Overview of content related to 'copyright'

Editorial Introduction to Issue 5

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

The editor introduces Ariadne issue 5.

So why is this issue of the Web version of Ariadne so big, then?

…was a question asked by several people who have watched this issue being constructed. The answer is, in one word, "awareness" (Ariadne does reside in the Training and Awareness section of the eLib programme). In a possibly noticeable change of direction, the Web version of Ariadne (WVA for short) will have a significantly heavier bias towards making its target audience aware of relevant and useful services and resources.

JISC Projects Ahead

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

John MacColl outlines some of the key points in JISCÆs five year strategy document.

Liberalisation of the UK Higher Education network, a drive for greater economy and efficiency, and the promotion of training and awareness, all emerge as key recommendations in the Five Year Strategy, 1996-2001 published by the Joint Information Systems Committee last month. In his Chairman's Preface, Professor John Arbuthnott spells out JISC's role as one of "facilitating, not dictating or managing" the use of IT across the sector.

Croatian Libraries: The War Is Behind Us, What Brings the Future?

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

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.

I am going to speak about Croatia and the new information technologies implemented in the Croatian libraries. How are Croatian librarians coping with the consequences of the terrible war we had from 1991 to 1995? What can be done in the situation when the whole country is being restructured and where the priority list is so long? What makes the Croatian libraries so special?

Net Gains for Digital Researchers

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

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.

Predicting the future is a risky business. On the one hand, the current instantiation of the Internet and the World Wide Web interfaces will one day become obsolete -- perhaps sooner than we think. On the other hand, some configuration of networked digital information technologies is here to stay. Moreover, many of the tools and behaviors that arise to tap the web's potential will migrate as the underlying technologies evolve. Thus, the Internet is far more than a set of data transfer protocols operating over a series of leased lines, packet switches, and servers.

BIDS Hits the Web

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Isobel Stark takes a look at the soon to be released trial BIDS web interface.

I will come clean straight away, First, after a couple of tries I found the BIDS Telnet interface pretty intuitive and second I am on record as being rather sceptical as to whether a web interface to BIDS could have the same degree of functionality as the Telnet interface. I will probably find, however, if I do a bit of searching in the archives, that similar points were raised at the time of the change from pad to Telnet access of the databases.

Web4Lib: The Library Web Manager's Electronic Discussion List

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

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.

The World Wide Web has quickly become an essential tool for librarians to communicate with their clientele, provide services, and build collections. Well over a thousand libraries around the world now have Web servers (according to Libweb, a directory of library-based Web servers at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/), and many have public terminals available for accessing the Web. Such a rapid deployment of this technology required rapid learning by the professionals who implemented it.

Subject Trees: The Exeter Experience

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

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.

The exceptional growth of the World Wide Web over the last few years has brought with it an additional and ever-expanding source of information to those with access to the Internet. Building upon the work of many gopher servers, the WWW has quickly become the popular medium for provision of information on the networks. The development of intra-nets within businesses is a testament to the accessibility of the WWW model. However, the proliferation of Internet resources, from topical sites to electronic journals, has posed a significant challenge to the information profession.

Putting the UK on the Map

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

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.

Many of you are probably familiar with the WWW active maps of UK academic resources operated by the University of Wolverhampton's School of Computing and Information Technology. If you're not point your WWW browser at http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/ukinfo/uk.map.html before going any further. I thought it might be of interest to Ariadne readers to hear how and why these maps were created.

UKERNA: Training the Networkers

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

John MacCulloch and Jane Batchelor, from UKERNA, detail their training course, designed for those installing, running, supporting, or managing a JANET connection.

Computer networking forms the basis for a whole raft of new information technologies; electronic mail, world wide web, networked data services, electronic mailing list services, electronic journals, on-demand publishing, and electronic document delivery to name but a few. Staff who are required to run services based on such technologies obviously need an understanding of the underlying networking.

Lotus Eaters On-Line: Forming an Alliance Between Groupware and the Web in a Pre-Prints System

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

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.

Among the facilities available from the scholar's workstation of the future will be access to pre-prints collections with added value. Precisely what form such 'added value' will take remains to be seen, but it will address the current tendency for on-line pre-print depositories to become largely untamed wildernesses of relatively unstructured material, with wheat and chaff mixed in frustratingly unpredictable proportions.

NewsAgent for Librarians

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

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.

Information overload has created a need for information delivered to the desktop at a time, in a format and covering topics chosen by the user, not the provider.

NewsAgent for Libraries started on April 1st 1996, and runs for two years. Located within the Electronic Journals strand of the eLib programme, the project will develop a personalised news and current awareness service for the LIS community. The main partners involved in the project are:

HELIX

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Ruth Glynn outlines the HELIX project, one of the new Images projects from the eLib programme.

Image collections and resources are of immense importance for research, teaching and learning across a wide spectrum of subject areas. Images may be the primary research material or may inform and enrich research which is principally text based or experimental in nature. Research carried out over the last three or four years had addressed many of the problems associated with digitization, indexing and retrieval, distribution, staffing and management issues, and problems concerned with copyright and access controls.

Open Journals

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

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.

Everyone involved with scholarly journals has a problem with the Web. Readers wonder whether they will find what they want, and librarians want to bring some order to the Web's unregulated chaos. Authors are concerned with recognition, and publishers with how they can make money from the Web. The Web presents many new opportunities, especially for academic works.

eLib Column

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

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.

