ABDOSTagung, 2005, Bern EBSEES

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ABDOS-Tagung, 2005, BernEBSEES

• Jenny Brine BA, MCILIP, PhD
• Lancaster University Library
• UK

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Europäische Bibliographie zur
OsteuropaforschungEuropean Bibliography of
Slavic and East European StudiesBibliographie
européenne des travaux sur l'ex-URSSet l'Europe
de l'Est
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EBSEES

• History
• Participation
• Publication
• Statistics
• Use made of it
• Options for the future

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EBSEES

• Originated in
• Travaux et publications parus en français en
  sur la Russie et lURSS 1963-1974 which
  appeared in Cahiers du Monde Russe et Soviétique
• Soviet, East European and Slavonic Studies in
  Britain . a bibliography 1971-1974 which
  appeared as a supplement to ABSEES Abstracts
  Soviet and East European Series

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EBSEES

• Vol 1, 1975 published 1977
• 3961 entries
• Tom Hnik and Paul Valois (UK)
• Mme Aymard and Mme Armand (France)
• Covered France, UK, included some German and
  Austrian material

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EBSEES

• Other countries started to contribute
• Vol 3 1977 West Germany
• Vol 6 1980 Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands
• Vol 9-10 1983-84 Finland
• Vol 21 1995 Switzerland

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EBSEES

• Vol. 2 1976 published 1979
• 1-2 published by University of Birmingham
• Later volumes published in Paris - Institute
  dÉtudes Slaves École des Hautes Etudes en
  Sciences Sociales
• Publication of printed volumes ceased with vol
  21, 1995

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EBSEES

• Use of ISO transliteration
• Own classification scheme
• Typeset from contributors cards vols 1-6.
• Vol 7 1981 onwards computer produced indexed
  using ISIS
• Vol 15 1989 onwards most contributors entering
  data on ISIS

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EBSEES website 1 Old EBSEES

• Extensive discussions from early 1990s
• Experiments with ABSEES mid-1990s
• In the end, hosted by MSH in Grenoble
• 1998 went public
• Later moved to MSH Paris

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EBSEES website 1 Old EBSEES

• Based on ISIS software
• Unsophisticated searching facilities
• Contains data for 1990-2000
• 75,4000 entries
• Closed 2004

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EBSEES - Website 2 - New EBSEES

• Also hosted by MSH
• Custom-made data collection and retrieval
  software
• Uses ABSEES Subject Headings, which are based on
  LCSH
• ISO transliteration - but - LC for subject
  headings
• Unicode

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EBSEES - Organisation 1

• Country contributors - very varied arrangements
• French teams central role
• MSH hosts websites and provides software support
• Mailing list hosted by UK jiscmail

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EBSEES Organisation 2

• Website has interfaces in English French and
  German
• Online input screens - password protected
• Data constantly updated
• Search screen flexible
• Data output

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EBSEES Organisation 3

• Finance at present
• Each country pays for own contributors
• MSH pays for software development and hosts
  website servers
• No funding from EU or other European institutions
• EBSEES available free-of-charge over the web

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EBSEES Total Citations by Year1971-2000Total
188,887
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EBSEESStatistics for 2001 onwards

• Number of records in new database growing
  steadily - now nearly 5000
• Germany 1300
• Austria 1000, just starting on journals 2001-04
• France 900
• Switzerland 500
• UK 300, mainly theses, some journal articles
• Netherlands 130
• Belgium 32
• Finland 4

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EBSEES Statistics comments comparisons 1

• How well has EBSEES done?
• ABSEES 1990-2005 62,000 entries
• EBSEES 1990-2005 92,000 entries
• Most countries did not start contributing data
  for 2001 onwards until 2003/2004

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EBSEES Statistics comments comparisons 2

• But how many entries should EBSEES have?
• Old database 7500 year on average, new only
  around 1000 a year so far.
• For comparison, BIDS/IBSS adds 2000 a week

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EBSEES The users

• Sales - Printed volumes - between 330 and 382 a
  year, to libraries in all parts of the world
• Use of websites no data
• In the service of science and scholars anecdotal
  evidence

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EBSEES value to scholars

• Austrian Association of Slavists now relies on
  EBSEES instead of producing own bibliography
• Exhaustive bibliography of Basile Kerblay for
  CMRS greatly facilitated by EBSEES
• Russian scholar working on Annenskij - a great
  deal of émigré material found through EBSEES
• Entries on Ukraine fed into annual bibliography
  in Bulletin de lAssociation française des études
  ukrainiennes

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EBSEES value to scholars

• UK scholar working on linguistic minorities in
  Austria - found a great deal of material in
  EBSEES

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EBSEES Options for the future

• Abandon EBSEES
• Continue independently
• Merge with ABSEES/EBSCO

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EBSEES Abandon??? Slide 1

• Many of countries covered now part of EU
• Wide range of other databases cover our area
• Very far behind already
• Software development
• Insufficient use, not well known

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EBSEES ABANDON??? Slide 2

• Retirement of French leadership
• Need replacement/additional contributorsto get
  up-to-date or even keep going
• Need a secure financial base

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EBSEES Work with EBSCO???Advantages Slide 1

• Sophisticated search software
• Technical assistance
• Searchable using SFX, Metalib, etc
• Search alongside other databases

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EBSEES Work with EBSCO??? Advantages slide 2

• Possibly digitise printed volumes
• Possibly merge old new EBSEES databases
• Possibly merge with ABSEES
• Marketing
• Ensure our work is actually used

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EBSEES Work with EBSCO ????Disadvantages

• Loss of autonomy
• Ownership of data
• Negotiations with EBSCO
• Financial issues

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EBSEES Work with EBSCO ????Disadvantages

• Transliteration problems
• Language issues
• Old classification incompatible with ABSEES

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EBSEES Continue independently 1

• MSH willing to continue to host WEBSEES
• MSH willing to fund 1 half post
• Centre dÉtudes Slaves/CNRS willing to host
  EBSEES, may provide some staff
• Software development largely completed
• Sufficient contributors for some countries

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EBSEES Continue independently 2

• Subject headings working
• Contributors now familiar with input screens
• Worthwhile amount of data now amassed
• Past investment of time and money beginning to
  pay off

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EBSEES Continue independently Desiderata 1

• MSH guarantees on hosting software
• Firm financial footing
• Identify UNIQUE SELLING POINTS
• Marketing and publicity

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EBSEES Continue independently Desiderata 2

• List of subject headings available to users as
  well as compilers
• Journals lists available to users and compilers
• Facilities to count analyse use of EBSEES
• Improvements in data entry and search screens

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EBSEES Thanks

• École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales -
  hosts since vol. 3 (1977)
• Maison des Sciences de lHomme - hosting the
  database, technical support
• LÉquipe française
• Swiss National Library