Developments in European information issues: Networks and relays – Services – Products, December 1998

CELEX

CELEX, containing primary and secondary legislation, preparatory documents and case law provides a record of the legislative and judicial process of the EU and is the most important and long-running of the official databases. Set up in 1971, it was not until 1981 that it was made publicly available. The Mistral search language has been a challenge to information searchers over the years but it is nevertheless a sophisticated, flexible and powerful tool. However, it has long been appreciated that a simpler interface was required and that other problems relating to the database needed to be addressed. It is illuminating to review some of the proposals over the last ten years. Frequently recurring themes which will no doubt be instantly recognisable are: the addition of the full text of COM Documents; improvement in the currency of up dating; the application of EUROVOC terminology; completion of missing text; reloading of text in both upper and lower case, etc. Perhaps less well remembered are proposals for the use of CCL as a simpler search language, and the addition of sectors 8 and 10. By 1996 a menu driven alternative interface was intro-duced - frustrating for expert searchers but nevertheless an access point for the novice user. The great breakthrough, however, came in 1997 with the launch of the web interface which, despite the complexity of the data, succeeds in providing an accessible route to the information. And some of those old suggestions have also finally come to pass - the use of EUROVOC for all but Court of Justice records, full text of COM Documents, improved currency .... to name but a few.

Funds are committed for continued development of the database as subscription service at least for the short-to-medium term. Of the other Eurobases databases, RAPID from the Spokesman's Service of the Commission was the first to make the leap to the web in 1997, setting the precedent for free access and marking a major step forward in offering wide access to the latest information in a readable format. SCAD, combining with INFO92 to form SCADplus, followed, similarly free of charge. ECLAS, the database of the Commission's Library, took the same route in 1998. Version 2 of ECLAS is due out before the end of the year and is to include features such as profiles as well as the possibility of downloading basic MARC records. Users will have noticed that the registration requirement has been removed. As with RAPID, registration will in future be required if advanced search features are used but guest access will also be available. The European Parliament's EPOQUE, currently available via the CAA and directly, is expected to be available on the web by the end of 1998. What will happen to the other remaining databases is not yet clear. There is for example the possibility that APC and SESAME will move to the web as the responsibility of different DGs, but like ECHO, Eurobases has become a shadow of its former self and an announcement is expected shortly on its position.