From the European Institutions to the European Citizens: the information channels through the European Documentation Centres (EDCs)

Abstract

The European Documentation Centers are establishments of the European Commission in the premises of the Universities and Research Institutions of the European Union Countries. Their mission is the dissemination of the Information about the European Integration and especially: • information and documentation on every question about the European Union (EU) rights, funding, exchanges, travelling, working, etc., • invitations to local EU information/networking events, • access to official EU publications and documents (online and print) • references to other information sources, • contact details for relevant organizations, • help finding detailed information on European law, integration, policies and institutions, • training for students on EU-related fact-finding and research. Before all the EDCs are a European network, the members of which produce value added services. The EDCs personnel in most cases are staff of the host organizations or of their libraries who do their best in this Information channel in parallel with their main duties. However, a wide range of initiatives has taken under and many services have developed, such as: • Communication with users through Social Media tools, • Cooperation between EDCs in the creation of repositories with European Documentation, • Use of the new technologies in the Information process, • Cooperation among them and between them and the EU Institutions to the organization of events, • Support of an email list of the whole EDCs...