http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/ Recent content in Issue 42 on Ariadne Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/inman/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/inman/ E-Government is essentially about improving service delivery in central and local government. Our customers expect a level of service and access to services, which is effective, efficient and convenient. They want to be able to make contact with government at a time and in a way which fits in with their lives. In order to deliver excellent public services in customer-focused ways we have to use the available technology to its very best advantage. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/dcc-rpt/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/dcc-rpt/ The Digital Curation Centre had its official launch in Edinburgh on 5 November 2004. Perhaps an odd date to pick for the launch of such an important international initiative, but it justified the inclusion of some virtual fireworks on the home page of the DCC launch Web site. The DCC is one of three major activities in Phase 2 of the UK e-Science Programme, along with the National Grid service and the Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute, as well as being a key activity of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/daw/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/daw/ Collaboration between institutions based in different cities, countries or continents is becoming the norm in both commercial and academic worlds. The ability to attend meetings and interact with people effectively without incurring all the negative implications associated with travel - such as cost, expense, environmental impact and reduction in productivity - is a truly worthwhile goal. Access Grid [1] was invented by the Futures Group within Argonne National Laboratory [2] in 1998 as a response to perceived weaknesses of traditional videoconferencing in handling group-to-group collaboration between large numbers of sites and its lack of emphasis on advanced data sharing. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/bailey/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/bailey/ As with the rest of the public sector, the Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) sectors have had over four years to prepare for the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Much has been achieved during this period in terms of assigning responsibility for overseeing preparations, raising awareness and putting a framework of policies and procedures in place to move towards compliance. However, it is also true to say that for most institutions there is still much to do. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/beyond-email-rpt/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/beyond-email-rpt/ Many working in Higher Education are now thoroughly familiar with the particular problems and opportunities presented by the use of the Web and email, the applications that up to now have been the 'killer' applications which made the Internet such a vital part of the communications armoury of universities. However, new applications and ways of communicating are now starting to appear which push the accepted paradigms and demand both new perceptions and levels of technical awareness. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/royan-rvw/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/royan-rvw/ There is an irony in reviewing a printed book about the Digital Library. The gestation period of monographic print publishing is such that it is unreasonable to expect it to be fully up to date. From internal evidence it is clear that no chapter in the book under review was completed more recently than April 2003. This may explain the lack of mention of developments such as the UK Parliamentary Select Committee Report on Scientific Publication [1], or the Public Access Proposal of the US National Institutes of Health [2]. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/brack-rvw/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/brack-rvw/ This book is the result of efforts by the library at the University of Surrey (and the University of Surrey Roehampton) to improve library provision for researchers, and it is also based on the experience of 'front-line' library staff in their day-to-day interaction with academic staff and students. Anyone who has worked on a library help-desk or information point will recognise the content of this book, and will be pleased to find that there is now something that researchers can use to help themselves, all put together in a slim volume. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/fraser-rvw/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/fraser-rvw/ The picture on the cover of Understanding Open Source & Free Software Licensing by Andrew M. St. Laurent is a 19th century engraving of a shootout at a railway in the American West. What early conclusions should we draw from that less than innocent image? Leaving aside men with guns in the Wild West, Understanding Open Source is an in-depth study of software licences commonly used with the release of open source or free (as in speech) software. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/eevl/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/eevl/ If the title of this column caused you to anticipate a new blockbuster featuring Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell, then I apologise. It's far more interesting than that! Four Search EnginesFour new search engines from EEVL make it possible to search the content of over 250 free full-text ejournals in Engineering, Mathematics and Computing. EEVL's Ejournal Search Engines (EESE) are divided according to subject content. The Computing ejournal search engine [1] searches the content of 60 freely available full-text ejournals in computing. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/editorial/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/editorial/ Tomorrow, 31 January 2005 will be the moment of truth for those institutions among some 100,000 public authorities which received a request for information on the first operative day of the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the United Kingdom. For by tomorrow they must have responded to the request within 20 working days. No doubt many senior administrators in HE and FE institutions up and down the country will be wondering how many requests their institution has really received, as opposed to the number that have actually been reported - at least one aspect of the legislation that will not have endeared itself to them, quite understandably. