Web Magazine for Information Professionals

News and Events

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

Seminar Invitation from DEF - Danish Electronic Research Library

The DEF XML Web Services project invites you to participate in the seminar: Building Digital Libraries with XML Web Services on Friday 27 August 2004 from 9:30 to 16:00 at the Technical University of Denmark, Building 303, DK-2800 Lyngby.

The headlines of the seminar are:

§ Setting the scene: XML - tools, visions, initiatives
- Introduction to XML and Open Source Web Services
- The National Danish initiatives: XML Project, Enterprise IT
- Architecture, Infostructure Database etc.
- The DEF XML Web Services Initiative

§ Fedora: Digital Library Architecture Meets XML and Web Services
- Fedora: A Repository Architecture Built with XML and Web Services
- Fedora: Digital Library Use Cases and Applications
- The DEF Fedora Pilot Projects

Among the speakers are Sandra Payette, Cornell University and Thornton Staples, University of Virginia, who are prime developers of the Fedora system, a general-purpose digital object repository system that demonstrates how distributed digital library architecture can be deployed using Web-based technologies, including XML and Web services.

Please see the full seminar programme with registration form at http://defxws.cvt.dk/events/seminar040827/

[Received: July 2004]
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Digital Resources for the Humanities Conference 2004 Sunday 5th to Wednesday 8th September 2004, University of Newcastle

This is DRH’s ninth annual conference. Its goal is to bring together the creators, users, distributors, and custodians of digital resources in the humanities. Speakers are from the UK and mainland Europe, the USA, and Australia.

1. A poster competition is being run with the prize of a digital camera going to the best poster at the conference. Those wishing to demonstrate their projects, software, research or other aspect of digital resources in the humanities can do so by entering a poster at: http://drh2004.ncl.ac.uk/proposals.php

2. The early bird prices for registering for the conference end on 31st July, so book now to save = £25 per delegate http://drh2004.ncl.ac.uk/

3. The reserved accommodation we have made available online through the Newcastle-Gateshead Convention Bureau is available only until Sunday 8th August. Note that accommodation must be booked separately from the conference registration. http://drh2004.visitnewcastlegateshead.com/

The 2004 Conference aims to address some of the key emerging themes and strategic issues that engagement with ICT is bringing to humanities computing and scholarly research. Themes for 2004 include:

  1. Methods in humanities computing.
  2. Cross-sector exchange between heritage, national and local government, and education bodies.
  3. Broadening the humanities computing base.
  4. New forms of scholarly publication.

In addition to refereed papers, the conference includes Posters, an Exhibition and a social programme. Full details of the programme on http://drh2004.ncl.ac.uk/programme.php

To register for the conference, please use the registration form on the Web site: http://drh2004.ncl.ac.uk/registration.php

Other enquiries to can be addressed to drh@ncl.ac.uk

[Received: July 2004]
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Third DELOS International Summer School on Digital Library Technologies (ISDL 2004), 6-10 September 2004, Pisa, Italy

The DELOS Network of Excellence is pleased to announce its Third International Summer School on Digital Library Technologies (ISDL 2004) to be held in Pisa, Italy, on September 6-10, 2004. This edition of the School will focus on “User-Centred Design of Digital Libraries”.

The DELOS Network of Excellence is an initiative funded by the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission, within the Work Programme of the Information Society Technologies, (please see http://www.delos.info/).

Aims and Objectives

The main purpose of the DELOS Summer School is to foster research in and understanding of the fundamental technologies underlying the Digital Libraries field. It is directed towards graduate students and young researchers and professionals involved in R&D in DL-related areas. No particular qualifications or pre-requisites are necessary.

