BALTICSEAWEB - Geographic user interface to bibliographic information

The aim of the project was to launch a Baltic Marine Environment Information System which allows users to search information using a geographical user interface with connection to text retrieval tools and to retrieve bibliographic references as well as electronic original documents over the Internet. It promotes, facilitates and improves co-operation, resource sharing and networking between libraries in Baltic Sea countries. The information system developed is an extension of an existing bibliographic database, which is accessible via traditional online information retrieval systems as well by common WWW search form. Bacause a sizeable number of the bibliographic references in the database have an identifiable geographical content, they have previously been relatively poorly accessible to professional and end users. For this reason a new geographical user interface was developed. The project has yielded a demonstrator (i.e. an Internet based service), which greatly improves the accessibility and usefulness of the existing database on Baltic marine environment issues. Two versions of the prototype demonstrator are available for viewing. Their usefulness can later be improved by adding more content, including more original documents. They are likely to serve as a generic model for future developments in the area of enhanced information retrievability.