Table of contents: issue53

The National Centre for Text Mining: A Vision for the Future

editor — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Sophia Ananiadou describes NaCTeM and the main scientific challenges it helps to solve together with issues related to deployment, use and uptake of NaCTeM's text mining tools and services.

One of the defining challenges of e-Science is dealing with the data deluge [1] information overload and information overlook. More than 8,000 scientific papers are published every week (on Google Scholar, for example). Without sophisticated new tools, researchers will be unable to keep abreast of developments in their field and valuable new sources of research data will be under-exploited. The capability of text mining (TM) to find knowledge hidden in text and to present it in a concise form makes it an essential part of any strategy for addressing these problems.

The Video Active Consortium: Europe's Television History Online

editor — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Johan Oomen and Vassilis Tzouvaras provide an insight into the background and development of the Video Active Portal which offers access to television heritage material from leading archives across Europe.

Europe's audiovisual heritage contains both a record and a representation of the past and as such it demonstrates the development of the 'audiovisual culture' we inhabit today. In this article we hope to offer an insight into the development of the Video Active Portal [1] which provides access broadcast heritage material retained by archives across Europe. We will explain how Video Active needed to find solutions for managing intellectual property rights, semantic and linguistic interoperability and the design of a meaningful user experience.

DRIVER: Building the Network for Accessing Digital Repositories Across Europe

editor — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Martin Feijen, Wolfram Horstmann, Paolo Manghi, Mary Robinson and Rosemary Russell present an outline of the DRIVER Project and its achievements so far in supporting and enhancing digital repository development in Europe.

Introduction: Why DRIVER Is Needed

OpenDOAR [1] lists over 900 Open Access repositories worldwide. Approximately half of them are based in Europe, most of which are institutional repositories. Across Europe many more repositories are being set up and supported by national and regional initiatives such as the Repositories Support Project [2] in the UK and IREL-Open [3] in Ireland.

The DARE Chronicle: Open Access to Research Results and Teaching Material in the Netherlands

editor — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Leo Waaijers reflects on four years of progress and also looks ahead.

While Cream of Science (Keur der Wetenschap), Promise of Science and the HBO Knowledge Bank (HBO Kennisbank) are among the inspiring results of the DARE Programme for the period 2003-06, what is more important in the long run is the new infrastructure that enables Dutch Higher Education and research institutions to provide easy and reliable open access to research results and teaching material as quickly as possible. Such open access ought to be the standard in a knowledge-driven society, certainly if the material and data have been generated with public funding.

Further Experiences in Collecting Born Digital Archives at the Wellcome Library

editor — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Chris Hilton and Dave Thompson continue discussing plans for the engagement with born digital archival material at the Wellcome Library.

Googlepository and the University Library

editor — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Sue Manuel and Charles Oppenheim discuss the concept of Google as a repository within the wider context of resource management and provision in Further and Higher Education.

The development of an increasing array of tools for storing, organising, managing, and searching electronic resources poses some interesting questions for those in the Higher Education sector, not least of which are: what role do repositories have in this new information environment? What effect is Google having on the information-seeking strategies of students, researchers and teachers? Where do libraries fit within the information continuum? And ultimately, what services should they look to provide for their users?

The Second Life of UK Academics

editor — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

John Kirriemuir introduces a series of studies investigating how the Second Life environment is being used in UK Higher and Further Education.