Network of the Bocconi EDC

The European Documentation Centre at Bocconi University is part of an extensive information network created on a global level by the European Communities in the early sixties, to support study, teaching and reswarch at university level. Of the more than 5000 EDCs, 300 are located with the EU and the 43 in Italy.

They contain official publications and documents of the institutions of the European Union or published by OOPEC (the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities), the publishing houses of the institutions and other bodies of the European Union, responsible for producing and distributing EU publications.

Apart form EDCs, which are mainly targeted at university students and researchers (and consequently located mostly in univerisites), other information networks (like Euro Info Centres, Infor-points Europe, etc.) provide different target groups with specialized information and advice.

EDC at Bocconi

The EDC at Bocconi University was set up in May 1983, following a convention between the University and the European Commission. Accordingly, the EDC is located adjacent to the main library and is also open to outside users. EDC’s collection includes official documents of the European Union (e.g. the Treaties and the documents of the Commission, the Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee); it also has access (with password) to Celex, the legislative database of the European Union and offers the possibility to consult the main official electronic sources of the European Institutions.

In fact, while at the beginning most of the publications (translated in all the official languages) were sent directly by the Commission and made available as paper versions at the EDC, use of electronic media has recently been more convenient and the internet has had a major impact in terms of boosting the dissemination of Community information. As a result of these changes, the EDC’s activities have been increasingly focused on providing advice (to the academic sector as well as to the general public) on how to properly selct the large amount of publications and documents available online. The EDC now serves as a focal point to aggregate different requests for information, given the privileged access to European Institution’s publications, and also aims to catalogue and promote research work on EU related subjects (for example, all the theses on European Union submitted at Bocconi since 1977 have been catalogued by EDC).

EDC at CES in Hanoi

While EDC at Bocconi (and more general in Europe) has a very specific task (i.e. it represents the European Institutions that provide information about themselves), the EDC in Hanoi, given the different background and needs of the target groups, aims to make available to researchers, students and the general public a core of relevant publications about (and not only from) the EU. For this reason, it includes also country specific or thematic sections that provide information on politics, economics etc. of the European Union, while at Bocconi information about the EU from different or non-official sources can be usually found at the main library.

Consequently, Bocconi University’s EDC support to the EDC I Hanoi means not only the search and selection of the most suitable texts for an EDC located in a non-member state, but also providing access to additional and more specific information (e.g. journal articles) required by the public on an ad hoc basis.

For more details on how you as a reader in Hanoi can have access to the vast collection of the EDC at Bocconi, please contact the ESPV Information Officer, Ms. Thoa, at the EDC in Hanoi.

(According to Newsletter, Volume 2)