UKOLN Annual Report 1999-2000
UKOLN Annual Report 1999-2000 |
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Library and Information Commission Research Report 19 |
Presented to Resource and to the JISC Committee for Electronic Information
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath BA2 7AY
UK
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Phone: +44 (0)1225 826580
Fax: +44 (0)1225 826838
e-mail: ukoln@ukoln.ac.uk
© Resource and The University of Bath, 2000.
ISSN 1466-2949
UKOLN: report for the period 1 August 1999 to 31 July 2000: presented to Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries and to the Committee on Electronic Information of the JISC. (Library and Information Commission research report 83)
LIC grant number: LIC/RE/033
Library and Information Commission reports may be purchased as photocopies or microfiches from the British Thesis Service, British Library Document Supply Centre, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS23 7BQ. (Tel 01937-546229) (Fax 01937-546286).
The annual report is evidence of the range of expertise of UKOLN staff, their hard work and commitment and the ideas and energy they generate. I would like to thank them all for their effort and their contribution to a successful year for UKOLN.
Special thanks are due to Lorcan Dempsey, who has been our Director for many years: we wish him well in his new role and we will continue to enjoy our discussions when we meet in the digital landscape. I would like to thank our Management Committee for their support, in particular Ray Lester the Chair who unstintingly gives his time and considerable expertise. I would also like to thank Richard Heseltine for providing a home for the Interoperability Focus activity in the University of Hull.
We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of our own University which provides us with space and services. In particular, we are grateful to Professor James Davenport, the University Director of IT, to Professor James Calderhead who saw our potential contribution to his division and to Howard Nicholson, University Librarian, for his interest and practical support over the many years that UKOLN has been based in the library.
Rachel Heery
Acting Director, UKOLN
August 2000
Distributed Systems and Services
Publications, Presentations, Software, Committees and Visitors.
UKOLN is a national centre for digital information management. It provides policy, research and awareness services to the UK library, information and cultural heritage communities. Its goals are to:
- influence policy and inform practice
- advance the state of the art and contribute to knowledge
- build useful and innovative distributed systems and services
- promote community building and consensus-making through awareness and events services.
The year under review has delivered highly significant developments in the national and international arenas where UKOLN makes its contributions and within the University of Bath. The need to engage in a real way with Internet and Web technologies is now recognised in all sectors of the economy. Alongside the 'dot.com' fever, we have seen different parts of the public sector intent upon using electronic means to further their individual missions and goals, exemplified in the UK, for example, by initiatives such as e-culture, e-learning and e-government.
What has been encouraging for UKOLN - though there is still much work to do
- is the increasing recognition by policy-makers that the solution is not just
about 'technology' or 'content'. If customers are effectively, efficiently and
without redundancy to use the ubiquitous technology to discover, locate, request,
deliver and use the content they need or want, something more is required. One
of the key challenges for UKOLN - and, again, there is much more work still
to do - has been to articulate in a way that non-specialists will understand
the nature of that 'something more'. It is appropriate here to recognise the
considerable effort that the former Director of UKOLN, Lorcan Dempsey, devoted
to explaining the terms 'middleware' and 'metadata', the standards and protocols
and other elements needed within cross-institutional networked information systems,
if they are to work as optimally as they could and should. The importance of
this advocacy and outreach work was one of the driving forces behind the reorganisation
of the UKOLN staff, at the start of the year under review, into a fresh set
of teams, so that we now see UKOLN's activities and services being delivered
through policy and advice, research and development, distributed systems and
services and information services teams.
Within the University of Bath, the potentially highly fruitful collaboration
with two academic departments - the Human Computer Interaction Group and, of
most impact, the Division of Access and Continuing Studies (DACS) - was recognised.
Contact with the latter during the early part of the session quickly led to
a realisation that the longer-term mission and goals of UKOLN would be better
served by a realignment of UKOLN from the University's Library to within that
Division. This organisational transfer - carried through with the full support
of the UKOLN staff, the University Librarian and the University's senior management
- was completed in April 2000. We are now enthusiastic about the prospects of
furthering more rapidly than would otherwise have been the case UKOLN's work
in the 'learning' arena. There is no intention or desire however, to dilute
UKOLN's work for the library sector, and now other 'memory institutions' (to
use Lorcan's evocative phrase) such as museums and archives. Rather, we see
the move as enabling UKOLN to capitalise on its growing knowledge of what is
really required for users to truly interoperate across different disciplines,
domains, jurisdictions and sectors, at the same time as forging a more secure
future for UKOLN within the University of Bath.
The following pages detail the work of UKOLN during the year 1 August 1999 to
31 July 2000. Highlights include:
Our Web-based services continue to be heavily used and are widely referenced. Ariadne, Exploit Interactive, Cultivate Interactive, the eLib Web pages, our informational Web pages on our areas of interest, and our mirrored resources provide a valuable component of national and international information use within the communities we serve.
Our professionally managed events support our work programmes and the JISC Committee for Electronic Information's objectives. During the year we organised, among other events, the final three workshops in the MODELS series, a series of meetings that led to the development and eventual ratification of the Bath Profile, the public launch of the Resource Discovery Network and the bi-annual JISC/CNI (Coalition for Networked Information) conference.
We look forward to further developing this body of work next year, to consolidating our position as a central cross-sectoral and cross-domain resource, and to continuing to develop working relationships with partners and the University of Bath.
UKOLN and its antecedent organisations have been based at the University of Bath for over 21 years. Some historical highlights are noted here.
Centre for Catalogue Research established.
The establishment of this office, funded by the British Library Research & Development Department, is preceded by several projects looking at catalogues and bibliographic data, including the Bath University Programme of Catalogue Research (1977-79). This work is initiated by Maurice Line, sometime University Librarian at Bath, and Philip Bryant, Technical Services Librarian. Philip Bryant becomes Director of the CCR.
Centre for Bibliographic Managementestablished.
The change of name recognises the wider role the Centre is playing in the UK library world. Lorcan Dempsey and Ann Chapman become research officers at CBM during this period.
UK Office for Library Networkingestablished after a grant is made by the British Library R&D Department (BLR&DD). UKOLN is set up to work alongside CBM. John W.T. Smith becomes the National Project Officer for UKOLN and its only full-time member of staff.
CBM and UKOLN merge to form UKOLN: The Office for Library and Information Networking. UKOLN is jointly funded by the ISC (now the JISC) and BLR&DD. Derek Law is the Chair of the Management Committee.
Philip Bryant retires as Director of UKOLN.
Lorcan Dempsey appointed as Director of UKOLN (November 1994).
Current name established: UKOLN: The UK Office for Library and Information Networking. UKOLN recruits several new research and information staff, and the post of Events Manager is created to manage a growing range of workshops and events. Ruth Burt joins as Office Administrator. Professor Mel Collier becomes Chair of the Management Committee.
UKOLN begins its work within an eLib framework. We initiate the ROADS project and begin planning for the Ariadne magazine as well as taking on the task of providing eLib Web pages.
As the library is refurbished, UKOLN moves into new offices on Level 4. Several more new staff are recruited and the UK Web Focus post is established.
UKOLN gets its first experience of working on EU funded projects as DESIRE and BIBLINK begin. UKOLN also begins work on NewsAgent. Dr Richard Heseltine becomes Chair of the Management Committee.
The post of Resource Co-ordinator is created and an assistant is recruited to support our expanding events management work.
UKOLN is reviewed by its funding bodies and is congratulated on 'becoming recognised as a centre for excellence at international levels in the areas of networking and associated new technology and standards development'.
UKOLN consolidates its group structure around several groups with co-ordinators.
Preparatory work begins on EU projects PRIDE and EXPLOIT; BLRIC funded projects WebWatch, CIRCE and Stories from the Web; and on the JISC funded Agora.
Work commences on the JISC funded Agora project and the EU funded EXPLOIT project. The BLRIC and the JISC agree to jointly fund the post of Interoperability Focus. UKOLN contributes to Cedars, an eLib programme project.
Over 200 delegates attend 'Information Landscapes for a Learning Society', the third UKOLN conference in the series Networking and the Future of Libraries, held at the end of June.
Having completed a valuable role in the development of UKOLN to this stage, the Advisory Committee, chaired by Sheila Corrall, ceases to operate.
In April the research funding function of the British Library is transferred to the Library and Information Commission (LIC). Ray Lester becomes Chair of the Management Committee.
The Interoperability Focus, an initiative jointly funded by the LIC and the JISC, is appointed.
UKOLN's bid to host the Centre for the Resource Discovery Network, a JISC funded initiative, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Data Service (at King's College London) and the University of Hull, is successful. The IMesh Toolkit project, funded by the JISC and the National Science Foundation (of the US) starts.
Lorcan Dempsey leaves UKOLN to take up the post of Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER) Programme Director for the JISC. Dr Elizabeth Lyon is appointed as the new Director. UKOLN now has a staff of 23.
The staffing structure is refined to better map teams of staff on to actual ways of working and to align staff groupings with our strategic aims and objectives. Activities are now delivered through the Policy and Advice, Research and Development, Distributed Systems and Services Teams and Events and Web-based Information Services.
Work commences on the EU funded projects Renardus, SCHEMAS and Cultivate.
UKOLN is realigned within the University of Bath and is now a Centre within the Division of Access and Continuing Studies (DACS).
Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries - a new UK strategic organisation - replaces the Libraries and Information Commission (LIC) and the Museums and Galleries Commission (MGC).
During the year Bernadette Daly left UKOLN to take up the post of Manager of the Fountain Hills Public Library in Arizona. Tracy Gardner left to join Marconi; Lou Daly moved to MIMAS at the University of Manchester; and Rosemary Russell gave birth to a son in November.
Pete Cliff was recruited as Systems Developer for the Resource Discovery Network; Bridget Robinson joined to work on the Agora project; Software Developers Richard Waller and Monica Bonett joined; as did Marieke Napier and Leona Carpenter, as Information Officer and Technical Development and Research Officer respectively. Lorcan Dempsey left UKOLN to take up the post of DNER Programme Director for the JISC. Dr Elizabeth Lyon was appointed as the new Director.
Following a refinement of the internal organisational structure, Rachel Heery and Andy Powell are now Assistant Directors as well as Team Leaders for Research and Development and Distributed Systems and Services respectively. Brian Kelly leads the Information Services Team and Sally Criddle leads the Resources and Administration Team.
