History

The foundation of the network 12 «Libraries and Information Centres in Educational Research» in 1997 was due to the deficient visibility and the complexity of educational information infrastructures in Europe and the poor status of European coordination in educational research. Therefore, the network's first goal was to explore and develop coordinated ways to supply educational research with adequate information bases. The network's involvement in the PERINE project (http://www.bildung-weltweit.de/zeigen.html?seite=6681), supported by the European Commission, was an example of this.

Another main goal of Network 12 in EERA was (and still is) to raise the awareness of educational information infrastructures within the research community and to involve researchers into the design of information services. This was the main reason why the network was established within an educational research association and not as a part of a library or information science association.

The «Europeanisation» of research has gradually improved and the complexity of information infrastructures has even increased. Nowadays many infrastructures are established on the basis of project funding, but institutions which are geared towards long term information services only exist in few European countries. The challenge here is to involve all «players» into the business of creating and sustaining cross-national research infrastructures.