The information needs of European researchers can be met increasingly from on-line sources available over the Internet. However, the sheer quantity of information available, together with a lack of coherent organisation, has prevented many researchers from discovering Internet resources that could support their work. DESIRE aims to develop new indexing and cataloguing methods that can improve Internet resource discovery for European researchers.

DESIRE has piloted the development of subject-based gateways where information professionals and subject experts build quality controlled catalogues of Internet resources on the Web. These gateways can either be browsed by subject area or rapidly searched by keyword to locate relevant information sources. The result is that users can experience the same quality in the description and selection of resources as they could expect from a traditional academic library.

DESIRE builds on existing national projects, such as the Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG) developed in the UK using custom-designed software (ROADS). The model can be extended to encompass new subject areas and to include resources in all European languages. DESIRE suggests that a European network of subject gateways could be built, allowing gateways from different countries to be simultaneously cross-searched.

A European Web Index (EWI) is being built that will provide a search interface to all Internet documents published in Europe which have research relevance, harvesting not only on-line documents from the Web, but also those available via other Internet protocols. Significant information from each document will be digested into a database that can then be searched using the standard Z39.50 protocol, supporting a variety of user interfaces and library systems.

The EWI will take advantage of metadata which may be embedded in current documents or which in the future may be available by other means significantly enhancing the standard of the bibliographic descriptions available in the index. Close collaboration with the subject gateways work in DESIRE will ensure a shared approach to the implementation of new technologies and in the longer term closer integration of the EWI and the subject gateways.

DESIRE (Development of a European Service for Information and Research in Education) is a major international project aiming to build large scale information networks for the research community, examining many related issues such as discovery of information, security, caching and training. The project is supported by the Telematics Application Programme of the European Union, involving 23 partner organisations from across Europe.

• Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands)
• Loughborough University, UK
• NetLab,The Library, University of Lund, Sweden
• SOSIG at the Institute for Learning and Research Technology, University of Bristol
• UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN), University of Bath, UK