Changes in UKOLN's organisational context have been reflected in the membership of the Management Committee. In April 2000 Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries replaced the Library and Information Commission, one of our major funders. Chris Batt, Director of Resource's Learning and Information Society Team, now represents this funder on the Committee. Chris replaces Sue Howley, for whose support over the last few years we are grateful. Following UKOLN's move to the Division of Access and Continuing Studies (DACS) within the University of Bath, Professor James Calderhead, the Dean of DACS, has also joined the Committee.
The membership of the Management Committee at 31 July 2000 is given below.
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Dr Ray Lester (Chair), Head of Library & Information Services, Natural History Museum |
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Mr Chris Batt, Director of Learning and Information Society Team, Resource> |
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Professor Peter Brophy, Director and Chair in Information Management, CERLIM, Manchester Metropolitan University |
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Professor James Calderhead, Dean of the Division of Access and Continuing Studies, University of Bath |
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Ms Alice Colban, JISC Secretariat |
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Professor James Davenport, Director of IT, University of Bath |
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Mr John Dolan, Acting Assistant Director, Birmingham Library and Information Services |
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Ms Frances Hendrix, Director, LASER |
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Mr Howard Nicholson, Librarian, University of Bath |
We deliver services to the library, information and cultural heritage communities through the Policy and Advice, Research and Development, and Distributed Systems and Services Teams and Events and Web-based Information Services. The Resources and Administration Team supports all UKOLN activities.
....influencing policy and informing practice ....
Interoperability Focus is a national post, directly funded by the JISC and by Resource. The post was established in January 1999, initially for a period of three years. Interoperability Focus is housed within Academic Services at the University of Hull, and acknowledges additional support from that institution.
In line with the growing trend for cross-sector collaboration, the scope of Interoperability Focus remains broad, encompassing a range of issues related to the creation and use of interoperable services across a range of domains, including the cultural heritage sector, archives, libraries and government. A strong cross-community and international Advisory Committee, chaired by Ray Lester of the Natural History Museum, serves to guide the work of Interoperability Focus, as well as providing an important channel for dissemination of information.
Interoperability Focus is active in a variety of standardisation activities, including being a member of the mda Board and the Cabinet Office's Metadata Working Group of the Information Age Government Champions, and is a member of the Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information's (CIMI) Executive Committee. Additionally, Interoperability Focus represents the JISC's interests with both CIMI and the International DOI Foundation.
Dissemination and awareness raising are important aspects of the work of Interoperability Focus, with a range of publications and presentations delivered in the past 12 months both in the UK and abroad. It is hoped to supplement this area of work during 2000/2001 with the appointment of an Interoperability Research Officer.
Z39.50 is used in large libraries worldwide, and is also proving important in other sectors such as government, cultural heritage and the geospatial community in the UK and beyond. A continuing problem with effective deployment of this standard is the difficulty of searching effectively across systems provided by different vendors or aimed at particular communities or regions. Recognising this problem, Interoperability Focus was able, with financial support from the JISC, to convene a meeting of international experts in Bath during 1999. The meeting was chaired by Carrol Lunau of the National Library of Canada; Bill Moen of the University of North Texas acted as lead author on the Profile. The result of this meeting was the Bath Profile, which seeks to make a set of core searches both possible and reliable across vendors, communities of interest and regional groupings. Pushed through by the editorial group (comprising UKOLN, the National Library of Canada and the University of North Texas), the draft Profile was rapidly progressed, with meetings and review sessions held around the world, and revisions issued to the text. In early 2000, this process resulted in the Profile being granted Internationally Registered Profile status by ISO, with the National Library of Canada designated as Maintenance Agency.
Work on the Profile continues, with the addition of new Functional Areas, and increasing pressure being brought to bear on vendors to release compliant systems. All round the world the requirements of the Profile are being added to system specifications, and a number of compliant products are already appearing, including the AMICUS catalogue of the National Library of Canada.
The e-University concept is an area of current activity for the Funding Councils, with their vision to deliver world-class UK Higher Education online to a whole set of new markets. In shaping this vision, HEFCE funded a series of scoping studies during the summer of 2000, and Interoperability Focus led a successful bid for one study in conjunction with Academic Services: Learning Development at the University of Hull and the Centre for the Development of New Technologies in Learning, part of DACS at the University of Bath.
The study, a Survey of Electronic Learning Resources, examined existing learning resources from the JISC's Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER), the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib), the Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) and a number of commercial content providers.
Key among the recommendations of this report was that educational content is most likely to be reused if constructed in small, portable 'learning objects', suitable for reassembling in a variety of forms to suit the pedagogic needs of both learner and teacher. Such learning objects, it was suggested, also require high-quality metadata in order to facilitate their discovery and evaluation.
Across the UK, a wide range of agencies are involved in the creation and description of educational content for use throughout the formal education system, and also by those of us who are 'learning for life'. Currently, these public and private sector bodies tend to use a wide range of techniques for describing their own and others' content, including de facto and de jure national or international standards and a variety of internally developed solutions. Such approaches make it difficult for teachers and learners - who will routinely require access to the offerings of more than one agency - to discover and evaluate material in an effective manner.
Under the auspices of Interoperability Focus, a meeting of key stakeholders was held in June of 2000 and chaired by Bruce Royan of SCRAN. This meeting agreed on the importance of working together and formed the open Metadata for Education Group (MEG) to progress a set of common objectives. The group is open to all comers and will meet to discuss common solutions to a set of agreed problems. The MEG Web site, hosted by UKOLN, acts as the main vehicle for dissemination, and is supported by the Mailbase-hosted uk-meg mailing list.
Early deliverables from this group will include a 'MEG Concord', enshrining the group's key principles of openness and portability for educational content, a set of issue papers and a work plan for achieving the group's objectives.
MODELS (Moving to Distributed Environments for Library Services) is a UKOLN initiative with additional support from the Electronic Libraries Programme and the British Library, to develop a common approach to the management of autonomous, heterogeneous network resources and services. It has progressed through a series of workshops, background research and technical consultancies and has initiated several studies and influenced policy and emerging services in the UK.
During this year UKOLN held the final three MODELS workshops, covering the MODELS Information Architecture (MIA), rights management and the role of controlled terminologies and thesauri.
The ninth MODELS workshop explored ways of more effectively managing distributed heterogeneous information resources and services through consideration of the MODELS Information Architecture (MIA). The MODELS workshop series is widely recognised as having facilitated the development of infrastructures and made policy recommendations which have initiated projects and influenced emerging services in the UK and overseas. From the outset, MODELS had a cross-domain perspective, addressing issues common to libraries, museums and archives. The MIA was a key development, suggesting functional components of distributed information environments and arranging them in a logical architecture.
The focus of the ninth workshop was the MIA requirements analysis study. The key objective was to provide support for organisations planning and developing various forms of 'hybrid' information environments, by helping them to specify their own particular requirements. MIA documentation therefore aims to help managers understand key issues and components, and enable comparison of products and validation of technical solutions. The workshop provided an opportunity to influence this work, and to enrich the model through testing under a variety of scenarios.
Effective rights management is becoming increasingly important in the electronic information environment. An agreed framework involving all players is needed, within which the complexities of rights administration can be managed. Standard metadata are a critical element in holding the various parts of the process together. The tenth MODELS workshop sought to bring together the different communities involved in rights management, to talk about the central issues, discuss current initiatives and try to agree on sensible common approaches.
Information community (libraries, museums, archives) needs were considered together with commercial sector initiatives, recognising that it is essential for solutions to be considered on a cross-domain basis from the outset, regardless of the inevitable delays and complications that this approach introduces. The workshop focused upon some of the implications for management of resources and processes, and a number of the recommendations have been incorporated into recent bids for funding by a number of organisations.
Controlled terminologies and thesauri have formed the basis of effective information retrieval systems for many years, with tools such as the Library of Congress Subject Headings and the Dewey Decimal classification system well known in the library sector and beyond. Such tools facilitate accurate retrieval of results, as well as allowing the user to browse through resources by subject term and to interact with diverse resources by means of a common vocabulary.
As resources are increasingly moved online for access by non-expert users without easy access to comprehensive terminological taxa, there is a danger that the effort invested in categorising existing resources will be wasted, and that new resources will either not be classified at all, or that they will be categorised according to localised and proprietary schemes without adequate awareness of available tools.
The eleventh MODELS workshop, organised in partnership with mda, brought together those with many years of experience in the construction of thesauri and other terminology controls and representatives of the new generation of large-scale online services, many of which are already demonstrating a clear requirement for terminological control. The workshop raised awareness of existing resources, highlighted many of the relevant issues and addressed issues around construction of a single high-level term list of value to services within Higher Education and beyond.
Recommendations from the workshop have been taken forward on a number of fronts, including an application to the JISC and the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) from a number of participants for work studying the concept of a High Level Thesaurus. This project (HILT) has since been funded.
UK Web Focus is a JISC funded post which provides advice to the HE and now the FE communities on Web developments. Activities include monitoring Web developments, informing the community through articles in refereed and other publications (both print and online), giving presentations, organising workshops and other events and co-ordinating activities.
In September 1999 UK Web Focus organised the annual Web Management workshop. This event, the third in the series, took place at Goldsmiths College, London and attracted 124 delegates. The feedback for the event was very positive and it is clear that the workshop provides a much-appreciated forum for members of institutional Web management teams. The next workshop, 'Institutional Web Management: The Joined-Up Web', will take place at the University of Bath on 6-8 September 2000.
As well as organising this national event, presentations have been given at many conferences, workshops and seminars, both nationally and overseas.
UK Web Focus attended the Ninth International World Wide Web conference which was held in Amsterdam on 15-19 May 1999. Two poster presentations were accepted by the conference committee: 'Approaches to Indexing in the UK Higher Education Community' and 'A Lightweight Approach to Support of Resource Discovery Standards'. Accompanying short papers were published in the Conference Poster Proceedings publication.
A talk titled 'From Web Indexing to Hybrid Libraries, with thanks to eLib' was given at the Managing the Digital Future of Libraries conference which was held in Moscow on 18-19 April 2000.
A summary of other presentations is given later in this report.
The Ariadne and Exploit Interactive Web magazines provide the main dissemination channels for UK Web Focus. From 1 August 1999 to 31 July 2000 eight articles were published in Ariadne and 12 articles in Exploit Interactive.
The subject areas covered in recent articles and presentations include performance indicators for Web sites, promoting your Web site, externally-hosted Web services and advertising on networked services. These are areas which are likely to be of interest to communities other than HE, such as the FE community, the public library sector and organisations involved in EU projects.
