Web Magazine for Information Professionals

News and Events

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

Netskills Workshops in May 2005

Web: http://www.netskills.ac.uk/

Netskills will be running the following workshops at North Herts College in Letchworth Garden City in May 2005:

10 May : e-Assessment: Tools & Techniques

Focuses on the tools available for creating e-assessment and the practical techniques required to use them effectively. The tools are considered both in terms of their functionality as well as their interoperability with other systems.

11 May: Design Solutions for e-Learning

This workshop examines how to design pedagogically effective e-learning to enhance traditional forms of teaching and learning.

Full details of these workshops, together with booking forms are available from our events web-site: http://www.netskills.ac.uk/workshops/forthcoming.html

For those seeking a recognised qualification in e-Learning, both workshops may contribute towards a BTEC-accredited Netskills professional development certificate: http://www.netskills.ac.uk/accreditation/

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Public Lecture Series 11 May - 8 June 2005

C21st Curation: working with digital assets in the new millennium; challenges and opportunities

Chris Batt, MLA Chief Executive, leads the inaugural event in new series of high profile, public lectures organised by the School of Library, Archives, and Information Studies, University College London.

The lectures are aimed to raise awareness and interest in digital curation and preservation, and speakers will all be talking about how the need to manage and preserve digital asset impacts on their organisations and disciplines and the challenges and opportunities presented.

11 May

Digital Futures
Chris Batt, Chief Executive of MLA, will discuss the value of digital assets from knowledge institutions and how they will need to revise their activities and philosophies in the light of technical and social change.

18 May

Digital Lives
Neil Beagrie, British Library will discuss the importance of personal digital collections and publishing and their growing impact on institutions and individuals + “Training and Continuous Development for C21st Curators”

Maggie Jones, Executive Secretary of the Digital Preservation Coalition will preview plans for a UK digital preservation training programme and online training materials for those curating digital assets.

1 June

Digital Curation in the 21st Century: challenges and opportunities
Sheila Anderson, Director of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS)

C21st Curation: challenges and opportunities for the British Library
Helen Shenton, Head of Collection Care at The British Library.

Sheila Anderson and Helen Shenton will outline and discuss some of the future challenges and opportunities in digital curation and the care of digital collections using examples from the arts and humanities and The British Library.

8 June

The National Gallery and the Digital Future
Charles Saumarez Smith, Director of the National Gallery

C21st Curation: challenges and opportunities for The National Archives
Sarah Tyacke, Chief Executive of The National Archives.

Charles Saumarez Smith and Sarah Tyacke will outline and discuss some of the future challenges and opportunities for galleries and archives in the care of digital collections. To attend the receptions after any of the above lectures please email: k.michaels@ucl.ac.uk For more information visit: http://www.slais.ucl.ac.uk/press?news=200504111250

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LACASIS Half-Day Programme

Los Angeles Chapter of the American Society for Information Science (LACASIS)
13 May 2005, Los Angeles, USA - 8:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Open Source from a Decision-Maker’s Perspective

Come and learn how several organizations have dealt with Open Source applications. (For background info see: http://www.opensource.org) Christina Salazar of the Getty Library will introduce Open Source software, Elisa Cortez, Reference Librarian/Dentistry Liaison of Loma Linda University Libraries, will discuss DSPACE as a tool for disseminating training videos. Bradley D. Westbrook, Metadata Librarian and Digital Archivist for University of California San Diego Libraries, will focus on the Archivists’ Toolkit, and Erik Y. Adams, Electronic Resources Librarian of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton will present the legal aspects of using Open Source software.

When: Friday, May 13, 2005 - 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Where: The Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles
2141 W. Adams Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90018
http://www.aafla.org/

Cost: Students $25
LACASIS members $32
Non-members $45
Includes Continental breakfast and lunch

Registration is available through the LACASIS Web site: http://www.lacasis.org
Registration deadline is Friday, May 6, 2005.

Participation limited to 45 attendees so please register early.

Schedule:

8:00 a.m. Continental breakfast / registration
8:30 a.m. Opening remarks
8:45 a.m. Intro to Open Source, Christina Salazar
9:15 a.m. DSpace, Elisa Cortezbr /> 10:30 a.m. Archivists’ Toolkit, Bradley Westbrook
11:25 a.m. Legal issues surrounding OpenSource, Erik Adams
12:30 p.m. Lunch

If you have registration questions, please email Belinda Beardt at lacasis@gmail.com

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The 11th INFORUM Conference on Professional Information Resources

24 - 26 May 2005, Prague (Czech Republic)

http://www.inforum.cz/
http://www.inforum.cz/inforum2005/english/

Conference Topics:

The official conference languages are Czech and English (simultaneous translations will be provided).

