Edyta Urbańska, European Documentation Centres in Poland

Edyta Urbańska

European Documentation Centres in Poland

Successively, but not without some problems Poland is moving towards a place in the European Union. As we approaching to the date of full membership, the interest on European Communities, interest on negotiations process and its consequences is still growing up. People are looking for information about European standards, which will be obligatory in Poland soon, they are going to participate in European programmes, need contacts with European institutions or firms. Students and pupils want to study abroad and participate in youth programmes. Comprehensive information data could be found at European information and documentation centres existing in the European Union and Third Countries. These are: European Information Centres, Euro - Info Centres, Euro - Info points and European Documentation Centres. The main European information centre in Poland is the European Information Centre of the Office of the Committee for European Integration. It created tens of Regional European Information Centres in capitals of the provinces and in capitals of administrative districts. They inform citizens about integration process and consequences, on European law, standards and policies. Main tasks of Euro - Info Centres are providing information for firms, small and medium - sized enterprises and craft on European standards, Community programmes and looking for domestic and foreign business partners for them. Euro - Info points are located at publicly available institutions and organisations like public libraries and local authorities, and offer basic information on the European Union. European Documentation Centres (EDCs) are a different category of European information centres. They are created by the European Commission Education and Culture Directorate-General mainly at universities or academic institutions providing European Studies

The establishing of EDCs by the European Commission dates from 1963 when the provision of Community publications was felt to be essential to the promotion of European Studies in Member States and in the international academic Community. European studies were seen as engaging researchers and students in the European integration process. In March 1999 there existed 510 such Centres in the world and 310 in the European Union 1 . At the end of 1980s Commission begun to found such centres in Central and Eastern European Countries, including Poland.

The first European Documentation Centre in Poland was created at the Centre for European Studies of the Łódź University in 1989. The youngest one are EDCs in Olsztyn, Szczecin i Toruń, established in January 1998. New centre in Opole is creating now and the foundation of the next one at the Marie Curie University in Lublin is planned. The last-mentioned will replace quite lately liquidated centre at the Catholic University in Lublin. There are fifteen centres in Poland now. Six EDCs exists in Warsaw at the College of Europe, Foreign Trade Research Institute, Main Trade School, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Office of the Committee for European Integration (Deposit Library of EU publications) and Warsaw University. Two other are located on the north of the country - in Gdańsk and Szczecin, three on the south - in Katowice, Kraków and Wrocław, and four in the centre - in Łódź, Olsztyn, Poznań and Toruń.

They were founded under the agreements between Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission and the authorities of institutions at which they were being established. On the basis of those agreements they receive a deposit copy of publications of the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities in Luxembourg and they have privileged access to electronic databases. There are two types of EDCs because of the character of a deposit copy: full - receiving all publications of the Office for Official Publications and specialized - only titles concerning some domains. Deposit copy consists of documents, reports, working papers, monographs, periodicals, pamphlets and other sources of information about the law and European Union policies. These are not only EU institution materials, but European bodies and organisations - like European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions or European Environment Agency too. These materials are mostly on paper, but they are progressively replaced by electronic versions. Polish EDCs receive a deposit copy in one of the eleven Community official languages, mainly in English.

The EDCs collect Polish and foreign documents and publications concerning the European Union and the association process too. These are publications of Polish and foreign authors and domestic and foreign institutions involved in integration process and materials of international organisations as the Council of Europe, Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, United Nations or NATO as well. They receive them as a deposit copy of Polish publications or buying - with some discounts offered by publishers for EDCs recurrently. The main tasks of European Documentation Centres are: collecting, processing and presenting the collection, information services, assistance in searching for materials and referencing other sources of information. They are participants of meetings and workshops, organizers of seminars and conferences, participants of European programmes. Ten of Polish EDCs received European Commission grants in August 2000 to realize their own projects concerning information services on European Communities and integration process for citizens in the framework of the PL 9707 Phare - European Integration, Project PL 9707-02: Public Relations, Local Initiatives and Information Systems, Subproject PL 9707-02-01: European Public Relations System. These are EDCs from Gdańsk, Kraków, Olsztyn, Poznań, Szczecin, Toruń, Wrocław and Warsaw - EDCs existing at the Foreign Trade Research Institute, Main Trade School and Warsaw University. EDCs co-operate closely with European Studies and other departments providing studies on European issues at their universities and publish monographs or periodicals concerning sources of information, information policy or other European themes. They created first electronic discussion group for Polish EDCs librarians in spring 1999. Group works as a forum for exchanging of information and experiences. Some Polish EDCs librarians are members of EURODOC discussion list too.

The users of European Documentation Centres are mostly researchers and graduate and postgraduate students, but they are open to the general public as in the European Union. These represent local authorities, small and medium sized enterprises, firms, farmers, pupils, teachers and other citizens too. More and more persons are interested in European Union and integration process every year, using European Documentation Centres collections and services. The new publications are successively appearing, the collections are still increasing, as is the number of electronic databases and new computer programmes. It is exciting but makes some problems. Readings rooms are getting to small, computer equipment is to scanty as the finances for new books and databases. Bigger reading rooms, more space for collection and more computer equipment are the main needs of almost every Polish EDC now. Our EU colleagues are facing similar problems. Maybe we will find some solutions together...?

Adresses of European Documentation Centres in Poland 2

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1. http://europa.eu.int/comm/libraries/edc/basic_en.htm

2. Regulamin Konkursu Dotacji dla Sieci Instytucji Regionalnych Współpracujących z Centrum Informacji Europejskiej, Program: PL9707 Phare - Integracja Europejska Projekt PL 9707-02: Public Relations, Inicjatywy Lokalne i Systemy Informacyjne Podprojekt PL 9707-02-01: European Public Relations System, http://www.cie.gov.pl , s. 6

EBIB special edition
Edyta Urbańska : European Documentation Centres in Poland
Issue for Frankfurt Book Fair, 2000. ebib.oss.wroc.pl/Frankfurt/urb.html