In addition to these areas, UK Web Focus has continued the work of the WebWatch project, which was initially funded by BLRIC for a 12 month period from August 1997. A regular WebWatch column has been published in Ariadne providing surveys of various aspects of Web sites in the HE community. This has included surveys of the numbers of Web servers in the community, the numbers of links to UK HE Web sites and the search engines used on UK HE Web sites.
In addition to the dissemination work described above, UK Web Focus works with a number of JISC bodies and is a member of the Steering Group for the DISinHE project and the JISC Standards Working Group. Web Focus also participated in the work of the JISC Web Site Development Group.
In Spring 2000 UKOLN developed the technical standards for the NOF Digitise programme. NOF Digitise has made £50 million of National Lottery money available for projects to make information available in a digital format. This information must support lifelong learning. The programme is an opportunity for libraries, archives, museums, galleries, education institutions and many other organisations to make their resources and information available to a much wider audience. The standards document, which is thought to be the first containing such advice for a national digitisation programme, will ensure that all learning material put into digital form through the funding programme will be consistently delivered and be fully accessible through the National Grid for Learning and the People's Network.
UKOLN is supporting the application of these standards by providing an advisory service for NOF Digitise applicants. The advisory service will be freely available for any institution developing a stage two application and requiring additional advice and assistance in developing technically coherent bids. This service will run until the beginning of December when the stage two application process closes.
UKOLN continues to be closely involved with Stories from the Web. This is a public library project exploring how children's libraries can integrate the Internet into their services. Originally a two-year research project funded by the Library and Information Commission, Stories from the Web has just successfully secured another year's funding from the DCMS Reader Development Challenge Fund. This additional funding will allow the project to expand its project team significantly and deliver the service in an additional ten library authorities. Sarah Ormes gave a poster session and presentation about Stories from the Web at the 2000 American Library Association Conference in Chicago as part of its International Programme. Interest in the project was extremely high and potential American partners were identified.
UKOLN is currently working with a consortium from Bath in developing a stage two application for the NOF Digitise call. The project is being developed using the title 'The Life of Bath' and will aim to make available online many of the unique cultural resources currently held in Bath.
The Networked Services Policy Taskgroup is a partnership between EARL, the Library Association and UKOLN. The taskgroup has been producing a series of issue papers which provide public library managers with impartial information about networked services policy issues. Over the last year papers exploring copyright and the networked environment and the range of networked services available to public libraries have been published. Additional papers on networking and equality of access, partnerships and resource sharing are due to be published by Autumn 2000. Sarah Ormes is currently writing a paper about e-books for the series and Sally Criddle has just completed a paper about acceptable use policies. The development of the issue papers is managed by Sarah Ormes.
In November 1999 UKOLN organised a workshop for public library Web managers. This workshop was held at the University of Bath and attracted over 50 delegates. Feedback from the event was very positive and the event will be rerun in October 2000 with an expanded programme. This event was the first targeted at public library Web site managers and enabled members of this fledgling community to make contact with each other for the first time.
UKOLN is working with a consortium of organisations from all sectors in the development of a Web gateway for library and information research. The gateway will be called 'Torch' and is expected to become available in a limited form in late 2000. This work is being led by David Haynes Associates.
The Public Librarian's Guide to the Internet was published in July 2000. Co-authored by Sally Criddle, Sarah Ormes, Alison McNab and Ian Winship, this book is the first guide to the Internet specifically aimed at UK public librarians.
Public Library People is an e-mail directory for UK public librarians. Developed as part of the PRIDE project, it currently holds the contact details of nearly 400 UK librarians from 108 different library authorities.
UKOLN hopes to continue to work closely with NOF Digitise and the People's Network team as public libraries develop networked services on a national scale. Over the next year UKOLN will aim to expand its awareness-raising work with public libraries and promote the development of effective, imaginative and technically proficient online services.
In 1999 the Department of Culture, Media and Sport funded a programme of projects to improve library services to visually impaired people. Within this programme, UKOLN was commissioned to review the current and potential roles, structure and requirements of the National Union Catalogue of Alternative Formats (NUCAF).
The review was carried out between September and December 1999, using a mixture of desk based research and visits to a number of relevant organisations. A report defining a mission statement for a new database to be developed from NUCAF, and outlining a technical specification for the metadata to be held in the database was submitted to the commissioning group in January 2000 and the recommendations accepted. The development of NUCAF to create Reveal: the National Database of Resources in Accessible Formats has been made a priority in the programme of work to improve library services to visually impaired people.
Further work was needed to develop the strategic recommendations of the review into a service, to develop a management structure to support the new database and to produce a detailed system specification for the database itself. The British Library Co-operation and Partnership Programme agreed to fund a feasibility study and a team from the National Library for the Blind, the Royal National Institute for the Blind, UKOLN and an independent library automation consultant, Juliet Leeves, began work in May and is due to submit a report in September 2000.
In 1999 the Library and Information Statistics Unit (LISU) at Loughborough University and UKOLN collaborated in a study, funded by the BNB Research Fund, to explore trends in acquisitions in academic and public libraries in the UK since 1980. This analysed the currency surveys database held by UKOLN and supplementary data on price at publication, format (hardback or paperback) and retention of materials acquired. A report on the study was submitted to the BNB Research Fund in late 1999 and was subsequently published jointly by LISU (hard copy version) and UKOLN (Web version). A paper describing the study and its main findings was published in the journal Library Management in July 2000.
UKOLN continues to monitor the availability of bibliographic records in the BNB files on the British Library Database as it has done since January 1980. The surveys cover items with publication dates of 1974 or later, with a UK publisher or distributor, which are within the coverage of the British National Bibliography. Each month results are tabulated and analysed and a conflated hit rate produced for the previous 12 months. The hit rate is the percentage of items for which records were found. A second search of the database six months after the original search identifies records subsequently added to the database. The results of this produce the recheck hit rate. The results are available from the UKOLN Web site and are regularly published in the British Library newsletter Select.
UKOLN is continuing to monitor the records contributed to the BNB files through the Copyright Libraries Shared Cataloguing Programme (CLSCP). This is now undertaken as an annual snapshot and the results are reported to the British Library and the CLSCP Steering Committee.
Ann Chapman is a member of the BIC Bibliographic Standards Technical Sub-Group which was responsible for the supporting report for the British Library consultation in June 2000 on further UK/US MARC harmonisation. She is a member of the Full Disclosure Partner Group, which is supporting implementation of the national strategy for the retrospective conversion of catalogues. She is also a member of the LASER Working Party on Inter-Library Loans for Non-Book Materials which is currently focusing on inter-lending issues for recorded music and videos. She was a member of the LASER Working Party on Access to Library Materials by Visually Impaired Users during its period of activity in Spring 2000.
A catalogue audit tool for libraries was developed in 1998 in a collaborative project with Essex County Libraries. In June 2000 the tool was piloted as a dissertation study by a library and information science MSc student at Loughborough University. Results from this study will be used to refine the tool and it is hoped to trial it in other libraries.
A study into cataloguing costs is planned for 2000-01. This will concentrate on identifying all the cost factors related to carrying out cataloguing. This would provide a tool which libraries can use to estimate the comparative costs of different courses of action (e.g. in-house record creation versus buying-in records, retrospective conversion projects).
Paul Miller is Interoperability Focus and Brian Kelly is UK Web Focus. Sarah Ormes is Public Library Networking Focus and co-ordinates public library activities. Sally Criddle (and until May 2000, Lorcan Dempsey) provided additional effort in this area. Ann Chapman co-ordinates the bibliographic management work. During the year, Birgit Kongialis assisted her in the survey work on a part-time basis. Eddie Young provides technical support, particularly for bibliographic management and public library networking activities.
.... advancing the state of the art and contributing to knowledge ....
PRIDE was a European Commission funded project that ran from June 1998 until June 2000. The project developed a demonstrator of a directory system that is a model information infrastructure for the library community. The directory is a place to store descriptive information about organisations, collections, services and people. It can store information such as addresses of libraries, descriptions of their print and electronic collections, contact details for the ILL librarian, details of Web services from libraries or publishers and technical details of services such as location of Z39.50 targets. Maintenance of a PRIDE directory is distributed, so that those with the most current information about details of a service maintain information about it. PRIDE has developed a number of agents and harvesters to maintain the directory largely automatically.
UKOLN has contributed to the design of the PRIDE architecture, particularly in the areas of the underlying datamodel and the metadata schemas that are used to describe the entities in that data model. We have also developed a prototype Resource Description Framework (RDF) harvester, allowing data to be gathered into the PRIDE directory from remote RDF repositories.
A more visible aspect of our work on PRIDE has been the development of a UK Public Library People directory (described elsewhere in this report) using technologies developed by the PRIDE project.
Funded by the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP), the RSLP Collection Description project has worked with other RSLP projects and aims to enable them to describe their collections in a consistent and machine readable way. UKOLN has developed a collection description metadata schema and associated syntax using the Resource Description Framework (RDF). The schema is based on a model of collections and their catalogues, developed during the initial phase of the project by Michael Heaney, University Library Services Directorate, University of Oxford. (This part of the project was funded separately by OCLC.)
To inform the development of the schema, two concertation days have been held, with attendance from a large proportion of RSLP projects and representatives of other interested parties such as the British Library and the National Preservation Office. Subsequent meetings have taken place and have taken account of the requirements of the archival community and, in particular, the relationship between RSLP collection descriptions, the UK HE Archives Hub and the existing ISAD(G) and EAD archival standards. UKOLN has developed a simple Web-based tool in order that projects can describe their collections. The tool incorporates a number of example collection descriptions, contributed by other RSLP projects, and a detailed set of Data Entry Guidelines. There has also been some work on implementing the schema using a Microsoft Access database and using the ROADS suite of tools.
As the RSLP programme develops, the intention is to gather in collection descriptions created by all the projects, enabling them to be searched from a central database. A prototype of such a search service, containing a small set of example descriptions, is also available for comment. A presentation of the RSLP Collection Description project was given at an eLib Collection Descriptions concertation day in February.
It is hoped that this work can be given international focus and the opportunity for wider collaboration through the development of a Collection Level Description working group within the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative.
Related work has seen the publication of UKOLN's eLib supporting study, Collection Level Description - a review of existing practice, and, through our work with the RDNC, continued development of ideas for the provision of a DNER-wide collection description service based on the RSLP Collection Description schema.
