In this paper, the participation and the role of individual libraries as partners in a consortium research project on digitization issues are analyzed, following the example of the National and University Library of Slovenia (NUK) as a partner in the ongoing project IMPACT - Improving Access to Text. IMPACT is funded under the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission (FP7) aimed at improving automated text recognition of digitized materials from different European digital collections. For achieving the project’s objectives, a consortium of partners from different European libraries, information technology and software engineering centres and linguistic institutes was established. The consortium’s work is based on interdisciplinary collaboration in which libraries (like NUK) play an important role as demonstrators of tools developed within the project, and representatives of end-users needs and demands as well.

We will provide a progress report on ProQuest’s ambitious Early European Books project, which aims to build a comprehensive library of European printed books from the first examples in the 1450s through to the year 1700. In doing so, the project represents an innovative model for opening up access to the printed heritage stored in Europe’s rare book libraries. The presentation will provide an outline of ProQuest’s publishing model, digitisation practices and specialist interface, and will also show some samples of the books we have already digitised at the Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen, the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze and the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague. In addition, we will talk about the economic and intellectual challenges of creating cataloguing and other metadata to accompany the digital files.

All the key players in scholarly communications – funders, universities, libraries, publishers, and researchers – have an interest in improving access to scholarly journals. But the different constituencies do not share a common view of how this might best be achieved. Much attention has focused on open access and the benefits it could bring if adopted globally. But little attention has been paid to the dynamics of transition towards substantial improvements in access.

The current economic climate is placing pressure on UK Universities to maximise use of their resources and ensure value for money. In parallel, there is a continuing focus on the student experience and a desire that all students should achieve their full potential whilst studying at University.

This paper is a report on the cost-benefit analysis of digital long-term preservation that was conducted as a part of the National Digital Library Project in 2010.

The analysis was based on the assumption that a large number, perhaps as many as 200, of archives, libraries, and museums will share a preservation system. The term ”system” shall be understood as encompassing not only information technology, but also people, organizational structures, policies and funding mechanisms.

The cost analysis shows that a preservation system will incur, over 12 first years, cumulative costs of 42 million euros. If a dark archive will be built, the costs will increase by 3.4 million euros. Human resources and investments on information technology are the major cost factors. After the initial stages, the analysis predicts annual costs of circa 4 million euros.

The Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB)’s mission is to connect people and information. One of its core responsibilities is to deliver digital scientific information to end-users, focusing on on-line access and services.

A significant number of documents, however, is only available to specific user groups (e.g. library members, students or researchers), or only remotely accessible by paying a fee.

This paper will discuss an approach to delivering information that focuses on creating on-line access to relevant scientific information to remote end-users. This integral vision is currently realized in two pilot projects, in cooperation with Dutch public libraries, research institutes and publishers.

El programa INSPIRE3 de l'ETSEIAT (UPC) és una iniciativa adreçada a l'estudiantat per la realització de Projectes Innovadors Reals, el que constitueix una nova Experiència Educativa en Enginyeria, consistent en el desenvolupament per part de grups d'estudiants de projectes d'enginyeria reals i de contingut transversal en els quals l'estudiantat té l'oportunitat d'aplicar els coneixements i habilitats adquirits i desenvolupar-ne de noves, com ara: la creativitat, la intuïció, el pensament crític, les capacitats de comunicació i d'aptituds de lideratge, de gestió de projectes i de negociació.

És important assenyalar que les propostes sorgeixen de l'estudiantat, que en són els veritables protagonistes i responsables de liderar els projectes. El personal acadèmic juga únicament el rol de facilitador, conseller i supervisor.

Aquest programa extracurricular complementa el treball de desenvolupament d'aptituds i competències ja contemplat en assignatures dels plans d'estudi. En l'actualitat hi participen 120 estudiants en 9 grups de treball. En el pocs anys que porta aquesta experiència ja son forces els premis aconseguits en competicions i congressos organitzats a nivell nacional i internacional .
La majoria d'aquestes iniciatives són possibles gràcies al recolzament de patrocinadors externs a la universitat.