Overview of content related to 'search technology'

Sharing History of Science and Medicine Gateway Metadata Using OAI-PMH

editor — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

David Little outlines the resource sharing arrangements between the MedHist gateway and the Humbul hub, using the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, and some of the issues it has raised.

The MedHist gateway [1] was launched in August 2002, providing access to a searchable and browsable catalogue of high quality, evaluated history of medicine Internet resources. MedHist has been funded and developed by the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine [2], but is hosted by the BIOME health and life sciences hub [3], and as such is part of the Resource Discovery Network (RDN).

Cultural Heritage Language Technologies: Building an Infrastructure for Collaborative Digital Libraries in the Humanities

editor — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Jeffrey Rydberg-Cox describes the work of the Cultural Heritage Language Technologies consortium, a research group funded by the European Comission Information Society Technologies program and the United States National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative.

The field of classics has a long tradition of electronic editions of both primary and secondary materials for the study of the ancient world. Large electronic corpora of Greek and Latin texts are available from groups such as the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, the Packard Humanities Institute, and the Duke Databank of Documentary Papyri, and in the Perseus Digital Library [1].

Exposing Information Resources for E-learning

editor — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Steve Richardson and Andy Powell on Harvesting and searching IMS metadata using both the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, and the Z39.50 Protocol.

An introduction to the IMS Digital Repositories Working Group

IMS [1] is a global consortium that develops open specifications to support the delivery of e-learning through Learning Management Systems (LMS). (Note: in UK higher and further education we tend to use the term Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in preference to LMS).

DAEDALUS : Freeing Scholarly Communication at the University of Glasgow

editor — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

William J. Nixon presents a brief overview of the DAEDALUS Open Archives Project at the University of Glasgow.

DAEDALUS [1] is a three year JISC funded project under the FAIR Programme [2] which will build a range of Open Archives Compliant (OAI) digital collections at the University of Glasgow. These collections will enable us to unlock access to a wide range of our institutional scholarly output. This output will include not only published and peer-reviewed papers but also administrative documents, research finding aids, pre-prints and theses. DAEDALUS is also a member of the CURL SHERPA project [3].

Public Libraries: Creating Websites for E-citizens -The Public Library Web Managers Workshop 2002

editor — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Penny Garrod reports on the Public Library Web Managers workshop, November 2002, held in Bath.

Background to the workshop

The third Public Library Web Managers workshop to be organised by UKOLN was held at the University of Bath on the 5th and 6th of November 2002. This year’s event aimed to provide public library web managers with a brief respite from the trials and tribulations of the workplace, and the chance to share networking experiences with colleagues up and down the country. It also aimed to bring together some key speakers on this year’s hot topic –e-government (electronic government).

Planet SOSIG: Social Science Case Studies

editor — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Dave Boyd provides an update on SOSIG’s involvement in the new RDN FE case studies project, and on developments within the Geography and Environmental Sciences subject sections.

The RDN has recently launched a set of case studies aimed at supporting the use of the Internet for further education. The project was led by staff at Biz/ed based at The Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT). It started in February 2002 and was completed in October this year.

EEVL: Search Me!

editor — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Roddy MacLeod supplies guidance on the large range of available EEVL search options.

Background

EEVL is the Internet guide 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: Interfaces to Web Testing Tools

editor — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Brian Kelly looks at interfaces to Web testing tools, and in particular at Bookmarklets - simple extensions to browsers which enhance functionality.

In the last issue of Ariadne the Web Focus column encouraged Web developers to "get serious about HTML standards" [1]. The article advocated use of XHTML and highlighted the importance of documents complying with standards.

Many authors of Web resources would agree with this in principle, but find it difficult to implement in practice: use of validation tools seem to require launching a new application or going to a new location in a Web browser and copying and pasting a URL. This can be time-consuming and so is often not carried out.

The 2nd Workshop on the Open Archives Initiative (OAI)

editor — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

William Nixon and Pauline Simpson report on the meeting held at CERN, Geneva, in October 2002.

CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research is the world’s largest particle physics centre. It is located just outside of Geneva on the French-Swiss border. CERN is also the birthplace of the World Wide Web, created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990.

Hidden Treasures: The Impact of Moving Image and Sound Archives in the 21st Century

editor — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Philip Hunter reports on the one day meeting on multimedia objects in the British Library, London, October 2002.

This conference was set up 'to consider the central importance of moving images and sound to our heritage and present-day culture, the necessity of adequate funding for the archives that preserve such materials, and asks why there is a lack of any coherent infrastructure for moving image and sound archives in the UK'.

Book Review: The Library and Information Professional's Guide to Plug-ins and Other Web Browser Tools

editor — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Book review by Ruth Martin.

The last thing I expected a book with a title like The Library and Information Professional’s Guide to Plug-ins and Other Web Browser Tools to be was entertaining. But to my amazement, this book kept me turning the pages for the length of a long train journey, thanks to its illustrated examples of how US libraries and museums have made use of plug-in applications in such things as interactive library tours, 3-dimensional exhibit image display, and virtual enquiry desks.