PICA: CENTRUM VOOR BIBLIOTHEEKAUTOMATISERING

As the various Lib‐2 studies conducted throughout the EEC are published (we hope), they should reveal how similar are the trends in automation in many European Countries. Perhaps that which is closest (geographically and metaphorically) to the U.K. scene is The Netherlands who have already published their study(1). They have features familiar to the U.K.: a centralised shared cataloguing system, promoting a local library system with the additional presence of some familiar turnkey vendors — Geac, ALS, CLSI. This brief summary of PICA is the result of a visit made by Jean Plaister to investigate, in particular, its networked messaging and ILL system — areas which the UK has not developed greatly so far. Also of interest are the developments in the implementation of OSI. Ed