Old and new readers alike may well benefit from reading about the background to this, the Web version of Ariadne.

For quick navigation - either click on the highlighted text to go straight to the associated article, or click on the blue, torn section title e.g. "Main Articles" to go to the more detailed menu for that section. For a summary of many of the articles, which may assist in your selection of the more relevant material, check out the editorial.

This section contains the main articles from the Print version of Ariadne, as well as some of the major pieces unique to the Web version.
JISC Projects Ahead: John MacColl outlines some of the key points in JISCĘs five year strategy document.
Croatian Libraries: "The war is behind us, what brings the future?": Jadranka Stojanovski, the head of the Rudjer Boskovic Institute Library, describes the post-war progress made in implementing IT and networks in Croatian Libraries.
Net Gains for Digital Researchers: Amy Friedlander, the editor of D-Lib, looks at, and towards, some of the benefits of the Web and digital technology towards how we do and present research.
PICK: Library and Information Science resources on the Internet: In 1995, the Thomas Parry Library, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, won funding for PICK, a project to build a gateway to quality resources in the LIS field. Here, Andrew Cox describes this gateway, and reviews the project's achievements at the end of the first year.
BIDS Hits the Web: Isobel Stark takes a look at the soon to be released trial BIDS web interface.
Web4Lib: The Library Web Manager's Electronic Discussion list: Roy Tennant, Project Manager of the Digital Library Research & Development at the University of California, Berkeley, describes the Web4Lib mailing list, an electronic discussion forum for library Web managers.
Subject Trees: The Exeter Experience: Ian Tilsed, Computing Development Officer at the University of Exeter Library, describes the building of the main University subject tree, or index, of Internet Resources.
Putting the UK on the Map: Peter Burden of the University of Wolverhampton's School of Computing and Information Technology describes the history behind his clickable maps of the UK, an essential and well established (though unfunded) resource for quickly locating academic and research Web sites.
UKERNA: Training the Networkers: John MacCulloch and Jane Batchelor, from UKERNA, detail their training course, designed for those installing, running, supporting, or managing a JANET connection.

In the eLib section, we present descriptions of 5 eLib projects, as well as a reflective article on the success and/or failure of the eLib programme and the projects within it.
Formations: Dan Fleming, co-director of the eLib 'Formations' project and lecturer in media studies at the University of Ulster, looks at some of the issues involved in adding value to a pre-prints system by using groupware such as Lotus Notes.
NewsAgent for Librarians: Mark Kerr, research assistant on the NewsAgent for Libraries Project, describes a project to build a news and current awareness service for the LIS community.
HELIX: Ruth Glynn outlines the HELIX project, one of the new Images projects from the eLib programme.
SKIP: Penny Garrod and Ivan Sidgreaves describe a training and awareness project at the University of Plymouth.
Open Journals: Steve Hitchcock describes the Open Journals project. This involves the use of an innovative approach to handling the hyperlinks between Web-based resources, which could have significant implications for on-line journals and publishing.

eLib column: Kelly Russell, the assistant co-ordinator of the eLib programme, with a few words on how the project (and the programme as a whole) can be reflected in terms of success and/or failure.

eLib isn't the only active area of electronic/digital library research and development. In this section, we take a closer look at other initiatives, programmes, projects and general work in this area, both in the UK and overseas.
The International Institute for Electronic Library Research- A new kid on the block: Marilyn Deegan describes the International Institute for Electronic Library Research, a significant new centre of research based at De Montfort University.
European Libraries Programme: The European Libraries Programme - instant cash for libraries who can hitch a ride on the Euro gravy train? Or another limited budget R&D programme for those content to live on bread and water? Rosalind Johnson of the UK National Focal Point for the European Libraries Programme explains all.
Open Peer Review & Argumentation: Loosening the Paper Chains on Journals: Tamara Sumner and Simon Buckingham Shum of the Knowledge Media Institute of the Open University, describe the design and implementation of the Journal of Interactive Media in Education, and some of the issues behind the approach that this journal takes to the process of scholarly review.
FDTL: The Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning: Gerry Taggart gives a brief outline of this HEFCE funded programme of projects geared towards teaching and learning using IT.
DESIRE: Development of a European Service for Information on Research and Education: Klaas Wierenga, the director of DESIRE, describes this pan-European project in which the academic network services of the UK have a large stake.
The SURF foundation: Jaqueline Pieters describes the evolution of the SURF Foundation, a major IT co-ordination service for the Dutch academic sector.
CTI (Computers in Teaching Initiative): The CTI, set up in 1989, offers a UK-wide service to academic staff in higher education institutions through its network of 24 subject-based centres. Joyce Martin, acting head of the CTI Support Service, describes this HEFCE funded initiative.

