Want to find out more about what is happening with the Euro, how other European countries are dealing with the issue of asylum seekers or which country is currently hosting the presidency of the European Union? Then have a look at the new EuroStudies Gateway on SOSIG (Social Science Information Gateway). This provides access to high quality Internet resources on Europe by enhancing and furthering existing SOSIG coverage. A European dimension to SOSIG is being developed at a time when the European Union has a clearer policy towards enlargement of the Union and the process of democracy begins to mature in former Eastern Bloc Countries.
The subject coverage is as varied as the SOSIG database. The subjects represented include:
Given the unique nature of EuroStudies we have also included supra-national European organisations that have been created to govern, administer, defend and facilitate co-operation across the nation states. This is reflected in the regional listings. Each country in Europe is represented, not just those in the European Union. A full listing appears on the EuroStudies page. It is always quite difficult to define what Europe is and in our case a geographical approach has been taken. There is to be an emphasis on Central and Eastern Europe which are generally under-represented on the Web. The resources covered will be in a variety of languages and have the potential to inform a Continent-wide audience.
All resource types in the SOSIG database will be represented from government publications and official bodies to statistical sites and full text resources. As the database develops the Gateway will be searchable at country, subject and regional level.
A team of subject information specialists based at Information Services at the University of Birmingham is responsible for the content for the new EuroStudies gateway. They will be working closely with academics from the new European Research Institute at the University of Birmingham, which brings together major research areas in Europe such as the Centre for Russian and East European Studies (CREES) and the Institute of German Studies (IGS).
A colour leaflet has also been produced outlining the EuroStudies gateway (copies of these are available on request).
We do hope that EuroStudies will continue to improve and develop the RDNs European coverage. If you have any comments on the Gateway or on the outline above please get in touch.
http://www.sosig.ac.uk/eurostudies/
Tracy Kent
EuroStudies Project Manager
t.k.kent@bham.ac.uk
0121 414 3918
or
Debra Hiom
SOSIG Co-Director
d.hiom@bristol.ac.uk
0117 928 7117