Welcome to ECDL 2003 and to these conference proceedings, featuring all the papers presented at the 7th European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries. Following Pisa (1997), Heraklion (1998), Paris (1999), Lisbon (2000), Da- stadt (2001) and Rome (2002), ECDL 2003 in Trondheim reaches some of the northernmost shores of the continent. Being the seventh in an annual series of conferences represents, for better and for worse, a considerable tradition in the fast changing world of digit- library-related research and development. It is still a di?cult and slow job to change traditional forms and formats of communication at - and related to - scienti?c conferences, and also to change participants' expectations. Yet each new conference builds upon the topics and communities involved in previous events and inherits the commitment to quality established by its predecessors. Each year, ECDL has to live up to its role of being "the major European forum focusing on digital libraries and associated technical, practical, and social issues,"bringingdiversedisciplinesandapplicationcommunitiestogether.There arestillchallengesinthisrespectaheadofus, butthequalityandrangeofpapers and other contributions, combined with opportunities for debate, should ensure that ECDL 2003 sets high standards for the future.

Digital libraries (DLs) are major advances in information technology that frequently fall short of expectations [7, 28]. Covi & Kling [7] argue that understanding the wider context of technology use is essential to understanding digital library use and its - plementation in different social worlds. Recent health informatics research also - gues that social and organisational factors can determine the success or failure of healthcare IT developments [8, 11, 12]. Heathfield [11] suggests that this is due to the complex, autonomous nature of the medical discipline and the specialized (clinician or software engineer) approach to system development. Negative reactions to these systems is often due to inappropriate system design and poor implementation. H- ever, there may be other less obvious social and political repercussions of information system design and deployment. Symon et al [26] have identified, within a hospital scenario, how social structures and work practices can be disrupted by technology implementation. Although these systems often deal with sensitive, personal infor- tion, other system design research has found that apparently innocuous data can be perceived as a threat to social and political stability [1,2,3]. To understand the impact of DLs within the medical profession, an in-depth evaluation is required of the int- duction and later development of these applications within their specific social and organisational settings. However, as Covi & Kling [7] have highlighted, there are few high-level theories that aid designers in understanding the implication of these issues for DL design and implementation.