IMPLEMENTATION

The project will benefit from existing programmes already launched by libraries to interconnect their catalogues and rationalize public access to services offered. Bibliotheca universalis is part of a larger communication program among national and other major libraries in a broader vista dissemination.

Existing collaborative activities :

1. Over 50 library pilot projects have been launched by the European Union under the Telematics programme of the third RTD program since 1991
2. Initiatives involving European publishers and US application sites (Blackwells ’Uncover’ document delivery service via Carl in Colorado , etc.)
3. CERL’s (Consortium of European Research Libraries) project for the setting up of a pre-1850 books database
4. National Diet of Japan has been exchanging governmental documents with the USA (Library of Congress), the UK, France, Germany and Canada (National Library)
5. National Center for Science Information Systems (NACSIS) of Japan has been conducting collaborative research with the British Library and 5 university libraries in the U.K. for the exchange of bibliographic information via international networks since 1991
6. On-going digitization programs of Library of Congress, Bibliothèque nationale de France, British Library, Academies of Science such as the Royal Society of London (digitization of the Philosophical Transactions of the Society), Deutsche Bibliothek, National Library of Canada (AVIN Audio Visual Information Network), Biblioteca nazionale central di Firenze, Discoteca di Stato, etc
7. Unesco ‘Memory of the World Program’.

Specific attention needs to be paid to the problems related to the authentication and protection of intellectual property (from old documents to research related information) accessed and distributed in digital forms via networked libraries. Appropriate conditions of use (copyright clearance, ...) should be agreed on.