In this section we present reports from conferences, events and workshops of interest to the digital/electronic libraries and networking communities.
The 1996 UKOLUG State of the Art Conference : Melanie Lawes describes the 1996 UKOLUG (UK On-Line Users Group) Annual Conference, held in Warwick last July.
Libtech 96: John Kirriemuir and Isobel Stark with some notes and pictures from the main annual UK library exhibition.

This section contains a small number of articles of a slightly more technical nature (though still readable and often of relevance/interest to the less technically skewed amongst us).
Securing HTML FORMs : Jon Knight discusses some of the options available to the designers and implementors of HTML FORMs for providing authentication of users in a library environment.
Netskills Corner: Beneath the Surface of your Web Pages: In this Netskills Corner article, Brian Kelly looks beneath the surface of HTML pages and provides advice on the design of the underlying directory structure.
Metadata for the Masses: Paul Miller describes Dublin Core and several ideas for how it can be implemented.

This section contains descriptions of journals, freely available over the Web, that may be of interest to librarians and information specialists. The descriptions are written by the editors and/or publishers of the journals.
D-Lib: William Y. Arms, D-Lib publisher and Amy Friedlander, the editor, describe this successful Web-based magazine that carries more technically-minded articles on all aspects of digital/electronic libraries research.
CAUSE/EFFECT: Julia A. Rudy, Cause/Effect Editor and Director of Publications at CAUSE, an international, nonprofit professional association for managers and users of information resources on college and university campuses, describes CAUSE/EFFECT.
Provenance: Neal Chan describes Provenance, a Canadian-based Web magazine for Information Professionals.
MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship: Lori Widzinski, the editor, describes the evolution of MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship.
The Katharine Sharp Review: Kevin Ward, the editor of the Katherine Sharp Review, gives an overview of the first two years of this major journal for Librarians, and looks to its future.

Our regular columns and columnists, such as the copyright, public libraries and OMNI corners.
Copyright info on the Net: In the copyright corner for this issue, Charles Oppenheim takes a look at some of the Web sites and Bulletin Boards that contain information on copyright issues.
Public Libraries Corner: Commercial Partnerships in the Public Library : Sarah Ormes looks at the increase of net access in public libraries.
Wire: Jasper Tredgold is put under the virtual spotlight to answer a few questions via email.
InfoSeek Ultra: (Yet another) Web Search Engine : In the first of a regular column on Web searching, Tracey Stanley looks at InfoSeek Ultra, a new search engine which claims to allow searching on a index of 50 million Web pages.
OMNI-corner: Patient Information on the Web: a Doctor on your Desktop?: Sue Welsh, the OMNI maintainer, examines the perils of using the Internet as a substitute for your local family practitioner.
British Library Corner: Graham Jefcoate, a Research Analyst from the British Library Research and Innovation Centre will be writing this regular column for the remaining issues of Ariadne. In this issue, Graham gives us the text of his Libtech talk on "Text and the Internet".
Down your Way: Alison Kilgour checks out the network facilities at Edge Hill College.
Interface: Derek Law threw down the gauntlet to public libraries in a recent issue of Ariadne. Appropriately, an EARL picked it up. Alison Kilgour reports.
View from the Hill: John MacColl orders lunch with a portion of e-mail.
Minotaur: In Minotaur, the collective voice of Internet enthusiasts is countered by words of scepticism or caution. In this issue, publishing consultant Valerie Mendes puts the PC in its place.
Burnside Writes: John Burnside with a few brief words on the perception of knowledge.
Around the Table: Sheona Farquhar looks at sites in science and engineering.

This section contains items such as books, conferences, and other items of relevance to the LIS community that are not yet released/have not yet occured.
ELVIRA 4 : The 4th UK Digital Libraries Conference: Clare Davies announces the fourth in this series of annual Electronic Library research conferences.
The StudentĘs Guide to the Internet: by Ian Winship and Alison McNab. A cut-price guide, aimed at all students, to the Internet.
British Academy Symposium: Information Technology and Scholarly Disciplines: Seamus Ross provides the programme for a symposium which seeks to explore how information technology has affected research in the humanities and social sciences.

The usual collection of the exotic and weird, such as poetry, a cartoon and the infamous caption competition.
Poetry Spot: The regular contribution of verse.
Cartoon: The regular cartoon (now don't get upset if you wear certain types of overcoatą).
Caption Competition: The now infamous caption competition - see if you find last issue's winners funny, and send in your suggestions for this month's caption.
Sideline: John Kirriemuir goes to ELVIRA and has trouble with boomerangs and pigeons.
Checkout: Reviews of Web sites and books of interest.
Survey: A fill-in survey form: tell us what you think of either the Web and/or paper versions of Ariadne.
Mail us!: Send us criticisms, comments, ideas for reviews or features...

Material on this page is copyright Ariadne/original authors. This page last updated on September 11th 1996