The Agora project forms part of Phase 3 of the eLib programme that is investigating issues of digital library implementation and integration. Agora is a consortium-based project, led by the University of East Anglia (UEA), with other partners being Fretwell-Downing Informatics and CERLIM (the Centre for Research in Library and Information Management). The project also works with several associate groups: libraries, service providers and systems developers.
One of the major achievements of the project to date has been the Hybrid Library Management System (HLMS) Statement of Requirements. It is a substantial body of work, which brings together for the first time a complete functional specification for the hybrid library. The Agora software, although not meeting the entire specification, will go a huge distance in substantiating the theory and providing a working model.
Release 1 of the Agora HLMS was made available to the library associates in June 2000. It provides cross-domain searching and integrated delivery of information either electronically or by way of institutional interlibrary lending. This release is the platform upon which each of the library associates will conduct case studies in the summer of 2000. The case studies will look at three different slants: functionality of the system, user groups and training/management tools. A prototype Release 2 of the Agora HLMS was demonstrated to the Agora Board in August 2000, and the beta release will be available in September. SELLIC (Science and Engineering Library & Information Centre) at the University of Edinburgh will carry out a case study using Release 2.
The case studies will be carried out at Bath Spa University College, the University of Hull, Heriot-Watt University, UEA and UKOLN. The UKOLN study will look at the hybrid library concept with specific reference to distance learners. This study has been set up in co-operation with staff within the library and DACS. The case study reports will be available at the end of 2000.
The user case studies represent a change of direction for the project - taking it a step away from the technology focus dominated by the HLMS statement of requirements. It is now moving towards a process and policy focus, a human approach that will inform the wider community of the reality of the hybrid library.
A range of dissemination events are being planned for the autumn including a Service Provider Meeting and a joint Hybrid Library Seminar. A range of strategic briefing papers will also be made available.
The BIBLINK project, funded through the European Union's Fourth Framework Telematics for Libraries Programme, came to an end in February 2000. However, work on wrapping up the project and its results continued until June 2000. The aim of the project was to establish a relationship between national bibliographic agencies and publishers of electronic material, in order to establish authoritative bibliographic information that would benefit both sectors. A specification of the BIBLINK workspace which would facilitate the storage and transmission of metadata records between various parties was established and the contract for software development was awarded to a French software house, Jouve.
The Demonstrator phase of the project began in mid-November 1999 despite the testing and verification being incomplete: this was to allow a reasonable amount of time for participation from publishers. Technical difficulties meant that several of the partners were unable to install and run a workspace locally. UKOLN did however offer a centralised workspace for partners who encountered problems.
The project has been valuable as a proof-of-concept and in several other respects. Research during the project has highlighted many issues that need to be resolved both internally in libraries and between the library and publishing communities. Work undertaken during the project has contributed to the debate within libraries relating to electronic publications. Discussions with publishers have indicated that they too are engaged in parallel internal debates, seeking solutions to the ramifications of electronic publishing in a market place offering great opportunity but still in a state of flux with regard to standards and procedures. Indeed it has been remarked that, in the areas of identifiers and metadata requirements, participating in BIBLINK has provided a timely learning opportunity.
The BIBLINK project has also resulted in software that can be used by individual organisations to fulfil a valuable role in record creation and alerting functions. The modular design of the system caters for customisation and will allow the component parts to be further developed as procedures and work-flows are revised to meet new processing needs for electronic publications.
It has been proposed that the software be placed in the public domain and discussions are under way about exactly how this should be achieved and under what conditions. When such issues have been resolved announcements will be made on various mailing lists and on the BIBLINK Web site. A paper about the BIBLINK project was presented at Internet Librarian 2000.
The SCHEMAS project is funded as part of the Information Society Technologies (IST) programme, a theme of the European Union's Fifth Framework Programme managed by the Information Society Directorate-General of the European Commission. Work commenced on the project at the beginning of February 2000 and is scheduled to run until December 2001. SCHEMAS provides a forum for metadata schema designers involved in projects under the IST Programme and national initiatives in Europe. The intent of SCHEMAS is to inform implementers about the status and proper use of new and emerging metadata standards. The project will support development of good-practice guidelines for the use of standards in local implementations. It will also investigate how metadata registries can support these aims.
The project has several components, including a 'Metadata Watch' which reports every three months on developments within several sectors, a 'Standards Framework' which is to report on developments within the standards arena and a schema 'Registry' which will publish and disclose third-party schemas. A series of four workshops will bring together implementers and service providers working in the area of schema development .
The first SCHEMAS workshop was held in Bath in May 2000. The t heme was 'combining multiple metadata standards in implementations: user experience and requirements' , and it provided a constructive forum for over 40 participants.
The first Metadata Watch report was published just before the first workshop and feedback indicates that this has proven to be very useful to many people.
As a basis for the development of a registry, the DESIRE prototype has been useful in providing context and in forging the concepts relating to application profiles. There has been interest in registries from the DC community and UKOLN hosted a discussion meeting which brought together interested parties in March. UKOLN has given presentations outlining the value of application profiles and registries at the META-LIB workshop in Göttingen in May 2000 and the DELOS workshop in Vienna in June 2000.
The Renardus (Academic Subject Gateway Service Europe) project is funded under the European Union's Fifth Framework Programme as part of the Information Societies Technology (IST) programme. The project aims to establish an academic subject gateway service in Europe, and create an environment for collaboration among national subject gateway initiatives. A pilot system will be developed, based on a generic broker architecture and data model, to allow integrated searching and browsing of distributed (Internet-accessible) resource collections. Renardus began in January 2000 and will culminate in June 2002 with the launch of the pilot service. The project is co-ordinated by the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (the National Library of the Netherlands): UKOLN has responsibility for two of the eight project work packages, those relating to the functional model and business issues for the service.
UKOLN is leading the work establishing the functional architecture that will both support and document the development of the Renardus broker system. The first stage of this activity was a review of 18 broker architectures, Evaluation report of existing broker models in related projects, which looked at existing gateway services and projects and mapped them to a MODELS Information Architecture structure. The report was edited by UKOLN and published on the Web in April. A second report, also published on the Renardus project Web site in April, User requirements for the broker system, analysed the requirements for Renardus from the end-user and service-provider points of view, based on the results of a service-provider questionnaire and the development of end-user use scenarios. An initial version of a project-internal deliverable, Specification of functional requirements for the broker system, was produced, and was summarised on the Web site in July. Work on an initial version of the Architectural model for the Renardus system is in progress.
UKOLN is also leading the exploration of any business issues that may impact on the design of the Renardus broker, the feasibility of the collaborative approach embodied in Renardus and the sustainability of a central broker service. An initial version of a report written by UKOLN, Business issues which impact the functional model, was under review by project partners in July. It provides an introduction to the business issues that relate to Internet information gateways, defining the main business models that have been adopted by information gateways and outlining issues (including individual gateway sustainability, co-operation and collaboration, intellectual property rights and branding) which might impact on the design of the broker system. Key deliverables in this workpackage - a review of the business models of the initial cohort of participating services and a report on the sustainability of a central broker service - are scheduled toward the end of the project in order to provide an up-to-date basis for business planning for a post-project service.
The IMesh Toolkit project evolved out of discussions within IMesh, an international initiative for collaboration on subject gateways. IMesh is of interest to policy, service and technology stakeholders in subject gateway activity. The aim of the IMesh Toolkit project is to define and implement a subject gateway architecture which specifies individual components and the manner in which they interoperate. The project is funded under the NSF/JISC Digital Libraries Initiative 2; it runs for three years starting from September 1999. The project recently gave a presentation to the DLI2 Conference organised by UKOLN at Stratford-upon-Avon this June. The involvement with the DLI2 community that comes with this project is seen as a valuable benefit to UKOLN. Our project partners are the Institute for Learning and Research Technology, University of Bristol, UK (ILRT) and the Internet Scout Project, University of Wisconsin-Madison (ISP).
The IMesh Toolkit has established a set of objectives based on the outcomes of ECDL'98 and the Warwick IMesh workshop: the overarching objective is to realise an architecture within which subject gateway developers and others will be able to develop or reuse tools and components that will interoperate in a scalable and maintainable fashion. The objectives encompass the creation of an integrated metadata environment, a metadata registry and the associated metadata management tools. Equally this same architecture for a subject gateway design will also provide for interoperating between subject gateways and indeed other information services.
UKOLN is currently working on a technology review into existing components and architectures. This research will inform the selection of the most suitable design, protocols, standards and components and will determine the development of new tools or the reuse of existing ones. Completed work will be submitted to interested users and members of the project's advisory group as part of the co-ordinated testing process. For the IMesh Toolkit project, collaboration with the wider IMesh community means input to and validation of its work while being able to draw upon a wider circle of experience and resources. Indeed, in April this year developers from the Technical Knowledge Center and Library of Denmark (DTV) joined in the meetings on the project hosted by UKOLN at Bath University and expressed great interest in joining the project to examine and develop the issue of interoperability within the project framework. Their submission to NORDUNET for funding to support this welcome activity is currently under review.
UKOLN is managing the UK contribution to the project. The UKOLN staff on the project are led by Rachel Heery. Project management is being assured by Sally Criddle, Resource Co-ordinator. UKOLN has recently appointed Software Developers Monica Bonett and Richard Waller to the IMesh project team.
Cedars (CURL Exemplars in Digital Archives) is a Consortium of University Research Libraries project funded by the JISC under eLib phase 3. The main aims of the project are to address some of the strategic, methodological and practical issues of the long-term preservation of information in digital form; the problem commonly known as digital preservation. Lead partners in the projects are the Universities of Cambridge, Leeds and Oxford; participants being drawn from both computing services and libraries across the three institutions. UKOLN is involved in the parts of the project that relate to the issue of preservation metadata.
UKOLN produced an initial study of preservation metadata in 1998. During the second half of 1999 several versions of a proposed Cedars metadata element set were published as internal and review drafts, cumulating in the publication in March 2000 of a public consultation draft of a project document entitled Metadata for Digital Preservation: the Cedars Project Outline Specification. This document first describes how the project has attempted to develop a digital preservation system based on the reference model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS) and then defines a number of high-level metadata elements arranged according to the OAIS model's taxonomy of archival information object classes. In April 2000 a'structured walk through' meeting was held at the University of Birmingham in order to test the specification against some 'real' digital information objects and to take them through the process of 'ingest' into a repository, including the assignation of preservation metadata. Within the next few months UKOLN will be involved in the production of the final version of the Cedars specification.
