It represents and promotes the interests of national, academic and research libraries in Europe, and its membership includes the majority of national, academic and research libraries in the countries of Europe. August 1998 1.
Academic research requires access, in principle, to the whole range of published material.
No single researcher or library can purchase the whole spectrum of published material of research interest. As a consequence the researcher needs the library and the library needs the community of libraries. The ability of libraries to exchange research material for their users on demand is a vital requirement to encourage research in society. However, by comparison with print, the durability of electronic materials and the provision of long-term access to them is much more difficult to ensure. It is in the interest of the academic and scientific community that national, academic and research libraries can provide them with permanent access to all the necessary research materials regardless of where and when they have been published.