Work on ROADS at UKOLN has been in the following main areas:
An alpha release of the ROADSHarvester (v1a1) has been sent to the roads-hackers list. This is a basic release, based on the Harvest suite of tools. Further work to be done includes: improved documentation, a better user interface for individual resource harvesting, the integration of the NWI (Nordic Web Index) robot and introduction of a standalone individual resource description harvester (i.e. one not based on either Harvest or NWI). Andy Powell has also been doing some work on improving the Harvest HTML summariser - which will in turn lead to better ROADS templates being generated by Harvest. Information on the ROADSHarvester can be found at:
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/roads/harvester/v1a1/>
The eLib Projects ROADS database currently contains about 65 PROJECT descriptions.
UKOLN (Andy) has generated a bulk-harvested ROADS database containing approx 1500 records based on the URLs in the eLib Projects database:
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ROADS-ELIB/elib-bulksearch.html>
Andy has done some work on generating MCF (Meta Content Format) files from ROADS databases. This has concentrated on the eLib Projects databases above though he has also provided a general ROADS to MCF conversion tool to the roads-hackers list and this may be included in a 'contrib' area in future ROADS releases.
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ROADS/MCF/elib.mcf>
Andy has written a draft ROADS FAQ which has been released to the closed-roads mailing list and received some feedback. This will be revised and released for wider circulation:
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/roads/faq/>
Michael Day has added some new metadata mappings to his mapping/crosswalk pages:
The mappings pages have been improved and mappings and cross-walks from other projects have been added. The mappings now include USMARC, GILS, IAFA/ROADS, SOIF, Z39.50 Bib-1 and the Dublin Core. The pages are accessible from:
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/interoperability/>
The pages were publicised on the DIGLIB and lis-elib mailing lists and have received favourable comment.
A test ROADS template registry has been established at UKOLN:
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/roads/templates/>
This was one of the suggestions from the Templates meeting on the 8th October and was also discussed at the Requirements Meeting on the 7th November. The registry consists of the ROADS default set of attributes for each template-type. Any additional elements or template-types would be expected to be added to this site. The definitions of each element, where appropriate, will update the original IAFA documentation in the light of implementation experience.
UKOLN has also started collecting material for defining guidance on how both templates and elements should be used. The result will be a form of cataloguing rules which would allow for the widest interoperability between different subject services.
ROADS experiences are feeding into NewsAgent discussions on metadata.
Andy has briefly aired the possibility of using a minimal (DC like) ROADS template for Web resource description on the open-roads list. This will be an area for discussion, development and possible implementation.
Rachel Heery attended the Fall 1996 Task Force Meeting of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) held in San Francisco, CA. on 6-7 December 1996 to take part in a Project Briefing on ROADS.
Lorcan Dempsey, Rachel and Andy attended the 4th MODELS Workshop on Integrating access to resources across multiple domains held at the University of Warwick, 16-17 December 1996.
UKOLN was represented by Brian Kelly and John Kirriemuir at the 2nd
Annual OMNI Conference held at the Wellcome Centre, London, on the 23rd
January 1997 where John introduced ROADS (An introduction to ROADS) and Brian presented a paper entitled An Introduction to Metadata:
<URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/~lisbk/events/conferences/omni-jan97/>
Rachel will be attending the 4th Dublin Core Workshop in Canberra in March and will also give a presentation at the National Library of Australia Seminar on Metadata developments.
Andy spent two days in Loughborough with Jon Knight, Martin Hamilton and Sigfrid Lundberg discussing technical developments with regard to harvesting, NWI, etc.
Maintained by: Michael Day of UKOLN, University of Bath.
Created: 25-Feb-1997
Last updated: 29-Oct-1999.