Call for Participation
To Register Online, please go to our online registration form at http://www.inforum.cz/inforum2005/english/prihlasky.php

For queries contact:
Jana Machonska (INFORUM co-ordinator)
Jana.Machonska@aip.cz

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2nd European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC2005)

29 May to 1 June, 2005 Heraklion, Crete (Greece)
Full programme available http://www.eswc2005.org/

The vision of the Semantic Web is to enhance today’s web via the exploitation of machine-processable meta data. The explicit representation of the semantics of data, accompanied with domain theories (Ontologies), will enable a web that provides a qualitatively new level of service. It will weave together an incredibly large network of human knowledge and will complement it with machine processability. Various automated services will help the user to achieve goals by accessing and providing information in machine-understandable form. This process may ultimately create extremely knowledgeable systems with various specialized reasoning services systems. Many technologies and methodologies are being developed within Artificial Intelligence, Human Language Technology, Machine Learning, Databases, Software Engineering and Information Systems that can contribute towards the realization of this vision.

The 2nd Annual European Semantic Web Conference will present the latest results in research and application in semantic web technologies (including knowledge mark-up languages, semantic web services, ontology management and more). ESWC 2005 will also feature a special industry-oriented event providing European industry with an opportunity to become even more familiar with these technologies. It will offer a tutorial program to get up to speed with European and global developments in this exciting new area.

ESWC 2005 is co-located with a meeting of the Knowledge Web Network of Excellence. Workshops and meetings of other European Commission 6th Framework Programme projects involved in the semantic web and semantic web technologies will be able to showcase their developments.

ESWC 2005 is sponsored by SDK - a group of three European Commission 6th Framework Programme projects known as SEKT, DIP and Knowledge Web. Together these projects aim to improve world-wide research and standardisation in the area of the Semantic Web. For more information on SDK, please visit http://www.sdk-cluster.org .

Conference Topics of Interest and Area Keywords

Topics of interest to the conference include:

Dr. York Sure
Institute AIFB, University of Karlsruhe
Web: http://www.aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de/WBS/ysu/

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Conference/Workshop: Legal Aspects of Online Learning Environments

1-2 June 2005, University of Warwick, UK

Legal issues in education are a growing concern. If it’s not an aggrieved student seeking damages and raising negative publicity, it’s the quality inspection declaring no confidence due to non-compliance.

Yet VLEs and MLEs are often developed on a technology-first, pedagogy-second, anything-else-is-afterthought model. Soon, you may be faced with:

The Legal Aspects of Online Learning Environments Conference/Workshop will deal with these issues head on, giving you:

We’re pleased to have as keynote speakers Dr Anne Wright CBE (DfES E-Learning Strategy Unit) and a Partner from Pinsent Masons Solicitors, experts in technology and tertiary education law.

For further details, visit http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/events/06_OLE_Warwick.htm

For a digest of IT Law relevant to FE and HE, subscribe to JISC-LEGAL-NEWS - see details at http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/newsletter.html

JISC Legal
Learning Services
University of Strathclyde
E-mail: info@jisclegal.ac.uk

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DELOS Summer School 2005

5-11 June 2005
INRIA, Sophia Antipolis, France

At its Scientific Board Meeting of July 2004 in Corvara it was agreed that DELOS should run a summer school on ‘Digital Preservation in Digital Libraries’. The school will take place at Sophia Antipolis (near Nice and Antibes in the South of France). We hope that the audience will be young researchers and professionals with an interest in the topic. Internationally established lecturers will each lead one half-day session and most will be available through the week for further discussion.

Further information about the programme, course fees and registration can be found at http://www.dpc.delos.info/registration/

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The JCDL 2005 Programme is now available

http://www.jcdl2005.org/program.html

7-11 June 2005
Denver, Colorado, USA
http://www.jcdl2005.org/

The programme committee reviewed over 270 submissions, and accepted 32 full papers, 27 short papers, 3 panels, 8 tutorials, 5 workshops and over 60 posters and demonstrations. In support of the conference theme, sessions have been organized into three tracks:

The JCDL 2005 workshops are currently seeking papers and participants. Read the CFP’s http://www.jcdl2005.org/workshops.html

The JCDL 2005 tutorials are currently seeking participants. Read the abstracts http://www.jcdl2005.org/tutorials.html

Registration fees have been posted: http://www.jcdl2005.org/registration.html
International attendees: For visa documentation support, please contact Ginger Ignatoff at Ignatoff@hq.acm.org

Important Dates
9 May 2005: Advance registration closes
10 May 2005: Late Registration fees begin; online reservation still open
15 May 2005: Camera-ready papers due for the Doctoral Consortium
25 May 2005: Last day to cancel and receive an 80% refund on registration; No refunds will be issued after this date.
31 May 2005: Online registration closes; Onsite registration available at the conference

Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL) 2005
Digital Libraries: Cyberinfrastructure for Research and Education
7-11 June 2005
Denver, Colorado, USA
http://www.jcdl2005.org/
Contact: info@jcdl2005.org

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Symposium on Intellectual Property

Pirates, Thieves and Innocents:
Perceptions of Copyright Infringement in the Digital Age

16-17 June 2005
Adelphi, Maryland, USA
Hosted by University of Maryland University College
http://www.umuc.edu/cip/symposium/

Theme: Exploring the ways in which we think and talk about copyright infringement in our digital age; focusing on issues relevant to the higher education community and the delivery of third-party copyrighted content.

