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ACCESSING TRANSPORTATION RESOURCES WORLDWIDE

St-Petersburg Conference, Florida, USA
01.07.29/01.08.01

FUTURE OF INFORMATION ACCESS

EUROPEAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE PERSPECTIVE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Information access : obstacles and challenges
  • for information users
    
  • for information producers
• Some solutions to meet users'need
  
  • from the internet technology side
    
  • from document formatting techniques
• Back to present situation of information access
  in Europe and worldwide
• Conclusion : some avenues to approach a
  sustainable information access

SOME OBSTACLES AND CHALLENGES
for INFORMATION USERS

• Incompatibilities of documents versions
• Cost of information access
• No connection to the internet available or of bad quality
• Insufficient computers stock (mainly in developing countries)

SOME CHALLENGES for PROVIDERS

• Offer compatible documents versions or retro-conversion solutions
• Make the users aware of the necessity to turn to XML use
• Reduce the cost of information access
  (approach free access solutions in research area)
• Propose to host internet sites with a minimum charge
• Participate in the NGO actions to have developing countries benefiting from developed countries unused computers

SOME SOLUTIONS TO MEET USER'S NEED from THE INTERNET TECHNOLOGY SIDE

Intermediation, a framework for the development of the future internet

• A - Prior to intermediation
  
  • A producer
    
  • An operator
    
  • A kiosk
    
  • A final user

SOME SOLUTIONS TO MEET USER'S NEED from DOCUMENT FORMATTING TECHNIQUES

• XML and the codification of bibliographic information
• XML and the bibliographical notice representation (MARC format)
• XML and the bibliographical information representation
• XML engineering : why to use this standard ?

BACK TO PRESENT SITUATION OF INFORMATION ACCESS
IN EUROPE OR WORLDWIDE

• Transport related sites :
  • ITRD : available from Silverplatter CD-ROM or paying servers as EINS (www2.eins.org) and STN easy (http://stneasy.fiz-karlsruhe.de)
    
  • IRTAD, German BAST Institute (www.bast.de/irtad/) :
    international data on road accidents
    
  • ECMT, The European Conference of Ministers of Transport, associated with OECD (www.oecd.org/cem)
    
  • INRETS French partners institutional sites
    => SNCF, RATP and French Ministry of Equipment and Transport (www.equipement.gouv.fr) services such as SETRA, CERTU
    
  • EINS server => PASCAL, PSYCINFO, INSPEC (www2.eins.org)

BACK TO PRESENT SITUATION OF INFORMATION ACCESS IN EUROPE OR WORLDWIDE - cntd

• General or scientific oriented sites :
  • BNF (FRENCH NATIONAL LIBRARY), INRETS partner, with its shared catalogue CCFr (www.bnf.fr)
    
  • RLG (RESEARCH LIBRARY GROUP, www.rlg.org) => RLIN base (Research Libraries Information Network) => 160 important research libraries, American ones such as Columbia University, Harvard, Yale, New York Public Library), Canadian, African, Australian and European ones (England, Scotland, Spain, Wales, Switzerland, France)
    
  • OECD (www.oecd.org)
    
  • EU site (www.europa.eu.int),
    
  • CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics), Library program CERNLIB (important collection in computer sciences => wwwinfo.cern.ch/asd/)

BACK TO PRESENT SITUATION OF INFORMATION ACCESS IN EUROPE OR WORLDWIDE - cntd

• Some sites offering free access to full text documents or usually paying data bases :
  • BNF for its virtual library GALLICA (http://gallica.bnf.fr/)
    
  • French university of Lyons for dissertations ("Cyberthèses" programme)
    
  • ELSEVIER site for selected journals or data bases (1,200 journals and navigation across 30 million records with links to 10 million journal files (www.ScienceDirect.com)
    
  • ISI Web of Science (free temporary access to selected Current Contents
    (http://sunweb.isinet.com)
    
  • CNRS/INIST gateway (Connect Sciences http://connectsciences.inist.fr) for selected data bases or journals as well

SOME AVENUES TO APPROACH A SUSTAINABLE INFORMATION ACCESS

• Enable a greater use of the Internet and the supplying of full text documents, especially in research organizations worldwide
• Develop and generalize the information retrieval tools based upon A.I. technology using semantic and natural language approach
• Think global, in contemplating larger cooperation between
  European organizations
  • ITRD taking part in knowledge management mainstream under the aegis of EU Transport Research Board
    
  • ITRD joining the OECD project to co-operate with the World Bank for the conception of a global development gateway (D.Symmes/J. Christensen, ITRD operational committee, Paris, October 23rd, 2000)

For any further information :

INRETS site : http://www.inrets.fr