Spotlight on BUBL
Spotlight on BUBL
here is no doubt that BUBL retains its place as the Number One Internet resource for librarians.
BUBL was one of the first of the major cooperative sites in our common subject area of the Internet,
and is an impressive example of what can be accomplished by well organized, broad cooperation
between colleagues.
The support which it receives from its many sponsors, enabling it to employ dedicated staff, is well deserved, as is the high level of usage, both nationally and internationally. I still remember the delays we foreigners faced using the London gateway which allowed us to come into the old JANET network. BUBL was always worth waiting for. Access, fortunately, is now much easier, and BUBL can be reached by all major access paths Update information is widely distributed and allows, in its HTML versions, direct connection to the listed contents (although I suggest that the archive of update files should be somewhat extended beyond two weeks). The introduction of BUBL BITS, the best BUBL feature stories, has certainly raised the level of usage.
as the 'BUlletin
Board for Libraries', but it now provides an information service to the academic and research
community more generally. The prime components of the library service are the LIS material and the
BUBL Subject Tree. The 'wider' service is provided by the menus offering connections to other
Internet resources (Internet Resources, Services by type, Major Network Services) as well as support
on using the Internet and the World-Wide-Web.
The main page arranges its topics in an unhelpful way. The pages about BUBL and its services should be grouped together (Send Mail to BUBL, All About BUBL, ***Please Read***, Warning on Copyright!), together with BUBL Updates and the local searching facility. Entry points to the Internet, by subject, by type and by keyword search should form another group. The major services - LIS and the BUBL Subject Tree should be in the most prominent position on the home page. As it stands, they do not receive enough emphasis, nor is there enough detail about their content.
The lack of structural clarity is reinforced by the fact that some resources are linked into several different main sections. General WWW project information is to be found under both World-Wide- Web (http://www.bubl.bath.ac.uk/BUBL/WWWInfo.html and Services Arranged by Type (http://www.bubl.bath.ac.uk/BUBL/ServType.html). The latter should include lists of Web servers, but not information about the Web. The alternative would be to combine both sections.
Internet Resources (http://www.bubl.bath.ac.uk/BUBL/GALLERY.html) seems to list selected bits and pieces from the home page down to various Gopher sub-menus, without any obvious structure. Indeed, it looks like an alternative presentation of the whole service. Its elements would fit much better into a strict facet structure: 'Resources by type' and 'Resources by subject'. Both parts are in place already.
Most of the other Web pages are not further sub-divided and often the only structure given is a list in alphabetical order.
The Keyword Searching facility (http://www.bubl.bath.ac.uk/BUBL/Key.html) is important but not very satisfying. A searchable database over the whole content of BUBL is needed. At the moment, what we have is a full-text WAIS database covering the content and filenames of files on the Gopher server (gopher://bubl.bath.ac.uk:7070/11/Index). Furthermore, it is hidden among all the other Internet search services. The headings of the Gopher server and the complete WWW server are not searchable. Some individual sections offer a separate searchable database, (for example, the BUBL's Journals TOCs (gopher://ukoln.bath.ac.uk:7070/77/BUBL_Main_Menu/E/.waisindex/index).
A good list of keyword searching tools for the Internet needs to comment much more on the content, possibilities and limitations of the selected tools and to provide them in a logical order. This alphabetical collection of tools unfortunately does not meet the expectations of information professionals.
Hello,
As many of you will know, the first issue of the ELib electronic journal
ARIADNE contained an article on BUBL. This is a short(ish) general
response to that article.
The article contains many positive comments about BUBL but also
contains many criticisms, particularly of its structure. Some of these
criticisms are valid.
However, as anyone who has looked at our
experimental new service will know, we have already begun to tackle
them and are currently inviting the user community to help us design
the new BUBL.
Information about the existence of our new server was included in the
ARIADNE article as a very short 'stop press' note. The note, however, did
not give any details of our efforts, nor did it give the URL, which is:
http://catriona.lib.strath.ac.uk/
If you have not already done so, I hope you will visit our new
server and see for yourself how we are trying to improve the
service. Our plans seek to address all of the issues in the article
as well as some others.
The business of bringing a new and better BUBL service into being has
been in hand now for the best part of a year. We have not been keeping
note of exact dates, but it is roughly accurate to say that between
January and November of 1995, the following essential stages took
place:
Planning a forward strategy
In mid-december we finally 'went live' with the experimental
service and structure, and began to consult our user community
on the shape of the new service.
In early January 1996, we began implementing the next stage of
our plan, which was to begin the process of bringing the look, feel
and general structure of the current service into line with the
proposed new service. This first step was to change the logo(the
one in ARIADNE is our old one)
The next step, scheduled for mid-January, will be to make the structure
of the current service resemble as far as is practical the new
service structure. This should help our users adjust to the new approach
more readily and assist us in the planning and implementation of converting
the current service into the new service. The length of time this latter
process will take is currently unknown, but it is likely to be significant
This comment on the ARIADNE article is only a minor 'carp' sent out to
correct what we feel is a misleading and unbalanced impression. We wish
ARIADNE every success. We also plan to ask the author of the article for
his views on the design of LINK and would also be more than happy to hear
from anyone else on the ARIADNE team on this topic.
And, no, that DOESN'T let the rest of you off the hook! We still
want your feedback and will be coming out with a new topic for
feedback any day now....
Editors Response: The timing of the article was a tad unfortunate, as it was commissioned before CLINK went live, but became available afterwards. We extended the stop press message at the top of
this article to include a link to the new Strathclyde-based service, which we urge people to have a look at. This resource also contains a fair amount of background information on the BUBL/LINK service. As with all resources in the UK LIS field, user feedback is paramount, so BUBL/LINK would greatly appreciate your comments.
Contents Page
- Electronic Libraries Programme and Project Information
Response
Dennis Nicholson BUBL Co-ordinator responds to the above article, which was also sent to lis-link.
Identifying and obtaining software
Installing an experimental networked server
Installing the WWW/Z39.50/Gopher software
Teaching ourselves to use the software
Formulating a basic design and structure for the new service
Implementing that design on the experimental server
Cheers,
Dennis
News Desk - Search Ariadne - Mail - About Ariadne - Front Page
January 17th 1996 - Comments can be emailed to Ariadne