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EQLIPSE - Evaluation and Quality in Library Performance: System for Europe

an EC DGXIII Project - Telematics for Libraries

NOTE: This project was completed while the Centre for Research in Library and Information Management (CERLIM) was based at the University of Central Lancashire during 1993-98. On 1 April 1998, CERLIM moved to a new base at Manchester Metropolitan University.

The overall objective of EQLIPSE, a European Commission funded research and development project, was to specify, develop and validate an open IT based system to support quality management and performance measurement in libraries of all types. The system was based on a client-server architecture and offers compatibility with library systems from various library suppliers.

The project operated through a series of six phases, as follows:

  1. Library Requirements analysis, in which a series of tasks brought together expertise from the 10 partners and associates with internationally recognised quality management, library performance measurement and technological perspectives to define the libraries requirements from EQLIPSE and hence the groundwork for development.
  2. Initial functional specification, in which the technical issues, including networking and systems integration, were reviewed, leading to the production of an initial functional specification.
  3. Prototype System, in which the initial functional specification was used to design and build a prototype, functional system.
  4. Data Tools and Data Collection [Report: Word2000 or PDF], in which the partners will adapt and design tools for collecting data, supplementary to that contained in their operational IT - based systems, and build up a test datasets for use with the system.
  5. Field Trials and Evaluation, in which the prototype system was installed in two libraries, debugged andeveloped into a fully functional system.
  6. Integration in Libraries, in which the debugged system was fully trialled, in a pseudo operational environment, in six libraries (representing the different types of libraries found across the European Union, including those in Less Favoured Regions) and evaluate.
  7. The Final Report and Final Functional Specification [Report: Word2000 or PDF] from the EQLIPSE Project.

The project involved ten partners, co-ordinated by CERLIM at the University of Central Lancashire. Dynix Ltd (Ireland), the Microelectronics Applications Centre (Ireland), Dublin City University (Ireland) and the University of Münster (Germany), each led phases of the work. The other partners were the Copenhagen Business School Library (Denmark), Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Vittorio Emanuele II (Italy), Stockholm University Library (Sweden), Stadtbücherein Düsseldorf (Germany) and the University of the Aegean (Greece).

The project had a duration of 24 months and ran from 1 February 1995 to 31 January 1997.

For further details of the Project, please contact:

Centre for Research in Library and Information Management (CERLIM)
Manchester Metropolitan University
Department of Information and Communications
Geoffrey Manton Building
Rosamond Street West
Manchester M15 6LL UK

Tel +44 (0)161 247 6142
Fax +44 (0)161 247 6979
cerlim@mmu.ac.uk