Web Magazine for Information Professionals

News and Events

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

Introduction to Federated Searching Technology & Developments

Date: 11 May 2007
Venue: Conference Room, Southport College, Mornington Road, Southport, PR9 0TT
Delegate Fee: £50.00

This one day conference is aimed at further education library and information. As electronic content and sources of information, provided by academic libraries, become greater and vaster, the need for federated searching technologies has increased. This seminar will introduce delegates to the concepts of federated searching (also known as meta-searching) of library content, and will illustrate some of the current developments and initiatives within this field.

For further information please visit: http://www.west-cheshire.ac.uk/cofhe-nw/

To register to this event please use our new online booking form. If you have any issues with the form, or for further information, please contact:

Joanne Jenkins
Event Co-ordinator
JISC RSC Northwest (Lancaster University)
12a Darwin Court
Hawking Place
Blackpool
FY2 0JN

Tel: 01253 503 180
Fax: 01253 503 182
email: j.jenkins@lancaster.ac.uk


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CILIP e-Copyright Executive Briefing

A briefing entitled: e-Copyright: is the UK's intellectual property regime fit for the digital age?
will be presented by CILIP on
Friday 18 May at
CILIP, 7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE
http://www.cilip.org.uk/interests/execbriefings/ecopyright/

The speakers will address all the current issues surrounding e-copyright - the Gowers Review, digital preservation, orphan works and more. Some of the questions the programme will address are:

The full programme is available on the Briefing Web site:
http://www.cilip.org.uk/interests/execbriefings/ecopyright/

The list of speakers is available at:
http://www.cilip.org.uk/interests/execbriefings/ecopyright/speakers.html

The Briefing is designed for public, academic and corporate librarians keen to debate with independent experts.


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Digital Futures: Digitisation for cultural heritage institutions

Digital Futures:
A 5-day training course on key issues in digitisation for cultural heritage institutions
21-25 May 2007
King's College London, UK
http://www.digitalconsultancy.net/digifutures/

Digital Futures focuses on the strategic, business, and financial aspects for the creation, delivery and preservation of digital resources from cultural and memory institutions. 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.

Items of special note for 2007 are:

Digital Futures will cover the following core areas:

See the full programme at:
http://www.digitalconsultancy.net/digifutures/digiprog.htm

Registration is available at:
http://www.digitalconsultancy.net/digifutures/digireg.htm


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Data Sans Frontières: Web Portals and the Historic Environment

25 May 2007
The British Museum, London
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/HEIRNET

Organised by the Historic Environment Information Resources Network (HEIRNET) and supported by the AHRC ICT Methods Network and the British Museum, this one-day conference takes a comprehensive look at exciting new opportunities to use portal technologies and Web 2.0 approaches to disseminate and integrate historic environment data. Bringing together speakers from national organisations, national and local government and academia, options for cooperation at both national and international levels will be explored.

The aims of the conference are:

This conference should be of interest to heritage professionals, researchers and data managers from all sectors.

The conference costs £12.

Further information:

A full programme, online registration and payment facilities are available at:
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/HEIRNET/

It is also possible to pay by cheque or cash on the day, but please reserve your place by email to dsf@britarch.ac.uk

Further background information:

HEIRNET is made up of a group of organisations with an interest in information relating to archaeology and the historic environment under the auspices of the Council for British Archaeology. The HEIRNET consortium is a delegate body with representatives from organisations which have a direct interest in information systems within archaeology and the historic environment. Its geographical scope is currently the United Kingdom although work is taking place set in the wider context of European and international developments.

For more information, see:
http://www.britarch.ac.uk/HEIRNET/


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Introduction to Videoconferencing Seminar

TDA, MLA and JANET Videoconferencing Awareness Workshop:
Introduction to Videoconferencing Seminar
25 May 2007
Isaac Newton Centre for Continuing Professional Development, London
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/events/vc-awareness-2007/

Videoconferencing is an area that many cultural sector organisations and teacher training providers wish to explore, but feel that they need more help in planning and implementing systems and solutions. Some organisations are not sure how to proceed, and many projects have experienced delays and several have had to rethink their whole approach before making progress. However, the potential of this form of outreach was demonstrated by the recent national videoconference to mark the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, which included Culture Minister David Lammy and Baroness Amos.

