language(s) of the host country and a German Version. The homepages of the Goethe-Institutes in Japan are in German and Japanese(35).
Information service in the Goethe Libraries has improved significantly with the use of the Internet:
The Intranet is very useful for a worldwide organization. Goethe Librarians communicate via email, discussion forums and mailing-lists. Handbooks, guidelines and tools are available on the central server. Cooperation between libraries is much easier via intranet: preparation of conferences, exhibitions, etc. Updates of special webpages are often joint efforts. The way Goethe Institute Libraries work has changed fundamentally during recent years and the WWW is a primary factor in this change.9.2 DAAD
The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)(37) encourages and supports international cooperation on university level between Germany and other countries. They offer grants and internships for foreign students and scientists in Germany and the same for Germans abroad. Their homepage in English, Spanish and German language gives information about exchange programs, study and research in Germany and abroad. It also provides access to the worldwide net of branch offices and participants of the programs (more than 134,000 alumni included). The DAAD is no library, but its hopemage is an example for a subject-related gateway and a worldwide academic network.9.3 Deutsche Kultur international
Another gateway to Germany is Deutsche Kultur international (German Culture International)(38). This homepage is a joint project of many German institutions taking part in international exchange. It gives information on programs and projects, reports on art exhibitions and on exchange projects for theatre and music. The homepage offers an overview of relevant libraries, multimedia services and documentation centers for German culture and international cultural relations.The aim of this homepage is to provide a clearinghouse for those interested in cultural exchange with Germany. The starting point was the gap between the needs of customers and the information policy of the institutions. Every institution provides information on their own projects and services but little or none about related services provided by others. The homepage helps not only the customers but also the institutions in more effective networking.
There are many ways to make the Internet useful for library's information service
Whether the format is a multimedia project or a scientific clearinghouse depends on the library and its users, but successful Internet information services all have something in common:
Good information products seem to be the result of cooperation of a limited number of participants, with one person responsible for technical features. Each participant should be responsible for the contents of his or her page. Trust in the competency of carefully chosen contributors is better than oversight by a manager.
In the first euphoria about the potential of the Internet, some people feared (or hoped), that libraries and librarians would no longer be necessary. As we know today, this concern has not materialized. Librarians are even more necessary today as navigators in the ocean of available information. As many surveys show, users trust librarians to help them find the information they need, and many of them take their first steps into the Internet in a public or university library.
The Internet, for librarians, is more than merely a tool, it has fundamentally changed the library and opened new horizons for networking. There are fascinating possibilities librarians should explore. Let me close with a quotation by Erich Kaestner: "Es gibt nichts Gutes ausser man tut es" (Nothing is good until it's been done).
Acknowledgement
It is a great honour for me to have the opportunity to take part in the NACSIS series of international conferences and the project of Study on International Sharing of Japanese Scholarly Information. I would like to express my sincere thanks and admiration for Dr. Hiroshi INOSE for promoting international cultural exchange and library and information services.
References
(1) 7-5-56, Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052. Fax: +81-3-3586-3069; E-mail: 06@tokyo.goethe.org The paper was delivered at the Kyoto University Library on Friday August 27th, and at the University of Tokyo Library on Tuesday 31st, 1999. This paper also appears at http://www.goethe.de/os/tok/deibib.htm Back (TITLE Libraries' Information Services and the Internet in Germany)
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