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/harnad/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/harnad/ This article is a critique of: The "Green" and "Gold" Roads to Open Access: The Case for Mixing and Matching by Jean-Claude Guédon [1]. Open Access (OA) means: free online access to all peer-reviewed journal articles. Jean-Claude Guédon (J-CG) argues against the efficacy of author self-archiving of peer-reviewed journal articles -- the "Green" road to OA -- on the grounds (1) that far too few authors self-archive, (2) that self-archiving can only generate incomplete and inconvenient access, and (3) that maximizing access and impact is the wrong reason for seeking OA (and only favours elite authors). http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/foi-historians-rpt/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/foi-historians-rpt/ On 1 January 2005, the Freedom of Information Act will come fully into force. With the implementation of the Act, all new and existing records, excluding those subject to exemption, will be available to the public, effectively ending the 30 year rule governing access to official documents. The conference provided historians with the opportunity to learn more about the Freedom of Information Act and its potential impact on their work. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/lohan/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/lohan/ University College Dublin is the largest single university institution in Ireland, with a student population of approximately 22,000. The Irish Freedom of Information Acts 1997 and 2003 [1], like all similar legislation worldwide, empower individuals to examine, appraise, and analyse government and public sector accountability and transparency. Applying initially only to departments and offices of central government from 21 April 1998, the legislation was gradually extended over the following years to encompass a range of public sector organisations, designated 'public bodies', with Irish third level educational institutions [2] becoming prescribed public bodies on 21 October 2001. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/cc-interops-rpt/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/cc-interops-rpt/ Introduction Keynote Speech: The Concept of a ‘National Catalogue’ - Jean Sykes Interoperability: Architectures and Connections - John Gilby & Ashley Sanders Making Sense of Hybrid Union Catalogues: Collection Landscaping in Complex Information Environments - Gordon Dunsire Interoperability: The Performance of Institutional Catalogues - Fraser Nicolaides & George Macgregor User Behaviour in Large-scale Resource Discovery Contexts - Dick Hartley Futures and Plenary Question & Answer Session - Jean Sykes & Bob Sharpe http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/rahtz/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/rahtz/ Most Web sites of any size want to offer a facility to perform a free-text search of their content. While we all at least claim to believe in the possibilities of the semantic web, and take care over our navigation aids and sitemaps, we know that sooner or later our readers want to type 'hedgehog' into a search box. Yes, even http://www.microsoft.com [1] returns plenty of hits if you try this. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/tonkin/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/tonkin/ Introduction: What is a Wiki?Software use cases are necessarily incomplete, a failing which seems to intensify in reverse proportion to the degree of simplicity in the software in question. Complex software responds to a given set of requirements, simple software as a partial solution to a much broader problem set. More concisely put, certain ideas just seem to catch on, particularly the simple, brilliant, ‘now why didn’t I think of that’ class of ideas. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/lauke/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/lauke/ Mozilla Firefox [1] is a free, open-source Web browser based on the Mozilla codebase. Version 1.0 was recently released after two years of development, so now may be a good time to evaluate this browser's capabilities. "Out of the box" Mozilla Firefox offers a variety of features catering to both occasional Web surfers and power users. The more advanced functionality can be particularly noted as a real time saver during the Web development process. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/newsline/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/newsline/ Digital Cultural Content Forum 200511-13 February 2005, Oxford, UK The Digital Cultural Content Forum (DCCF) is an annual international gathering of key stakeholders in the digitisation and delivery of our global cultural assets. The focus of the meeting is to explore how public institutions that steward cultural content, the agencies responsible for public policy, and organisations in the public broadcast sectors can collaborate to deliver services to public audiences. The meeting is organised by UKOLN on behalf of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council of the UK (MLA), the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) and the US Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/biome/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/biome/ BIOME Hot TopicsBIOME “Hot Topics” are proving extremely popular with lots of positive feedback. We have received suggestions for particular areas of interest and recent themes have included breast cancer, AIDS, and pet ownership. So check out the new topics at Hot Topics [1]. BIOME Mailing ListAre you interested in finding out more about BIOME? Join the BIOME JISCmail to keep up to date with developments [2]. BIOME Search Plugin for FirefoxUsers of the Mozilla Firefox browser may have noticed that up in the top right corner of Firefox, there is a handy search box that allows you to search various databases and search engines from within the browser. