http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/ Recent content in Issue 17 on Ariadne Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/publication/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/publication/ This article sets out to explore some of the issues to do with the establishment of a new periodical publication for information and IT professionals in Higher Education (HE). It addresses the need for a channel of communication which reflects the developing broad spectrum of information services in academic and related institutions, and is intended as an aid to further discussion. Over the last ten years the changes in both conventional library facilities and in the provision of electronic information have accelerated and arguably become even less predictable than they were, for example, in the mid- to late- 80’s. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/alac98/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/alac98/ "I pressed F1, but you didn’t come over to help." "If they are clicking they are looking for information. If they are typing we tell them to stop because they are using Hotmail." "The most important issue in electronic delivery is printing." …Just a few quotes from the American Library Association conference in Washington DC at the end of June. Why was I at ALA? Well, like a lot of you who go to the Online Exhibition in December I entered various free draws without much thought for them. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/main/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/main/ This article does not tackle its subject from the theoretical perspectives and careful evaluation of the merits and demerits of different organisational models, such as one might find in a textbook on management. Rather does it seek to introduce some of the basic issues and concepts by drawing on the experience of organisational change at the University of Birmingham, where a fully converged Information Services has been in operation since October 1995, with an annual turnover of £12 million and 270 fte staff. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/cartoon/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/cartoon/ According to our computer-designed survey, 50% of staff use the Internet every day, 35% once a week, 10% are afraid of it, and the other 10% can't even add up. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/dedicate/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/dedicate/ Meeting the education and training needs of users of information resources in higher education is an increasingly challenging task. In a rich and complex networked environment, academic information services face widespread and diverse awareness-raising and also skills development needs. The rapid pace of change, including the emergence of new, networked methods of course delivery and support, means that academic liaison and learner support staff must engage in continuous up-dating and professional development activities tailored to their responsibilities and institutional circumstances. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/down-your-way/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/down-your-way/ With over 30,000 students on 10 campuses, De Montfort is an institution where technology and web-based teaching, parts of the armoury of distance learning, are delivery mechanisms for campus-based students. De Montfort is developing the virtual university to underpin its on-campus learning: in time the techniques will be applied to off-campus students. The initiative is an important development in creating opportunities for new learners and supporting lifelong learning, where flexibility of access - time, place, pace - is a key factor. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/planet-sosig/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/planet-sosig/ (Planet SOSIG continues its review of the main SOSIG subject sections, highlighting the resources that the Internet can offer to those working in the different fields of the social sciences. In this edition, we describe two sections of SOSIG: 1) the Law Section and 2) the Statistics and Demography Section. Sue Pettit is a law librarian at the University of Bristol and is the Law section editor for SOSIG. Her article gives an overview of the resources likely to be found in the law section and a glimpse at the selection criteria she employs. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/info-ecosys/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/info-ecosys/ The third UKOLN international conference devoted to Networking and the future of libraries was the place where decontextualisation met rechaoticisation. Inhabiting a world of URLs, it seems, has given us a taste for lengthy character strings. The conference was held in Bath, which triumphed as always as a venue, from 29 June - 1 July. In the report which follows, shortage of space requires that not every paper from this fascinating conference can be discussed. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/interface/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/interface/ Phil Brady is one of a small band of computer managers who have made the transition to managing integrated information services. As such his views on the organisational and human issues offer a counterbalance to much that has been written about this area, and indeed to much that is near to becoming conventional wisdom. Brady’s approach to managing a service that contains the contradictions, contrasts and variety of a modern academic information service is based on a few solid principles. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/biblink/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/biblink/ BIBLINK [1] is a project funded within the Telematics for Libraries programme of the European Commission. It is investigating the bi-directional flow of information between publishers and National Bibliographic Agencies (NBAs) and is specifically concerned with information about the publication of electronic resources. Such resources include both on-line publications, Web pages, electronic journals, etc. and electronic publications on physical media such as CD-ROMs. The project has recently finalised the Functional Specification for the ‘BIBLINK workspace’ - a shared, virtual workspace for the exchange of metadata between publishers, NBAs and other third parties such as the ISSN International Centre. