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Utilizing E-books to Enhance Digital Library Offerings

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Shirley Hyatt and Lynn Silipigni Connaway, describe the rationale and background of OCLC's acquisition of netLibrary, the information environment that is being pursued, and the resulting benefits that libraries may experience.

On January 24, 2002, OCLC Online Computer Library Center acquired netLibrary, a major electronic books (e-books) company. OCLC's acquisition includes the e-book Division of netLibrary, which OCLC has integrated as a division of OCLC, and netLibrary's MetaText eTextbook Division, which has become a for-profit subsidiary of OCLC. This article describes the rationale and background of the acquisition, the overall vision of the information environment that is being pursued, and the benefits that libraries may experience as a result.

5 Step Guide to Becoming a Content Provider in the JISC Information Environment

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Andy Powell describes steps which content providers can take to integrate their resources into the JISC IE.

This document provides a brief introduction to the JISC Information Environment (JISC-IE) [1], with a particular focus on the technical steps that content providers need to take in order to make their systems interoperable within the JISC-IE technical architecture.

Climbing the Scholarly Publishing Mountain With SHERPA

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

John MacColl and Stephen Pinfield explore the SHERPA project, which is concentrating on making e-prints available online.

JISC announced its FAIR Programme (Focus on Access to Institutional Resources) in January of this year. The central objective of the Programme is to test ways of releasing institutionally-produced content onto the web. FAIR describes its scope as:

Student Searching Behaviour in the JISC Information Environment

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Jill R. Griffiths and Peter Brophy report on work in progress and air some initial findings on the EDNER project, which undertakes evaluation of the developing JISC Information Environment.

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Information Environment (IE, a development from the DNER - Distributed National Electronic Resource) is intended to help users in the UK academic sector maximise the value of published information resources by developing a coherent environment out of the confusing array of systems and services currently available.

A Speaking Electronic Librarian

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Markos Dendrinos with a proposal for an interface system, based on speech recognition and synthesis technologies, for automatic library services.

The design of a speech agent for automatic library services is presented in this paper. The proposed system will be based on speech recognition and synthesis technologies, applied to the library environment. The client of the library can have access to various automatic electronic services through a sophisticated interface, making use of the embedded technologies. The access to OPAC, the loaning process, the database access and the resource retrieval are some of the services that could be greatly facilitated through the use of the system.

Public Libraries: United We Stand

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Penny Garrod on current developments in the Public Library world.

As I write schools have closed for summer, the volume of early morning traffic has temporarily subsided, and the tourists are out and about in vast numbers in Bath city centre. The 'out of office' auto-replies drop into the email box daily as proof that some people have managed to unplug themselves from their computers to go on holiday. It is also, alas, the 'silly season' - time for the British media to devote column inches to vital matters - such as the Prime Minister's sartorial taste, and how a certain blue shirt 'brings out the colour of his eyes'.

Planet SOSIG: A Spring-clean for SOSIG: A Systematic Approach to Collection Management

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Lesly Huxley, Emma Place, David Boyd, and Phil Cross report on a spring-cleaning exercise for SOSIG using a systematic approach to collection management.

The SOSIG collection

The core of the SOSIG service, the Internet Catalogue, now holds over 21,000 structured metadata records describing Internet resources relevant to social science teaching, learning and research. Established in 1994, SOSIG is one of the longest-running subject gateways in Europe. Our section editors have been seeking out, evaluating and describing social science Internet resources, developing the collection so that it now covers 17 top-level subject headings with over 1000 sub-sections.

EEVL: Resident EEVL

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Roddy MacLeod provides an update on the EEVL project. Among other things he explains how the EEVL cross-search facility can be run from user pages.

EEVL is the Hub for engineering, mathematics and computing. It is an award-winning free service, which provides quick and reliable access to the best engineering, mathematics, and computing information available on the Internet. It is created and run by a team of information specialists from a number of universities and institutions in the UK, lead by Heriot Watt University.

Web Focus: Let's Get Serious about HTML Standards

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Brian Kelly encourages authors to treat compliance with HTML standards seriously.

If you talk to long-established Web authors or those responsible for managing large Web sites or developing Web applications intended for widespread use in a heterogeneous environment you are likely to find that the need for compliance with Web standards is well-understood.

Windows Explorer: The Index Server Companion

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Brett Burridge describes the Index Server Companion, an application he has created that allows Microsoft Index Server to index content from remote websites and ODBC databases.

Microsoft's Index Server is a service supplied with the Windows NT 4.0 Server and Windows 2000 Server products. The service indexes HTML and other content residing on the file system. These indexed files may be queried using a number of techniques, but of particular relevance to web developers is the ability to build completely customised search facilities based on Active Server Pages (ASP) by making use of Index Server's Component Object Model (COM) objects.

Web Watch: An Accessibility Analysis of UK University Entry Points

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Brian Kelly reports on the accessibility of entry points of UK University Web sites.

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) came into effect on 1 ^st September 2002. The Act removes the previous exemption of education from the Disability Discrimination Act (1995), ensuring that discrimination against disabled students will be unlawful. Institutions will incur additional responsibilities in 2003, with the final sections of legislation coming into effect in 2005 [1].

Portals, Portals Everywhere

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Ian Dolphin, Paul Miller and Robert Sherratt report on two conferences over the summer which explored the progress being made in deploying institutional portals of various forms.

Judging by the number of articles written and conferences organised around them, portals are undoubtedly a hot topic in higher education, and seem likely to remain so for some time to come.

Digital Libraries in China

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Liz Lyon reports on the International Digital Library Conference held in Beijing in July 2002.

I was indeed fortunate to be invited to China to speak at the International Digital Library Conference [1] in Beijing in July 2002. The 3-day event was held at the Friendship Hotel, a large and splendid establishment built in traditional garden style and which retained some of the architectural character of times past. The conference was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture with support from other government departments and organized by the National Library of China NLC [2].

OCLC-SCURL: Collaboration, Integration and Recombinant Potential

editor — Wed, 09 Oct 2002 23:00:00 +0000

Pete Johnston reports on the New Directions in Metadata conference, 15-16 August, in Edinburgh

The problem of "navigating a rich and complex information landscape" took on a new dimension as I traversed Edinburgh's High Street on a bright Thursday morning at the height of the Festival. Fielding a barrage of enthusiastic invitations to attend a bewildering range of performances, I headed across town to the University for the "New Directions in Metadata" conference [1], organised jointly by OCLC [2] and SCURL [3].