Course Programme

The one-week intensive course will consist of nine half-day lectures and one half-day dedicated to BOF (Birds of a Feather) sessions. The preliminary programme for the School is shown below:

Monday, 6 September 2004
8:30 - 9:00
Presentation of the School
Costantino Thanos (IEI-CNR, Italy)
9:00 - 12:30
Introduction to Digital Libraries and User-Centred Design
Tiziana Catarci (Universita’ di Roma “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy)
Yannis Ioannidis (University of Athens, Athens, Greece)
14:00 - 17:30
Archives’ User Needs
Mariella Guercio (University of Urbino, Urbino, Italy)

Tuesday, 7 September 2004
9:00 - 12:30
Personalization (1)
Barry Smyth (University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland)
14:00 - 17:30
Personalization (2)
TO BE CONFIRMED

Wednesday, 8 September 2004
9:00 - 12:30
Museums’ User Needs
TO BE CONFIRMED
14:00 - 17:30
Birds of a Feather (BOF) Sessions

Thursday, 9 September 2004
9:00 - 12:30
User Needs and Digital Libraries Design (1)
Rudi Schmiede (Darmstadt U. of Technol., Darmstadt, Germany)
14:00 - 17:30
User Needs and Digital Libraries Design (2)
Rudi Schmiede (Darmstadt U. of Technol., Darmstadt, Germany)

Friday, 10 September 2004
9:00 - 12:30
User Interfaces (1)
Alan Dix (Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK)
14:00 - 17:30
User Interfaces (2)
Alan Dix (Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK)

Accommodation and Venue The School will be held in Pisa in the beautiful Conference Centre of Santa Croce in Fossabanda, an ancient monastery dating from the 14th century recently renovated, fifteen minutes walking distance from the center of the city.

Registration and accommodation information can be found at the DELOS Web site, (http://www.delos.info/) in the list of events.

[Received: June 2004]
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European Conference on Digital Libraries 2004 Open for Business

The full programme is now available and registration is open for the European Conference on Digital Libraries 2004 (ECDL 2004)

ECDL 2004 takes place at the University of Bath,UK on September 12-17 2004 and is anticipating more than 250 participants.

ECDL 2004 is the 8th in the series of European Digital Library Conferences. ECDL has become the major European forum focusing on digital libraries and associated technical, organisational and social issues.

For the full programme and to register for the conference, tutorials and workshops please visit: http://www.ecdl2004.org/

[Received: July 2004]
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Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt Am Main : 4th Frankfurt Scientific Symposium, 4-5 October 2004

The 4th International Scientific Symposium ICICOM, 4-5 October 2004 is entitled: “What is literacy? What is information? What is knowledge?” .

Programme: http://www.stub.uni-frankfurt.de/messe/symposium2004/veranstaltungskalender.htm

This Symposium is sponsored by Lib-IT GmbH, Sisis Informationssysteme GmbH, Stephan Froehder, Swets Information Services GmbH, U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Germany.

It goes without saying that reliable selection, processing and provision of information for research and teaching purposes are amongst the most important tasks of modern knowledge management in universities and industry. University libraries are thus exercising their core competence towards guaranteeing the future by supporting studies and science with the provision of specific information services and creating the fundamental pre-requisite for the work carried out there.

The aim of the Symposium is to discuss methods on how to handle subject-specific content efficiently, in order to ensure essential media competency in all areas of science and industry. At the heart of the discussion should be the specific role of the librarian which, in comparison with other sectors in information management, is not a closed book yet.

This year’s Symposium seeks to clarify the role of libraries and colleagues in the changing world of information management.

Dr. Andreas Werner: werner@stub.uni-frankfurt.de, Tel.: (069) 212-39-355

[Received: July 2004]
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EURBICA Conference on the DTDs EAD (Encoded Archival Description) and EAC (Encoded Archival Context), : 7 and 8 October 2004, Paris

Following the seminar held 2 years ago in the conference room of the National Library of France, (on the application of the EAD DTD for cultural heritage purposes in archives and in libraries), the Directorate of the Archives of France is organising a European Conference on 7th and 8th October 2004 on data-processing software for encoding research aids for archives and authority data into XML (Extensible Markup Language). The last European Conference on the subject took place at the Public Record Office in Kew, in October 1999.