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/news/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/news/ The Copyright & New Media Law Newsletter For Librarians & Information Specialists Now in its second year of publication, The Copyright & New Media Law Newsletter For Librarians & Information Specialists covers issues such as privacy for web sites, copyright collectives and print and electronic copying, the European copyright scene and reviews of copyright web sites for libraries, museums and archives. A print newsletter, with email alerts between issues, subscribers are also entitled to a free subscription to the electronic newsletter Copyright & New Media Legal News. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/search-engines/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/search-engines/ Search engines are getting more sophisticated all the time. It’s likely that we’ll soon be seeing the rapid emergence of more ‘intelligent’ search tools which offer features for personalisation and tailoring, more effective searching synatax and more effective methods of tracking down information on large databases. Such tools are already starting to emerge in the search engine market in response to users’ needs for more sophisticated tools to help them make sense of the growing morass of information on the Web. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/teleworking/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/teleworking/ Teleworking involves working at a distance from a usual place of work, often passing work between locations through the Internet. Work may be sent from one office building to another, from a worker’s home to a central location, from a telecottage, or from a mobile location such as a salesman’s car [1]. Home working is working from one’s own home, and can involve anything from hand-knitting jumpers to installing a high technology workshop in your garage. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/ukolug/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/ukolug/ Celebrating a significant birthday, this conference featured retrospection as well as prediction and picked up on some of the repeating patterns inherent in electronic information and retrieval systems. Charles Oppenheim began with a retrospective on the birth and development of UKOLUG (Birth of a Generation), commenting on the importance of archives despite having been there himself - his memory and the official record differing somewhat alarmingly. He conveyed the sense of frantic activity during the early years of online and the ability that UKOLUG had to shape the emergent industry - a theme picked up the next day by John December who was to challenge librarians to shape the web. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/verity/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/verity/ AbstractThe majority of library enquiry systems usually consist of a non-graphical interface linked to a library catalogue (Online Public Access Catalog, or OPAC). Graphics, animation and sound are usually sacrificed to speed up the enquiry process. Some interfaces support the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http) and can therefore be accessed on the World Wide Web (Web). Although they allow access using a number of keywords (author, subject, title, etc.), they do not provide any help on how the catalogues are accessed, how to structure or refine a query or how to evaluate the responses. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/view-hill/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/view-hill/ 50,000 years ago, so archaeological evidence says, Neanderthal Man carved on the tooth of the Woolly Mammoth. In 2600 BCE scribes were employed in Egypt and the oldest existing document written on papyrus is from 2200 BCE. In AD 105 T'sai Lun invented paper and by 600 books were printed in China. By 765 picture books were printed in Japan. By 950 folded books appeared in China and in Europe in 1453 Johannes Gutenberg used moveable type for printing. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/editorials/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/editorials/ We would like to thank all of the readers who participated in the Ariadne Web Survey, part of an evaluation of the Ariadne project being carried out by Dr. Anne L. Barker, Department of Information and Library Studies at the University of Wales Aberystwyth. The results of the survey will be of particular interest to those of us involved with the development and delivery of upcoming electronic publications. One such publication will be 'Exploit Interactive', the UKOLN deliverable in the Exploit project, funded under the EC Telematics for Libraries programme. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/web-focus/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/web-focus/ In July 1997 a 2 day workshop on Running An Institutional Web Service was held at King’s College London. As reported in Ariadne issue 11 [1] the workshop proved very successful. Comments received on the workshop evaluation form indicated that participants would have likely a longer workshop and would have liked certain topics, including web design, database integration and management issues, to be covered in more depth. In addition several participants would have likely more time to be devoted to group sessions. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/what-is/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/what-is/ The 3 day workshop on Institutional Web Management held at the University of Newcastle on 15-17 September is reviewed elsewhere in this issue of Ariadne [1]. As mentioned in the review, the use of backend databases for storing and managing information to be made available on the Web was felt to be extremely important, especially for institutional web sites, which provide the virtual view of an institution for many, including potential students. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/cover/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/cover/ A British Library funded research project at the University of Surrey Library is using a questionnaire and a number of case studies to investigate devolved budgets. The work is being carried out in collaboration with David Haynes Associates and Information Management Associates. A full report will be published shortly, but some interesting issues have already emerged. What is meant by devolved budgeting?One of the fundamental points that has arisen from the study is the varied understanding of what devolved budgeting actually means.