http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/ Recent content in Issue 19 on Ariadne Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/bobcatsss99/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/bobcatsss99/ The 7th International BOBCATSSS Symposium on Library and Information Science was held in the modern Istropolis Congress Center in a somewhat damp and foggy Bratislava in Slovakia, 25-27 January. Although the gloom outside was lifted by the enthusiasm of the many young delegates, this year’s conference was a disappointment. In particular, the somewhat muddled 3-pronged themes of ‘Learning Society’, ‘Learning Organisation’ and ‘Lifelong Learning’ were not often addressed directly. The opening remarks stressed the importance of learning throughout life. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/bized/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/bized/ Biz/edIntroducing Biz/edBiz/ed [1] is a free, subject-based information gateway service providing access to quality-assured Internet resources in business and economics. It is managed from the Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT) [2] based at the University of Bristol. The core service was originally targeted at the needs of staff and students up to first year undergraduate level. However, funding under the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) [3] has enabled Biz/ed to encompass research users and those developing and using materials for more advanced courses in the HE sector. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/cache/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/cache/ The UK JANET Web Caching Service, managed jointly by the Universities of Manchester and Loughborough, provides an efficient, state-of-the-art, caching facility for the UK Academic and Research community. Its primary objectives are to reduce unnecessary duplication of network traffic between the community and the Web, and to minimise the time taken to download Web pages from remote sites. The former results in a more cost-effective use of limited and expensive bandwidth; whilst the latter facilitates a more productive use of the Web. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/cartoon/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/cartoon/ Before we retrained for the electronic library, I was the Chief Librarian http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/eevl/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/eevl/ Here are four updates relevant to the EEVL project. EEVL UpdateLinda Kerr, EEVL The Offshore Engineering Information Service [1] hosted by EEVL[2], provides details of meetings and conferences in petroleum and offshore engineering, and a bibliography of recent accessions in those areas to Heriot-Watt University Library. The Web pages were previously free only to UK academics, and are now free to all users. An article on engineering resources in Petroleum appears in this column, written by Arnold Myers, who runs the Offshore Engineering Information Service. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/editorials/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/editorials/ This is the first issue of a purely electronic Ariadne, which has been produced without the assistance of a print editor (Lyndon Pugh) and production manager (John MacColl), both of whom contributed substantially to the commissioning side of the operation. In addition, UKOLN is this month launching a second electronic magazine, Exploit Interactive. We are therefore grateful to Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) for a good deal of editorial assistance for this issue, in addition to his usual contribution, and also to the many contributors who supplied material well ahead of the deadline. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/info-ecologies/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/info-ecologies/ Conference ThemesI arrived late for this eLib conference held at the beginning of December at the Viking Moat House Hotel, York.  Because of an incident on the Bristol to York line, I therefore missed the opening keynote address by Jim Michalko. However the main themes of the eLib conference soon became clear. There were three main strands, reflecting both the development of the programme since 1995, and the current preoccupations of the phase three projects. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/ims/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/ims/ Background At the University of Edinburgh, the Science and Engineering Library, Learning and Information Centre (SELLIC)[1] combines a physical learning resource centre development with the introduction of a learning management system for the Faculty of Science and Engineering. The new building, which will meet the demand for a science library for the University of Edinburgh which was first expressed over forty years ago, and has grown more insistent every since, will open its first phase for the beginning of session 2001⁄2. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/meta-objects/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/meta-objects/ In the last few decades, notions of computer science have undergone a number of paradigm shifts. Underlying the majority of these is the concept of object-orientation, namely the recognition that the decoupling of data and the code that acts upon them, is based on an artificial distinction, and that models which combine the data and code into distinct "objects" offer both more intuitive and a functionally richer conceptual entities. This paradigm shift can be particularly seen in three areas: programming languages, databases and user-interfaces. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/metadata/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/metadata/ IntroductionImage-based information is a key component of human progress in a number of distinct subject domains and digital image retrieval is a fast-growing research area with regard to both still and moving images. In order to address some relevant issues the Second UK Conference on Image Retrieval - the Challenge of Image Retrieval (CIR 99) was held in Newcastle upon Tyne on the 25 and 26 February 1999 [1]. Participants included both researchers and practitioners in the area of image retrieval. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/minotaur/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/minotaur/ There are several questions, which have been puzzling me since July 1997. That was the month I started using OSS (Open Source Software) and I have to thank Apple for pushing me in that direction. Apple was not making stable operating system software then. So, along with several thousands of the faithful, I jumped ship. Didn’t move to the evil empire - having already found that by avoiding Microsoft products you did not create too many problems for yourself! http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/omni/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/omni/ Defining the subjectsHere at OMNI, our subject gateway essentially covers all of the health studies subjects in scope (basically medicine and health), and various biomedical aspects of the life sciences, such as molecular biology research, clinical psychology and sports medicines. Of late, it has struck us that most of the national controversies that tend to fill the tabloids (and other newspapers) are sprung directly from these subject areas. In this section, we outline six examples most applicable to the UK; for countries such as the US, there would be a similar array of issues, including abortion as an issue of high public profile. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/planet-sosig/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/planet-sosig/ The Social Sciences General, Methodology Section of SOSIG With such a broad remit, this section of SOSIG clearly has the potential to describe an almost endless number of Internet resources. As editor of the section, my aim has been twofold - to include as many multi-disciplinary high quality international resources as possible that contain useful information in their own right, as well as identifying Internet sites that complement and expand upon those included in the more specific sections of the gateway. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/rowlatt/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/rowlatt/ SEAMLESS is a two year research project, funded by the British Library, which aims to develop a new model for citizens’ information - one which is distributed, and based on partnerships and common standards. The objectives of the SEAMLESS project are to: build strong and sustainable partnerships between the various information providers operating in the regiondevelop and implement common standards (technical and informational) so as to achieve interoperability between their systems and datadevelop a SEAMLESS interface which will allow simultaneous querying of distributed information sources (whether stored in a database, made available on a website, or in word processed documents) and return all the information back to the user in a unified listfacilitate electronic communication between the information providers and their customers, and between the various participating agenciesdevelop a current awareness/alerting service for users (second phase)Currently the project team (Essex Libraries, Fretwell Downing Data Systems Ltd. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/search-engines/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/search-engines/ Internet Sleuth It’s always an interesting challenge writing a new column for a magazine, be it an electronic or hardcopy publication, particularly if the column itself isn’t new, as is the case here. I’ve always been an enthusiastic reader of the things that Tracy Stanley (previous regular contributor to this column - Editor) has written, and I’ll do my best to also bring you something of interest. I’d like to begin by pointing you towards a search engine that I use on a regular basis, called the Internet Sleuth (to be found at http://www. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/disinhe/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/disinhe/ There is a growing need for teaching and learning technology to be more accessible to students and staff with disabilities. The changes in the DSA (Disability Discrimination Act) which will come into force in October this year and the new European Human Rights Legislation which will be with us by the year 2000 all makes it imperative that designers of educational web sites, CD ROM software and all other technological developments take note of this new (at least to the UK) wave of legislation. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/web-editor/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/web-editor/ Maintenance problems signal a painful truth for Web Editors (or those occupying similar roles). They need to change the institutions within which they work. As I learn more about the institution within which I work I frequently encounter a recurring truism: those with the most to offer in terms of content are often the least able to publish it via the web. Instead, they are skilled at managing a digital to print workflow i. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/unix/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/unix/ Email Use at UKOLNUKOLN is a small research group based at the University of Bath. Software used by UKOLN staff probably reflects staff usage through the University, and is probably not too dissimilar to usage at other UK universities - most staff use a PC running MS Windows 95 or Windows NT and use Microsoft Office applications, although there are a number who prefer Unix systems are make use of X-Windows or Linux on their PC. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/web-focus/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/web-focus/ The WebWatch project [1], which was based at UKOLN, involved the development and use of a variety of tools to analyse web resources and web servers. During the early development of the software, individual summaries (particularly of outliers in the statistical data) were often required in order to check that the software was working correctly. Initially summaries were obtained using simple Unix scripts. For example the urlget script displayed the HTTP headers for a resource as illustrated below: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/web-research/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/web-research/ Interactive Media-rich Web Content - Using VideoOne of the major problems experienced by Web users is the amount of time needed to download data. As the speed and power of desktop computer has increased it has become possible for almost anyone with access to a PC to produce interactive web content using images, audio, and particularly video. Therefore, even though the available bandwidth of the Internet is increasing, the bandwidth requirements of the media available through it, and the number of users trying to access that information are also increasing. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/webwatch/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/webwatch/ The WebWatch project [1], which was based at UKOLN, University of Bath and funded the the British Library Research and Innovation Centre (BLRIC), involved the development of robot software to analyse web resources in a variety of (mainly UK) communities. The project analysed several communities and has produced reports on the results. Following the successful completetion of the WebWatch project a final report has been produced. This article summarises the findings published in the report. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/what-is/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/what-is/ Apache is the name of the software that allows you to run a web service on a UNIX server. Apache is very popular and provides access to most web sites on the internet. A recent Netcraft survey of Web Servers around the world placed Apache Powered sites at over 50 percent of the total. Part of the reason for this maybe that it is freely available, reliable and simple to set up and configure, and it can provide most of the requirements for a web site. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/nt/ Fri, 19 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/19/nt/ In this new column, I hope to bring users' attention to the value of employing Windows NT server technology within their institution. While Windows NT has its fair share of problems, there is no denying that the quality of server-side software available for this platform has improved enormously in the last 12 months. Kicking off, this article examines the use of Microsoft's Site Server 3.0 [1] to provide a sophisticated web based search solution for your institution.