Since 2001 another DTD, EAC (Encoded Archival Context), has been developed simultaneously. Perfectly compatible with the International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families ISAAR(CPF), and complementary to the UNIMARC/Authorities format, the EAC combines bibliographic authority records and archival authority records, which give information both about the creator and the context of creation of archival material. The Beta version of EAC Tag Library should shortly become available.

Tests have been done on the conversion of authority data into EAC/XML format, in particular within the LEAF project (Linking and Exploring Authority Files): local authority data will be downloaded from the local servers of the participating organisations to a central system which links automatically the authorities belonging to the same entity.

The participants will present their research results and ideas on different issues:

 

The European seminar will be held at the conference room of the Musée national des Arts et Traditions Populaires (MNATP), 6 avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, 75016 Paris

There will be translation in English and French.

The registration is free. N.B. registration is mandatory because of the limited seating capacity of the MNATP’s conference room (300 seats).

Further information: http://www.ica.org/calendrier.php?pcalendrierid=211&plangue=eng
Contact: maryline.wasikowski@culture.gouv.fr

[Received: May 2004]
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Internet Librarian International 2004 Returns to London

The 6th annual Internet Librarian International Conference will take place over 10-12 October at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel, London. The conference, designed for information professionals and librarians who are using, developing, and implementing Internet, intranet, and Web-based strategies in their daily work, is sub-titled “Access, Architecture & Action: Strategies for the New Digital World”.

For further information: Internet Librarian International 2004 http://www.internet-librarian.com/
Programme: http://www.internet-librarian.com/Programme.shtml

[Received: July 2004]
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“Towards an Information Society for All 4” - Bucarest, 14-15 October 2004

The British Council, Great Britain’s international cultural organisation, will be holding an international conference on European Information Society issues in Bucarest / Romania on 14 and 15 October 2004. This event is the fourth in the series of conferences themed “Towards an Information Society for All (TISA)”.

The special focus of TISA4 will be “Better lives, better communities”. It will mainly be looking at sustainable and replicable community projects that helped to improve the citizens’ quality of life by using information and communication tools. Previous events have been held in Paris, Bologna and Berlin. Information on this series as well as registration can be found at http://www.britishcouncil.ro/tisa/

Guido Jansen
Head, Information
British Council Germany
Email: guido.jansen@britishcouncil.de
Web site:http://www.britishcouncil.de

The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational and cultural relations. Registered in England as a charity.

[Received: July 2004]
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3rd International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2004)

Sunday, November 7 - Thursday, November 11, 2004
Hiroshima Prince Hotel, Hiroshima, Japan
http://iswc2004.semanticweb.org/

ISWC2004 is the major international forum at which research on the Semantic Web is presented. The vision of the Semantic Web is to make the contents of the Web unambiguously computer-interpretable, enabling the automation of a diversity of tasks currently performed by human beings. The goal of providing semantics and automated reasoning capabilities for the Web draws upon research in a broad range of areas including Artificial Intelligence, Databases, Software Engineering, Distributed Computing and Information Systems.

Contributions to date have included languages for semantic annotation of Web documents, automated reasoning capabilities for Web languages, ontologies, query and view languages, semantic translation of Web contents, semantic integration middleware, technologies and principles for building multi-agent and Grid systems, semantic interoperation of programs and devices, technologies and principles for describing, searching and composing Web Services, and more.

The conference comprises a research track, an industrial track and a poster track, as well as exhibitions, demos, semantic web challenge, and other events.

Early Registration Deadline: Tuesday 31 August 2004

The on-line registration site has been opened: https://j-click.jtb.co.jp/registrye/registrye.asp?id=0292

[Received: July 2004]
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Holiday in Berlin?

5th Languages & the Media - International Conference for Languages in the Audio-Visual Media
November 3 - 5, 2004, Hotel InterContinental, Berlin
http://www.languages-media.com/

17th EXPOLINGUA Berlin - International Fair for Languages & Culture
November 12 - 14, 2004, Russisches Haus der Wissenschaft und Kultur, Berlin
http://www.expolingua.com/

10th Online Educa Berlin - International Conference for Technology Supported Learning and Training
December 1 - 3, 2004, Hotel InterContinental, Berlin
http://www.online-educa.com/

[Received: July 2004]
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Internet Scout Pathfinding New Software to Handle Data on Resources

The Internet Scout Project, a research centre at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, has recently released version 1.1.1 of its free open source software package CWIS (Collection Workflow Integration System).

