http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/ Recent content in Issue 22 on Ariadne Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/bl-isp/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/bl-isp/ The rapid growth in services offering free Internet access to users dialling into the Internet is well known. The market leader, Freeserve, has signed up over 1.5 million customers and has been followed by TescoNet, WH Smith, Currant Bun, etc. But did you know that in September the British Library launched British Library Net, the first free Internet service to be provided by a public sector body in the UK? http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/aerade/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/aerade/ AERADE has been developed by a team of information specialists from the Library at Cranfield and the Library at the Royal Military College of Science (RMCS), Shrivenham. It has grown out of the aerospace section of the CRUISE (Cranfield University Site Explorer) subject gateway at Cranfield, which focuses on the subjects researched and taught at the Cranfield Campus, and DEVISE (Defence Virtual Information Service) at RMCS. This provides users with access to military and defence Internet resources. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/biome/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/biome/ The Hub for Internet Resources in the Health and Life Sciences, as part of the Resource Discovery Network (http://www.rdn.ac.uk/) Looking for quality Internet resources in the health and life sciences? BIOME will provide access to quality resources in agriculture, food, forestry, pharmaceutical sciences, medicine, nursing, dentistry, biological research, veterinary sciences, the natural world, botany, zoology, and much, much more... Due to be launched in Spring 2000, BIOME will build on the experiences, skills and content of the established OMNI service, and expand to cover all areas within the health and life sciences. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/cartoon/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/cartoon/ http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/distributed/distukcat.html Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/distributed/distukcat.html This article presents a clumps-oriented perspective on the idea of a UK national catalogue for HE, arguing that a distributed approach based on Z39.50 has a number of attractive features when compared with the alternative physical union catalogue model, but also noting that the many difficulties currently associated with the distributed approach must be resolved before it can itself be regarded as a practical proposition. Dealing with these difficulties requires a mix of further research, some of which is scheduled to take place within existing projects, and - particularly in respect of data-based interoperability problems - additional local and national resourcing. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/distributed/distukcat2.html Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/distributed/distukcat2.html If the concept of parallel searching of catalogues via Z39.50 is stimulating, the initial manifestation is truly exciting. Maybe not exactly Alexander Graham Bell or Archimedes territory but life-enhancing nevertheless: to have been working on the implementation of an idea for over twelve months, as the UK eLib clumps projects have, and suddenly see bibliographic records returned simultaneously from a search across multiple library catalogues, makes it seem that all the arguments, stress and technical tinkerings have finally been worthwhile. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/ariadne-reader/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/ariadne-reader/ The ARIADNE Project was born in September 1995, and the first meeting of the participants from the two partner sites of Abertay Dundee and UKOLN took place in a restaurant after a one-day meeting at the Library Association, in the couple of hours between the Dundee editors leaving the meeting and having to leave for the overnight train from King’s Cross. In our time-limited discussion, we drafted out a shape for the print and web versions of ARIADNE, defining regular feature titles and listing ideas and contacts to be pursued. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/oxford-mellon/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/oxford-mellon/ In 1998 the University of Oxford initiated a nine-month study into its digitization activities: past, present, and future. The 'Scoping Study' as it has now become known, was funded by the Andrew W Mellon Foundation and completed its findings in July 1999. This paper briefly outlines the reasons behind the study, its methodology and how this might be applied to other institutions, the main results, and the planned next stages. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/eevl/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/eevl/ South Africa may have been cut off from the rest of the world during the years of the Apartheid era, but it is now very much a part of the networked world, and is trying hard to make up for lost time. South Africa has a wired population of over 1 million, and awareness of the commercial possibilities of the internet is relatively high. South Africans have for some time been heavy users of modern communications systems and especially mobile phones, the international cricketer Alan Lamb being one of the best-known advocates in recent years, and many were quick to see the possibilities of the internet in breaking their isolation. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/editorial/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/editorial/ Ariadne continues to develop and make friends in the the world. Shortly, if all goes well, every word published in Ariadne during the past four years will be available in a US education fulltext database, distributed on a world-wide basis. This is a mark of the significance of Ariadne's contribution to the discussions surrounding digital library initiatives, both in the UK and the US. An Ariadne reader, 'Delivering the Electronic Library' has been put together by Lyndon Pugh, John MacColl and Lorcan Dempsey and published in an edition published principally for distribution to UK institutions of Higher Education. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/epanet/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/epanet/ The civilizations of the ancient Near East produced the world's first written texts. In both Egypt and Mesopotamia, recognizable texts begin to appear in the late fourth millennum B.C.[1] A well developed system of numerical tabulation combined with a varied and sophisticated repertoire of sealings and seal impression is evident even earlier across a wide geographical range in Western Asia[2] and evidence from recent archaeological discoveries in Egypt promises to push the origins of writing even further into antiquity. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/metadata/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/metadata/ In May 1997, the present author produced a short article for this column entitled "Extending metadata for digital preservation" [1]. The article introduced the idea of using metadata-based methods as a means of helping to manage the process of preserving digital information objects. At the time the article was first published, the term 'metadata' was just beginning to be used by the library and information community (and others) to describe 'data about data' that could be used for resource discovery. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/planet-sosig/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/planet-sosig/ The purpose of this article is to introduce The Question Bank contents and situate the resource in the context of its Information Space, that is its relationship to other projects that aim to make social surveys more accessible. I have the subsidiary aim of using this text to present the choices and decisions that need to be identified, preferably before undertaking the introduction of a medium sized web-based information resource. I aim to be decidedly non-technical, however many of the problems the Question bank team has overcome have been solved because of the increasing flexibility that newer software offers. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/das/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/das/ Public libraries serve their communities by fulfilling seven basic roles, including knowledge archival, the preservation and maintenance of culture, knowledge dissemination, knowledge sharing, information retrieval, education, and social interaction [1]. Each of these roles offers the general public the opportunity to recognize and view libraries as an integral part of a democratic society where access to free information has been (and still is) both expected and demanded. By comparison, community networks also have similar ideals for serving the public. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/dunning/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/dunning/ Picture, just for a moment, a scholar wise in the books of the world but new to technology. Having heard about this 'Internet' business she goes to one of these search engines to try and find some resources relevant to her field of study. She offers the phrase 'medical ethics' (that being her field of study) to one rather garish and excitable search engine, but, after a delay of a few seconds, is proffered seemingly random links and enigmatic descriptions. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/dempsey/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/dempsey/ The Information Society Technologies programme within the EU's Framework Programme Five supports access to, and preservation of, digital cultural content. This document describes some common concerns of libraries, archival institutions and museums as they work together to address the issues the Programme raises. This accounts for three major emphases in the document. First, discussion is very much about what brings these organisations together, rather than about what separates them. Second, it describes an area within which a research agenda can be identified; its purpose is not to propose a programme of work or actions, rather a framework within such a programme might be developed. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/search-engines/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/search-engines/ AltaVista relaunchI don’t know how many of you were aware that AltaVista [1]was going to relaunch, so it may have come as something of a surprise if you visited after October 25th only to find the general appearance had changed. It was even a surprise for those of us who use it regularly! The re-launch has led to lots of confusion, many unhappy people and lots of comments, so before continuing with the rest of the column this month I’ll do my best to set the record straight about what is happening with the engine. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/disinhe/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/disinhe/ Over the years many guides have been produced to assist those choosing suitable assistive technology for individuals with disabilities. These guides have usually been available in book format and are rarely updated on a regular basis, and if updates are available the user has to pay for the privilege of remaining informed. In recent years there have been efforts to produce information on the Internet. However, this information tends to be presented as little more than an on-line catalogue with brief descriptions of individual items. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/reside/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/reside/ The ResIDe Electronic Library (http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/itdev/reside) was first developed as the ResIDe Electronic Reserve at the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) in 1996. Originally funded under the eLib Programme (http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib), the Electronic Reserve was created as a research tool to explore such issues surrounding the implementation of an electronic reserve as copyright and collection management control mechanisms. Uniquely, in the electronic reserve strand, lead partners were the library and a faculty (the Faculty of the Built Environment) of the same academic institution and ResIDe sought, specifically, to examine issues relating to the mounting of multi-media documents supporting Built Environment studies. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/tiny-tv/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/tiny-tv/ Before you will be able to play the resources listed in this article, you should be equipped with the latest versions of at least two pieces of software: the G2 RealPlayer, and the Microsoft Media Player. Some of the resources listed will work with older versions of these applications, but if you have the latest versions, all of them will run properly. Some clips have been encoded by the suppliers with the latest codecs precisely to encourage users to upgrade to these latest versions of streaming media players. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/web-cache/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/web-cache/ Service UsageIn May 1998 (the end of the last academic year) the National Caching Service was receiving over 27,000,000 requests and shipping around 250 GBytes of data on a busy day. In recent weeks we have exceeded 40,000,000 requests and shipped over 400GBytes per day and these figures are likely to increase in the coming months. Over 150 institutions currently use the service and this number too is set to increase as Colleges of Further Education and other organisations begin to use us. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/web-focus/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/web-focus/ Many readers of this article will be involved in setting up new web sites, possibly for European or nationally-funded projects, for internal, institutional projects or perhaps for community projects. As the size of the web grows there is an increasing awareness of the need to be pro-active in promoting web sites - we can no longer simply sit back and expect visitors to arrive at our new site. This article describes a variety of approaches which can be taken to the promotion of a web site. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/web-mirror/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/web-mirror/ On 1st August 1999 the UK Mirror Service [1] replaced HENSA as the JISC [2] funded mirror service for the UK academic community. The new service is run by the same teams at Kent and Lancaster that supported the HENSAs, but it is not merely a revamp of the HENSA sites; there are some fundamental changes. This article takes a look at the implementation of the service and our plans for the future. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/web-watch/ Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/22/web-watch/ In September 1999 the author ran a 90 minutes hands-on session on Managing Your Institutional Web Gateway [1] at the JANET User Support Workshop which was held at the University of Plymouth. The materials for included a series of exercises in which the participants were asked to go to their own institutional home page, find the main page which contains links to external web resources and comment on the resource. After reviewing their own web site, they were then asked to look at a number of other university web sites and repeat the exercise.