ABES in July 2008

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ABES (Agence Bibliographique de l'Enseignement Supérieur) is the agency in charge of SUDOC (Système Universitaire de documentation), the Library Union Catalogue for the academic,   specialist and   Higher   Education in France. ABES was created in 1994 with the aim of implementing SUDOC, which was launched in 2001 and has proved a brilliant success, representing the holdings of 1,100 libraries (plus 2,000 public or private libraries) and representing in excess of 8 million records. We received over 25 million queries in 2007, which makes SUDOC a premier one-stop point for supporting teaching and research via a freely available integrated catalogue.

ABES strategic milestones include:

  - Since 2002, ABES has refined the SUDOC portal, its flagship project, with new features to enable users to carry out advanced searches while interrogating the holdings of a wide range of materials (electronic periodicals, theses and other research publications).

 - ABES now provides improved facilities for the storage and retrieval of electronic theses, with full search access to a permanent theses archive (STAR)[1]. Since 2007, STAR has increased the coverage of French Higher Education establishments with PhD-granting powers.

 - ABES is now an active participant in consortium purchasing for electronic resources at university level. By working with the Couperin Consortium (which specialises in digitised periodicals) ABES can now be influential in the decisions taken in group purchases benefiting the libraries of universities and prestigious research centres.

 - ABES has recently launched a brand-new online fully searchable catalogue, CALAMES[2]. Fully operational since December 2007, CALAMES is one of the most eagerly awaited features created as a result of the modernisation of SUDOC, enabling users to search the location of Higher Education archives and manuscripts.

ABES has a two-fold remit, as follows:

- The implementation of a joined-up national strategy for the dissemination and accessibility of bibliographic resources, in accordance with government guidelines as set up by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.

- ABES, within its operational framework, is responsible for meeting the expectations and needs of partner institutions in relation to bibliographic products and services offered. As such, ABES offers quality control to make sure that these products achieve an agreed level of performance.

Communication Strategy

ABES has a well-established communication strategy. These include:

- AURA (Sub-Division of Libraries and Scientific Information)[3], our partners’ communication network, which acts as a steering group to allow us to fulfil our role effectively.

- ABES AGM: this is an essential annual meeting for our network members, which allow us to develop collaboration strategies and contribute to wider objectives.

- ABES working groups meetings: influential stakeholders meet up to consult and discuss relevant bibliographic policies. They are an action-orientated task force and committee.

ABES believes in collaboration at local and national level, and realises that regional policies in library and information cannot always be implemented as a stand-alone system. This is why we support national LIS strategies in order to ensure effectiveness and consistency based on co-operative principles.

Identification and Evaluation of Future Policy

Of particular importance to the modernisation and overhaul of ABES has been the creation of an up to date modernisation agenda: the Development Project.

Building upon the successful implementation of SUDOC, ABES and its Trustees, the SDBIS (Goverment Department of Libraries and Scientific Information)[4] have embarked on a new programme, the Development Project, in order to keep pace with the frenetic change of online advances. ABES and its stakeholders have been working on a number of initial standards to develop methods and protocols since 2007. These include mapping the bibliographic and cultural landscape in which ABES operates, in tandem with a consolidated strategy and the drawing together of a list of objectives for future action.

The Development Project has been submitted to AURA for consultation. The final vote took place at the Board meeting on 6 June 2008.

In 2007 ABES undertook an organisational review to ensure that it can deliver its agreed objectives and adapt to present Higher Education global information needs. Such review was conducted successfully and ABES has emerged as a result with a strengthened remit, ready to operate within a well-defined agenda for future action.

As a diversity champion, ABES is now ready to offer its experience in project management and specialised information skills to a wider user base, while making available the richness of French Higher Education’s specialist collections via state of the art online technology.

Raymond Bérard

Director of the ABES

July 2008