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/ist2004-rpt/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/ist2004-rpt/ IST2004 [1] organised by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs in cooperation with the European Commission, brought together over 3000 participants from all over the world with an interest in Information Society Technologies. The event had been given the title 'Participate in your Future' emphasising the importance of providing guidance in defining the ICT sector of tomorrow. The aim was to create fora for all the stakeholders from relevant areas of research, business or policy-making. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/planet-sosig/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/planet-sosig/ Vision of BritainA new Web site allowing free public access to an unrivalled collection of British historic maps, statistics and stories went live in October 2004. By keying in a postcode or place name, or clicking on a map, users can call up a wealth of information on any locality. The Lottery-funded Vision of Britain Web site [1] has been created by my team at the Great Britain Historical Geographical Information System [2] based at Portsmouth University. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/digi-histories-rpt/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/digi-histories-rpt/ For the last three years the RHS has held a seminar in memory of Gerald Aylmer, the purpose of which is an exchange of ideas between historians and archivists. Digitisation was to be the subject for 2004. The AHC proposing a conference on the same subject, the two bodies came together to present this joint event. The format of the conference was that of four sessions, each with two panels, except for the last. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/search-engines/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/search-engines/ 2004 was a particularly interesting year for Internet search; we saw a lot of new search engines appearing on the scene, a number of purchases and a lot of innovations, particularly in the last quarter, with Microsoft bringing out its Beta MSN Search [1], Google doubling the size of its index [2], releasing Google Scholar [3] and Google Suggest [4]. We also saw a rise in the number of desktop search applications, particularly from Google [5] and Microsoft [6], and an increase in attempts to provide a personalised version of popular search engines. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/shibboleth-rpt/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/shibboleth-rpt/ Staff and students in Higher and Further Education institutions currently experience an overload of information. In many cases, this information is held on different systems, available via widely differing levels of access control, ranging from open to strictly controlled access. Access controls are also subject to data protection legislation and/or tough licensing conditions. One way of overcoming the problem of accessing information from various systems is to build Web portals. These can provide a superficial environment for the presentation of information from various sources. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/metcalfe/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/metcalfe/ Imagine a world where software is free. For the moment, let's not split hairs about this. In this imagined world software costs virtually nothing to obtain. And you are free to do things with this software - free to study how it works (which means getting access to the underlying code, not just the binaries or executables); free to modify that code to suit your needs and/or improve it; free to re-distribute that modified code. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/tapintobath-rpt/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/tapintobath-rpt/ As Local Studies Librarian for Bath & North East Somerset, UK, I am expected to know the whereabouts of original material and collections relating to the history of the local area. The recently launched Tap Into Bath online database is the ideal format for discovering this. The background to the project and the technicalities of the database were previously reported in Ariadne 40 [1] in July 2004 by Alison Baud and Ann Chapman. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/ananiadou/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/ananiadou/ In this article we describe the role of the National Centre for Text Mining (NaCTeM). NaCTeM is operated by a consortium of three Universities: the University of Manchester which leads the consortium, the University of Liverpool and the University of Salford. The service activity is run by the National Centre for Dataset Services (MIMAS), based within Manchester Computing (MC). As part of previous and ongoing collaboration, NaCTeM involves, as self-funded partners, world-leading groups at San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), the University of California at Berkeley (UCB), the University of Geneva and the University of Tokyo. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/dunning/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/dunning/ The Web statistics tool which measures hits on the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) Web site [1] provides some telling information. The most common search engine keyword by which users discover the AHDS is not 'computers', 'humanities', 'research' or 'arts', but that old bugbear 'copyright'. Although the Arts and Humanities Data Service advises on a wide range of issues, such as data capture, metadata and funding proposals, copyright is just as popular a reason for users to arrive at the Web site. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/web-focus/ Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/42/web-focus/ Wikis: are they the latest cool Web technology or a pointless tool which merely duplicates features provided in content management systems and virtual learning environments? I have heard both views expressed recently. To some extent both views have some validity: a Wiki is a technology which has been adopted initially by those in Web developer communities (such as the Semantic Web community) to enable collaborative documents to be produced quickly and easily.