This section contains both the news in brief from the print version and also web only articles
Articles appearing in both the web and print versions.
Articles appearing only in the web version.
National Networking Demonstrator Project for archives launch
The Next UKOLN Conference, Summer 1998
Project LIBERATOR Launched
Crown Copyright in the Information Age
Edinburgh Virtual Environment Center
New networks, Old Information
US report : Moving Beyond Connectivity
SCONUL and CURL express concern over periodical prices
WWW Caching Workshop, Machester, June 1998
Inform 98 Conference Announcement
EARL gets to grips with Life long learning
Scottish Office Public Libraries Challenge Fund Grants Announced
Engineering E-journal Search Engine available from EEVL
JSTOR at MIDAS
The Archives Sub-Committee is organising a meeting to launch the NNDP which it has instigated and funded through the Non Formula Funding of Specialised Research Collections monitoring programme on 18 March. The Meeting is open to archivists and interested parties and is intended to be a platform for public review of the project's developments.
The NNDP aims to implement cross-searching of multi-level archival data, originating from numerous sources, primarily but not exclusively in the HE sector, as presented in a wide variety of formats (from EAD, to fielded data in a MODES system, to catalogue entries in Word 6). The NNDP supports the use of the international standard ISAD(G) and has linked this to the special development of Z39.50, a widely adopted standard for information retrieval. In addition to this the project has developed a user friendly web-interface to permit effective and seamless cross-searching. This demonstrator phase finishes in April 1998 at which point decisions will be made on whether and how to take the project forward.
A full report from the launch will be available in the next issue of Ariadne.
The next UKOLN conference will be held at the University of Bath on 29 and 30 June and 1 July 1998. The third in the series Networking and the Future of Libraries, it is entitled "Information Landscapes for a Learning Society", and marks the 21st anniversary of UKOLN and its antecedent organisations at the University.
The conference will be opened by Brian Lang, Chief Executive of the British Library, with the closing address by Clifford Lynch, Director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) in Washington. The opening keynote presentation will be given by Richard Heseltine, Director of Academic Services and Librarian at the University of Hull.
The main programme sessions cover the development of the digital library, the issues surrounding the emergence of integrated information services, use and users in a wider context and the influence of the network on organisation, roles and services.
This year the civic reception will be held in Bath's Pump Room and Roman Baths, with the conference dinner in the city's magnificent 18th century Guildhall Banqueting Room.
Further details and an online booking form are now available at http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/events/ukoln-conf-98/ or, if you have any queries, you are welcome to contact Hazel Gott, who is the Events Manager at UKOLN, at h.a.gott@ukoln.ac.uk, or telephone 01225 826256.
Gateshead MBC Libraries and Arts Service is about to launch a new project funded through the Telematics for Libraries programme of the EC. The project is called LIBERATOR (Libraries in European Regions Access to Telematics and Other Resources) and will involve partners in Portugal, Belgium, Denmark and the UK. The contact is Brid Graney at Gateshead Libraries and Arts, telephone 0191 477 3478 or 0191 477 7454 email : graney@risniaa.demon.co.uk
A Green Paper which recommends the abolition of all crown copyright, placing all government published material in the public domain, has recently been published. This is Crown Copyright in the Information Age: a consultation document on access to public sector information Cmnd 3819. It was presented to Parliament in January 1998. The isbn is 0 10 138192 1 and the full text is also available at http://www.hmso.gov.uk/document/cfuture.htm
The Edinburgh Virtual Environment Center (EDVEC) has won substantial funding to establish a National 3-Dimensional Data Capture Centre. The £380K award is from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) as part of the Joint Research Equipment Initiative. This award combined with matching funding from industry amounts to £610K in total. The 3D Capture Studio will create a facility unique to Scotland and the UK that gathers together a comprehensive array of all the latest most advanced technologies for 3-dimensional data capture. It will be run by a highly competent support team who are currently conducting research into all aspects of virtual reality. The Capture Studio will enable researchers from any discipline to create 3D models and build virtual environments. This will significantly improve the current facilities at Edinburgh University and in Scotland as a whole and, by enhancing the quality and productivity of research, contribute to the physical infrastructure for research within the University.
