Technology and values: lessons from central and eastern Europe

Technology does not develop independently of its social context. Rathe r, there is a range of social, cultural and economic factors (in addition to technical factors) that define the parameters for the development and use of technologies. This paper presents a case study of the social shaping of one aspect of digital libraries, the development of national union catalogs (NUC), in four countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It examines the specific choices and values that are embedded in the design of a NUC, and how these might be transferred to other cultural contexts.