LIBECON2000 and the future of international library statistics

LIBECON2000 is a project to collect and publish library statistics of 29 European countries on a Web‐site, ( www.libecon2000.org ). The LIBECON‐2000 survey area comprises: states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEEC): Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Estonia; Hungary; Latvia; Lithuania; Poland; Romania; Slovak Rep; Slovenia. Member states of the European Union (EU): Austria; Belgium; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Ireland; Italy; Luxembourg; The Netherlands; Portugal; Spain; Sweden; UK. Other states within the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA): Iceland; Liechtenstein; Norway; Switzerland. The work is funded by DG13 of the European Commission within the Telematics Applications Programme and has been in progress since mid‐1998 and will continue until the end of 2000. The primary objective is to provide a position statement on the state of European libraries at the turn of the century. This paper gives some account of the project’s initial progress and speculates about the future of the collection and publication of library statistics at the international level.