The UNIverse project is sponsored by the European Commission's Telematics for Libraries 4th Framework Programme to develop and demonstrate a large-scale, integrated solution to the delivery of advanced library services.
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UNIverse is a large scale project based on the concept of a virtual union catalogue for libraries. As well as linking a number of catalogues, the project will offer a series of advanced library services to both end-users and librarians. The UNIverse project was selected by the European Commission for support under the Telematics for Libraries 4th Framework Programme (DG XIII) to run for 33 months from October 1996 to June1999.
Because the project involves many different libraries and systems it will be developed using emergent open standards. These include the ANSI Z39.50 standard to allow search and retrieval from remote databases, the ISO Inter Library Loan protocol for ordering documents and the GEDI Recommendation for electronic document delivery. The project is building on the work of previous EC-funded projects and is addressing many of the issues relating to service distribution and globalisation currently facing the library and information community.
The UNIverse consortium is led by Fretwell-Downing (UK) and involves
organisations from 6 member states. It combines some of Europe's
leading developers of networked information systems with influential
practitioners from the world of academic and national libraries
- including the British Library, the Greek National Library and
the Irish Library Council.
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The UNIverse consortium is currently made up of 17 Partners and Associate Partners. This number will increase as the participants in the evaluation of the UNIverse software during the final phase of the project join specific national or subject-based Special Interest Groups.
The rationale for UNIverse stems from a pressing need to improve the way in which users locate and acquire information. UNIverse is a logical successor to a number of projects, supported under earlier EC Framework projects, which looked at applying emerging technologies and protocols to overcome many of the problems users were experiencing, for example:
UNIverse will build on the results of these projects and introduce newer techniques to provide an integrated solution to traditionally disparate library services. Some of the limitations facing libraries these days include:
UNIverse offers the opportunity to modernise library services so that libraries are better able to meet the changes
UNIverse therefore has three main objectives:
The large number of geographically distributed library catalogues,
which under the UNIverse project will behave as a virtual union
catalogue, should deliver a number of high quality library services
to both the end user and the librarian:
The Virtual union catalogue forms the core of the UNIverse system
around which a number of key features will be built:
These objectives will be met through the use of standards and
international protocols so that as far as possible the system
is open, transparent and integrated.
The UNIverse software will undergo a thorough demonstration and
evaluation phase involving over 45 libraries across Europe. Both
national and subject-based approaches to information needs will
be explored. This phase will test the functional aspects of the
services available as well as give us the opportunity to evaluate
the operational and strategic impact of such a system. A report on progress so far is available
Beyond libraries, the implications of the demonstrator will be
of universal significance for the scaleability of distributed
retrieval and delivery systems for the Information Society at
large.
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UNIverse is a 33-month project. It started in October 1996 and is due to finish at the end of June 1999. There are three phases to the project:
For the first nine months partners worked on two analysis reports
- the technical state of the art and the user services state of
the art - which formed the baseline for considering the type of
services UNIverse should deliver and how the system should be
constructed. Both reports are available for you to read.
The technical partners and library partners in the consortium
then put together detailed reports on their requirements of the
UNIverse system and identified the critical success factors against
which the project results will be measured. These reports will
be available for you to read shortly.
This was originally a twelve-month phase but it had to be extended by three months. During this phase the system was designed and built.
Many of the design deliverables are
available for you to look at.
The Library partners put together the Special Interest Groups
which will demonstrate and evaluate the system during
the final phase. Once all the components of the software were fully integrated, library partners beta-tested the system.
This phase began in October 1998. It is a critical nine months
as the software will be demonstrated and evaluated on a very large
scale by the Special Interest Groups. About 45 libraries across Europe will
be involved in this. The report of these activities will be available
here.
Following evaluation, the consortium will consider exploitation
plans for the software.
The following reports will be publicly accessible on this Site:
An appropriate look-and-feel to the UNIverse software is one way
of the system gaining acceptance by the user community. We have
sought suitable "sources of inspiration" from other
developmental work. These influenced the development
of the UNIverse user interface:
We have been working on three types of interface to the UNIverse system:
Further details on these will be made available during the demonstration phase.
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The final phase of the project involves the demonstration and
evaluation of the UNIverse software. Participants in this are
being recruited by UNIverse's library partners into one of theSIGs
listed below.
Only libraries involved in this evaluation have access to the
bulletin boards,
but progress and final results will be posted to this WWW site
in the future.
A list of individual members will be available soon.Phase 2
Phase 3
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Dissemination Of Results
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UNIverse User Interface Developments
Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
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If you have any specific queries which have not been answered by this WWW site, please contact the Project Manager at the Coordinating Partner Fretwell Downing:
If you would like to send us any comments about this site or generally on the project, please submit the form below. It will be sent to Suzanne Ward at the British Library, who maintains the content of this Site.
Last modified on 17 May 1999