CWIS is software to assemble, organise, and share collections of data about resources, like Yahoo or Google Directory but conforming to international and academic standards for metadata. CWIS was specifically created to help build collections of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) resources and connect them into NSF’s National Science Digital Library, but can be (and is being) used for a wide variety of other purposes.

A few of the features of CWIS include:

CWIS requires a Web server that supports PHP and MySQL. The software is designed for a LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP) platform, but is also being run on OS X, Solaris, and FreeBSD. Internet Scout Project estimates that in a compatible environment, it normally takes less than ten minutes to get CWIS installed and running.

More information can be found and a copy of CWIS downloaded at: http://scout.wisc.edu/Projects/CWIS/

Questions about CWIS can be sent to: cwissupport@scout.wisc.edu

CWIS development is being funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. The project builds upon previous work on the Scout Portal Toolkit, which was developed under a grant from the Mellon Foundation.

The Internet Scout Project Team invites feedback.

[Received: 6 May 2004]
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SAGE Publications Launches Advanced Journal Platform with Stanford’s HighWire Press

SAGE Publications have announced the development of its new online search platform. Powered by Stanford University’s HighWire Press, the new platform will launch in September 2004. The platform will host all SAGE journals in both the social sciences and STM disciplines, providing institutions with premier search technology, toll-free linking features, a social science specific taxonomy, and enhanced subscription options for their journal collections.

They state that the new platform will dramatically enhance the functionality of SAGE online journals. HighWire features are developed with constant feedback from librarians and readers and provide flexible and customisable searching, browsing by topic based on peer-reviewed subject taxonomies, PDA downloading options, and a high level of reader customization such as favourite journals, linking tools, search re-execution and e-mail alerts.

Further information about HighWire Press:
http://highwire.stanford.edu/about/

Further information about SAGE:
http://www.sagepublications.com/about.htm

[Received: 4 June 2004]
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Library of Congress Funds Advanced Research into Preservation of Digital Materials with NSF

The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program of the Library of Congress (NDIIPP) is partnering with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish the first research grants programme to address specifically the preservation of digital materials. NSF will administer the programme, which will fund cutting-edge research to support the long-term management of digital information.This effort is part of the Library’s collaborative programme to implement a national digital preservation strategy.

The research program announcement coincides with a memorandum of understanding between the LoC and NSF to collaborate over the next decade in a broad set of research activities related to digital libraries and digital archives.

The new Digital Archiving and Long-Term Preservation research programme, which expects to make to make approximately $2 million in initial awards using NDIIPP funds, has three main focus areas for which proposals are sought:

The NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, Division of Information and Intelligent Systems, will issue a call for proposals shortly; see NSF Web site at http://www.cise.nsf.gov/div/index.cfm?div=iis for current information.

The complete text of the “Plan for the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program” is available at http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/

This includes an explanation of how the plan was developed, whom the Library worked with to develop the plan and the key components of the digital preservation infrastructure. The plan was approved by Congress in December 2002.

Report from the national-level multisector interdisciplinary workshop convened by the Library and the National Science Foundation in April 2002:
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/index.php?nav=3&subnav=11

The NSF Digital Government Research Program:
http://www.digitalgovernment.org/

NSF-led Digital Libraries Initiative (1994-2004):
http://www.dli2.nsf.gov/

NSF-administered National Science Digital Library:
http://www.nsdl.org/

Library of Congress National Digital Library (NDL) Program:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/dli2/html/lcndlp.html

Digital Archiving and Long-Term Preservation (DIGARCH):
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04592/nsf04592.htm

[Received: 14 June 2004]
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Archive of Medical Journals to be Made Freely Available on the Internet

The Wellcome Trust, in partnership with the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), and the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) are joining forces to digitise the complete backfiles of a number of important and historically significant medical journals. The digitised content will be made freely available on the Internet - via PubMed Central and augment the content already available there.