Registration: Early registration ends May 16, 2005. Space is limited. https://nighthawk.umuc.edu/CIPReg.nsf/Application?OpenForm. Some affiliation discounts apply.

Agenda: Visit http://www.umuc.edu/cip/symposium/agenda.html to see the topics to be addressed by our speakers and panelists who are experts in their fields.

Roster: Speakers/panelists are available at http://www.umuc.edu/cip/symposium/speakers.html.

Entertainment: DC After Dark Tour – Have dinner in DC and then see some of the city’s monuments and memorials. Details at: http://www.umuc.edu/cip/symposium/DC_After_Dark.html.

Sponsor: the Center for Intellectual Property http://www.umuc.edu/cip/

Jack Boeve
University of Maryland University College Center for Intellectual Property
jboeve@umuc.edu

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Digital Curation Centre (DCC) Workshop on Persistent Identifiers

30 June - 1 July 2005
Wolfson Medical Building, University of Glasgow,UK

The persistent identification of digital information can play a vital role in enabling its long-term accessibility and re-use. In recent years, there have been fragmented attempts to define a set of basic requirements for persistently identifying digital information. In an attempt to build upon the results of previous events and to help coordinate future efforts, the Digital Curation Centre, the National Information Standards Organization (NISO), the Electronic Resource Preservation and Access Network (ERPANET), and the Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards (CETIS) are working together to deliver a series of related events which will aim to establish wider agreement of some common requirements for creating globally unique, persistent identifiers.

Further information about the programme, course fees and registration can be found at http://www.dcc.ac.uk/piworkshop.html

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Digital Curation Centre (DCC) Workshop on Long-term Curation within Digital Repositories

6 July 2005
Møller Centre, Cambridge, UK

Digital repositories have become an increasingly recognised means of digitally archiving and enabling access to digital information. The long-term survival, value and usability of the information stored within digital repositories depends on numerous criteria such as the formats selected for storage, the capture of associated metadata, proactive preservation measures, and the perceived trust in the repository itself. This event will focus on practical tools and approaches that are currently being used or developed to assist with the long-term curation of digital information within digital repositories. In particular, this event will examine ingest processes, description of digital information, preservation activity and certification efforts and how they can impact the long-term usability of digital information.

Further information about the programme, course fees and registration can be found at http://www.dcc.ac.uk/drworkshop.html

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DCC and DPC Joint Workshop on Digital Curation Cost Models

26 July 2005
British Library, London

Usable and practical cost models are essential for long-term, sustainable digital curation efforts. The Digital Curation Centre and the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) are pleased to announce a joint one-day workshop to explore some of the current work being done on establishing cost models. Case studies outlining practical examples of cost models currently being developed and overviews of international research activities will be presented during the course of this event.

Further information about the programme, course fees and registration can be found at http://www.dcc.ac.uk/cmworkshop.html

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DC-2005 - Vocabularies in Practice

DC-2005 - the fifth in a series of conferences will examine the practicalities of maintaining and using controlled sets of terms (“vocabularies”) in the context of the Web.

DC-2005 aims at bringing together several distinct communities of vocabulary users:

These diverse communities share common problems, from the use of identifiers for terms to practices for developing, maintaining, versioning, translating, and adapting standard vocabularies for specific local needs.

Topics

Topics of particular relevance include:

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Libraries Without Walls 6: Evaluating the distributed delivery of library services

16 - 20 September 2005
Lesvos, Greece
http://www.cerlim.ac.uk/conf/lww6/

An international conference organised by CERLIM - The Centre for Research in Library and Information Management

To be held on the Aegean Island of Lesvos, Greece, at the Delphinia hotel, Molyvos http://www.molyvoshotel.com/eng/hotel.htm

16 - 20 September 2005 Cost GBP 450 (including accommodation for four nights)

Keynote speaker: Sue McKnight, Director of Libraries and Knowledge Resources, Nottingham Trent University, UK, and formerly of Deakin University, Australia

From their beginnings in 1995, the Libraries without Walls conferences have mapped a major change in the practice of librarianship. While library services are still concerned to provide users with physical access to their buildings, electronic access, often from remote locations, is becoming ever more dominant. Papers presented at previous LWW conferences have mapped this change and provided examples of how libraries are pushing out the frontiers of their services.

In 2005 we intend to take a different approach. We want to ask the question, ‘How do we know whether these new services are having a positive impact on our users?’. We are therefore inviting papers on the following themes:

Papers will be published by Facet Publishing in the LWW Conference Proceedings series.

For further information please visit the website at http://www.cerlim.ac.uk/conf/lww6/

All enquiries should be addressed to the organisers:

Libraries Without Walls 6 Conference
Centre for Research in Library & Information Management (CERLIM)
UK
Email: LWW-6@mmu.ac.uk

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Digital Futures: From Digitisation to Delivery

Digital Futures: from digitisation to delivery, a 5-day training event on creation, delivery and preservation of digital resources will be held over 26-30 September 2005 in London, UK.

