CoBRA+: A Review,with a Look to the Future

CoBRA and CoBRA+ were concerted programmes of research projects and pilot studies carried out during the 1990s to remove barriers impeding the exchange of bibliographic records between European countries. They aimed to develop agreed common standards and other methods of enabling interchangeability between the various local MARC formats, to discover ways for national libraries to-share resources at a European level through optimizing the use of networks and other IT developments, and to examine ways of dealing with the rapid growth of electronic publications. The various projects achieved much success in these aims. EC funding for CoBRA+ expired at the beginning of 1999, but the partner libraries agreed that the initiative should continue. A new CoBRA Task Force will investigate further potential areas for study; if these do not fulfil the criteria for EC funding alternative sources of funding will be explored. The results of the CoBRA and CoBRA+ work to date have been impressive, and their lasting monument is the remarkable spirit of cooperation among the national libraries that has been created.