Overview of content related to 'national library of wales'

The LIPARM Project: A New Approach to Parliamentary Metadata

lisrw — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 19:41:15 +0000

Richard Gartner outlines a collaborative project which aims to link together the digitised UK Parliamentary record by providing a metadata scheme, controlled vocabularies and a Web-based interface.

Parliamentary historians in the United Kingdom are particularly fortunate as their key primary source, the record of Parliamentary proceedings, is almost entirely available in digitised form. Similarly, those needing to consult and study contemporary proceedings as scholars, journalists or citizens have access to the daily output of the UK's Parliaments and Assemblies in electronic form shortly after their proceedings take place.

Unfortunately, the full potential of this resource for all of these users is limited by the fact that it is scattered throughout a heterogeneous information landscape and so cannot be approached as a unitary resource. It is not a simple process, for instance, to distinguish the same person if he or she appears in more than one of these collections or, for that matter, to identify the same legislation if it is referenced inconsistently in different resources. As a result, using it for searching or for more sophisticated analyses becomes problematic when one attempts to move beyond one of its constituent collections.

Finding some mechanism to allow these collections to be linked and so used as a coherent, integrated resource has been on the wish-list of Parliamentary historians and other stakeholders in this area for some time. In the mid-2000s, for instance, the History of Parliament Trust brought together the custodians of several digitised collections to examine ways in which this could be done. In 2011, some of these ideas came to fruition when JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) funded a one-year project named LIPARM (Linking the Parliamentary Record through Metadata) which aimed to design a mechanism for encoding these linkages within XML architectures and to produce a working prototype for an interface which would enable the potential offered by this new methodology to be realised in practice.

This article explains the rationale of the LIPARM Project and how it uses XML to link together core components of the Parliamentary record within a unified metadata scheme. It introduces the XML schema, Parliamentary Metadata Language (PML), which was created by the project and the set of controlled vocabularies for Parliamentary proceedings which the project also created to support it. It also discusses the experience of the project in converting two XML-encoded collections of Parliamentary proceedings to PML and work on the prototype Web-based union catalogue which will form the initial gateway to PML-encoded metadata.

Background: The Need for Integrated Parliamentary Metadata

The UK's Parliamentary record has been the focus of a number of major digitisation initiatives which have made its historical corpus available in almost its entirety: in addition, the current publishing operations of the four Parliaments and Assemblies in the UK ensure that the contemporary record is available in machine-readable form on a daily basis. Unfortunately, these collections have limited interoperability owing to their disparate approaches to data and metadata which renders the federated searching and browsing of their contents currently impossible. In addition, the disparity of platforms on which they are offered, and the wide diversity of user interfaces they use to present the data (as shown by the small sample in Figure 1), render extensive research a time-consuming and cumbersome process if it is necessary to extend its remit beyond the confines of a single collection.

Figure 1: Four major collections of Parliamentary proceedings, each using a different interface

A more integrated approach to Parliamentary metadata offers major potential for new research: it would, for instance, allow the comprehensive tracking of an individual's career, including all of their contributions to debates and proceedings. It would allow the process of legislation to be traced automatically, voting patterns to be analysed, and the emergence of themes and topics in Parliamentary history to be analysed on a large scale.

One example of the linkages that could usefully be made in an integrated metadata architecture can be seen in the career of Sir James Craig, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1940. Figure 2 illustrates some of the connections that could be made to represent his career:-

Figure 2: Sample of potential linkages for a Parliamentarian

The connections shown here are to the differing ways in which he is named in the written proceedings, to his tenures in both Houses, the constituencies he represented, the offices he held and the contributions he made to debates. Much more complex relationships are, of course, possible and desirable.

The advantages of an integrated approach to metadata which would allow these connections to be made have long been recognised by practitioners in this field, and several attempts have been made to create potential strategies for realising them. But it was only in 2011 that these took more concrete form when a one-day meeting sponsored by JISC brought together representatives from the academic, publishing, library and archival sectors to devise a strategy for integrating Parliamentary metadata. Their report proposed the creation of an XML schema for linking core components of this record and the creation of a series of controlled vocabularies for these components which could form the basis of the semantic linkages to be encoded in the schema [1]. These proposals then formed the basis of a successful bid to JISC for a project to put them into practice: the result was the LIPARM (Linking the Parliamentary Record through Metadata) Project.

10 Years of Zetoc

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Jane Ronson looks at how Zetoc has developed and what the future holds for the service.

Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, Zetoc [1] provides quality-assured, comprehensive journal table of contents data for resource discovery that users can search and have delivered straight to their in-box or desktop. In a nutshell, Zetoc is all about convenience, current awareness and comprehensive coverage. In a recent survey, one academic commented: 'This is a "one-stop shop" for relevant literature'. What is Zetoc, what has it achieved and where is it going? In this article I will look at the history of the service and how it has developed over the past decade.

The Digital Preservation Roadshow 2009-10: The Incomplete Diaries of Optimistic Travellers

editor — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

William Kilbride and Malcolm Todd report on the Digital Preservation Roadshow - an eleven month tour of the UK and Ireland designed to provide archivists and record managers with practical advice and support in managing digital resources.