There has been some useful dialogue between the Cedars project team and other groups that have been developing metadata schemes for digital preservation. For example, Cedars project staff (including UKOLN) discussed the National Library of Australia (NLA) draft preservation metadata for digital collections with the NLA's Preservation Metadata Working Group. Cedars has also made contact with the European NEDLIB project, a project concerned with the development of the basic infrastructure upon which a networked European deposit library can bebuilt. UKOLN attended and gave a paper on the Cedars metadata specification at the workshop 'Metadata for Long-Term Preservation in NEDLIB' held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris.
DESIRE II was a project funded by the European Commission (DG XIII) under the Telematics Applications programme of the European Union's Fourth Framework Programme (Telematics for Research). The project followed on from an earlier DESIRE (Development of a European Service for Information on Research and Education) project, although it had more focused scope and a smaller number of participants. The project was co-ordinated by the Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT) at the University of Bristol and ran for two years, finishing at the end of June 2000.
The DESIRE Information Gateways Handbook was published in September 1999. It was produced by members of the DESIRE team working from five different institutions, and edited by Martin Belcher, Virginia Knight and Emma Place of ILRT. The handbook contains practical and technical support forlibraries and other organisations that are interested in setting up Internet information gateways and also documents current practice. UKOLN staff produced (or contributed to) a number of chapters in the handbook, including those on system requirements, metadata formats, cataloguing,subject classification, browsing and searching, working with information providers, interoperability, scalability and future proofing.
As part of DESIRE II, UKOLN also produced an implementation of a demonstrator metadata registry. Metadata registries are structured systems (e.g. databases)that can disclose authoritative information about the semantics and structure of the data elements that are included within particular metadata schemas. Registries would, typically, define the semantics of metadata elements, give information on any local extensionsin use and provide mappings to other metadata schemas. The DESIRE registry implementation followed the general principles of the ISO/IEC 11179 standard for the specification and standardisation of data elements.
The DESIRE registry implementation provided simple mappings between different metadata schemas (i.e. 'namespaces') through a single semantic layer - in this case, those defined in the ISO Basic Semantics Register (BSR).
The DESIRE registry was implemented at UKOLN using a relational database(mySQL) and populated with a number of different metadata schemas, arranged by namespace. Those included, for example, all elements from Dublin Core 1.1 and the BIBLINK and ROADS namespaces. Elements from these namespaces can then be combined to form 'application profiles' (a set of elements with associated descriptions of usage in a particular context) for example for the BIBLINK Core or a particular ROADS template. It should be noted that the emergence of the concept of an 'application profile' - to encapsulate the way in which individual implementations use elements from more than one schema and introduce local usage - was one of the most significant outputs from the DESIRE registry work.
UKOLN has participated in several DESIRE workshops. In September 1999 a workshop entitled 'Building National and Large-scale Internet Information Gateways' was held at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands) in The Hague. Representatives from more than 20 European national libraries attended the workshop and were able to exchange information on their different approaches to Internet resource discovery. In May 2000 the registry implementation and other DESIRE project outputswere presented at the 'Web Indexing Workshop 2000' held at Delft Technical University in the Netherlands. UKOLN staff also participated in the 'Metadata for Networked Resources' workshop held at the University of Bristol in September 1999.
The research staff work as a team across a number of projects, having particular expertise in different areas, for example software development, useability studies, participatory design, architectural frameworks, metadata schemas and digital preservation. The team is currently Richard Waller, Monica Bonnett, Rosemary Russell, Manjula Patel, Michael Day, Bridget Robinson and Rachel Heery (Team Leader). Andy Powell has been responsible for PRIDE and the RSLP CLD project.
... building useful and innovative network services ...
The Resource Discovery Network (RDN) provides effective access to high-quality Internet resources for the learning, teaching and research community. The service is primarily aimed at Internet users in Further and Higher Education. Others will also find the service to be of value for personal and professional development. The RDN provides access to a series of subject gateways, each containing descriptions of high-quality Internet sites, selected and described by specialists from within UK academia and affiliated organisations. Subject coverage was initially limited to business, engineering, health, law, life sciences and social sciences. New subject areas are under development and will be launched shortly. A general reference section is also available. Value-added services such as interactive Web tutorials and alerting services are also provided. UKOLN has worked closely with colleagues at King's College London to form the Resource Discovery Network Centre (RDNC), the body that co-ordinates the technical, business and service development of the RDN. UKOLN has primarily been responsible for the more technical aspects of the RDN and has developed several documents specifying the interoperability standards with which RDN gateways must conform. We have also initiated detailed suggestions for new RDN-wide services, including news and alerting services and mechanisms for collaborative cataloguing. We have also co-ordinated technical and cataloguing working groups within the RDN, leading to agreements for an RDN-wide metadata attribute set, shared cataloguing guidelines and enumerated lists of resource types.
UKOLN is responsible for operating the central RDN Web server and for developing and delivering the ResourceFinder, a cross-searching service that facilitates a seamless search across all the records in the RDN. More recently we have developed RDN-Include, a lightweight mechanism for embedding the ResourceFinder and top-level RDN browse hierarchy into third-party Web sites, in such a way that the look and feel of the third-party site is retained as far as possible. There has been significant interest in this development, both from UK HE institutions and from commercial organisations which are considering embedding parts of the RDN within their products. UKOLN has been testing the use of RDN-Include with a number of organisations and will continue to enhance this technology in the future.
UKOLN will be working with the RDN on a number of projects within the JISC 5/99 programme, including two that will develop Bath Profile compliant Z39.50 tools, thus aiding the technical infrastructure of the RDN. We will work closely with ILRT at the University of Bristol, Crossnet Systems Ltd and IndexData in Denmark on the development of such tools. The RDN will also receive funding to begin developing DNER subject portals over the coming year. In preparation for this, UKOLN has been doing some preparatory work on the architecture of the DNER and portals, and on the associated infrastructural services such as authentication, user-profiling and collection description services that will be required. This work has been largely based on work done previously in MODELS and has been influential in more recent thinking about the architecture of the DNER. An initial set of portal authentication requirements has been presented to the JISC's Committee for Authentication and Security for its consideration. On behalf of the RDN, UKOLN staff have been contributing their knowledge of the RDN architecture and service issues into the design of the Europe-wide subject gateway service being developed by the Renardus project.
Organisational change within the RDNC has seen the staff based at King's College London becoming part of the DNER Programme Team. UKOLN will continue to work closely on all aspects of the RDN and will continue to offer technical and other support services. In response to the needs of Further Education and potential collaborators, UKOLN has recently worked with other RDNC staff on a critical review of the current RDN architecture. Following this, we anticipate significant changes in the underlying technology used to deliver the central services of the RDN, moving to a model primarily based on record sharing rather than cross-searching. Again, we hope that this work will be helpful in the development of the DNER more generally, and that we will continue to work closely with the DNER Programme Team.
Andy Powell has overall responsibility for UKOLN's contribution to the RDNC and has been actively involved in the development of the RDN throughout the year. Pete Cliff joined UKOLN in January 2000 as RDNC Systems Developer and has responsibility for the day-to-day running of the central services and for technical developments such as RDN-Include. More recently, Michael Day has begun contributing some of his time to the RDNC, with specific responsibility for cataloguing guidelines, liaison with the Renardus project and issues related to the application of subject classification across the RDN as a whole.
DC-dot, UKOLN's Web-based Dublin Core generator and editor, has been used to describe over 20,000 different Web resources since it was first made available back in April 1997. This year has seen continued development of the functionality of DC-dot, including the ability to add DC-dot to your Web browser's personal toolbar, support for IMS, validation of existing embedded metadata, extraction of metadata from MS-Office and PDF files, support for RDF and XHTML and conformance with the recently announced Dublin Core Metadata Element Set 1.1 and Dublin Core Qualifiers standards. This activity has given DC-dot a high profile within the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative and means that it is currently used to describe over 1,100 different resources each month.
Recent activity has seen the development of DC-assist, a configurable metadata help tool, designed to complement the kind of help that is already available within tools like DC-dot. DC-assist provides access to metadata element definitions, comments, usage guidelines, examples and links to further information.
In the future we anticipate the continued development of these tools. One particular aim is to use them as test-beds for tools that automatically configure themselves based on 'application profiles' held in metadata registries, such as the one being developed by the SCHEMAS project.
Andy Powell is responsible for the development of DC-dot and DC-assist.
Technical support for the UKOLN Unix and NT servers, office and home PCs, laptops and associated hardware, software, filestore and office automation management is provided by Eddie Young. In collaboration with Pete Cliff and other members of UKOLN staff, Eddie works closely with the Information Services Team to provide support for UKOLN's Web servers, including the management of Web log files and summaries and the operation of our Web mirroring services.
This year has seen the move of our three Unix servers to the more secure environment of the University of Bath Computing Services machine room and the successful prevention of any serious Y2K problems at the start of the year.
The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) is of central importance in terms of establishing a basic metadata element set for resource discovery and interoperability. Dublin Core plays a role in many of the initiatives in which we are involved: for example it forms the basis of the RSLP collection level description, it will be used as a base element set within Renardus, it is the schema specified within the Z39.50 Bath Profile. In a wider context the DCMI provides a forum for those working in the area of resource discovery and metadata architectures, and involvement in DC workshops and discussion groups has enabled UKOLN to build up an international network of contacts.
Paul Miller continues as a member of the DC Executive Committee and has acted as Chair for the DC Coverage working group. Andy Powell is active on the Dublin Core Advisory Committee contributing expertise particularly related to the use of RDF and the development of software tools (DC-dot, DC-assist). Andy has been Chair of the DC Format working group and he is proposing a DC Collection Level Description working group. Rachel Heery has chaired the DC Subject and Description working group, and is Chair of the emergent DC Registries working group. She is also on the Advisory Committee and has taken a particular interest in establishing the organisational process for the DCMI. Rachel is on the DC8 Workshop organising committee, and has helped to shape the programme for the October 2000 DC8 workshop in Ottawa.
Interest in Dublin Core and the diverse ways in which it is implemented led to UKOLN's interest in metadata registries. In March 2000 an informal international registries workshop was organised in Bath where issues related to registries and schemas were addressed by invited experts. UKOLN is a partner in the SCHEMAS EC project which is working closely with OCLC, negotiating use of OCLC's open source MyRDF registry software.
Paul Miller and Rachel Heery have attended the CEN ISSS (the European committee for standardisation) Metadata working group on occasion. This group is ensuring that the Dublin Core specifications are submitted to the CEN standardisation process.
