National Information Infrastructures in Central and Eastern Europe: Perspectives from the Library Community

Information infrastructures (IIs) are a complex arrangement of people, technology, institutions, content, and conduits. Their development is shaped by the environment in which they evolve and the visions ascribed to them by the various actors. This article examines the assumptions, meanings, and definitions associated with IIs in four Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. In particular, it focuses on how one stakeholder group, the library community, frames the policy debates around IIs. In-depth interviews were conducted in 1999 with 49 library policymakers in 37 institutions. The data shed light on the respondents' collective story and visions and help us gain a better understanding of political and cultural differences in the development of IIs.