The so-called 'Blue Book' of 1999, 'Inspectorates of Education in Europe: A descriptive Study', edited by Bart Maes, Els Vereecke and Martine Zaman of the Flemish DVO, was the result of an ambitious initiative of the General Assembly of SICI in November 1997 in Belfast.

All participants agreed that an information document with standardised information about the inspectorates could be an important instrument for achieving the aims of SICI. This publication was seen as a 'state of the art' description of the 14 inspectorates organised in SICI in 1998.

The book was a rich source of information for years. Since 2006 till now SICI has increased the number of members to 24. The changes in the organisation of some of the old member institutions called for an update of the information. As chnages occur more and more often there was an urgent need for a digital version.

The initiative to start a new project was taken by the Executive Committee (EC) in 2006. Due to all kind of problems it took more time than the EC had estimated, before the first 'Inspectorates' profiles' could be posted on SICI's website i.e. October 2008. This information had to be brought into a new format in order to make the information more accessible and usable.

On the request of the EC Johan van Bruggen developed a new format to make the information more accessible and usable. For some 18 inspectorates this work is almost ready now. The other 6 Profiles of the remaining inspectorates will follow in due course.

The EC has asked Johan also to write a short comparative text that will help readers to get to grips with the essentials of the developments in inspection of education in Europe.

The Executive Committee and the SICI members are appreciating the new approaches to the publication of the Inspectorates' Profiles.

Yvan Verbauwhede

Secretary - General