Editorial Introduction to Issue 61: The Double-edged Web

editor — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Waller introduces Ariadne issue 61.

Perhaps one of the current benchmarks for gauging when a Web technology has migrated from the cluttered desks of the technorati to the dining tables of the chatterati is if it becomes a topic for BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze [1]. More accustomed to discussing matters such as child-rearing or a controversial pronouncement of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the panel members who, over the years have ranged from the liberal to the harrumphing illiberal (and in one case, both at the same time), recently did battle over Twitter [2].

Share. Collaborate. Innovate. Building an Organisational Approach to Web 2.0

editor — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Paul Bevan outlines the National Library of Wales' development of a strategic approach to meeting user needs in a post-Web 2.0 world.

The National Library of Wales has recently published a new Strategy for the Web [1] which integrates Web 2.0 with the existing Web portfolio and seeks to provide an approach to Web 2.0 which is focused on the organisation. Rather than centring on technical developments, this paper outlines a strategic research approach and discusses some of the outcomes which may speak to others seeking to engage with emerging Web technologies and approaches.

News and Events

editor — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

5th International Digital Curation Conference – Moving to Multi-Scale Science: Managing Complexity and Diversity

Millennium Gloucester Hotel, Kensington, London
2-4 December 2009
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/dcc-2009/

The International Digital Curation Conference is an established annual event reaching out to individuals, organisations and institutions across all disciplines and domains involved in curating data for e-science and e-research.

Open Repositories 2009

editor — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Adrian Stevenson reports on the four-day annual Open Repositories conference held at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, GA, USA over 18 - 21 May 2009.

I recently attended the annual Open Repositories 2009 Conference [1] in Atlanta, Georgia which hosted 326 delegates from 23 countries. For myself, as the SWORD [2] Project Manager, the event proved to be very worthwhile. My colleague Julie Allinson and I were both able to give a plenary presentation on the first day and a half-day workshop on the final day.

Implementing E-Legal Deposit: A British Library Perspective

editor — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Ronald Milne and John Tuck summarise progress towards implementation of the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003 which extended provision to non-print materials. Particular reference is made to the British Library.

News and Events

editor — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

UkeiG Course: Information Law for Information Professionals

Information Law for Information Professionals:
What you need to know about Copyright, Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Accessibility and Disability Discrimination Laws

CILIP, 7 Ridgmount Street, London, WC1E 7AE
19 February 2008, 9.30-16.30

Course outline

Book Review: The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland

editor — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Lorcan Dempsey reviews Volume III of a landmark collection on the history of libraries in 'Britain and Ireland' from 1850 to 2000.

First, a note about this reviewer. I am not a library historian although I am interested in our professional and institutional development. I received my library education in Ireland, although I have worked for much of my career in the UK and am now in the US. I observed the developments discussed in the latter parts of this volume and have contributed to the literature about them. I have met many of the contributors and am familiar with the writings of others.

Web Curator Tool

editor — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Philip Beresford tells the story (from The British Library's perspective) of the development of new software to aid all stages of harvesting Web sites for preservation.

In September 2006 The National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, The British Library and Sytec, announced the successful development of a Web harvesting management system.

The system, known as Web Curator Tool, is designed to assist curators of digital archives in collecting Web-published material for storage and preservation.

Digital Preservation Coalition Forum on Web Archiving

editor — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 23:00:00 +0000

Maureen Pennock and Manjula Patel report on the Digital Preservation Coalition's second Web Archiving Forum which took place at the British Library in London on 12 June 2006.

EEVL Xtra: The Hidden Web at Your Fingertips

editor — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Roddy MacLeod looks at the latest service from EEVL.

EEVL Xtra - In a Nutshell

EEVL Xtra [1] is an exciting new, free service which helps people find articles, books, the best Web sites, the latest industry news, job announcements, technical reports, technical data, full text eprints, the latest research, teaching and learning resources and more, in engineering, mathematics and computing.

The People's Network and the Learning Revolution: Building the NOF Digitize Programme

editor — Tue, 02 Oct 2001 23:00:00 +0000

Susi Woodhouse brings us up to date with developments.

The launch of the New Opportunities Fund’s £50 million NOF- digitise creation of learning materials (1) programme in July this year marks the beginning of a major UK-wide initiative set to create a fundamental step-change in learning support. For the past two years, a quiet revolution has been under way preparing the groundwork for a collective leap of faith into the future and the new opportunities it offers.

A National Co-ordinating Body for Digital Archiving?

editor — Mon, 18 May 1998 23:00:00 +0000

David Haynes discusses one possible way forward for ensuring that potentially valued digital materials are preserved for future study and use.

During the supporting study the authors consulted various stake-holders in the creation, distribution and use of digital materials. A number of recommendations arose from this study and are presented in this paper. These recommendations are not official policy and represent the authors’ views of one possible way forward for ensuring that potentially valued digital materials are preserved for future study and use.

SEREN: Sharing of Educational Resources in an Electronic Network

editor — Tue, 19 Mar 1996 00:00:00 +0000

Ian Lovecy from Bangor University describes SEREN, a project from the Electronic Document Delivery section of the eLib programme. SEREN aims to provide the software to enable the Welsh HE community to maximise use of the library resource-base in Wales before turning to BLDSC and other suppliers.