Ian THOMSON

Director, South Wales Europe Direct Information Centre; Manager, European Documentation Centre, Cardiff University; Executive Editor, European Sources Online; President, European Information Association.

Ian Thomson is a European information specialist who has worked in European affairs for thirty years. In addition to being the Director of the European Documentation Centre at Cardiff University (Cardiff EDC), he is

  • Executive Editor of European Sources Online
  • President of the European Information Association
  • Member of the European Commission’s Pan-European Working Group for EDCs
  • Visiting Professor / trainer at the College of Europe, Natolin, European Institute of Public Administration, Maastricht, Orebro University, Sweden and University of Zagreb, Croatia

Whilst working as a researcher to a Member of the European Parliament, Ian Thomson created in 1980 European Access, which became the leading bibliographic service for European information in the 1980s and 1990s. This has now transformed into European Sources Online, a web-based European information service, which is the leading specialist information service that focuses on providing information about Europe.

Ian was winner of the European Special Librarian of the Year Award 1994, presented by the European Chapter of the Special Libraries Association. He is the author of the standard reference book 'The Documentation of the European Communities' (Mansell, 1989). He has also published a large number of articles in professional journals during his career.

Ian Thomson also provides information training and lectures for the European Commission in Brussels and throughout the rest of Europe and other parts of the world for other professional organisations, commercial companies and national governments. He has carried out consultancy work for the Wales European Centre, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

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