Building the German Digital Library Vascoda: Building the German Digital Library Vascoda:

Abstract

vascoda (www.vascoda.de) is a new portal for scientific information – it is the nucleus of the German digital library. vascoda is a central access point for interdisciplinary searches ranging from humanities and social sciences to medical studies, engineering, and more. Access to all types of documents is made possible: born-digital as well as digitised and print materials can be obtained either free of charge or through pay-per-view options. The service already includes full-texts, link-collections, databases, subject-specific search engines and more. More than forty German institutions – mostly libraries and other information specialists are working together to offer users an actual one-stop-shop for all scientific information. The first release of vascoda was realized through the co-operation of the network of subjectbased Virtual Libraries sponsored by the DFG (German Research Society) as well as the Information Alliance and the Electronic Journals Library sponsored by the BMBF (Federal Ministry for Education and Research). Together, these institutions make it possible to combine the search for information and the access to full-text documents. Some of the journal articles and other documents can be accessed free of charge from anywhere in the world, the licence information for Germany is provided by the Electronic Journals Library and other partners. In this paper, the services of vascoda and examples of how to find quality information for different fields of study will be presented. In spring 2005, a number of new services will be provided. This paper will also look into some of the future developments of vascoda.