Table of contents: issue43

Editorial Introduction to Issue 43: When Technology Alone Is Not Enough

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Richard Waller introduces Ariadne issue 43.

Niki Panteli provides us with an article which clearly indicates that, in our increasingly technology-dominated world, there are times when Trust in Global Virtual Teams cannot be taken for granted. This is particularly true where, as is increasingly the case, projects are being obliged, indeed, actively encouraged, to operate on a distributed working model; a model where the lack of interaction between virtual teams increases the chances of loss of trust.

Opening Up OpenURLs with Autodiscovery

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Daniel Chudnov, Richard Cameron, Jeremy Frumkin, Ross Singer and Raymond Yee demonstrate a 'gather locally, share globally' approach to OpenURLs and metadata autodiscovery in scholarly and non-scholarly environments.

Library users have never before had so many options for finding, collecting and sharing information. Many users abandon old information management tools whenever new tools are easier, faster, more comprehensive, more intuitive, or simply 'cooler.' Many successful new tools adhere to a principle of simplicity - HTML made it simple for anyone to publish on the Web; XML made it simple for anyone to exchange more strictly defined data; and RSS made it simple to extract and repurpose information from any kind of published resource [1].

Trust in Global Virtual Teams

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Niki Panteli identifies ways of developing trust within global virtual teams.

During the last few years there has been an increasing acknowledgement of the importance of trust in business interactions within the management and organisational literatures [1][2]. Trust enables cooperation and becomes the means for complexity reduction even in situations where individuals must act with uncertainty because they are in possession of ambiguous and incomplete information. It is not therefore surprising that in the current age of global and digital economy and virtuality [3] there has been an enormous interest in trust.

National Library Goes Local

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Stephanie Kenna and Sue Cook tell the story behind the British Library's online training package for public library staff.

In response to a challenge from the Society of Chief Librarians, the British Library has launched an online training package [1] to its services and the wealth of information in its collections for the benefit of staff in public libraries and their users. In this article we describe how the training package was conceived and created, how it is being rolled out and evaluated, and our plans for future developments.

Supporting Digital Preservation and Asset Management in Institutions

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Leona Carpenter describes a JISC development programme tackling the organisational and technical challenges facing Higher and Further Education in the UK.

In the early days of the shift from paper-based to digital means of holding administrative records, research data, publications and other academic resources, those responsible for its safety tended to breathe a sigh of relief once they had got a category of material into digital form. Reduced to bits and bytes, all they would have to do is make regular backups, perhaps keeping a copy off-site in case of disaster, and all would be well. Increasingly, material of value to Further and Higher Education is produced and held only in digital form.

Digital Preservation: Best Practice and Its Dissemination

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Neil Beagrie describes the development and subsequent use of a digital preservation handbook and future plans for expansion of its use in training and professional practice.

Digital information is increasingly important to our culture, knowledge base and economy. Long-term management of this material is a vital part of curation practice. This paper outlines the development and subsequent use of an international guide to digital preservation Preservation Management of Digital Materials: A Handbook [1] and its use in training and professional practice. The Handbook was published in 2001 in hard copy by The British Library and is also available digitally online via the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) [2].

E-Archiving: An Overview of Some Repository Management Software Tools

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Marion Prudlo discusses LOCKSS, EPrints, and DSpace in terms of who uses them, their cost, underlying technology, the required know-how, and functionalities.

In recent years initiatives to create software packages for electronic repository management have mushroomed all over the world. Some institutions engage in these activities in order to preserve content that might otherwise be lost, others in order to provide greater access to material that might otherwise be too obscure to be widely used such as grey literature. The open access movement has also been an important factor in this development. Digital initiatives such as pre-print, post-print, and document servers are being created to come up with new ways of publishing.

Finding Someplace to Go: Reading and the Internet

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Marieke Guy takes a look at what the Internet has to offer the art of reading.