With funding of £1.25 million (£750,000 from the Trust, £500,000 from the JISC) the project plans to digitise around 1.7 million pages of text. The NLM will manage the project, host the archive and ensure that the digital files are preserved in perpetuity.

The list of journals to be digitised will include the Annals of Surgery, Biochemical Journal, Journal of Physiology and Medical History. Digitisation will commence in Summer 2004 and the first titles will be online early in 2005.

In addition to creating a digital copy of every page in the backfiles, the digitisation process will also create a PDF file for every discrete item (article, editorial, letter, advertisements etc.) in the archive, and use optical character recognition (OCR) technology to generate searchable text.

Although the project focuses on digitising backfiles, publishers will also include new issues of the selected journals on an ongoing basis subject to an embargo period, as defined by each participating publisher.

The Medical Journals Backfiles Digitisation Project is one of six digitisation projects with funding for the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE). The overall programme, being managed by JISC, represents a total investment of some £10m to be applied to delivering high quality content online, including sound, moving pictures, census data and still images for long-term use by the further and higher education communities in the UK.

Further information about this project can be found at http://library.wellcome.ac.uk/node280.html

[Received: 28 June 2004]
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Results Available from the Gabriel/The European Library User Survey

Results of a survey among the users of the Gabriel Web Service (http://www.kb.nl/gabriel/) are now available. Gabriel is the joint Web service of the 43 European national libraries.

The results of the user survey are available at http://www.kb.nl/gabriel/surveys/results2003/

Background to the User Survey

The user survey was available on the Gabriel website between 16th April until 16th July 2003. It was conducted on behalf of the TEL Project (http://www.europeanlibrary.org) which laid the foundations for a new pan-European online service to search and retrieve the collections of the national libraries in Europe, both printed and digital.

De Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands, is currently developing the TEL project results into an operational service called ‘The European Library’. It will be launched at the beginning of 2005. Gabriel will be incorporated into The European Library and will therefore disappear as a separate Web service.

Aims of the User Survey

This survey was designed to obtain a better profile of the users of Gabriel and their future needs. The users of Gabriel are considered an important target group for The European Library. In total 560 people from across Europe responded to the questionnaire.

This report gives insight into the background of the respondents (e.g. age, education), their use of the Internet, their use of the Gabriel Web site and their opinions of the site. The respondents were also asked if they would use a shared catalogue of all the national libraries in Europe if that were to be created.

Further information:

Gabriel Web site: http://www.kb.nl/gabriel/
Or contact :
Olaf Janssen, Gabriel Editor
Koninklijke Bibliotheek - National Library of the Netherlands
olaf.janssen@kb.nl

[Received: 7 July 2004]
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Three New Open Access / OAI Articles and Reports

Gerry McKiernan, Associate Professor and Science and Technology Librarian and Bibliographer at Iowa State University Library announced the availability of three major publications relating to Open Access and the Open Archives Initiative:

[I] “Open Archives Initiative Data Providers. Part II: Science and Technology,”
Library Hi Tech News 21, no. 5Three New Open Access / OAI Articles and Reports (June 2004): 22-30. Self-archived at:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~gerrymck/OAI-DP-II.pdf (accessed 7 July 2004).

Bioline
[ http://www.bioline.org.br/ ]

CERN Document Server (CDS)
[ http://cds.cern.ch/ ]

Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE)
[ http://www.dlese.org/dds/index.jsp ]

Organic Eprints
[ http://orgprints.org/ ]

[II] “Gaining Independence with E-Print Archives and OAI: Report on the 2nd Workshop on the Open Archives Initiative,
October 17-19, 2002, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland,” Journal of Internet Cataloging 6, no. 3 (2003) [2004]: 35-52.
Self-archived at: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~gerrymck/OAI-WS-02.pdf (accessed 7 July)

Gerry advised that in addition to a detailed description and summary of individual presentations and reports, a bibliography of ‘Related Readings, Reports, and Resources’ was compiled and appended to the formal workshop report.

