Digital Libraries in Central and Eastern Europe: Infrastructure Challenges for the New Europe

The countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) that were part of the Soviet Bloc or were non-aligned (Yugoslavia) entered the 1990s with telecommunications penetration of about fifteen telephones per hundred persons and a weak technical infrastructure based on pre-Cold War mechanical switching technology. They lacked digital transmission systems, fiber optics, microwave links, and automated systems control and maintenance. Until 1990, business, government, and education made little use of computers, although some mainframe-based data processing centers handled scientific and military applications. Communication technologies such as typewriters, photocopiers, and facsimile machines were registered and controlled to varying degrees in each country. The CEE countries could not legally make connections between their computer networks and those of countries outside the Soviet Bloc owing to the COCOM regulations and other embargoes imposed on the region by the West, although clandestine network connections were widely known to exist. In the fifteen-plus years since the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, these countries have made rapid advances in infrastructure and economics, and several already have become members of the European Union. Yet many challenges remain, especially with regard to infrastructure maturity, linguistics, and intellectual property.