37 German libraries, research centres and information institutions are offering an interdisciplinary internet portal for scientific information, due to be launched in August 2003
Never before has it been so easy to get hold of high quality German and international scientific information in Germany - at Vascoda, 37 front-line German libraries, research centres and academic information providers have established an interdisciplinary internet portal.
It will make an enormous amount of scientific literature and scientific information accessible online to the public.
Designed as a central access gateway, Vascoda represents the sum of the German information services which have been established with public funding.
Thus it provides easy access to a multidisciplinary mix of scientific information products and services in one user interface.
Vascoda is as easy to use as the Google search engine and its use is free of charge.
All pages linked to the central access gateway have been checked for quality.
The vast majority of the information offered via Vascoda is free of charge, however, fee-based information such as publishers' offers and commercial databases is also accessible.
To ensure quick and easy access to these kinds of publications, access for users will be through 'pay-per-view'.
Already existing subscriptions to electronic journals can be continued in the manner agreed upon with the publisher or information provider.
Both the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG (German Research Foundation) support Vascoda.
These organisations together with the partners involved in the information alliance view the portal as a foundation stone of the 'German digital library' which is designed to meet the needs of the users.
Currently involved in Vascoda are 23 subject-based virtual libraries (ViFas), the four already established German information alliances EconDoc (economy), GetInfo (science and technology), infoconnex (education science, social science, psychology) and medical science, as well as the Electronic Journals Library (EZB).
ViFas - subject-based Virtual Libraries - are user interfaces on the web that give an overall view of the specific information available for different subject areas.
They have been established during the last few years with the support of the DFG, in order to provide easy access to internet sources with high quality information and - through the integration of library catalogues - also offer easy access to printed publications.
The four German information alliances likewise provide assistance with the information retrieval.
They sum up all types of relevant information on a subject level, ensuring the user not only of comprehensive access to information sources but also the immediate delivery of the full texts of scientific publications found during the search.
In most cases this means that the requested information can be downloaded onto the PC and printed out straight after the retrieval.
The EZB is a co-operative service of 209 libraries that make electronic journals published on the Internet available.
Vascoda combines all these information sources in one interface.
Its aim is to continually bring together more and more partners offering information from all scientific disciplines.
The number of sources can be expanded at will.
The initial version of Vascoda will be publicly launched during the International Library Conference IFLA in Berlin from 1-9 August 2003.