King’s College London and OCLC-PICA are pleased to announce that in September 2005 the second Digital Futures training event will be held in London.

Led by experts of international renown, Digital Futures will focus on the creation, delivery and preservation of digital resources from cultural and memory institutions. Lasting five days, Digital Futures is aimed at managers and other practitioners from the library, museum, heritage and cultural sectors looking to understand the strategic and management issues of developing digital resources from digitisation to delivery.

Digital Futures will include visits with the National Gallery and another major cultural organisation (to be confirmed) to view their respective digital activities.

Digital Futures will cover the following core areas:

Digital Futures aims for no more than 30 delegates and every delegate will have the opportunity to also spend one-on-one time with a Digital Futures leader to discuss issues specific to them. Digital Futures will issue a certificate of achievement to each delegate.

Digital Futures leaders are Simon Tanner, Marilyn Deegan and Tom Clareson:

Simon Tanner is Director of King’s Digital Consultancy Services
Marilyn Deegan is Director of Research Development for the Centre for Computing in the Humanities
Tom Clareson is Manager, Education & Planning, Digital Collection & Preservation Services Division, OCLC Inc.
The Digital Futures leaders have over 40 years of experience in the digital realm between them. Other experts are invited to speak in their areas of expertise.

Cost: £750 (excluding VAT and accommodation)
Venue: King’s College London
Dates: 26-30 September 2005

To register interest, find more information and to receive a registration form, please contact Gillian McLeod at OCLC-PICA.
Email: g.mcleod@oclcpica.org
Phone: 0121 456 7743

For information on the curriculum contact Simon Tanner at King’s College London.
Email: s.tanner@kcl.ac.uk
Phone: 07793 403542

See http://www.kcl.ac.uk/kdcs/digifutures.htm for more information

Digital Futures is a joint venture between King’s College London and OCLC- PICA. It is run by King’s Digital Consultancy Services and the Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King’s College London.


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1st International Digital Curation Conference

29-30 September 2005
Hilton Bath City, Bath, UK

The UK Digital Curation Centre (DCC) is pleased to announce the dates of the 1st International Digital Curation Conference which will be held at the Hilton Bath City 29th-30th September 2005.

The Digital Curation Centre (DCC) is jointly funded by the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) and the EPSRC (Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council) on behalf of the UK Research Councils. The DCC provides a focus on research into digital curation expertise and best practice for the storage, management and preservation of digital information to enable its use and reuse over time.

The overarching aim of the DCC is to provide leadership in digital curation and data preservation. The conference will provide an important forum, helping to raise awareness of the key issues and encouraging active participation and feedback from all stakeholder communities. The programme, which includes Keynote Speakers, will provide an overview of the work of the DCC and an opportunity via a “Symposium” to discuss the concepts and principles of Digital Curation. There will also be a series of parallel sessions, which will look in more detail at specific topics including Socio-Legal Issues, Format Registries, Storage Media, Training & Staff Development and Certification.

Who should attend

The Conference will be of interest to individuals, organisations and institutions across all disciplines and domains that are engaged in the creation, use and management of digital data from researchers and curators through to policy makers and funders.

Programme

Confirmed Speakers

The Conference will be chaired by Chris Rusbridge, the Director of the DCC, with contributions from the DCC Directorate:

Clifford Lynch, Director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) will provide the closing address

Further details can be found on the Draft Programme

Further information

For further information regarding the conference please contact events@ukoln.ac.uk


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The Second International Workshop on Grid Computing and its Application to Data Analysis (GADA’05)

http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/fedconf/gada2005cfp.html Ayia Napa, Cyprus, 31 October - 4 November 2005

In conjunction with OnTheMove Federated Conferences (OTM’05) http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/fedconf/

Proceedings will be published by Springer Verlag

Grid computing has become one of the most important topics appeared and widely developed in the computing field in the last decade. The research area of grid computing is making rapid progress, owing to the increasing necessity of computation in the resolution of complex applications.

Clusters are, in some sense, the predecessors of the grid technology. Clusters interconnect nodes through a local high-speed network, using commodity hardware, with the aim of reducing the costs of such infrastructures. Supercomputers have been replaced by cluster of workstations in a huge number of research projects, being the grid technology the natural evolution of clusters.

One of the major goals of grid computing is to provide efficient access to data. Grids provide access to distributed computing and data resources, allowing data-intensive applications to improve significantly data access, management and analysis. Nowadays, there is a huge number of data-intensive applications, e.g. data mining systems extracting knowledge from large volumes of data. Existing data-intensive applications have been used in several domains, such as physics, climate modelling, biology or visualization. Grid systems responsible for tackling and managing large amounts of data in geographically distributed environments are usually named data grids.