UKOLN has continued to provide mirrors of key library-related Web resources, including D-Lib Magazine and the Katherine Sharp Review. This year we have expanded our mirroring service slightly, with the addition of mirrors for OCLC's Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Web site and Yale University Library's Liblicense site.
The Ariadne Web magazine is now well-established within the library and information communities in both the UK and the United States. Ariadne has been published since January 1996: initially every two months and, since September 1998, quarterly. Ariadne began as an eLib project with the eLib Programme as its principal focus; the magazine hopes in future to cover the development of the new Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER) and its associated projects. Future issues will also contain a regular section focusing on the Resource Discovery Network (RDN) and its hubs. Apart from the actual access statistics (below), Ariadne's popularity can also be gauged from the number of links to the magazine: for example, on 26 July 2000 Altavista reported no fewer than 2,101 to the Ariadne Web site.
The Exploit Interactive Web magazine provides UKOLN's contribution to the EXPLOIT project, which is an accompanying measure within the European Commission's (DG XIII) Telematics for Libraries Programme. The aims of EXPLOIT are to promote awareness, provide current information and assist in the improved dissemination of project deliverables through the EXPLOIT portal, the production of support materials, the delivery of workshops and the provision of a Web magazine.
Exploit Interactive is published quarterly, with issues 3-6 published in October 1999, January 2000, April 2000 and June 2000 respectively.
We have been successful in commissioning a wide range of articles, covering projects not only funded by the Telematics for Libraries Programme, but also other international and national programmes, and articles of more general interest.
The online format of the magazine enables us to publish articles which provide more in-depth descriptions than would be possible if we were constrained by the economics of print publications. It also allows the overall length of the magazine to be varied with each issue.
Exploit Interactive provides an additional dissemination channel for UKOLN. A number of articles have been published giving advice on best practices for providing Web services, addressing issues such as Web standards, promoting Web sites, performance indicators for Web services and reviews of software tools used to provide Web services.
As well as providing support for the dissemination of Telematics for Libraries projects, Exploit Interactive also provides a test-bed for UKOLN's research interests. A number of developments have been made to Exploit Interactive including:
- enhancements to the search facility based on use of Dublin Core metadata
- evaluation of externally hosted Web statistical services
- evaluation of links to an automated translation facility
- ability to print entire contents of issue from one file
- release of a personalised 404 error message page.
The final issue of Exploit Interactive is due to be published in October 2000. It will be replaced by the Cultivate Interactive Web magazine.
The Cultivate Interactive Web magazine is UKOLN's contribution to the Cultivate project, which is an accompanying measure within the European Commission's (DG XIII) DIGICULT Programme. Cultivate has a similar remit to the EXPLOIT project but with a broader coverage, which encompasses the museums, archives and other cultural heritage communities in addition to the library community.
The Cultivate Interactive Web magazine was launched on 3 July 2000 and contained 24 articles.
A brief summary of statistics for access to and links to a number of UKOLN Web sites is given below.
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Further analysis showed that on 9 August 2000 the search engine AltaVista was recording 8,945 links to the UKOLN Web site. This information is available through the Linkpopularity.com Web site.
Ariadne took just under a third of a million user sessions during the year (325,402) and more than 1 million page views (1,068,644). The average length of visitor sessions was 13 minutes. (Data for Oct-99 is unavailable.)
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An average of 9,112 hits were received per day on the Ariadne Web site with an average of 889 visitor sessions per day. Linkpopularity.com Web site was used to ascertain that on 9 August 2000 AltaVista was recording 2,414 links to the Ariadne Web site.
An average of 1,804 hits were received per day on the Exploit Interactive Web site with an average of 116 visitor sessions per day. Again, further analysis showed that on 9 August 2000 AltaVista was recording 211links to the Exploit Interactive Web site.
Philip Hunter and Marieke Napier are UKOLN's Information Officers and are responsible for Ariadne, Exploit Interactive and Cultivate Interactive and other aspects of UKOLN's Web services. Adam Batenin, a University of Bath PhD student provides, technical support on a casual basis. Brian Kelly manages the Information Services Team.
UKOLN has organised the following conferences and workshops during the year. The events organised support the work of UKOLN and its funders, particularly the JISC which provides additional funding for this service.
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16-18 August 1999 |
Bath Profile meeting |
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6-8 September 1999 |
Institutional Web Management workshop |
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23 September 1999 |
RSLP meeting |
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13-14 October 1999 |
MODELS 9 |
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3-4 November 1999 |
MODELS 10 |
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15-16 November 1999 |
Running a Public Library Web Site workshop |
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19 November 1999 |
RDN launch |
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26 November 1999 |
Bath Profile meeting |
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11-12 January 2000 |
MODELS 11 |
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18 February 2000 |
RSLP meeting |
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3 March and 11 April 2000 |
eLib Clumps projects meetings |
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11-12 May 2000 |
SCHEMAS workshop |
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14-16 June 2000 |
JISC/CNI (Coalition for Networked Information) conference |
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12-13 June 2000 |
The National Science Foundation of America's Digital Libraries Initiative meeting |
The events above were organised by Joy Fraser with assistance from Birgit Kongialis. The Resources and Administration Team also provides some support for these events.
Administrative support for all of UKOLN's activities is provided by Ruth Burt, the UKOLN Office Administrator, Ali Cook, the Financial Administrator, and Sally Criddle, the Resource Co-ordinator. Birgit Kongialis provides administrative support to the general office as well as support for the Events Management activities. Eddie Young provides support for office systems.
Over the last few years UKOLN has diversified its funding base, a trend that is likely to continue, with project income now accounting for approximately 55 per cent of its total income. This section summarises UKOLN's sources of income and outlines how its funds are spent.
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UKOLN's core activities were funded during the year 1999/2000 by the LIC and the JISC. This funding supported UKOLN's distributed library systems, public library networking and bibliographic management work. In addition, it supported the Director as well as some information services work, some events management activities and administrative support. Funding of core activities has been agreed with Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries (formerly the LIC) and with the JISC until July 2001.
During this period the JISC has supported work on the Agora, Cedars and IMesh Toolkit projects as well as UKOLN's work with the Resource Discovery Network. In addition, UKOLN received funding from the JISC for the post of UK Web Focus and for the partial funding of the Web Officer and Events Manager posts. The JISC also jointly funded the Interoperability Focus post with the LIC (now Resource).
The LIC (now Resource) and the JISC jointly funded the Interoperability Focus during this period. The BLRIC/LIC funded 'Full Disclosure', a study for a national programme of retrospective catalogue conversion.
During this period work continued on the DESIRE II, PRIDE and EXPLOIT projects. BIBLINK ended in February 2000 and work commenced on a further three EU projects -Renardus, Cultivate and SCHEMAS - during the year.
Collection level description work, funded by the Research Support Libraries Programme, began in September 1999 for one year.
During the year April 1999 to March 2000 UKOLN managed events to the value of £65,250, including £48,450 for the JISC . The conference was self-financing and produced a surplus of approximately £21,000 once all expenses and an overhead to the University had been paid. During that period other income of approximately £1,060 was received in the form of royalties and sales of UKOLN publications and £7,200 from bibliographic surveying services that UKOLN provided for the British Library.
Full details of income and expenditure during this year have been submitted to our funding bodies in accordance with their conditions of grant.
UKOLN has extensive communication and dissemination channels nationally and internationally and staff contribute to the community through membership of a wide range of influential committees.
A selective list of publications, presentations, software developed and committee membership follows. Also included is a list of some of the visitors that UKOLN received during the year.
In vision: the Internet as a resource for visually impaired people. Ariadne, 24, June 2000.
Trends in monograph acquisitions in UK libraries. Library Management, Vol. 21 (6), 2000, pp. 307-315. (With Claire Creaser and David Spiller.)
On target and in time: UKOLN performance measurement and quality assessment studies. db-Qual Vol. 5 (1), January 2000.
Revealing the invisible: the need for retrospective conversion in the virtual future. Alexandria, Vol. 12 (1), 2000, pp 33-43. (With David Spiller.)
Trend analysis of monograph acquisitions in public and university libraries in the UK. Loughborough: LISU and UKOLN, 2000. ISBN 1901786293.
Review: Building community information networks: strategies and experiences, edited by Sheila Pantry. Ariadne, 24, June 2000.
Review: The Oxford English Dictionary Online. Ariadne, 23, March 2000.
Review: The online searcher's companion, by William H. Forrester and Jane L. Rowlands. Ariadne, 23, March 2000.
The public librarian's guide to the Internet. London: Library Association Publishing, 2000. ISBN 1856043282. (With Sarah Ormes, Alison McNab and Ian Winship.)
Workshop report: Running a public library Web site. Ariadne, 22, December 1999. (With Sarah Ormes.)
Resource discovery, interoperability and digital preservation: some aspects of current metadata research and development. Vine, 117, April 2000, pp. 35-48.
International information gateway collaboration: report of the first IMesh framework workshop. D-Lib Magazine, Vol. 5 (12), December 1999. (With Lorcan Dempsey, Tracy Gardner and Titia van der Werf.)
Metadata for digital preservation: an update. Ariadne, 22, December 1999.
Metadata for images: emerging practice and standards. In: Harper, D.J. (ed.), The challenge of image retrieval 99: papers presented at 2nd UK Conference on Image Retrieval, Newcastle upon Tyne, February 1999. (Electronic Workshops in Computing.) Swindon: British Computer Society, 1999.
Issues and approaches to preservation metadata. In: Guidelines for digital imaging: papers given at the joint National Preservation Office and Research Libraries Group preservation conference in Warwick, 28th-30th September 1998. London: National Preservation Office, pp. 73-84.
Publications include:
Scientific, industrial and cultural heritage: a shared approach. Ariadne, 22, December 1999.
The subject gateway: experiences and issues based on the emergence of the Resource Discovery Network. Online Information Review, Vol. 24 (1), April 2000, pp. 8-23.
International information gateway collaboration: report of the first IMesh framework workshop. D-Lib Magazine, Vol. 5 (12), December 1999. (With Michael Day, Tracy Gardner and Titia van der Werf.)
Architecture and software solutions. Online Information Review, Vol. 24 (1), April 2000, pp. 35-39. (With Renato Ianella.)
At the event: MODELS 9 & 10. Ariadne, 22, December 1999.
International information gateway collaboration: report of the first IMesh framework workshop. D-Lib Magazine, Vol. 5 (12), December 1999. (With Michael Day, Lorcan Dempsey and Titia van der Werf.)
Information gateways: collaboration on content. Online Information Review, Vol. 24 (1), April 2000, pp. 40-45.