In order to help address the planning and implementation issues, the TDA and MLA in partnership with JANET will be hosting an event dedicated to raising videoconferencing awareness and to promote the use of videoconferencing via the JANET Videoconferencing Service (JVCS).

The event will be held on Friday 25 May 2007 at the Isaac Newton Centre for Continuing Professional Development in London, part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea City Learning Centre.

A detailed programme and booking form can be found at:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/events/vc-awareness-2007/


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Netskills Workshops in Belfast in May

1. Blogs, Wikis & Social Networking, 30 May 2007

As the World Wide Web moves into another phase, sometimes called Web 2.0, it has never been easier to publish and access information online. Blogs and wikis offer simple, DIY, interactive publishing, while new social software tools enable collaboration online, whether sharing cutting edge research, CVs or holiday snaps. But is this just the latest craze or does it have the potential to revolutionise online information?

2. Surviving Web Overload, 31 May 2007

Are you drowning in information and wasting too much time trying to keep up? This workshop introduces a range of tools to help make the Web work for you. From online post-it notes and to-do lists to personalising your own Google home page, the Web is awash with tools and gadgets to help you streamline your working and home life.

Further details on these workshops, including prices and booking forms, and of all future Netskills events are available from:
http://www.netskills.ac.uk/content/products/workshops/

For further information contact:
Jamie Stogden
Netskills
University of Newcastle
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
NE1 7RU

tel: 0191 222 5000
fax: 0191 222 5001
W eb: http://www.netskills.ac.uk/

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Blogging from the Backroom - CIG Seminar

CILIP Cataloguing and Indexing Group Seminar.
8 June 2007, 1.30-5pm
CILIP HQ, 7 Ridgmount Street, London,C1E 7AE.
Cost: £50 CIG members; £75 non-members

Theme:

An afternoon of presentations on blogging for the benefit of practitioners engaged in traditional 'backroom' activities such as cataloguing, indexing, acquisitions, and knowledge management.

Speakers include:

Caroline De Brun, National Library for Health
Christine Goodair, St George's Medical School, University of London
Helen Nicol, NHS Connecting for Health
Rachel Robbins & Karen George, Home Office
Anne Welsh, DrugScope

Topics covered will include blogging the catalogue and why cat & class skills translate easily into tagging and basic site navigation; raising your profile through blogging; blogging for managers (based on a case study of health managers); and how the National Library for Health and the Home Office are using blogs, feeds and related technologies.

The focus of the afternoon is sharing ideas for incorporating blogging into your working life and it is suitable for experienced bloggers and non-bloggers alike. Each participant will receive a CD-ROM of presentations and 'how-to' demos.

For further information contact:

Anne Welsh
anneb@drugscope.org.uk
or follow the announcements at:
http://communities.cilip.org.uk/blogs/catalogueandindex/default.aspx

Details of the seminar programme and online booking form are available at:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/events/CIG/2007/blogs/


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UKeiG Course on RSS, Blogs and Wikis

RSS, Blogs and Wikis: tools for dissemination, collaboration and information gathering
Netskills Training Suite, University of Newcastle
Wednesday 11 July 2007, 9.30 - 16.30

Course Outline

Without realising it you are probably already using RSS, blogs and wikis - all Web 2.0 technologies. Awareness of them amongst users will increase as Microsoft incorporates RSS and blogging into Office 2007, Outlook and IE 7.

This workshop will cut through the jargon and hype and suggest ways in which you can use them as information sources, tools of collaboration or as part of your information delivery strategy. It will look at how they can be used to manage projects, provide users with current awareness, generate newsletters, and promote your expertise to colleagues, users and clients. There is a substantial practical element to the workshop giving you a chance to try out all three technologies, assess their relevance, and consider how you can implement them within your organisation.

The programme includes:

There will be practical sessions during which you can set up your own personal alerts service using RSS, start a blog, and contribute to a wiki. The techniques and approaches described in this workshop can be applied to all subject areas.

Course Presenter: Karen Blakeman
Karen Blakeman has worked in the information profession for over twenty years and has been a freelance consultant since 1989. Her company (RBA Information Services) provides training and consultancy on the use of the Internet, and on accessing and managing information resources. Her publications include "Search Strategies for the Internet", now in its sixth edition. She was recently made an Honorary Fellow of CILIP and in 2002 she received the Information World Review Information Professional of the Year award

To register your interest in this meeting, reserve a place, or request further details, please email meetings@ukeig.org.uk. Further details are also available via the UKeiG Web site at http://www.ukeig.org.uk/

UKeiG is a Special Interest Group of CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.