The great challenge of grid computing is the complete integration of heterogeneous computing systems and data resources with the aim of providing a global computing space. The achievement of this goal will involve revolutionary changes in the field of computation, because it will enable resource-sharing across networks, being data one of the most important ones.

This workshop is intended for researchers in grid computing, who want to extend their background on this area and more specifically to those that use grid environments for managing and analysing data.

TOPICS OF INTEREST

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Submission Requirements

All submitted papers will be carefully evaluated based on originality, significance, technical soundness, and clarity of expression. All submissions must be in English. Submissions should be in PDF format and must not exceed 10 pages in the final camera-ready format. Authors instructions can be found at: http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html .

The paper submission site is located at: http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/fedconf/gada/2005/papers/

Failure to commit to presentation at the conference automatically excludes a paper from the proceedings.

IMPORTANT DATES

Abstract Submission Deadline - June 24, 2005
Paper Submission Deadline - June 24, 2005
Acceptance Notification - July 29, 2005
Final Version Due - August 20, 2005
Conference - October 31 - November 4, 2005


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6th International Conference on Web Information Systems Engineering

Call for Papers
20-22 November 2005
New York City, New York
http://www.cs.txstate.edu/wise05/

WISE 2005 aims at presenting novel topics and approaches to Web engineering in the dynamic, diverse, distributed and ever increasing volume of WWW data and applications.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

Sponsored by: Telcordia Technologies Inc.

Important Dates
Abstracts due 10 June 2005
Papers due 17 June 2005

Decision notification 12 August 2005 Camera-ready copies due 16 September 2005

Tutorial/panel proposal 24 June 2005

Abstracts and papers must be electronically submitted via the conference web site in pdf. Papers must use at least 11 pt fonts and not exceed 25 double spaced pages (including figures, tables, etc.).

Papers due 11:59 PM US PST, 17 June, 2005.

Industrial Programme

The conference programme will include a number of papers and invited presentations devoted to industrial developments. Papers intended for this program should be clearly marked as industrial track papers and submit to the industry program chair. The deadlines and requirements for industrial papers are the same as for research paper submissions.

To submit industry paper, contact: Jen Yao Chung (jychung@us.ibm.com)

For more information please contact the conference Web site http://www.cs.txstate.edu/wise05/ which will be updated as additional information becomes available.


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ICDM ‘05: The 5th IEEE International Conference on Data Mining

Call for Papers June 2005

Sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society
New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
27-30 November 2005
http://www.cacs.louisiana.edu/~icdm05/ (Papers Due: 15 June 2005)

The 2005 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (IEEE ICDM ‘05) provides a premier forum for the dissemination of innovative, practical development experiences as well as original research results in data mining, spanning applications, algorithms, software and systems. The conference draws researchers and application developers from a wide range of data mining related areas such as statistics, machine learning, pattern recognition, databases and data warehousing, data visualization, knowledge-based systems and high performance computing. By promoting high quality and novel research findings, and innovative solutions to challenging data mining problems, the conference seeks to continuously advance the state of the art in data mining. As an important part of the conference, the workshops program will focus on new research challenges and initiatives, and the tutorials program will cover emerging data mining technologies and the latest developments in data mining.

Topics of Interest

Topics related to the design, analysis and implementation of data mining theory, systems and applications are of interest. These include, but are not limited to the following areas:

Conference Publications and ICDM Best Paper Awards

High quality papers in all data mining areas are solicited. Original papers exploring new directions will receive especially careful and supportive reviews. Papers that have already been accepted or are currently under review at other conferences or journals will not be considered for publication at ICDM ‘05.

Paper submissions should be limited to a maximum of 8 pages in the IEEE 2-column format (see the IEEE Computer Society Press Proceedings Author Guidelines at http://www.computer.org/cspress/instruct.htm ).

A selected number of IEEE ICDM ‘05 accepted papers will be invited for possible inclusion, in an expanded and revised form, in the Knowledge and Information Systems journal ( http://www.cs.uvm.edu/~kais/) published by Springer-Verlag.

IEEE ICDM Best Paper Awards will be conferred at the conference on the authors of (1) the best research paper and (2) the best application paper. Application-oriented submissions will be considered for the best application paper award.

Important Dates

June 15, 2005 Paper submissions, Tutorial proposals, Workshop proposals, Panel proposals

August 20, 2005 Paper acceptance notices

September 7, 2005 Final camera-readies

November 27, 2005 Tutorials and Workshops

November 28-30, 2005 Conference

All paper submissions will be handled electronically. Detailed instructions are provided on the conference home page at http://www.cacs.louisiana.edu/~icdm05/

For Further Information:
Vijay Raghavan
University of Louisiana, Lafayette, USA
E-mail: raghavan@cacs.louisiana.edu


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E-LIS E-prints for Library and Information Science

E-LIS http://eprints.rclis.org is an open access repository for the Library and Information Science subject area. Operating on an international basis, E-LIS offers a means of archiving and providing free access to Librarianship, Information Science and Technology e-prints.

