Current Research Documentation

Proceedings of International Seminar
in Bergen 7-9 February 1991

Contents

• Opening address
  Jostein H. Hauge

• Recommendation from the Commission of the European Communities to the Member States concerning Harmonisation within the Community of Research and Technological Development Databases
  I.R. Perry/Filippo Pandofil
  

• EXIRPTS, EXchange of Information on Research ProjecTS
  Helena Fernholm

• EXIRPTS (Part II): the ENID Protocol and the Research Documentation Management at CNR G. Bordogna and F Naldi

• Establishment of a National Research Database - the Danish Approach
  Birgit Pedersen

• The Role of NORDINFO in Standardization of Current Research Documentation
  Maria v. Hertzen

• The Norwegian Situation. 'Me Needs for National Collaboration
  Ivar Gubberud, Jostein H. Hauge, Unni Sæther

• The Research Register of the Technical Research Centre of Finland, with Special Emphasis on the Collection of Data
  Pirjo Sutela

• A Policy for a Harmonized Information System for R & D in France: Research Units, Ongoing Research Projects; The Demands and Needs for Science and Technology of the French Ministry of Research and Technology
  M. Choukroun

• Research Documentation in UK: Problems and Opportunities
  Keith G Joffery

• Collection and Retrieval of Scientific Information in Flanders
  - the IWETO-databases
  Martin Ruebens / J. Strubbe

• The Czechoslovak Information Structure and Online Services
  Vera Jirakova

• RTD-Results (PROTEAS)
  Madeleine Campbell

• Experience with Existing Research Databases in Germany and Outlook for a Possible Future European Network of Research Databases
  H. Behrens

• Availability, End-user Search Performance, and the Quality of Information; or, How Baron Von Munchhausen Tries to Square the Information Circle, Strategies for the Nineties
  Johan van de Walle and Auke van Dijk

• Program

PREFACE

As will appear from the Proceedings, we succeeded in bringing together outstanding experts from a number of European countries to a joint seminar. 'The contributions bear ample witness that research documentation is receiving increased attention in many countries even though progress is slower dm we would wish.

'Me seminar showed that there is a need for an international network on research documentation. Both for the purpose of discussing specific topics and in order to forward cooperation, we feel that this arrangement should be made the starting point of a more regular series of conferences. We therefore hope that there will be a follow-up seminar in 1992 or 1993, and preferably this should be held in Central Europe.

Bergen, August 1991

Opening Address

This Seminar on Current Research Documentation that we are now about to start is the first international seminar of its kind in Norway.

For this and many other reasons it is a great pleasure for me to welcome you all to Bergen.

We hope that we will have a most stimulating seminar with a rich exchange of knowledge and experience in a friendly and cooperative atmosphere.

Some of us may already be members of one of the information networks of this field either electronically or by other means, but at this conference all of us will have the opportunity to meet specialists from a total of 11 countries. We hope that one result of this seminar will be a considerable widening of the invisible network of the research documentation field.

When one welcomes participants to a seminar like this one, one often says that "we are very grateful to have you with us". At this particular event you must more than usually believe me when I say that we are very happy to see you all here and not least our international guest speakers.

At the start of this seminar I do not find it necessary to be apologetic about the value of research documentation activities. Many of us are already believers, and I take it for granted that quite a few of the speakers at this seminar will talk at length about the needs for this kind of documentation work.

Instead I want, for a couple of minutes, to focus your attention on the word International in the tide of this seminar.

It is a true, but almost trite statement to say that "the world is becoming smaller". We all know this and at this particular time we are acutely reminded of it when the mass media make us all feel that we are sitting in the front row in the theatre of war.

To put it simply we could say that international research documentation is important because research activities themselves are becoming more and more internationally oriented.

And why is this so?

In one of the most recent Norwegian reports on research and higher education we find among others the following set of reasons:

* The research agenda of today is becoming supernational. Research in many countries addresses the same or similar problems at the same time and in such a way that there is a mutual need for continually new premisses for the scientific work, which in many cases has to be obtained from abroad.


* The resource requirements of modern research are so huge that the burden has to be shared by many countries. Also the level of scientific knowledge is so high that the scientific community of one single country is inadequate in providing it. This is particularly true of a small country like Norway.


* Information technology and easy and rapid means of travelling make the interchange of research information go faster and faster.


* As commercial and industrial barriers between countries are reduced, multinational industrial cooperation will flourish and hence the need for knowledge produced in many countries.

Even if this sweeping description conceals the fact that the situation varies between the European countries and between parts of Europe, it may still be true that "international" is becoming the catchword in documents of research policy in all our countries.

For research to be of use it has to be documented and communicated in an appropriate form. To achieve this we need skills and tools of a specialized kind.

This seminar is one means by which we want to further develop our proficiency in carrying out the task of research documentation.

So much for the reasons for being here.