Implementing Electronic Journals in the Library and Making them Available to the End-User: An Integrated Approach

Abstract

This short-paper describes our strategy for implementing electronic journals (with embedded multimedia) in the library and making them available to the end-user. Together with the Technische Universiteit Einhoven (TUE) in the Netherlands, we own the source code of the Vubis library information system, which allows development, customization and tighter integration of Vubis for our specific needs. The university library of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in Belgium is currently involved in a digital library project named CROCODIL (CROss-platform CO-operation for a DIgital Library 1999-2000) which is sponsored by the Flemish government (IWT). Our partners are the largest subscription agent in Europe (Swets Blackwell) and the distributor of the Vubis library information system (Geac). We are developing integrated access to electronic documents (with embedded multimedia) and information in different formats. We hope that our experience can be of interest to other libraries coping with the integration of electronic journals in their library system.