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The Webserver of the EURODATA Research Archive

by Michael Quick
The WWW Technology offers many services to the social science community. Some examples were already mentioned on the previous page. This article presents detailed information on a server for social scientists concerned with comparative research on Europe.

The WorldWideWeb pages of EURODATA are integrated into the server of the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES). All pages are written in English, and the main pages are bilingual, German and English.

Basic concept

When the decision was taken to develop a Webserver, the idea was to do two things of equal importance. The first one was to disseminate information about the EURODATA Research Archive and its activities in the scientific community. The second idea was to provide information that would help researchers inside and outside our institute in their comparative studies on Europe. This was to be achieved by building a gateway to other Internet services of European social science institutions and by providing information about institutions that have no Internet services yet.

The EURODATA homepage starts with some introductory information and with addresses (see graph). Links offer access to WWW servers of the archive’s host institutions, the University of Mannheim and the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research. Then follows a menu leading to the further contents of the server.

Information about the EURODATA Research Archive
The server contains an abridged version of a MZES working paper describing tasks, structure, activities and access regulations of the archive. One main task of EURODATA is the maintenance of a large statistics library. Everybody can retrieve information about its holdings in the electronic catalogue. Further information about the archive’s activities comprises the complete coverage of the EURODATA Newsletter as well as a list of the archive’s staff’s publications including some abstracts.
Services for researchers
The following services are offered to social scientists working in the field of comparative European research:
  • An electronic catalogue of the MZES library and the EURODATA statistics library that gives information about literature and data on European societies.
  • The EURODATA Newsletter is held online.
  • A large document with information on national and international Statistical Institutes is included. It contains not only addresses, phone numbers, etc., but also information on the organisational structure and the activities of the Institutes.
Information that can be obtained from competent sources elsewhere in the Internet doesn’t need to be repeated within our server. Therefore a list of links to other servers is included. Important examples are the Social Science Data Archives, the European Commission’s server „EUROPA“ and the Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG). If one follows these links, a great deal more library and data catalogues and information on institutions and ongoing research can be found.
Development
EURODATA’s WWW server has been released on March 1st 1995. It’s therefore very new and subject to revision and extension. We want to encourage everybody to send comments and suggestions for improvements to the archive’s e-mail address.

Author:
Dipl.Geogr. Michael Quick
University of Mannheim, MZES-Eurodata, D-68131 Mannheim
Phone: (+49) (0)621 - 292 8436, Email mquick@mzes.sowi.uni-mannheim.de
EURODATA Newsletter No.1, p.20