EEVL

and the result will be what appears immediately below:

The above is a ‘live’ feed of the latest 15 records which have been added to EEVL’s Internet Resources Catalogue. It will automatically change every time a new record is added to the catalogue. This sort of news feed might be useful for inclusion in an intranet, or a departmental or faculty Web site, or in a library Web site.

To show the new EEVL News feed, I will include the following HTML code into this Ariadne article:

<!–News from the EEVL Service - RSS–>
<script type=“text/javascript” src=
“http://www.rdn.ac.uk/rss/viewer/?rss=http://www.eevl.ac.uk/rss/latest-news.rss">
</script>
<!–End RSS –>

Using these two RSS feeds allows EEVL to distribute news about the new records being added to the Internet Resource Catalogue, plus news about the service. These developments will shortly be reflected in a redesigned ‘News’ section on the EEVL site.

For those who might want to know more about RSS in general, UKOLN maintain a RSS-xpress site which provides an RSS channel editor and a directory of UK RSS channels.

Other News

There is a new feature on EEVL’s Websites Search Engine. This search engine searches the full text of the Web pages of the sites listed in the EEVL Catalogue of quality Internet resources in engineering, mathematics and computing. The Websites search engine therefore allows more in-depth searches than the EEVL Catalogue, and is a useful fall-back for instances where no results are found in the EEVL Catalogue.

The new feature is that each search result now includes a link to the EEVL record which was originally gathered by the search robot. As an example, searching the Websites Search Engine for the word ‘landfill’ results in a number of hits. One of these is:

The above result indicates that the word ‘landfill’ will be found (nine times as indicated in the ‘score’) on the page http://www.can.ltd.uk/geotech/quarry.htm and that this page was ‘gathered’ or harvested, for the Websites search engine, from the EEVL Catalogue record for CAN Ltd.

EEVL’s two specialist databases, the JET Impingement Database and the Liquid Crystal Database, have recently been incorporated into the standard EEVL site.

As mentioned in the last issue of Ariadne, scoping of community-based services in engineering and mathematics is continuing. If you are interested in taking part in focus groups to discuss engineering community services, please contact the EEVL Hub Development Officer, Malcolm Moffat, at M.Moffat@hw.ac.uk.

New Virtual Training Suite tutorials for Further Education

Building on the success of the 40 higher education tutorials launched last year, new “teach yourself” Web tutorials aimed specifically at users in further education have been launched. These tutorials have been written by FE practitioners from colleges around the UK. Three of these new tutorials cover subjects relevant to EEVL. They are: Internet for Construction, Internet for Engineering (General and Automotive) and Internet for Information and Communication Technology.

The tutorials offer step-by-step instruction in Internet searching and information skills, such as critical evaluation. Online quizzes and interactive exercises lighten the learning experience and there is a glossary of Internet terms and a “Links Basket” to collect a personal list of useful Web links.

SearchLT Engineering

In the last issue of Ariadne I reported on the new SearchLT Engineering service which is helping lecturers select and access learning and teaching resources. I also explained how SearchLT is automatically cross-searched from the Engineering Section of EEVL. A number of new records have since been added to SearchLT, and a press release detailing the service is now available. The FAILTE Team, who developed SearchLT, are currently evaluating the service and collating the responses they have received from academics. This will shortly be published as a report.

Record response to EEVL’s £7,500 book give-away

The response to EEVL’s recent Free Book Promotion was fantastic. At more than 12,500, the number of entries was more than double that of last years’ equivalent event, which itself was commended in the LA/Emerald PR & Marketing Awards 2001. Books are now being sent to the winners by the publishers.

EEVL would like to thank all entrants, everyone who helped by distributing fliers, and also the following sponsors for their support: Butterworth-Heinemann, Kluwer, Pearson, Springer, Taylor & Francis, Wiley, Computer Bulletin, Engineering magazine, E2 the career guide, and Mathematics Today.

A press release about the promotion is available.

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