[III] News from the Field,” Journal of Internet Cataloging 6, no. 3 (2003) [2004]: 61-80. Self-archived at:
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~gerrymck/NEWSv6n3.pdf (accessed 7 July 2004).

In this latest news column, numerous Open Access and Open Archives Initiative programmes, projects, and publications were profiled.

[Received: 7 July 2004]
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EC Reports on SEPIADES - a multi-level data element set to catalogue photographic collections

The European Commission on Preservation and Access (ECPA) has just published the report ‘SEPIADES: Cataloguing photographic collections’. It aims to provide background information on the SEPIADES (SEPIA Data Element Set) advisory report and software tool that were developed in the framework of the SEPIA Programme. For information on SEPIA (Safeguarding European Photographic Images for Access) see http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa/sepia/

SEPIADES is a multi-level data element set to catalogue photographic collections. Apart from 21 core elements, it contains many suggestions for use of specific, detailed elements. The report explains about the motives behind SEPIADES, providing an introduction to both the model and the software tool. It is aimed at all those involved in cataloguing photographic collections, both cataloguers and decision makers.

Copies of the report can be downloaded from the ECPA Web site free of charge, see http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa/publications.html

For SEPIA publications see http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa/sepia/publications.html

[Received: 8 July 2004]
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Version 54, Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography Available

Charles W. Bailey, Jr., Assistant Dean for Digital Library Planning and Development, University of Houston Libraries, advises that Version 54 of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography is now available. This selective bibliography presents over 2,150 articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet.

HTML: http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html

Acrobat: http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.pdf

The HTML document is designed for interactive use. Each major section is a separate file. There are links to sources that are freely available on the Internet. It can be can be searched using Boolean operators.

The HTML document includes three sections not found in the Acrobat file:

(1) Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog (bi-weekly list of new resources; also available by mailing list–see second URL) [http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepw.htm] [http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepwlist.htm]

(2) Scholarly Electronic Publishing Resources (directory of over 270 related Web sites) http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepr.htm

(3) Archive (prior versions of the bibliography) http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/archive/sepa.htm

The bibliography has the following sections (revised sections are marked with an asterisk):

Table of Contents:

 

Economic Issues*
2 Electronic Books and Texts
     2.1 Case Studies and History*
     2.2 General Works
     2.3 Library Issues*
3  Electronic Serials
     3.1 Case Studies and History
     3.2 Critiques
     3.3 Electronic Distribution of Printed Journals
     3.4 General Works*
     3.5 Library Issues*
     3.6 Research*
4 General Works*
5 Legal Issues
     5.1 Intellectual Property Rights*
     5.2 Licence Agreements*
     5.3 Other Legal Issues
6  Library Issues
     6.1 Cataloguing, Identifiers, Linking, and Metadata*
     6.2 Digital Libraries*
     6.3 General Works*
     6.4 Information Integrity and Preservation*
7 New Publishing Models*
8 Publisher Issues*
     8.1 Digital Rights Management
9 Repositories, E-Prints, and OAI*
Appendix A. Related Bibliographies
Appendix B. About the Author

 

Scholarly Electronic Publishing Resources includes the following sections:

Cataloguing, Identifiers, Linking, and Metadata
Digital Libraries
Electronic Books and Texts
Electronic Serials
General Electronic Publishing
Images
Legal
Preservation
Publishers
Repositories, E-Prints, and OAI
SGML and Related Standards

An article about the bibliography has been published in The Journal of Electronic Publishing:

http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/07-02/bailey.html

[Received: 15 July 2004]
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LibPortal: Access to library resources: A survey and review of library portal activity in HE and FE

Chris Awre writing on behalf of JISC announced that the final report from this study, carried out by LISU at the University of Loughborough, is now available on the JISC Web site at:

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=project_libportal

The introduction indicates the breadth and scope of the report.