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IWMW 2007: Chair Opens Bookings and Provides Homework

11th Institutional Web Management Workshop
16-18 July 2007
University of York
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2007/

I am pleased to announce that we are now accepting bookings for the eleventh Institutional Web Management Workshop which will be held at the University of York from Monday 16 - Wednesday 18 July 2007.

This year's theme is 'Next Steps for the Web Management Community' and there are a number of plenary talks which will explore the concept of community. Steven Warburton, King's College London, asks 'What does 'Community of Practice' mean for Institutional Web Managers?' while Alison Wildish, Edge Hill University, suggests we 'Let the Students do the Talking' by encouraging the use of social networking tools. Paul Boag, Headscape discusses 'Social Participation in Student Recruitment' and Peter Reader, University of Bath, gives the marketing take in his talk 'Marketing Man takes off his Tie: Customers, Communities and Communication'. There are are also a number of more technical talks including advice on 'Building Highly Scalable Web Applications' from Jeff Barr, Amazon Web Services, consideration of whether 'Your Web site can be Your API?' by Drew McClellan, allinthehead.com, and a look at 'The Promise of Information Architecture' from Keith Doyle, Salford University.

Workshop participants will also be able to attend 2 from a total of 18 parallel sessions which cover a wide range of topics including various aspects of engaging with the user community; usability, accessibility, cultural issues; use of technologies such as XCRI, single sign-on, portable devices; Web 2.0 issues such as using YouTube, 'The Eternal Beta - Can it Work in an Institution?' and geolinking institutional content and much more.

Read Up Before Booking
You will be asked to select your parallel workshop sessions when you register so may want to read up on the sessions available in advance: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2007/sessions/

We will, as usual, be providing a social programme which includes a workshop dinner and a reception at the National Rail Museum.

Further details are available at the workshop Web site:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2007/

The booking form is available at:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2007/bookings/

We hope to see you in York in July.

Marieke Guy
IWMW 2007 Chair
Interoperability Focus Officer
UKOLN


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Digital Libraries à la Carte

Modular International Digital Library Course:
Digital Libraries à la Carte
Tilburg University, The Netherlands.
27-31 August 2007
http://www.tilburguniversity.nl/ticer/07carte/

The International Ticer School (known for its former International Summer School on the Digital Library) offers a new, modular course for librarians and publishers: "Digital Libraries à la Carte". The course is recommended by JISC.

Modules

From its menu of six one-day modules, you can select:

Subjects covered:

For Course Lecturers, see:

http://www.tilburguniversity.nl/services/lis/ticer/07carte/lecturers.html

To guarantee a highly interactive programme, the number of participants will be limited, lectures contain an interactive component, and two modules consist of hands-on sessions in a computer room.

The course is recommended by JISC, DEFF - Denmark's Electronic Research Library, CBU/KUB - the conference of university libraries in Switzerland, and NFF - the Norwegian Association of Special Libraries.

For further information:

On the course Web site you can find the full programme, the complete list of lecturers with short biographiess, abstracts of most presentations and practical information about course fee and registration.

http://www.tilburguniversity.nl/ticer/07carte/

If you register before 1 June 2007, you will get a €150 discount.

Or contact:

Ms Jola Prinsen
Manager Ticer
Tilburg University
Library and IT Services
P.O. Box 4191
5004 JD Tilburg
The Netherlands
tel. +31 13 466 8310
fax +31 13 466 8383
e-mail: jola.prinsen@uvt.nl
Web: http://www.tilburguniversity.nl/ticer/

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Libraries Without Walls 7 Opens for Bookings

Libraries Without Walls 7:
Exploring 'anywhere, anytime' delivery of library services
14 - 18 September 2007
Lesvos, Greece
http://www.cerlim.ac.uk/conf/lww7/

This international conference is organised by CERLIM - The Centre for Research in Library and Information Management http://www.cerlim.ac.uk/ and will be held on the Aegean island of Lesvos, Greece, from 14 - 18 September 2007.

Keynote Speaker, Christine Borgman, Professor and Presidential Chair in Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

The seventh Libraries Without Walls Conference continues the tradition of the LWW Conference series by bringing together an international programme of speakers to give their perspectives on the delivery of library and information services to users who are not in the physical library.