E-LIS aims to:

The editors are keen to raise the profile of E-LIS and increase the level of UK-based submissions to the repository, i.e. to encourage UK-based authors to submit metadata for publications, together with full text versions. To do so, authors are invited to visit http://eprints.rclis.org/ and register free of charge.

The E-LIS Editors (UK) are:
Kristina Brown, Emma McCulloch and Dennis Nicholson
Centre for Digital Library Research/BUBL Information Service
Computer and Information Sciences Department
Livingstone Tower
University of Strathclyde
Glasgow, G1 1XH,
United Kingdom

Email:
Kristina Brown at kbrown@cis.strath.ac.uk or
Emma McCulloch at e.mcculloch@strath.ac.uk

Web site: http://cdlr.strath.ac.uk/

[Received: February 2005]
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Connotea: A Free Online Reference Management Service for Scientists

Connotea is a free online reference management service for scientists created by Nature Publishing Group. Connotea enables you to store your reference list online which means that it’s readily accessible, it’s linked directly into the literature and it’s easily shared with colleagues. By opening up their references to others, researchers are able to discover new leads by connecting to the reference collections of those with similar interests. In fact, Connotea allows users to save links to any online content, making it easy to store their entire collection of reference materials in one place.

Connotea also recognises links to certain Web sites, and automatically collects the bibliographic information for the article or book that is being linked to. See the site guide for the list of currently supported sites.

It is possible to organise a collection of references and Web sites by simply assigning tags (free-form categories or labels) to the links saved and assign as many tags as required to a bookmark. This is different to the conventional approach of organising links into hierarchical folders, and makes a library of bookmarks much easier to navigate.

Every page of bookmarks on Connotea has a link to an RSS feed. If another user is discovered to be bookmarking interesting things under a certain tag, it is possible to navigate to the relevant page and subscribe to that RSS feed. Connotea also maintains an RSS feed for news about Connotea.

Two articles published in the April 2005 issue of D-Lib Magazine provide a general overview of the social bookmarking tool landscape and then discuss Connotea as a case study. The core code for Connotea is also open sourced and details are announced in the case study.

[Received: April 2005]
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Talis Launches New Advisory Board

New Talis Advisory Board brings together library leaders from public and private sectors in a forum to share sharing knowledge and debate common issues.

Talis, a provider of library management solutions for the UK and Ireland, is launching the Talis Advisory Board (TAB), an initiative to bring library leaders from the public sector and the business world together for the first time.

The TAB includes key figures from the academic sector, public sector and the business world and encompasses both UK and US perspectives. Members will meet to debate issues common to both groups, with the aim of tackling shared problems and advancing understanding.

Its aim is to provide members the means of working together at the strategic level in order to influence the future direction of technology for the library sector. Talis sees the TAB an important next step in its engagement with customers and the wider library community and underpins its continued aim to provide innovative services to this community.

Dr Paul Miller, Director of the Common Information Environment (CIE) and a founder member of the TAB, welcomed the new initiative: “In the past the public sector often only appeared able to engage with commercial companies like Talis in a limited way, through the tendering and purchasing process. We are far less adept at engaging with the brilliant minds in the commercial sector, in order to tackle shared problems and to advance understanding and capability for ourselves and for our commercial colleagues. The TAB will move us in this direction.”

Talis is a member of many library organisations and a voting member on important standards bodies such as the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Recently it has become a founder member of the Vendor Initiative for Enabling Web Services (VIEWS).

For further information:
Alicia Kelly,
Marcomms
Talis
Email:

[Received: April 2005]
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Framework for the Future - Spring Update from the MLA

Launch of the Public Library Impact Measures

The first set of Public Library Impact Measures was launched at a seminar in London on March 9th. Andrew McIntosh, Minister for the Media and Heritage, commended them to the audience of over two hundred.

The proposed measures for 2005⁄6 have been selected to show the contribution libraries make to five of the seven shared priorities agreed by central and local government.

National Partnerships

The Reading Agency is developing a portfolio of national partnerships for libraries, with a special focus on the booktrade and broadcasters. Framework funding has been used to lever in substantial extra support from the Arts Council and publishers.

The aim is to develop much longer-term, more strategic partnerships, with a calendar of opportunities which libraries can use to enhance services to readers

Designing Libraries Web site

Framework for the Future is providing the funding for a pilot Web site which gives local authorities, planners, architects and interior designers an insight into the best new, extended and refurbished public library buildings. There are currently 32 library projects listed on the Web site (http://www.designinglibraries.org.uk).

The new funding will allow the University of Aberystwyth Information Services team, who created the pilot site, to add further features, increase the size of the database to include good examples from 1995 to present day - UK and overseas - and provide a greater depth of information under each entry.

The project is being led by The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).

