The UNIverse Project: a review of progress up to the demonstration phase

Reviews the progress of the UNIverse Project, a large‐scale open distributed libraries demonstration project supported by the European Commission’s Telematics for Libraries Programme. Concentrates on the technical achievements of the first two phases of the contract and indicates some technical problems encountered. Describes the development of the special interest groups and the plans for the final stage (the demonstration and evaluation phase) including progress to January 1999. Outlines the work remaining in the demonstration phase including the evaluation and proposed exploitation plans as well as a new task focussing on business and economic issues.