Information

The Network is an information and contact pool.

The members use it to illustrate and explore the world of textiles in their individual home regions.

Spectrum of activities/Interests
ETN members help other ETN members
Who organises which events
The Network's textile related database
Link policy /link exchange

Spectrum of activities/interests

Breakdown of one of the results of the membership survey of spring 2002, showing the ranges of answers by ETN members in eight different fields of activities: Willingness to participate in the following:

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ETN members help other ETN members

The specially created tool is the Membership File of the Database.

Non-members only have access to the names, countries and towns of potential partners and some active links to their websites. But this will give them an impression of the distribution of partners throughout Europe and the world.

ETN members are provided with a password which gives them access to files and information on the professional and special interest profile of each individual partner, including information on the preferred language of correspondence, as well as postal, email and URL addresses.
In this way each member is able to contact every other member who shares his/her interests and to acquire information on the possibilities for joint project work in his/her specialist field and/or individual region.

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Who organises which events?

A collection of event organiser addresses and an event calendar have been put together with the help of many ETN members and the editorial department of the Textile Forum magazine. - The relevant available tools are the Event Organiser File of the Database and the Calendar.

Non-members only have access to event organisers' names, countries and towns, or an event title, country and town. Nevertheless this provides an overview of the extent and distribution of the contacts and circa 1,000 annual events recorded in the database. The 1998 database was published in a handbook, entitled Organisers of Textile Events in Europe, and can be ordered online.

ETN members have free access to this database through a password. They receive all address details, as well as the activity profiles and brief descriptions of the organizers collated by the Network to date, including all available email and URL addresses. On the basis of this information, members are able to contact the event organisers in good time with regard to scheduled projects and possibilities for participation.

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The Network's textile related database

A database, currently containing circa 4,500 address details from about 80 countries and some 1,000 annual event previews, has been created in co-operation with the ETN Association and Textile Forum Service (tfs). - This database is continually being expanded and updated.

Contacts can be searched for under the following keywords:
• Production & trade
• Education & research
• Cultural heritage
• Miscellaneous (leisure time/socio-cultural, tourism, etc.)

Searches can be restricted to the country and/or type of contact:
- Public administration & support institution
- Professional representation
- Interest group/organisation
- Institute (school/academy, museum, archive, etc.)
- Company
- Individual
- Information medium

Particular contacts can, of course, also be found using the "full text search" database function.

The search tool for addresses is the Address database.

Non members only have access to the names, countries and towns, as well as some open links, as in the other searches.

For ETN members, who, with a password, can access all existing address details and areas of involvement on the part of the contacts, this database is a central information pool for the pursuit of their interests.

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Link policy

The Network website's link list is decentralized. Specific link lists, for example, can be found in the sections How to find partners and money and Textile Forum correspondence partners.

There are also supplementary links on special subjects covered by the Network, such as the stations of the European Textile Routes and, since Textile Forum issue 1/2002, also links to the individual magazine contributions.

The address database, which is only available to ETN members, contains all URL address links known to the network.

Link exchange

In our address database links that are normally only accessible to ETN members through a password can be activated. They appear as a freely available result in the search column of the database layout.

The Network Secretariat will activate links, if requested by the owner of a URL address who in return creates a link to the ETN homepage on his/her own website. For this purpose, contacts in our address database are occasionally asked whether they wish to participate in such a link exchange.

Note: Very few website owners operate link lists or comparable sections. In some cases such electronic links are not appropriate or not desired by the individual contacts. This explains the relatively small number of active links.