The new Bibliotheque nationale de France believes that the end user and his or her workstation is the key issue. The workbench the BnF used four years ago, called Computer assisted reading environment (CARE or, in French, PLAO, poste de lecture assistee par ordinateur) was a prototype to structure and help 'digital reading'. However, between then and now, a considerable number of theoretical and practical topics have been raised about the logical and functional architecture of access to digital heterogeneous holdings and remote documents.
One of the main points is the interoperability tools required for this architecture which libraries could master together, from a specific and standardised approach, in order to achieve control not only of the computing tools required for the Web, but also the bibliographical knowledge. On the other hand, what would happen if libraries became pure repositories of digital and printed matter, losing the 'skill' of access and retrieval to electronic publishers or web providers?
Content by Hazel Gott
Web page by Isobel Stark
of UKOLN
Page last revised on: 05-Mar-1997