As autumn begins to paint her subtle colours across the English countryside the good folks at the Electronic Libraries Programme office find themselves raking in project annual reports. As part of the programme's evaluation strategy, all projects now up and running were required to submit a report by mid- August detailing progress to date and, more importantly, lessons learned thus far. The report was to include all the conventional contents of an annual report - facts and figures, but was also to include the projects preliminary evaluation results.

The International Institute for Electronic Library Research: A New Kid on the Block

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Marilyn Deegan describes the International Institute for Electronic Library Research, a significant new centre of research based at De Montfort University.

De Montfort University is one of the largest universities in Britain, with 29,000 students based on 10 campuses in eastern and central England. Major city locations are Leicester, Lincoln, Bedford and Milton Keynes. Given the distributed nature of the University, much use has to be made of the latest information and communication technologies: video-conferencing is used extensively in teaching, and in enabling teachers and researchers to meet and talk without leaving their own campus.

European Libraries Programme

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

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.

The European Libraries Programme - more properly, the Telematics for Libraries Programme - was conceived in the early 1980s with noble aims. The wealth and diversity of Europe's information resources were seen as considerable, but it was clear that these resources were not readily available to European citizens.

Open Peer Review & Argumentation: Loosening the Paper Chains on Journals

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

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.

The emergence of the internet and the World Wide Web (WWW) have potentially profound implications for scholarly practice, particularly in the submission, review, and publication of articles in journals. However to date, much of the impact of these new technologies on journals has been on digitising the products of journal publication; the scholarly processes involved in reviewing articles remain unchanged and unsupported.

FDTL: The Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Gerry Taggart gives a brief outline of this HEFCE funded programme of projects geared towards teaching and learning using IT.

The HEFCE has committed £8 million over the next two years to the Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL), a new initiative aimed at stimulating developments and promoting good practice across the higher education sector.

This is the first time that the Council has linked the results of its quality assessment process to its allocation of funds to the sector. Only institutions judged to be providing high quality education were eligible to bid for project funds.

DESIRE: Development of a European Service for Information on Research and Education

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Klaas Wierenga, the director of DESIRE, describes this pan-European project in which the academic network services of the UK have a large stake.

Desire is a large, pan- European co-operative development project to promote the use of the World Wide Web (WWW) in the European research community. The project has attracted substantial funding from the European Union's Fourth Framework Programme.

The SURF Foundation

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Jaqueline Pieters describes the evolution of the SURF Foundation, a major IT co-ordination service for the Dutch academic sector.

The SURF Foundation was established in 1987 to co-ordinate the implementation of a multi-year plan for the improvement of the application of information technology (IT) in Dutch universities, schools for higher vocational education and research institutes.

CTI (Computers in Teaching Initiative)

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

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.

The mission of the CTI is "to maintain and enhance the quality of learning and increase the effectiveness of teaching through the application of appropriate learning technologies."

The CTI is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, and the Department of Education for Northern Ireland. The CTI has provisional funding to run until 1999 renewable on an annual basis.

The 1996 UKOLUG State of the Art Conference

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Melanie Lawes describes the 1996 UKOLUG (UK On-Line Users Group) Annual Conference, held in Warwick last July.

UKOLUG's State of the Art Conference, held in Warwick in July, attracted nearly 200 delegates including representatives from academia, publishing and commerce.

Libtech 96

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

John Kirriemuir and Isobel Stark with some notes and pictures from the main annual UK library exhibition: Libtech 96.

The exhibition was opened on the 4th of September by Jack Schofield, the editor of the online section of the Guardian newspaper. He gave a short speech, which included a witty section on the hassle caused by the frequent version updating of software; software where updates appeared every few weeks he named "dribbleware"!

D-Lib

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

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.

Shortly, D-Lib Magazine will go to press with our fourteenth monthly issue - and it is remarkable that even after a year, we are still using the language of print to describe something that only exists on the web. D-Lib is funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on behalf of the Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications (IITA) Working Group of the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) program.

MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Lori Widzinski, the editor, describes the evolution of MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship.

MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship (MCJ) made its debut in April 1992 as a peer-reviewed electronic journal on the Internet. The concept for a peer-reviewed journal in academic media librarianship arose after an extensive literature search revealed very little regard for this specialty. There are several scholarly publications in librarianship, but none in the U.S. focusing exclusively on academic media librarianship.

Copyright Info on the Net

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Charles Oppenheim takes a look at some of the Web sites and Bulletin Boards that contain information on copyright issues.

Copyright is an exceptionally popular subject on the Web, as a simple search on Alta Vista or one of the Web Crawlers will show. The usual rag bag of articles, advertising announcements, academic sites and so on will be picked up by such searches. In this brief article, I want to draw attention to some of the sites that I find useful when wandering lost in cyberspace. The sites are in no particular order, and many of them are linked to each other. I have given them a personal smiley rating as follows:

:-| Good site

:-) Very good site

ELVIRA 4: The 4th UK Digital Libraries Conference (Electronic Library and Visual Information Research) Milton Keynes, 6-8 May 1997

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

Clare Davies announces the fourth in this series of annual Electronic Library research conferences.

Next May, ELVIRA reaches its 4th annual conference. When the conference series started, the concept of the electronic library was still a novelty to many of us; now every self-respecting university, college and library is involved in developments in our field. ELVIRA 4 promises to be the most exciting conference yet, and also the most varied. The organisers are keen to encourage different types of submission and session, to fit the diverse needs of researchers and practitioners in electronic resource provision.

Cartoon

editor — Wed, 18 Sep 1996 23:00:00 +0000

New cartoon work by Malcolm Campbell.