[Received: March 2005]
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Springer Extends Reach with New Ingenta Deal

Over 1000 Springer titles now distributed via IngentaConnect

Ingenta Inc., the technology and services provider for the publishing and information industries, and Springer, the specialist publishing group, today announced a revised contract which enables Springer to benefit from Ingenta s global visibility to over 17,000 registered libraries. The new deal increases the number of Springer titles available on the IngentaConnect platform to over 1000, bringing the total number of electronic titles available via Ingenta to over 8000.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ingenta will now host full text for Springers core journals, including the new Springer Online Backfiles products containing all back publications up to volume 1 issue 1. The full text will be accessible via subscription or pay-per-view, enabling libraries simply to add their Springer titles to their Ingenta collection, and offering users the opportunity to purchase unsubscribed Springer content using credit cards or their institutions Ingenta deposit account. http://www.ingenta.com/corporate/company/news/trade/springer.htm

[Received: March 2005]
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Guide to the JISC Model Licence Is Now Available

The JISC model licence is a licence drafted by JISC which contains more favourable provisions than any standard commercial licence for access and use of a resource. JISC negotiates such licences with publishers on behalf of the UK Funding Bodies for FE and HE communities in the UK. The JISC Model Licenses contain provisions that allow students and staff to make effective use of online resources for learning, teaching and research.

We have produced a Guide to the JISC Model Licence which explains in every day terms the definitions used in the model licence and the permitted uses and restrictions. We hope you find this Guide of use. Please let us know if you would like a printed copy by emailing collections@jisc.ac.uk.

Alternatively, the Guide can be accessed online at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/coll_guide_jiscmodel.html

Lorraine Estelle
Collections Team Manager
Joint Information Systems Committee

[Received: April 2005]
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Fedora 2.0 - Open-Source Solution for Digital Repositories

The Fedora Project http://www.fedora.info has announced the release of version 2.0 of the Fedora open-source digital repository software. This release represents a significant increase in features and functionality over previous releases. New features include the ability to represent and query relationships among digital objects, a simple XML encoding for Fedora digital objects, enhanced ingest and export interfaces for interoperability with other repository systems, enhanced administrative features, and improved documentation.

As with prior versions of the software, all Fedora functionality is exposed through Web service interfaces. At the core of this functionality is the Fedora object model that enables the aggregation of multiple content items into digital objects. This allows objects to have several accessible “representations.” For example, a digital object can represent an electronic document in multiple formats, a digital image with its descriptive metadata, or a complex science publication containing text, data, and video. Services can be associated with digital objects, allowing dynamically-produced views, or “virtual representations” of the objects. Historical views of digital objects are preserved through a powerful content versioning system.

The new Fedora 2.0 introduces the “Resource Index” which is a module that allows a Fedora repository to be viewed as a graph of inter-related objects. Using the Resource Description Framework (RDF), relationships among objects can be declared, and queries against these relationships are supported by an RDF-based triple store. Fedora 2.0 also introduces “Fedora Object XML” (FOXML) which is a simple XML format for encoding Fedora digital objects.

The Fedora open-source software is jointly developed by Cornell University and the University of Virginia with generous funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Fedora 2.0 marks the final milestone in Phase I, a three year project to develop the core Fedora Repository system.

For more information, contact Ronda Grizzle rag9b@virginia.edu Technical Coordinator; Sandra Payette (payette@cs.cornell.edu), Co-director Cornell University; or Thornton Staples (tls@virginia.edu), Co-director University of Virginia.

[Received: March 2005]
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ICT Training Highlights Changing Role of Library Workforce

All 40,000 public library staff across the UK have received ICT training and are using new skills to improve services for library users. A major new study undertaken by the Tavistock Institute and published today assesses the impact of this £20 million training programme, which has been funded as part of the People’s Network, the national project to link all 4200 public libraries to the Internet.

The study highlights a paradigm shift for public libraries, spurred by the introduction of new technologies. It shows how the People’s Network has helped open up a range of possible future scenarios for libraries and begun to shape new professional identities for library staff.

The changes identified in the report will have a profound impact on the nature of the library workforce, which will need a range of capabilities, dispositions and skills to be effective in the future. ICT training is seen as just one step towards the organisational changes required. But already it is having an impact, both on staff and library users. Welcoming the report, MLA Chief Executive Chris Batt, said, “The People’s Network has been a catalyst for change in the way public libraries serve their communities, and the staff are at the heart of that transformation.

“This training is part of a major transformation programme for public libraries. As the vision and values of library services evolve, a degree of cultural change is necessary too. Libraries will have to re-assess how they view themselves and organisational capability must go hand in hand with professional development if we are to meet the needs of both current and future library users.”

The report forms a companion piece to the evaluation of the People’s Network, undertaken by the Tavistock Institute for the Big Lottery Fund published in November 2004. Libraries and Archives Council (MLA): The report is from the MLA Web site at: http://www.mla.gov.uk/information/publications/00pubs.asp

[Received: March 2005]
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New Masters Course in Digital Libraries for the Autumn

MSc in Digital Libraries is a brand new course, starting in October 2005, which focuses on start-of-the-art research in the design and deployment of digital libraries. This course is intended for students who have pertinent experience of library or information work, including membership of a relevant professional body and a good Undergraduate degree and/or a Masters degree in librarianship or a cognate discipline.

