Overview of content related to 'database'

Editorial Introduction to Issue 22: Ariadne's Thread

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Philip Hunter introduces Ariadne issue 22, looks at Ariadne's web accesses for the past year, and previews the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER).

Ariadne continues to develop and make friends in the the world. Shortly, if all goes well, every word published in Ariadne during the past four years will be available in a US education fulltext database, distributed on a world-wide basis. This is a mark of the significance of Ariadne's contribution to the discussions surrounding digital library initiatives, both in the UK and the US.

RDN: Resource Discovery Network

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Alistair Dunning reviews the launch of the RDN (Resource Discovery Network)

Picture, just for a moment, a scholar wise in the books of the world but new to technology. Having heard about this 'Internet' business she goes to one of these search engines to try and find some resources relevant to her field of study. She offers the phrase 'medical ethics' (that being her field of study) to one rather garish and excitable search engine, but, after a delay of a few seconds, is proffered seemingly random links and enigmatic descriptions. One link's description asks 'Do We Still Need Doctors?

Clumps As Catalogues

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Peter Stubley asks whether CLUMPS as catalogues are 'virtual success or failure?'

If the concept of parallel searching of catalogues via Z39.50 is stimulating, the initial manifestation is truly exciting. Maybe not exactly Alexander Graham Bell or Archimedes territory but life-enhancing nevertheless: to have been working on the implementation of an idea for over twelve months, as the UK eLib clumps projects have, and suddenly see bibliographic records returned simultaneously from a search across multiple library catalogues, makes it seem that all the arguments, stress and technical tinkerings have finally been worthwhile.

Clumping Towards a UK National Catalogue?

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Dennis Nicholson argues in favour of the distributed approach to cataloguing.

This article presents a clumps-oriented perspective on the idea of a UK national catalogue for HE, arguing that a distributed approach based on Z39.50 has a number of attractive features when compared with the alternative physical union catalogue model, but also noting that the many difficulties currently associated with the distributed approach must be resolved before it can itself be regarded as a practical proposition.

Electronic Publication of Ancient Near Eastern Texts

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Charles E. Jones and David Schloen report on a Chicago conference which explored XML tagging for Ancient Near Eastern Texts on the Web.

The civilizations of the ancient Near East produced the world's first written texts.

Scientific, Industrial, and Cultural Heritage: A Shared Approach

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Lorcan Dempsey presents a research framework for libraries, archives and museums prepared for the European Commission.

The Information Society Technologies programme within the EU's Framework Programme Five supports access to, and preservation of, digital cultural content. This document describes some common concerns of libraries, archival institutions and museums as they work together to address the issues the Programme raises. This accounts for three major emphases in the document. First, discussion is very much about what brings these organisations together, rather than about what separates them.

Tiny TV: Streaming Video on the Web

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Philip Hunter squints at the world through RealPlayer and MediaPlayer windows.

Before you will be able to play the resources listed in this article, you should be equipped with the latest versions of at least two pieces of software: the G2 RealPlayer, and the Microsoft Media Player. Some of the resources listed will work with older versions of these applications, but if you have the latest versions, all of them will run properly. Some clips have been encoded by the suppliers with the latest codecs precisely to encourage users to upgrade to these latest versions of streaming media players.

The ResIDe Electronic Library: An Evolving Library Service

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Christine Dugdale looks at the progress of this project to a functional service.

The ResIDe Electronic Library (http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/itdev/reside) was first developed as the ResIDe Electronic Reserve at the University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) in 1996. Originally funded under the eLib Programme (http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib), the Electronic Reserve was created as a research tool to explore such issues surrounding the implementation of an electronic reserve as copyright and collection management control mechanisms.

Public Libraries and Community Networks: Linking Futures Together?

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Malabika Das argues public libraries and community networks have a future together.

Public libraries serve their communities by fulfilling seven basic roles, including knowledge archival, the preservation and maintenance of culture, knowledge dissemination, knowledge sharing, information retrieval, education, and social interaction [1]. Each of these roles offers the general public the opportunity to recognize and view libraries as an integral part of a democratic society where access to free information has been (and still is) both expected and demanded. By comparison, community networks also have similar ideals for serving the public.

Aerade

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

John Harrington, Karyn Meaden and Emma Turner introduce Aerade, an EEVL-related service.

AERADE has been developed by a team of information specialists from the Library at Cranfield and the Library at the Royal Military College of Science (RMCS), Shrivenham. It has grown out of the aerospace section of the CRUISE (Cranfield University Site Explorer) subject gateway at Cranfield, which focuses on the subjects researched and taught at the Cranfield Campus, and DEVISE (Defence Virtual Information Service) at RMCS. This provides users with access to military and defence Internet resources. AERADE exists in two forms – AERADE at EEVL and AERADE at Cranfield.

The National Internet Accessibility Database (NIAD)

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

E. A. Draffon looks at the National Internet Accessibility Database (NIAD).

Over the years many guides have been produced to assist those choosing suitable assistive technology for individuals with disabilities. These guides have usually been available in book format and are rarely updated on a regular basis, and if updates are available the user has to pay for the privilege of remaining informed. In recent years there have been efforts to produce information on the Internet. However, this information tends to be presented as little more than an on-line catalogue with brief descriptions of individual items.

Planet SOSIG: Asking Questions - The CASS Social Survey Question Bank

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Adam Guy writes about the Question Bank service.

The purpose of this article is to introduce The Question Bank contents and situate the resource in the context of its Information Space, that is its relationship to other projects that aim to make social surveys more accessible.

EEVL: Round the World

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Roddy MacLeod considers Southern African engineering resources.

South Africa may have been cut off from the rest of the world during the years of the Apartheid era, but it is now very much a part of the networked world, and is trying hard to make up for lost time. South Africa has a wired population of over 1 million, and awareness of the commercial possibilities of the internet is relatively high.

BIOME: Incorporating the OMNI Service

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Lisa Gray reports on recent developments with the BIOME hub.

The Hub for Internet Resources in the Health and Life Sciences, as part of the Resource Discovery Network (http://www.rdn.ac.uk/)

Looking for quality Internet resources in the health and life sciences?

BIOME will provide access to quality resources in agriculture, food, forestry, pharmaceutical sciences, medicine, nursing, dentistry, biological research, veterinary sciences, the natural world, botany, zoology, and much, much more...

Web Focus: Using the Web to Promote Your Web Site

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Brian Kelly expalins how to promote your web site.

Many readers of this article will be involved in setting up new web sites, possibly for European or nationally-funded projects, for internal, institutional projects or perhaps for community projects. As the size of the web grows there is an increasing awareness of the need to be pro-active in promoting web sites - we can no longer simply sit back and expect visitors to arrive at our new site. This article describes a variety of approaches which can be taken to the promotion of a web site.

Web Watch: A Survey of Institutional Web Gateways

editor — Tue, 21 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Brian Kelly surveys institutional web gateways.

In September 1999 the author ran a 90 minutes hands-on session on Managing Your Institutional Web Gateway [1] at the JANET User Support Workshop which was held at the University of Plymouth. The materials for included a series of exercises in which the participants were asked to go to their own institutional home page, find the main page which contains links to external web resources and comment on the resource. After reviewing their own web site, they were then asked to look at a number of other university web sites and repeat the exercise.