European Documentation Centres – the arrival of the electronic library

Abstract

Although a large proportion of official information from the European Union is now publicly available via the internet, it is important for students and researchers to be aware of the gaps between printed and electronic resources. While some early documents have been converted selectively to electronic formats through commercial and academic projects only major collections like those in European Documentation Centres are able to provide comprehensive resources for academic study. Increasingly the role of EDCs is to help their clientele to identify appropriate websites and databases as well as to trace documents which may have only been published online or which may also exist in electronic form.