Digital libraries are a major area of research expertise in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences (CIS) at Strathclyde University (Glasgow, Scotland) encompassing several research groups and the work of the CDLR (the Centre for Digital Library Research).

Students will be taught in formal classes but will also participate in research seminars and in actual digital library research work on placement at the CDLR or an equivalent provider. All students will be provided with a laptop.

It is a full-time course. In the first semester, students will be given a solid theoretical grounding in digital libraries. In the second semester students will learn both the practical and research aspects of digital libraries through a placement and seminars covering research foci. For the award of MSc, students must complete a dissertation of about 20,000 words.

Contact details:

Course Director (Digital Libraries)
Graduate School of Informatics
Department of Computer and Information Sciences
University of Strathclyde
Email: dl-enquiry@gsi.strath.ac.uk
Web: http://www.gsi.strath.ac.uk/

[Received: February 2005]
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Project MUSE Is Athens-compliant

Online Journal Collection Becomes More Accessible to British Universities and Colleges

For students and researchers at subscribing Higher Education institutions in the U.K., Project MUSE an online collection of scholarly journals in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, has become more user-friendly and accessible, as it is now compliant with Athens authentication. Athens, developed by Eduserv, is the British standard to access Web-based subscription services for higher education, further education, and research councils. The system enables these institutions to manage access rights efficiently to multiple online resources.

As a result of this cooperation with Athens, users affiliated with U.K. institutions that subscribe to both Project MUSE and Athens can now access the full text of the 270 scholarly journals that MUSE hosts from a variety of locations, including at home, on campus, while travelling, or from any place that has an Internet connection. All users need is an Athens password/username which allows them to gain access to any Athens-compliant resource (including MUSE) to which their home institution subscribes.

Through partnerships with several organizations offering gateway bibliographic services, MUSE is linked to the databases of many vendors such as ABC-CLIO, EBSCO, and ProQuest. MUSE offers subscribing libraries a “For Librarians” Web page to help educate their users about the resource and manage their subscriptions. This web page enables librarians to download details about MUSE holdings, request promotional materials, and find answers to common questions. Several new instructional guides are available for downloading, from general tips to subject-specific guides in fifteen major disciplines.

For more information on MUSE: http://muse.jhu.edu.

For more information about Eduserv Athens: http://www.athensams.net/

[Received: April 2005]
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New Appointments at MLA

New Chief Executive Appointed to South West Museums, Libraries and Archives Council

SWMLAC is delighted to announce the appointment of Bob Sharpe as its new Chief Executive from July 2005. Currently Director of Information and Learning Services at the University of Plymouth, Bob has led the transformation of the Library, Media and IT services at the University. He has also been active in the development of new approaches to the delivery of IT based information services. As a member of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) Integrated Information Environment Committee he has worked on strategies and programmes for resource discovery, digital repositories and electronic libraries. He chairs the Steering Group for the JISC funded South West Regional Support Centre which supports the development of e-learning in further education and is also a member of the South West Regional Development Agency ICT Strategy Group.

Bob Sharpe has been closely associated with SWMLAC, both as a Board member and leading up a strategy for ICT development. His appointment comes at a time of major change with an enhanced role for regional agencies within a new integrated national structure to be implemented in 2006.

Head of Digital Futures Team

David Dawson has been appointed as Head of the Digital Futures Team at MLA. The team will be taking forward a wide range of ICT initiatives including the launch of the People’s Network Service and the development of the concept of the Knowledge Web.

[Received: April 2005]
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Launch of Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry Announced

The prestigious Beilstein-Institut today announced the launch of the first major Open Access journal for organic chemistry. Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry will be published by the Beilstein-Institut in co-operation with BioMed Central, the Open Access publisher. The peer-reviewed online journal will begin publication during 2005, and a call for papers, providing full information for authors, will be issued in May.

The Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry will publish original research on all aspects of organic chemistry and related disciplines. Areas covered in the journal will include: organic synthesis, organic reactions and mechanisms, natural products chemistry and chemical biology, organic materials and macro- and supramolecular organic chemistry.

As an Open Access journal, the Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry will offer the international community of organic chemists the opportunity to make their research results freely available immediately on publication, and permanently available in the public archives of science.

The journal will publish full research articles and short communications, as well as occasional reviews and commentary articles. Supplementary data will also be published. There will be particular emphasis on speed of publication and on presentation of the articles in a chemically intelligent way. The journal will be made freely available online, while an annual print archival edition will be available for purchase at cost.

For more information:

For Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry http://www.beilstein-journals.org/

For the Beilstein-Institut bjoc@beilstein-institut.de

For BioMed Central Grace Baynes E-mail: press@biomedcentral.com

[Received: March 2005]
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Publication Date: 30-April-2005
Publication: Ariadne Issue 43
Originating URL: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue43/newsline/