The research undertaken for the LibPortal Project is intended to inform the JISC of the current development of library oriented portals in the Higher Education and Further Education sectors. The project reports on the takeup of commercial systems as well as the reasons for institutions deciding to choose an alternative solution. The survey asked questions about integration, access to resources, technical and bureaucratic issues with implementation, promotion and usage of resources. Respondents gave replies relating to both commercial products and to the delivery of other Web-based resources. Additional information was gathered from representatives of HE and FE at a focus group. A survey of users of library portals and Web-based systems was also conducted.

[Received: 15 July 2004]
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New Case Studies on Institution-wide Portals Now Available

Five case studies describing the assessment and implementation of institution-wide portals are now available on the JISC website at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/project_portal_casestudies.html

The case studies cover the uPortal, Oracle and Blackboard platforms, although an emphasis has been made on extracting generic lessons from the processes involved in the assessment and implementation carried out.

A number of the case studies formed the basis for presentations at the recent PEPC 2004 Conference at the University of Nottingham. (Details of these presentations and others will be available via the conference Web site at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pepc2004/). completion.

[Received: 15 July 2004]
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Robots Unlikely to Enforce Payment of Library Fines

Whether this piece counts as ‘silly season’ material is debatable but assumedly this little item from the BBCi site will give pause across the libraries of the nation: one extract: “In the first experiments, the books really got damaged because it was pressing too hard. ….” Perhaps they should be i/c fines collection after all..
See ‘Robots get bookish in libraries’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3897583.stm

[Received: 21 July 2004]
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VNU Exhibitions Europe acquires Library + information Show

VNU Exhibitions Europe, organiser of the Online Information event, has today announced its acquisition of the Library + information Show (LiS) from Resources Exhibitions Ltd (REL). The acquisition follows a joint venture between the two businesses in April of this year which saw VNU’s Total Library Solutions event incorporated into the overall LiS show proposition.

Nigel Clear, Event Director at Resources Exhibitions comments: “The acquisition of LiS by VNU Exhibitions Europe is an extremely positive development for the future of the event…..”

The show will retain its scheduled dates for next year, running from the 20 - 21 April 2005 in the Pavilion Hall at the NEC, Birmingham. This year’s event attracted 2180 visitors when it took place in April at London’s ExCeL.

VNU’s information products include: the Online Information exhibition and conference, Online Information Online, the Content Management Europe exhibition, Information World Review magazine and The Bookseller magazine.

For more information on:
LiS : http://www.lishow.co.uk/
VNU Exhibitions Europe http://www.vnuexhibitions.co.uk/

[Received: 22 July 2004]
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JISC Collections Commissions Market Research Study

The JISC Collections Team is commissioning a market research study. This study will be taking place in the next few weeks and will specifically focus on the attitudes and levels of satisfaction that the JISC Community currently holds towards JISC Collections.

An independent market research agency, Mindset Research, will carry out the study. It will be conducted in accordance with the Code of Conduct of the Market Research Society. This means that the information supplied by respondents will remain confidential to the agency and will only be used for research purposes. At no time during or after the survey will any attempt be made to sell them any products or services as a result of their participation.

As Mindset Research will be contacting a random selection of institutions, not everyone will be contacted in this instance. JISC Collections would greatly appreciate institutions’ participation as feedback is very valuable to the team in its aim to improve the JISC Collection and services continuously.

Further information:
JISC Collections http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=coll

[Received: 22 July 2004]
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JISC-funded report by TSO: Digital Object Identifier for Publishing & the e-Leaning Community

A report by the Stationary Office (TSO) funded by JISC under the PALS Metadata and Interoperability programme is finally available.

The main purpose of this report is to guide and assist development of a JISC digital identifier policy. It is principally aimed at persistent digital identifiers for JISC services, external agencies and JISC digital content publishing programmes.

Further information:
Digital Object Identifiers for Publishing and the e-Learning Community, a report by The Stationery Office, July 2004 http://dx.doi.org/10.1786/430153514841

[Received: 28 July 2004]
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Publication Date: 30-July-2004
Publication: Ariadne Issue 40
Originating URL: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue40/newsline/