Reading has always been pretty popular. According to Alberto Manguel in his work A History of Reading [1] archaeologists have argued that the prehistory of books began near Babylon towards the middle of the fourth millennium B.C. It may well have begun even earlier than that. This given, it will come as no surprise that readers are the biggest arts audience we have in the UK. The number of readers far exceeds all other arts audiences combined (with the country's soccer fans thrown in for good measure) [2].

What Are Your Terms?

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Pete Johnston introduces the JISC Information Environment Metadata Schema Registry (IEMSR) Project and examines some of the challenges it is facing.

The JISC Information Environment Metadata Schema Registry (IEMSR) Project [1] is funded by JISC through its Shared Services Programme to develop a metadata schema registry as a pilot shared service for the JISC Information Environment (JISC IE). Partners in the project are UKOLN, University of Bath and the Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT), University of Bristol.

Planet-SOSIG

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Paul Ayres examines how the SOSIG Subject News blog is keeping users up to date and providing reusable site content at the same time.

ESRC Launches Unique Online Research Resource for Social Sciences

A major new Web site offering unrivalled access to high-quality social and economic research is soon to be launched in the UK. Created by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), ESRC Society Today [1] will provide academics, students and researchers with a valuable free digest of social sciences research currently available, planned and in progress.

EEVL: New Hot Topic In-depth Reports Now Available

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Roddy MacLeod looks at some recent developments to the EEVL service.

Hot Topics

EEVL, the Internet guide to engineering, mathematics and computing, provides access to a wide range of information on the three subjects covered through its Internet Resource Catalogue and various additional services. Hot Topics [1], a new feature added recently, gives access to in-depth reports on topical engineering and technology issues.

News from BIOME

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Jenny Hall reports on recent news form BIOME, the Health and Life Sciences hub of the Resource Discovery Network.

BIOME Hot Topics

New Hot Topics [1] are proving of interest to our users and the number of hits continues to increase. Check out what is new in April and May.

BIOME as Resource of the Month

BIOME was chosen to be shown as a key Resource of the Month by Information Services, University of Nottingham. Introduced in January 2005 the 'Resource of the Month' programme promotes and publicises key electronic resources to target audiences in the academic and student community at the University of Nottingham.

Search Engines: Using the Right Search Engine at the Right Time

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Phil Bradley takes a look at which search engines to use depending on what you need to find..

My recent articles for Ariadne have tended to focus on specific developments in the field of Internet search, so I thought that it was about time to get back to some basics and have a look at which search engine to use for particular types of query you may have. The idea for this column arose out of my own bookmarks, which I arrange according to particular criteria, and I created a simple Web page on my own site to list them [1]. This obviously struck something of a chord, as I have days when this particular page has been viewed over 7,000 times.

Installing Shibboleth

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Simon McLeish describes the experience of Shibboleth installation in a Higher Education environment, and suggests ways to make this experience more user-friendly.

What and Why Is Shibboleth?

One of the major issues that faces all today's Internet users is identity management: how to prove to a Web site that you are who you claim you are, and do so securely enough to prevent someone else being able to convince the Web site that they are you. There are many initiatives attacking the problem, with approaches both technical and legal.

Web Focus: Using Collaborative Technologies When on the Road

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Brian Kelly argues that since conference delegates now expect to be able to read email on the road, there are additional technologies which might enhance our effectiveness when away from the office.

In today's networked environment conference delegates expect to be able to access their email when attending events away from their normal place of work. It is increasingly the norm to be given a guest username and password which can be used in PC areas, primarily to access email and the Web. However such facilities are not always flexible enough to support the changed working environment in which conference delegates may find themselves, such as being out-of-sync with local working hours during a conference on the other side of the globe.

EuroCAMP 2005

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Masha Garibyan and Ann Borda report on the first Campus Architecture Middleware Planning workshop in Europe hosted by the Politecnico di Torino.

The rapid expansion of the Web and Internet in recent years has brought many benefits. It has never been easier to access scholarly information from anywhere in the world in real time. However, this information is often held in disparate systems and is protected by a variety of access control mechanisms, such as usernames and passwords. Many users have to struggle with increasingly complicated access control systems in order to access information they require. This is especially the case in Higher and Further Education.