The main roles of the studio will be to:
The 3D Capture Studio will be housed in the James Clerk Maxwell Building at
the King's Buildings campus of Edinburgh University. The facilities will
comprise:
3D laser scanner to scan objects, such as museum artefacts, or for reverse
engineering.
3D stereo photographic scanner for health care applications involving the
head or foot, weight loss, muscle problems, pose analysis, virtual
shopping, etc.
Mobile robot equipped with range finder and camera to capture indoor and
outdoor scenes.
Motion capture suite including EMG and force platforms for gait analysis
and 3D human capture for entertainment, sports and leisure.
Computing facilities will include powerful graphics workstations and
software for modeling, simulation and animation post-production.
The facilities will act as a focus for new research in the areas of virtual
environments and virtual reality, with the aim of establishing a Centre of
Excellence for Scotland in this field.
For further information please contact:
Roy Middleton
EdVEC Manager
Email: R.L.Middleton@ed.ac.uk
Tel: +44-131-650-4994
This is the 8th UKOLUG Conference and takes place at The Manchester Conference Centre, 14 - 16 July 1998, in the Group's 20th birthday year. The programme covers topics linked to the theme of New Networks, Old Information.
Speakers include: Professor Charles Oppenheim, Karen Blakeman, RBA Information, Mrs Barbara Roche MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Small Firms, Trade and Industry, Nigel Macartney, British Library Research & Innovation Centre, Andy Powell, UK Office for Library and Information Networking and Derek Law, Director of Information Services and Systems, King's College, London.
For more information, see the email messgae to Lis-link of 12th february at: http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/lis-link/1998-02/0110.html
For further information and bookings, contact Christine A Baker, UKOLUG Administration, The Old Chapel, Walden, West Burton, LEYBURN,North Yorkshire, DL8 4LE. Tel & Fax: 01969 663749 Email: cabaker@UKOLUG.demon.co.uk
The National Commission on Libraries and Information Science announced a new document issued a new document in Jauary, Policy Issues & Strategies Affecting Public Libraries in the National Networked Environment: Moving Beyond Connectivity . The report was prepared by John Carlo Bertot and Charles R. McClure at the Commission's request to follow up on the 1997 survey of public libraries and the Internet, co-sponsored by the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science with the American Library Association.
Standing Conference of National and University Libraries (SCONUL) and
The Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL) issued a joint statement in February
expressing their concern on the future of pricing and licensing of scholarly journals.
They stated they "share the concern expressed by the Dutch and German
librarians regarding the terms of licences proposed for access to
electronic versions of scientific and medical journals"
and that
"Price increases well above general inflation in recent
years have not encouraged librarians to be confident that the public
interest is protected when so much scholarly publication is
concentrated in a few commercial companies"
. They called for
"The libraries in membership of SCONUL and CURL join with other
librarians in looking for discussion with publishers on fair pricing
and licensing arrangements which will ensure a balance between public
and commercial interests. "
Following on from previous successful workshops held at Warsaw and Colorado, the 3rd International WWW Caching Workshop, organised by the UK National JANET Caching Team in conjunction with TERENA, the Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association, will be held at the University of Manchester, England from 15-17 June 1998.
Although the workshop is not part of the official programme, it is
being held during the
formal celebrations of the 50th
anniversary of the world's first stored program computer, designed and
built in Manchester. For more information about the workshop contact
3rd International WWW Caching Workshop
c/o The JANET Caching Team
Manchester Computing
University of Manchester
Manchester, M13 9PL
Tel: +44 (0) 161 275 6008/ Fax: +44 (0) 161 275 6040
Email: workshop@wwwcache.ja.net
http://wwwcache.ja.net/events/workshop/
The second Grampian Information Conference, 'Inform 98', will take place on Thursday May 21st at the Macauley Land Use Research Institute, Aberdeen. This year's conference, which is sponsored by Blackwell's Bookshops, includes a talk by Library Association President Bob Usherwood and covers topics such as 'Managing Performance', ' Charging for Library Services' and 'Marketing your Service'.
