Overview of content related to 'research'

Editorial Introduction to Issue 51: Democratising Cultural Heritage

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Richard Waller introduces Ariadne 51.

Having emerged from the political arguments of the 1990s about what culture could be funded and whether it was better to fund soccer or opera, we have moved into an age where, in the UK at least, there are arguments as to what actually constitutes British culture. Fortunately more people are deciding to do culture for themselves than remain passive witnesses to the pundits' debate. The place where they are doing it is online and they are not waiting to see whether their offering attracts the experts' approval - and sometimes, admittedly, one might argue more's the pity.

Supporting Creativity in Networked Environments: The COINE Project

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Geoff Butters, Amanda Hulme and Peter Brophy describe an approach to enabling a wide range of users to create and share their own stories, thus contributing to the development of cultural heritage at the local level.

The W3C Technical Architecture Group

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Henry S. Thompson introduces the W3C Technical Architecture Group and its work.

ARROW, DART and ARCHER: A Quiver Full of Research Repository and Related Projects

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Andrew Treloar and David Groenewegen describe three inter-related projects to support scholarly outputs and the e-research life cycle which have been funded by the Australian Commonwealth Government.

Developing a Virtual Research Environment in a Portal Framework: The EVIE Project

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Tracey Stanley provides an overview of the EVIE Project at the University of Leeds which was funded under the JISC Virtual Research Environments Programme.

Researchers in all disciplines increasingly expect to be able to undertake a variety of research-associated tasks online. These range from collaborative activities with colleagues around the globe through to information-seeking activities in an electronic library environment. Many of the tools which enable these activities to take place are already available within the local IT infrastructure. However, in many cases, the tools are provided through discrete, bespoke interfaces with few links between them.

Using Blogs for Formative Assessment and Interactive Teaching

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Lisa Foggo provides a case-study of using a blog for formative assessment. Its interactivity engaged participants and permitted measurement of student expectations and satisfaction with library sessions.

This case study shows how students were taught the skills they need to find information relevant to their subject area. As groups of students are generally seen once only, measures to assess the effectiveness of teaching are needed, i.e. to determine the skills the students have acquired. Blogs were used as a tool for formative assessment and were used to measure student expectations before teaching, and their level of satisfaction with the session afterwards.

Citeulike: A Researcher's Social Bookmarking Service

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Kevin Emamy and Richard Cameron describe a tool that helps researchers gather, collect and share papers.

This article describes Citeulike, a fusion of Web-based social bookmarking services and traditional bibliographic management tools. It discusses how Citeulike turns the linear 'gather, collect, share' process inherent in academic research into a circular 'gather, collect, share and network' process, enabling the sharing and discovery of academic literature and research papers.

Towards Virtualisation: A New Approach in Server Management

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Eddie Young provides an account of trials and implementations carried out here after Matt Thrower gives us the background and benefits of employing virtualisation.

OpenID: Decentralised Single Sign-on for the Web

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Andy Powell and David Recordon take a brief look at OpenID and ask what relevance it has to e-learning.

The JISC Annual Conference 2007

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Philip Pothen and colleagues provide an overview of the proceedings of this Spring's JISC Annual Conference.

Opening Keynote Address

The 2007 JISC conference began with a welcome from JISC Executive Secretary Dr Malcolm Read who thanked the more than 600 delegates for attending the conference, held for the fifth year running at the ICC in Birmingham.

What Is an Open Repository?

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Julie Allinson, Jessie Hey, Chris Awre and Mahendra Mahey report on the Open Repositories 2007 conference, held in San Antonio, Texas between 23-26 January 2007.

23-26 January 2007 saw the second Open RepositoriesConference [1], this year hosted at the enormous Marriott Rivercenter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas, around the corner from the Alamo. The conference followed on from the inaugural one held last year in Sydney [2], offering the U.S. repositories community an ideal opportunity to gather, together with a generous scattering of attendees from other parts of the world.

KIM Project Conference: Knowledge and Information Management through Life

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Alex Ball provides an overview of the March 2007 KIM Project Conference.

News and Events

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

Introduction to Federated Searching Technology & Developments

Date: 11 May 2007
Venue: Conference Room, Southport College, Mornington Road, Southport, PR9 0TT
Delegate Fee: £50.00

Book Review: E-learning and Disability in Higher Education

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Simon Ball reviews a comprehensive discussion of e-learning and accessibility that gives support and guidance to effect good practice from individual to institutional level.

Jane Seale begins her book by explaining the reticence of e-learning practitioners to embrace accessibility concepts as if they were waiting 'for the magic fairy to miraculously transform all e-learning material with one wave of her magic wand'. It is probably human nature that we would mostly prefer to be handed a ready-made meal than a lesson in farming, but we all know deep down that only the latter will lead to long-term success. Seale sets about providing a very effective lesson in farming - not a finished meal.

Book Review: Teaching Web Search Skills

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Verity Brack takes a look at this book for Web trainers, teachers and instructors.

Greg Notess has brought together techniques and strategies for Web search training not only from his own experience but also from a number of well known Web search trainers; readers will recognise the names of Joe Barker, Paul Barron, Phil Bradley, John Ferguson, Alice Fulbright, Ran Hock, Jeff Humphrey, Diane Kovacs, Gary Price, Danny Sullivan, Rita Vine, and Sheila Webber.

Book Review: Digital Literacies for Learning

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Pete Cliff reviews a work that challenges traditional notions of literacy and how suggests that new literacies need to be developed to empower both learners and teachers in the digital age.

In the changing, and increasingly digital world, learners and teachers are more and more subject to information overload and the noise this generates. Teachers must cope with larger cohorts and more disparate communities. Increasingly, information communication technologies are being used to address these issues and it becomes clear that new skills are required to operate effectively in the learning environment.

Book Review: Information Architecture for the World Wide Web

editor — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 23:00:00 +0000

Keith Doyle reviews the 3rd edition of the primary reference book for practising in-house staff and consultants responsible for the development of institutional information architecture.

Information architecture helps people find the information they want, whether it's a prospective student looking for a course, or staff using the intranet. It is mostly concerned with how people browse and search the institutional Web site, and with how knowledge is shared. People working in information architecture are likely to be responsible for institutional Web strategy; global links on the corporate template; the institutional search engine, site map and index; institutional analytics; portals and primary stakeholder home pages; content management and content management systems.