Digital Strategy: European perspectives

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role and content of digital strategies in European research libraries. The paper will look at current developments in UCL (University College London) in the UK in terms of strategic directions at an institutional level. It will then examine how UCL Library Services is developing its own strategy to meet these institutional objectives. The paper will look at changing digital architectures, which reflect the new emphasis on student-centred learning and research. Three types of e-content will be examined, and the success or otherwise of libraries in delivering this type of content examined. Open Access is a major new development in terms of the dissemination of academic outputs and recent developments in Europe will be studied. The final section of the paper will look at the concept of digital curation and attempt to examine two European developments which will shape future work in this area. The paper ends by suggesting some tentative conclusions on the success or otherwise of European digital strategy development and implementation.