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Behind the EU's Libraries Programme is Unit XIII/E‐4: head of the Unit, and hence very influential in the way that Europe's libraries will develop in the future, is Mrs Ariane Iljon. Here Mrs Iljon describes her view of the future of libraries and the library of the future.

Who would have imagined, half a dozen years ago, that the national libraries of Europe would be cooperating as closely as they are on access to electronic publications? Who could have guessed that remote villages in northern Greece would be making use of mainstream information services thanks to state‐of‐the‐art facilities installed in mobile library buses? And who would have believed that real‐time ISDN connections to sound archives in Britain, Denmark, and Italy would be providing users with top‐quality access to music and other interesting sound bites?

The present situation concerning the use of different languages in data bases is outlined. It is somewhat analogous to that in the field of publishing, as English is the predominant carrier language used. Nevertheless, a number of monolingual data bases offer multilingual features, and there exist a few multi‐lingual data bases. This is already an indication that new tendencies are at work.

The European Commission's Libraries programme (as it is popularly known) is set in the context of the European Union's Research and Technological Development (RTD) Framework Programmes. It has been one of the areas of general interest addressed within the specific programme ‘Telematics systems in areas of general interest’ which ran from 1991–1994. The Telematics Programme was in its turn part of the Third Framework Programme (FP3). At the time of writing (June 1995) this has now been followed by the Telematics Applications Programme of the Fourth Framework Programme, 1994–1998 (FP4). This paper looks back and takes stock of what has been the Commission's first initiative specifically in the libraries area.

The first European Conference on Library Automation and Networking was held in Brussels during 9–11 May, 1990 and was attended by about 700 participants from some 26 countries. Most participants came from the Northern European countries such as Scandinavia, Belgium, Netherlands, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Switzerland and the UK, but there were also some from Southern Europe (e.g. Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece), as well as a few from Eastern Europe (e.g. Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland, Yugoslavia) and even three from the USSR. The conference was organised on the initiative of the EFLC, the European Foundation for Library Cooperation. EFLC was founded in 1986 and is an organisation of some 19 members, acting in a personal capacity, from nine countries. EFLC's aims are to strengthen library co‐operation in Europe and to manage libraries' information resources in order to improve user services in Europe. However, other European groups related to libraries also helped in the organisation of the conference; these were:

As a member of the Editorial Board, I wish to publicly disagree with Harry Collier's ‘letter to the editor’ published in the December 1977 issue of Online Review.

The Palais du Congress in Brussels was the venue in early May for the European Conference on Library Automation and Networking bringing together close to 700 participants from thirty countries. The Conference was supported by UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the European Cultural Foundation, the Commission of the European Communities, and a whole host of national and international institutions and companies too long to list in this brief article. The suppliers added interest to the Conference and the exhibition area was always full of conference attendees trying to find out about the latest available products and services.

This article provides information about the Public Libraries Mobilising Advanced Networks (PULMAN) project, funded under the European Commission Information Society Technologies programme. As the project is carried out in the framework of the e‐Europe action plan, the e‐Europe strategy is outlined. Background information is included about the history of the project and about the PULMAN network. The main results to date include the PULMAN guidelines, which are being reviewed throughout the remaining period of the project, the gateway to distance learning courses for the library, museum and archives sector, and training workshops. The role of EBLIDA as an important partner in the PULMAN project is discussed. This article concludes that public libraries play a crucial role in ensuring a literate information society. The outcome of the PULMAN project and the resulting policy actions contribute to public libraries achieving their full potential in the information society.

The EDILIBE Project – Electronic Data Interchange for Libraries and Booksellers in Europe involved libraries and booksellers in Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy and the UK. It was a project funded by the European Union as part of the European Libraries Programme and ran from April 1993 to December 1995. This paper discusses the current role of an acquisitions librarian and outlines the ways in which electronic data interchange (EDI) can be used to assist in the management of acquisitions infor mation. Practical experiences gained in implementing EDI standards and developing suitable software during the EDILIBE project are described.

The present success of online retrieval is well known. The future is dependent on several factors including technological developments (computers, communications, terminals and storage), progress in information with science research, availability and use of funds for employing and coupling the available technology and the useful results of research, and finally the nontechnical exterior factors, such as political, psychological, legal and legislative constraints. Research is under way to pave the way for the development of transparent systems for retrieving references, facts and information contained in textual material. Such systems will greatly increase the useability of computer‐readable databases by professionals and laymen alike. Really significant changes will depend on research that progresses towards fact retrieval and ultimately towards knowledge retrieval.