Contributor to: DESIRE Information Gateways Handbook. DESIRE project deliverable D3.4. Bristol. DESIRE Project, 1999. Available at http://www.desire.org/handbook. (Edited with Martin Belcher, Virginia Knight and Emma Place.)
At the event: The 2nd catalogues for the 21st century conference held in the University of Glasgow, April 2000. Ariadne, 24, June 2000.
At the event: The 1st catalogues for the 21st century conference held in Goldsmiths College, London, March 2000. Ariadne, 23, March 2000.
Broadband TV: Streaming video on the Web: a gazeteer of hi-quality video resources available with RealPlayer and MediaPlayer. Ariadne, 23, March 2000.
TV: Streaming video on the Web: a provisional map of the resources available with RealPlayer and MediaPlayer. Ariadne, 22, December 1999.
Digitizing Wilfrid. Ariadne, 21, September 1999.
Editorials. Ariadne, 21-24.
Open authentication systems for the Web. Vine, 112, September 1999.
Web Focus: Reflections on WWW9. Ariadne, 24, June 2000.
WebWatch: A survey of numbers of UK university Web servers. Ariadne, 24, June 2000.
Web Focus: Using externally-hosted Web services. Ariadne, 23, March 2000.
WebWatch: A survey of links to UK university Web sites. Ariadne, 23, March 2000.
Web Focus: Using the Web to promote your Web site. Web version of Ariadne, 22, December 1999.
WebWatch: A survey of institutional Web gateways. Web version of Ariadne, 22, December 1999.
Report on the Institutional Web Management: the next steps workshop. Web version of Ariadne, 21, September 1999.
WebWatch: UK university search engines. Web version of Ariadne, 21, September 1999.
The XHTML interview. Exploit Interactive, 6, June 2000.
Search facilities used by Telematics for Library projects. Exploit Interactive, 6, June 2000.
Performance indicators for Web sites. Exploit Interactive, 5, April 2000.
Using metadata to improve local searching. Exploit Interactive, 5, April 2000.
Links to Telematics for Library projects. Exploit Interactive, 5, April 2000.
Software in use: Externally-hosted Web statistics services. Exploit Interactive, 5, April 2000.
Behind the Exploit Interactive Web site. Exploit Interactive, 4, January 2000.
Promoting your project Web site. Exploit Interactive, 4, January 2000.
Software in use: Bobby. Exploit Interactive, 4, January 2000.
Audit of links on the Exploit Interactive Web site. Exploit Interactive, 4, January 2000.
Behind the Web site: Analysis of NFP Web sites. Exploit Interactive, 3, October 1999.
Web technologies: Extending your browser with an automated page translation feature. Exploit Interactive, 3, October 1999.
I am a name and a number. Ariadne, 24, June 2000.
NOF Digitise technical standards and guidelines. June 2000.
Available at:
www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/nof/technicalstandards
(With contributions from Bruce Royan, Sandy Buchanan, Mark Bide
and UKOLN staff.)
Z39.50 for all. Ariadne, 21, September 1999.
Developing the Bath Profile. Ariadne, 21, September 1999.
Interoperability: what is it and why should I want it? Ariadne, 24, June 2000.
I say what I mean, but do I mean what I say? Ariadne, 23, March 2000.
The standards fora for online education. D-Lib Magazine, Vol. 5 (12), December 1999. (With Paul Bacsich, Andy Heath, Paul Lefrere and Kevin Riley.)
Z39.50 Implementers Group (ZIG), Stockholm. Exploit Interactive, 3, October 1999.
At the event: Professional Web management. Exploit Interactive, 6, June 2000.
Editorial. Exploit Interactive, 6, June 2000.
Editorial. Cultivate Interactive, 1, July 2000.
The public librarian's guide to the Internet. London: Library Association Publishing, 2000. ISBN 1856043282. (With Sally Criddle, Alison McNab and Ian Winship.)
NOF Digitise technical standards and guidelines. June 2000. Available at: www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/nof/technicalstandards (With contributions from Bruce Royan, Sandy Buchanan, Mark Bide and UKOLN staff.)
Workshop report: Running a public library Web site. Ariadne, 22, December 1999. (With Sally Criddle.)
The strange case of Harry Potter and the invisible marijuana. Multimedia Information and Technology, Vol. 25 (4), November 1999.
NOF Digitise technical standards and guidelines. June 2000.
Available at:
www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/nof/technicalstandards
(With contributions from Bruce Royan, Sandy Buchanan, Mark Bide
and UKOLN staff.)
RDN interoperability and standards framework. May
2000. Available at:
www.rdn.ac.uk/publications/interop-standards
RDN terminology. May 2000. Available at:
www.rdn.ac.uk/publications/terminology
RSLP collection description schema. May 2000.
Available at:
www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/schema
DNER portal architecture. March 2000. Available
at:
www.rdn.ac.uk/publications/mia
RSLP collection description data entry
guidelines. January 2000 (draft). Available at:
www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/tool/?mode=printGuide
DC format working group - proposed format
qualifiers. December 1999. Available at:
www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/resources/dc/dc-format-wg/proposals-all.html
Collection level description - a review of existing practice. An eLib supporting study.
Simple collection description. August 1999
(draft). Available at:
www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/cld/simple
Agora - from information maze to market. Ariadne, 24, June 2000. (With Rosemary Russell and David Palmer.)
Agora - from information maze to market. Ariadne, 24, June 2000. (With Bridget Robinson and David Palmer.)
Making sense of standards and technologies for serials management (ed.). London: Library Association Publishing, 2000. ISBN 185604338X.
A wired Honduran Christmas. Ariadne, 23, March 2000.
Transforming NUCAF into Reveal. Share the Vision Briefing Days, Library Association HQ, London, 24 May 2000 and UMIST, Manchester, 5 July 2000. (Joint paper with Helen Brazier.)
Full Disclosure. 19th Public Library Authorities Conference, Palace Hotel, Torquay, 19-22 October 1999.
Local history resources on the Web. Training for Life of Bath Partners, University of Bath, 22 May 2000.
Public Internet access: a filtering. workshop. The National Acquisitions Group Conference, Warwick University, 15-17 September 1999. (With Sarah Ormes.)
Digital preservation, digitisation and disaster management: an overview. Digital perspectives and disaster management, M25 Consortium of Higher Education Libraries, joint Disaster Management Group/Staff Development Group Seminar, University College London, 23 June 2000.
Preservation metadata and the Cedars project. META-LIB Workshop - Metadata: New Developments - New Frontiers, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, 23 May 2000.
Preservation metadata and the Cedars project. Metadata for Long-term Preservation in NEDLIB, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, 25 February 2000.
A quick introduction to metadata. Running a Public Library Web Site, University of Bath, 15 November 1999.
Presentations include:
Developing network services in a cultural network space. EARL Council Meeting, London, 7 June 2000.
Presentation to: The Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) Study Tour, University College London, 18 April 2000.
Presentation at: Keystone for the Information Age: a Library and Information Commission/British Council Conference, British Library, London, 16-17 March 2000.
Metadata issues. The Electronic Library: Strategic, Policy and Management Issues - a British Council Seminar, Loughborough, 13-18 February 2000.
The Resource Discovery Network - the way forward. Resource Discovery Network Launch, Congress Centre, London, 19 November 1999.
MODELS - rationale and perspectives. The Ninth MODELS Workshop: MIA for Hybrid Information Environments, University of Warwick, 13-14 October 1999.
The long mile: learning, libraries and information. ALT-C 99: The Learning Technology Life-Cycle, 6th International Conference, University of Bristol, 21-23 September 1999.
Sustaining resource description. Building National and Large-scale Internet Information Gateways: A Workshop for the National Libraries of Europe, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Netherlands, 15 September 1999.
Quality Ratings in DESIRE. SELECT Project Meeting, Edinburgh University, 27 August 1999.
Application profiles: metadata in use. Metadata Issues in Cultural Heritage Projects Workshop, DELOS Standardisation Forum, Vienna, 30 June 2000.
Dublin Core and registries. META-LIB Workshop - Metadata: New Developments - New Frontiers, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, 22 May 2000.
DESIRE metadata registry. Desire II Indexing Workshop, Delft Technical University, Delft, 13-14 May 2000.
DESIRE registry. First SCHEMAS Workshop: Combining Multiple Metadata Standards in Implementations: User Experience and Requirements, University of Bath, 11 May 2000. (With Manjula Patel.)
Global co-operation to provide Internet resources: politics and gateways - the UK approach. Bielefeld 2000 Conference: Value Added Gateways to Global Information -Optimizing End-user Services, Stadthalle Bielefeld, 8-10 February 2000.
Metadata and resource discovery. Lecture for MSc in Library and Information Management, University of Bristol, 17 November 1999.
Introduction to the IMesh Toolkit. DLI2 All Projects Workshop, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, 17-19 October 1999.
Metadata building blocks. Metadata for Networked Resources: A One Day Workshop Investigating the Use of Metadata for Publishing Networked Information, University of Bristol, 20 September 1999.
Information gateways in perspective. DESIRE II Workshop: Building National and Large-scale Internet Information Gateways, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, 14-15 September 1999.
Current approaches to Web site development. The Second Research Council Webmasters Meeting, London, June 2000.
Reflections on WWW9. SHEFC C&IT Programme (Video Conference), 13 June 2000.
Performance indicators for Web sites. UKSG Usage Data for e-collections Seminar, London, 7 June 2000.
Standards for building Web sites. Professional Web Management Conference, King's College London, 4 May 2000.
From Web indexing to hybrid libraries, with thanks to eLib. Managing the Digital Future of Libraries Conference, Moscow, 18-19 April 2000.
Finding resources locally and remotely. UCISA User Support Services Conference 2000, University of Lancaster, 3-5 April 2000.
Electronic magazines: issues in implementation. Internet Librarian International Conference, Olympia, London, 20-22 March 2000.
Finding resources on your Web site. Internet Librarian International Conference, Olympia, London, 20-22 March 2000.
Technological issues: where are we now? Hylife Conference, London on 24-25 November 1999.
Promoting your project Web site. Consolidating the European Library Space Concertation Event, Luxembourg, 17-19 November.
If I could start all over again. Running A Public Library Web Site Workshop, University of Bath, 16-17 November 1999.
Future technologies and future technologies: deployment issues. Web 2000 Programme, University of Bradford, 9 November 1999.
The next steps for institutional Web services. JUSW (JANET User Support Workshop) University of Plymouth, 14-16 September 1999.
