European Documentation Centres: Challenges for the EDCs’ work in the 21st century

Abstract

• This e-catalogue on 'The challenges for the EDCs’ work in the 21st century' has been produced to confront three important challenges which EDCs are facing in their daily work. The EDC Pan-European Working Group 2012-13 has discussed these challenges and would like to share its findings with the rest of the EDC network. The working group focused on these three main themes: How to make a good use of social media for promotion activities and/or information sharing among EDCs; How e-books will influence and impact on the daily work of EDCs; How to reinforce co-operation between EDCs at European level to increase content and/or information sharing of online repositories of information sources ; How to access records from the EU Bookshop and collaborate with ECLAS, the European Commission Libraries Catalogue. Each chapter in this catalogue presents the main trends of these three themes and explains their importance for the EDC network. The catalogue also aims to offer practical support to EDCs to help them benefit from the knowledge of fellow EDCs. Therefore, the e-catalogue includes: Good practices in social media: Thirteen good practices in social media illustrate how EDCs can effectively use social media. Information is provided on how to work with social media, tips and tricks for successful interaction and information on the resources necessary to best perform the tasks needed to ensure EDC network members pick up the stories. Recommended free e-book sources: In the section on e-books, the importance of this tool for EDCs is highlighted and a very interesting list of free e-book sources and research papers has been prepared by the working group members.