Service Agency Eastern Europe - Events ¬ Retrospective ¬ Workshop: Internet offerings ...

Workshop “Internet offers (Focus on link collections) as a service for East-West knowledge transfer”

Berlin, December 4 & 5, 2000

The department Information Transfer Eastern Europe at the GESIS Service Agency Eastern Europe of the Social Science Information Centre has, together with the German Society for Research on Eastern Europe e.V. (DGO) and the East-West Science Center at the University of Kassel organized the workshop “Internet offers (Focus on links collections) as a service for East-West knowledge transfer” in order to bring together the suppliers of information on Eastern Europe - for now mostly non-university in German speaking areas - for an exchange. It was predominantly the current range of collections of links regarding information on Eastern Europe currently available on the internet as well as future plans and possible ideas for cooperation which was discussed. The collections of links support the respective users in their search for comprehensive information on the internet. The goal is also to examine whether or not cooperation would possibly help avoid duplicate work and/or whether a certain division of labor might lead to a more transparent offering of lists of relevant links since overall, the construction and maintenance of links collections is very laborious

Twenty-four delegates from seventeen institutions participated in the workshop. The participants presented their goals, the content and structure of their links collections and also reported on any planned further developments. They all agreed that it was a lot of work to have comprehensive, well structured and well maintained links collections, prompting all participants to express their willingness to emphasize division of labor and/or to integrate links to other information suppliers into their offerings.

Preliminary ideas on the emphases, as well as where existing links collections overlap can be discerned from a look at the summarizing table. All institutions offer information on both scientific information and practice, even if with a different emphasis. From among all the information, there is a substantial amount on Eastern Europe pointing to internet sources in Eastern Europe itself. Preferred regions are the CIS countries (emphasis Russia), fewer institutes give information on the states of Central Eastern Europe and even fewer on South-Eastern European countries. All the participants agreed to come up with a detailed analysis of the links collections regarding their topical and regional profiles in order to grasp the possibilities and limitations of a collaboration.

In addition, a collection of criteria for “good” lists of links was discussed. The potential user should be the main interest. Continuous maintenance is crucial for keeping the list up to date. The links collections are to save the users time and effort in finding necessary information which is to say they should demonstrate a concept and be adequately structured. Short commentary, simple navigation strategies as well as a clear structure were considered to be advantageous while confusing design, limited search possibilities, insufficient navigation aids, long response times or a lack of opportunities for feedback were all viewed as problematic for the user. Certain quality standards in the specialized information area must be met such as completeness regarding the overall goal, as well as seeing that the information is current, relevant, recent, well structured and compatible with other standards, for instance. Whenever large quantities of information are dealt with databases offer more advantages such as avoiding duplication, fast updating, computerized support, unified structure, flexibility and multiple search strategies.

At the presentation of one of the projects launched by the German Research Association (DFG) at the Social Science Information Centre “Database-founded Clearing Houses in the Context of Digital Specialized Libraries” a model was introduced detailing how a central database containing descriptions of links of cooperative partners may be jointly developed and maintained on the internet. The user can access this links database in a decentralized fashion via the individual offerings of the cooperating partners. This model combines the advantages of a joint database construction with the goal that the individual providers remain visible on the internet with their own individual offerings. A decision was made to examine the results of this DFG project, a two year run, for its possible employment in the cooperation regarding the links collections for Eastern Europe.

Preliminary goals for the future collaboration expressed by all participants referred to the development of a joint reference page as well as public relations for the joint activities. The Social Science Information Centre agreed to come up with a design for a reference page which is to be discussed at the next meeting in Berlin on March 5, 2001 following the annual convention of the German Society of Eastern European Science. This reference page will offer a differentiating overview on the links offerings of all institutions involved in the workshop, which is ordered by regions and content to allow users fast access to their relevant internet sources. This page will, for now, be integrated into the previous offering of the workshop participants. A joint internet address for this page is also being considered. The internet addresses “Osteuropea-Verbund.de” and “Osteuropa-Netzwerk.de” were both specifically reserved for this. The participants of the workshop agreed that a future network should be open to all potential providers of links collections on Eastern Europe who are interested in collaboration.

Berlin, January 25, 2001

Ulrike Becker
Erika Schwefel

Service Agency Eastern Europe - Events ¬ Retrospective ¬ Workshop: Internet offerings ...