For further details, please contact the Grampian Information Development Officer, June Waters at waters@rsc.co.uk
International Graduate Summer School 1998 held at the University of Wales Aberystwyth, takes as its theme, Managing the Electronic Library. iGSS has always provided an opportunity for information professionals from around the world to meet and discuss current issues at the same time that they take part in a programme of lectures and seminars which aid their continuing professional development
The full programme and booking details are available at the iGSS web site or contact Joyce Wallace (email: zyo@aber.ac.uk or Chris Armstrong (email: lisqual@cix.compulink.co.uk) for a printed programme.
EARL (Electronic Access to Resources in Libraries), The Consortium for Public Library Networking, is exploring plans to develop lifelong learning and investigate how public libraries can provide effective support for lifelong learning within a networked environment. The first stage of this will be a Policy Syndicate on lifelong learning taking place in March. This will enable EARL to define a general strategic framework with respect to lifelong learning, and also help identify practical initiatives for the development of new services and demonstrators to develop within the context of READINESS (Research and Development In Networked Subject Services). Readiness is an 18-month project, funded by the British Library Research and Innovation Centre, to research and evaluate the processes and effectiveness of collaborative development of networked subject services in two areas : local history and lifelong learning.
EARL aims to demonstrate and extend the ability of public libraries to deliver networked information and knowledge-based services. These are developed primarily through EARL's 16 Task Groups working on new ways to deliver shared services over the network, including demonstration services for Serials, Reference Enquiries, Family History and Community Information. Further information about EARL is available from the EARL website.
On 5th March, Sam Galbraith, Scottish Office Minister with responsibility for the Arts announced the successful bids in the Scottish Office Public Libraries Challenge Fund. The successful bids were:
The Engineering E-journal Search Engine (EESE) is an Index to over 70 UK and non-UK free full-text engineering e-journals. EESE is a very focused search engine of electronic journals, with a similar function as traditional print and online indexes of print journals, with the added bonus that the information itself is immediately available electronically via the Web.
Titles include Chartered Surveyor Monthly, Journal of Corrosion Science and Engineering, Chemistry & Industry, Control Engineering Online, Bell Labs Technical Jouyrnal, Metals Watch, Industry Week, etc. As trade and house journals are included, ESSE can locate full-text engineering articles, industry news, product reviews, job vacancies, and statistics.
EESE is made available through EEVL: the Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library, a non-profit gateway to engineering information on the Internet. EEVL is funded through the Joint Information Systems Committee's Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib), and based at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. It can be accessed at http://www.eevl.ac.uk/eese/.
The UK Mirror site of the JSTOR® electronic journal collection is now available at: http://www.jstor.ac.uk
JSTOR is a unique digital archive collection of core scholarly journals starting with the very first issues, and made available to participating institutions via the World Wide Web. The collection covers material from the 1880s up to a 'moving wall' of between 2 and 5 years; which guarantees the user a stable collection of past issues. By the year 2000, a minimum of 100 journals in a variety of fields will be accessible and there are currently some 2 million pages from over 40 titles.
Details of how to subscribe will be sent to the CHEST site contacts very shortly and can be found at http://www.chest.ac.uk/datasets/jstor/contents.html. A demonstration database and the background to JSTOR are also available at the UK Mirror site. Manchester Information Datasets and Associated Services is maintaining the JSTOR UK Mirror site for the UK Higher Education community on behalf of the Joint Information Systems Committee, and in collaboration with University College London. Questions regarding the service may be emailed to jstor@midas.ac.uk.
Material on this page is copyright Ariadne/original authors. This article last updated/links checked on 13-Mar-1998