Managing your institutional Web gateway. JUSW (JANET User Support Workshop) University of Plymouth, 14-16 September 1999.
Institutional Web management: the next steps. Various talks at the three-day workshop, Goldsmiths College on 7-9 September 1999.
Metadata for the masses. Electronic Public Information Conference (EPI2000), Birmingham, 3 May 2000.
A little bit of joined-up thinking: (some) issues of convergence in our memory institutions. Keynote Presentation to the European Libraries Automation Group (ELAG), Paris, 12 April 2000.
Metadata for joined-up government. Information Age Government Champions' Metadata Working Group, London, 21 March 2000.
Interoperability Focus. JISC's Committee on Electronic Information, London, 3 March 2000.
Interoperability Focus. JASPER (JISC Academic Service Providers to Education and Research) Group, London, 17 February 2000.
Finding stuff with junk. Relationships between resource discovery and Z39.50. Z39.50 Implementers' Group Meeting, San Antonio, 19-21 January 2000.
The Bath Profile: making Z39.50 interoperable. Z39.50 Implementers' Group Meeting, San Antonio, 19-21 January 2000.
Thesauri, controlled terminologies, and other solutions. MODELS 11, Bath, 11-12 January 2000. (With Matthew Stiff.)
Libraries and the trade: converging standards? BIC/NISO/ALPSP Seminar, Trading Electronic Publications: Standards and the Business Formerly Known as Publishing, London, 9 December 1999.
Bath Profile and the DNER. Bath Profile Concertation Day, London, 26 November 1999.
Building our DNER the Z way. Integrate, Co-operate, Innovate II Conference, London, 24-25 November 1999.
Accessing multiple resources through Z39.50. Lecture for MSc in Library and Information Management, University of Bristol, 3 November 1999.
Dublin Core in Z39.50: the Bath Profile. Seventh Dublin Core Workshop, Frankfurt, 25-27 October 1999.
Dublin Core and its implementation in RDF/XML. Third Workshop of the Göttingen and Munich Digitization Centres, Göttingen, 4-5 October 1999.
Hybrid libraries and information clumps: a view from the UK. Opening Keynote Presentation to the Third Workshop of the Göttingen and Munich Digitization Centres, Göttingen 4-5 October 1999.
Building bridges: steps towards a seamless information environment. ichim Conference, Washington DC, 24-26 September 1999.
Metadata for citizens' information. SEAMLESS Project Meeting, London, 17 September 1999.
C, RDF, Z39.50 and assorted other acronyms: standards-based resource discovery on the Web for the cultural heritage. mda/CIDOC Conference, London 6-10 September 1999.
The Cultivate Interactive Web Magazine. CULTIVATE-EU Meeting, Oslo, 9 June 2000.
Stories from the Web. American Library Association Conference, Chicago, 10 July 2000.
Local history resources on the Web. Training for Life of Bath Partners, University of Bath, 22 May 2000.
Filtering Web content for staff and the public. 12th SPIN Annual Conference, National Motorcycle Museum, Solihull, 3 May 2000.
The role of the public library in the digital age. Lecture for MSc in Library and Information Management, University of Bristol, 30 November 1999.
Filtering - is this the answer? The Internet: Access, Security and Control, Library Association HQ, London, 25 November 1999.
Stories from the Web. Lecture for the MSc in Library and Information Management, University of Bristol, 9 November 1999.
Stories from the Web. Publishers Forum, Centre for the Child, Birmingham, 2 October 1999.
Public Internet access: a filtering. workshop. The National Acquisitions Group Conference, Warwick University, 15-17 September 1999. (With Sally Criddle.)
DC-dot/registry integration. SCHEMAS Workshop, University of Bath, 12 May 2000
RSLP Collection Description and Resource Discovery Network. eLib Collection Description Day, London, 7 March 2000.
Review of RSLP collection description. 2nd RSLP Collection Description Concertation Day, London, 18 February 2000.
Tools for resource discovery. EARL UKEL Seminar, London, 11 November 1999.
Dublin Core and the Resource Description Framework. Danish Metadata Seminar, Danish Royal Library, Denmark, 4 November 1999.
RDN architecture. MODELS Workshop, Warwick, 13 October 1999.
Review of RSLP Collection Description. 1st RSLP Collection Description Concertation Day, London, 22 September 1999.
Dublin Core and HTML: DC-dot and other applications. DESIRE Metadata Workshop, Bristol, 20 September 1999.
Introduction to the MODELS Information Architecture (MIA) and the requirements analysis study. MODELS 9, University of Warwick, 13 October 1999.
DC-assist. Web-based Dublin Core help utility. Andy
Powell, July 2000.
Available at: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/dcassist
DC-dot (enhancements). Web-based Dublin Core generator
and editor - enhanced to include the ability to add DC-dot to
your Web browser's personal toolbar, support for IMS,
validation of existing embedded metadata, extraction of metadata
from MS-Office and PDF files, support for RDF and XHTML and
conformance with the recently announced Dublin Core Metadata
Element Set 1.1 and Dublin Core Qualifiers standards. Andy
Powell, August 1999 to July 2000.
Available at http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/dcdot
RDN-Include. A mechanism for embedding the RDN ResourceFinder and top-level browse
interface into third-party Web sites. Pete Cliff,
May 2000. Available at:
http://www.rdn.ac.uk/rdn-i
RSLP Collection Description Tool. Web-based RSLP RDF
collection description editor. Andy Powell, January 2000.
Available at:
www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/tool
- BIC Bibliographic Standards Technical Subgroup
- Full Disclosure Partner Group
- LASER Working Party on ILL for Non Book Materials
- LASER Working Party on Access to Library Materials by Visually Impaired Users
- Open Archives Initiative Steering Committee
- Visual Arts Data Service Advisory Group
- Editorial boards
Metadata, 2000 -
New Review of Information Networking, 1993- (founder editor)
Program, 1991-
Public Access Computer Systems Review, 1992-
- Agora Steering Committee
- Dublin Core Advisory Committee
- Dublin Core Working Group: Subject and Description (Chair)
- DISinHE Steering Committee
- JISC Standards Subcommittee
- ADS Advisory Committee
- ADS Management Committee
- Bath Profile Editorial Group
- Book Industry Communication Product Metadata Group
- BSI IDT/2/18 - Identifiers
- CIMI Executive Committee
- Cultivate Interactive Editorial Board
- Dublin Core Advisory Committee
- Dublin Core Executive Committee
- Dublin Core Working Group: Coverage (Chair)
- Dublin Core Working Group: Data Model (Chair)
- ECDL 2001 Programme Committee
- Information Age Government Champions Metadata Working Group
- mda Board
- National Geospatial Data Framework Metadata Working Group
- UK National Union Catalogue Scoping Study Steering Group
- Web of Science Enhancement Committee
- CIPFA Committee on Public Library Statistics
- Development of an LIS Research Gateway Working Party
- EARL Management Board
- EARL Networked Services Policy Taskgroup
- Life of Bath Project Team
- Public Library Research Group, Society of Chief Librarians
- Society of Chief Librarians Public Library Research Group
- Dublin Core Registry Working Group
- ViDe Video Access Working Group
- Acceptable Use of Computing Facilities Committee
- Dublin Core Advisory Committee
- Dublin Core Format Working Group (Chair)
- Information Services Committee
- Managed Learning Environments Working Group
- Researcher's Guide Online: British Film, Television and Radio Collections Steering Group
- SCONE Steering Group
- University of Bath Campus Information Services Group (Chair)
- British Library Digital Library Research Advisory Panel
- CAIRNS Advisory Group
- RIDING Steering Group
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05/07/00 |
Mike Wright, Software Engineer , UCAR/Unidata, Boulder, USA |
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05/07/00 |
Tammy Sumner, Assistant Professor, Centre for Lifelong Learning & Design, University of Colorado, USA |
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29/06/00 |
Rob Bull, Managing Director, Crossnet Systems Limited |
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22/06/00 |
George H. Brett II, Senior Project Coordinator, NLANR/DAST, USA |
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13/06/00 |
Kyung-Mook Oh, Assistant Professor, Division of Information Science, Sookmyung University, Korea |
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31/05/00 |
Ben Toth, Information Manager, NHS South West |
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07/04/00 |
O. M. Mommoh, University Librarian, Abuka, Nigeria Dalhatu Hamza, Librarian, British Council, Nigeria |
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18/02/00 |
Jens Vinvad, Senior Adviser, Kari Christensen, Assistant Director, Kirsten Engelstad, Librarian, Carol Van Nuys, Librarian, National Library of Norway |
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03/02/00 |
Matthew Dovey, Client Server Development, Oxford University Libraries Automation Service |
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27/01/00 |
Earle Gow, Chief Librarian, La Trobe University Library, Australia |
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21/01/00 |
Roger Stratton-Smith, Head of Museums, Archives & Libraries Education Branch, Department for Culture, Media & Sport |
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19/01/00 |
Peter Brophy, Director & Chair in Information Management, CERLIM |
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13/01/00 |
Diane Vizine-Gotez, Research Scientist, OCLC, USA |
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12/01/00 |
Jane Williams, Head of JISC ASSIST, Computing Service, University of Bristol |
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07/01/00 |
Pat Crocker, Education Specialist, IT Consultancy Services |
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15/12/99 |
Ann O'Brien, Lecturer, Department of Information Science, Loughborough University |
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06/12/99 |
Rosalind Johnson, Consultant, Strategy & Planning Team, Resource |
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26/11/99 |
Jenny Walker, Consultant, SilverPlatter |
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24/11/99 |
Dennis Nicholson, Director of Research, Directorate of Information Strategy, Strathclyde University |
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12/11/99 |
Kate Sayer, Director, Sayer Vincent |
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09/11/99 |
Eric Davies, Department of Information & Library Studies, Loughborough University |
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29/10/99 |
David Dawson, Senior Adviser, Learning & Information Society Team, Resource |
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29/10/99 |
Louise Smith, Director, MDA Europe |
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29/10/99 |
Chris Batt, Director of Learning & Information Society Team, Resource |
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15/10/99 |
Debbie Campbell, Manager Infrastructure Project, Co-ordination Support Branch, Australia |
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11/10/99 |
Professor Akbulut, Head of Library & Information Studies, Ankara University, Turkey |
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23/08/99 |
Michael Heaney, Associate Director, SAPP, Bodleian Library |
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18/08/99 |
Judith Pearce, Web Services Branch, National Library of Australia |