Examples goals possibilities and limitations of international cooperation

Examples, goals, possibilities and limitations of international cooperation ETD 2003, Berlin May 22, 2003 Elena Balzardi & Barbara Signori Swiss National Library

“When a community loses its memory, its members no longer know one another. How can they know one another if they have forgotten or have never learned one another’s stories? If they do not know one another’s stories, how can they know whether or not to trust one another? People who do not trust one another do not help one another, and moreover they fear one another. ” Berry, Wendell. – Home economics. – New York, 1987

Elena Balzardi Swiss National Library Head of the Collection Department and Leader e-Helvetica project Barbara Signori Swiss National Library e-Helvetica project Leader of the partial projet “Organisation”

Content • • • The SNL and its context History and main tasks National context National cooperation e-Helvetica project International cooperation Cooperation with DDB and ÖNB Metadata for electronic theses and dissertations URN – Uniform Resource Name System for long term preservation Conclusion

History and main tasks • Swiss National Library (Bern) • Funded in 1895 • National bibliography „The Swiss Book“ since 1901 • Main task : collect Helvetica, list them to the databases, make them accessible to the general public, preserve them for future generations • No legal deposit law but agreement with the Association of Swiss Booksellers and Publishers • Collection includes print, offline and online publications

National context (1) • Schweiz – Suisse – Svizzera – Svizra • 7 millions inhabitants • four different national languages Swiss German : 64% French : 20% Italian : 8% Rhaeto-Romaic : 1% Other languages : 7%

National context (2) • Universities in the German, French and Italian speaking part of Switzerland • Two big library networks from University librairies (IDS and RERO) • Between 3000 -4000 new theses per year

National cooperation • Association of Libraries and Librarians of Switzerland • Conference of Directors of University Libraries • Networks IDS and RERO • The Swiss National Library is not a University Library

e-Helvetica project • Building up a collection and handling the long term preservation for electronic offline and online Helvetica • Long term preservation with in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Archives • Storage place beginning from 2004

International cooperation • Intensified cooperation between „Schweizerische Landesbibliothek (SLB), „Die Deutsche Bibliothek (DDB)“ and „Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (ÖNB)“ • Cooperation at the level of the CENL, CDNL, IFLA and specific other partners

Cooperation with DDB and ÖNB • DDB, ÖNB, SNL are cooperating since 2001 • Exchange of information • Cooperation on specific projects • Willingness of sharing knowledge by „Die Deutsche Bibliothek“ has been and still is very profitable for SNL

Metadata for electronic theses (1) • DDB collects electronic theses since 1998 • Transfer of theses and its metadata tested and organized between the University Libraries and the DDB • Workflow developed • DDB has given access to all documents and the submitting form

Metadata for electronic theses (2) • Metadata set has been analyzed by SNL, ÖNB and DDB • Adaptations and approvement on a shared metadata set • International cooperation between SNL, ÖNB and DDB was profitable for the national cooperation in Switzerland • Directors of the Swiss university libraries have given their general agreement in adopting the metadata set

URN – Uniform Resource Name • Persistent identifiers • Pre-work by the DDB • Proposition of enlargement the usage of the decentralized URN infrastructure from Germany to Switzerland Austria • Result: common workflow • International application

System for long term preservation • National libraries as archiving libraries • Build up long term preservation systems • SNL has been looking for partners in the library field • Administrative limitations forced SNL to look for a national partnership • Cooperation with Swiss Federal Archives

Conclusion • International cooperation is possible • The benefit is proven • Open mind and willingness to work together are key points • Working together is a way of. . . „knowing one another‘s stories and trust one another“

Thanks for your attention!