Waking Up in the British Library

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Emma Beer reports on a one-day conference on using Early English Books Online in teaching and research in history and English literature.

'The existence of EEBO has completely transformed my teaching as well as my own scholarly life -both entirely for the better'. Regius Professor Quentin Skinner, University of Cambridge.

Delegates may have been surprised to hear about a pamphlet discussing Mary II's breasts as the subject for academic discussion at the 'Waking up in the British Library' event hosted by the John Rylands University Library.

United Kingdom Serials Group Conference 2005

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Sarah Pearson reports on the annual 3-day UK Serials Group (UKSG) conference recently held at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

10th CETIS-TechDis Accessibility Special Interest Group Meeting

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Ann Chapman reports on a one-day meeting that focused among other things on accessibility in virtual learning environments and personal learning profiles.

Having recently joined the CETIS-TechDis Accessibility SIG (Special Interest Group), I attended the 10th meeting of the group in York on 16 March 2005. The meeting was held in the very new (opened that week) Higher Education Academy Building on the University of York campus where TechDis now has its offices. There was in interesting mix of digital artists, metadata officers, lecturers, project staff and programmers from both universities and colleges, along with people from Becta, JORUM and Key2Access Ltd.

News and Events

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

Netskills Workshops in May 2005

Web: http://www.netskills.ac.uk/

Netskills will be running the following workshops at North Herts College in Letchworth Garden City in May 2005:

10 May : e-Assessment: Tools & Techniques

Focuses on the tools available for creating e-assessment and the practical techniques required to use them effectively. The tools are considered both in terms of their functionality as well as their interoperability with other systems.

Book Review: Digital Libraries - Principles and Practice in a Global Environment

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Chris Awre welcomes a useful overview of the global digital library scene that will help both those coming new to this area and those wishing to broaden their appreciation of what is involved in developing a digital library.

In seeking to widen my understanding of digital library developments, this book appeared on the face of it to offer a useful and broad overview of developments in this field. The authors are at pains to indicate what the book is not: it is not a 'detailed technical treatise on digital library design and implementation'; it is not 'a book on information seeking'; it has 'no pretensions as a technical manual'; and it is not 'focused upon designing and developing digital libraries'.

Book Review: Metadata for Information Management and Retrieval

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Marieke Guy takes a look at a recent introduction to metadata for the information professional.

Anyone scaling the heights of metadata for the management and retrieval of digital information for the first time can be forgiven a degree of initial bewilderment. The same goes for this article, so a glossary of terms found here are offered in the spirit of saving readers' time [1]. David Haynes' book appears to go a long way to guiding its explorers through the foothills and beyond in this complete introduction to the subject for the information professional.

Book Review: Managing Digital Rights - A Practitioner's Guide

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Stuart Hannabuss likes the way this book reminds us that information professionals need to apply the law and not merely know it.

Everyone is talking about digital and electronic rights these days. Rightly so. A wealth of legal advice is available in works like Simon Stokes's Digital Copyright : Law and Practice [1] which alert us to the many directions in which things are moving - digital rights management, ecommerce, virtual learning environments, software copyright, licences and contracts. This professional table d'hôte indicates what information professionals are assumed to know.

Book Review: Building an Electronic Resource Collection

editor — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 23:00:00 +0000

Sarah Pearson considers whether the 2nd edition of this practical guide for building an electronic resource collection can satisfy the needs of both new and experienced practitioners.

The 2nd edition of this practical guide to building and delivering electronic resource collections is, like the 1st edition, a compact guide (5 chapters with145 pages excluding bibliography and glossary), with an intended audience of students, new professionals, experienced practitioners and publishers. To address a subject of this scale and complexity with such a wide audience is, to say the least, a challenge. However, I found on reading this work that the authors have succeeded in this entirely. This guide should be essential reading for anyone working in electronic resource management.