University of Patras

University of Patras, Library & Information Center (LIC), GREECE (UPAT)

The University of Patras is the 4th in size higher education institute in Greece with 22 academic departments and more than 16.000 students. It was founded back in 1964 and up to now it has become the second institution in the country regarding research projects and funding. It consists of the Schools of Natural Sciences, Engineering, Health Sciences, Humanities & Social Sciences and Economics & Administration. The Department of Computer Engineering and Informatics founded in 1980 was the first computer science academic school in Greece and even now it is considered the leading school in the area.

Library & Information Center (LIC) was founded in 1965 and it is the major scientific library in the regions of Western Greece. Staff consists of 14 graduates of the areas of Librarianship, Humanities and Sciences as well as of 3 information technology experts. Research and development within LIC focus on information and digital libraries technologies and related user oriented services. LIC and it’s staff the last 15 years have been actively participated in a number of national and EU research projects such as STRIDE, COMETT, TELEMATICS for LIBRARIES and the Operational Program for Education and Initial Vocational Training funded jointly by the Greek Ministry of Education and the EU. Currently participates as a partner in Europeana v1.0 Thematic Network.

More particular LIC’s long experience and expertise could be summarized in the following areas:

  • automated library services, including information management & integration applications (ERMs), information systems,  etc.
  • digital libraries applications and projects, e.g. digital collection suite: Kosmopolis (http://xantho.lis.upatras.gr/kosmopolis)/, Pleias (http://xantho.lis.upatras.gr/pleias), Daniilida (http://xantho.lis.upatras.gr/daniilida/) , etc
  • open access e-publishing projects & initiatives, platforms Pasithee (http://xantho.lis.upatras.gr/pasithee/), Dexameni (http://xantho.lis.upatras.gr/dexameni/), Directory of Greek Digital Resources (http://www.lis.upatras.gr/Libworld/gr_resources_EL.php)
  • performance evaluation of library services and user surveys
  • user instruction and support

All LIC digital library services are compliant to international preservation standards, such as the OAIS reference model highlighting thus a high level commitment to the the long-time preservation care, while are syntactically interoperable through the conformance to OAI protocols and examination from verification services, such as DRIVER.

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