Our speakers for 2007 reveal the diverse current developments in library service delivery. They reflect upon new kinds of service and new paradigms of 'library', and consider the impact of these changes upon library users. They illustrate aspects of the library's role within new models of scholarly publishing and digital curation, and the delivery of information skills and literacy through electronic environments. Librarians from developing countries, especially those which serve scattered rural communities where the infrastructure is sub-optimal, offer their insights into how services are delivered in such challenging environments.

Contributors from Western and Eastern Europe, the USA, Canada, Africa, Asia and Australia will present their perspectives on the 'anywhere, anytime' delivery of library services in a series of papers, workshops and informal discussions.

For full details of the conference, including the programme, booking information, venue details, and FAQs, visit the Conference Web site at: http://www.cerlim.ac.uk/conf/lww7/

All enquiries should be addressed to the organisers:
Email: LWW-7@mmu.ac.uk
Tel: ++44 (0)161 247 6142
Fax : ++44 (0) 161 247 6979


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Online Educa to Launch First Russian Event in Moscow

The first Russian event in the series of Online Educa international conferences will be launched in the autumn of 2007. The Online Educa Moscow conference will take place:
30 September - 3 October 2007 at the President Hotel, Moscow.

http://www.online-educa-moscow.com/

Conference attendees will include experts from the business sector and the academic community, as well as education decision-makers and innovators. With more than 500 delegates expected from the CIS countries, the EU, the USA, China, and other countries, Online Educa Moscow is set to establish itself as an international event in ICT-supported learning and training in the Russian Federation.

The event looks into latest developments in technology-enhanced learning and will give a particular focus on regional issues within the CIS countries, such as languages, cultures and access to technology. Presentations and workshops include topics such as the transformation of traditional learning through technology, the impact of emerging tools for learning such as mobile devices, podcasts and video technologies, quality and standardisation issues as well as good practice solutions for e-learning in companies, universities and in the public sector.

The conference will include an exhibition. The conference languages are Russian and English.

More information about Online Educa Moscow can be found at http://www.online-educa-moscow.com/

Contact details:


Ria Kyriazi (Organiser)
ICWE GmbH & Market Ds,
Leibnizstrasse 32,
10625 Berlin,
Germany
ria.kyriazi@icwe.net
Tel.: +49 -30 - 327 6140
Fax: +49 - 30 - 324 9833


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Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages

The GRDDL Working Group at W3C has completed work on the Working Group Note "GRDDL Use Cases: Scenarios of extracting RDF data from XML documents" and is pleased to announce its publication on 6 April 2007.

There are many dialects of XML in use by documents on the web. In addition, recently two progressive encoding techniques, RDFa and microformats, have emerged to overlay additional semantics onto valid XHTML documents. While this breadth of expression is quite liberating, it can prove to be a barrier to understanding across different domains or fields.

GRDDL is a mechanism for Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages; that is, for extracting RDF data from XML documents by way of transformation algorithms, typically represented in XSLT and usually producing RDF/XML documents.

This note collects a number of motivating use cases together with their goals and requirements for extracting RDF data from XML documents.

http://www.w3.org/TR/2007/NOTE-grddl-scenarios-20070406/

[Source: Dr. Fabien Lucien Gandon, INRIA]

[Received: April 2007]
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Blueprint for Excellence: Public Libraries 2008-2011

In a recent announcement the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) stated it regarded the discussion paper Blueprint for Excellence as an invitation to professionals to become involved in the forward thinking and planning for libraries in the years ahead. As the current Framework action plan moves into its final year, the document seeks to encourage discussion of the direction for libraries from 2008 and the strategic and development priorities for public libraries in the next phase of their development.

Resources available for discussion:

A Blueprint for Excellence - Public Libraries 2008-2011 (PDF 62KB) http://www.mla.gov.uk/resources/assets/B/blueprint_v2_11233.pdf

A questionnaire at: http://mla.wufoo.com/forms/blueprint/

A shortened version of the online questionnaire, designed for group response, is available at http://mla.wufoo.com/forms/blueprintshortversion/

A presentation summarising the consultation document, is now available on the MLA Web site at: http://www.mla.gov.uk/resources/assets//B/blueprint_11254.ppt The presentation includes slides to help facilitate group discussion.

Further information and advice:

John Dolan, Head of Library Policy
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
Victoria House, Southampton Row, London WC1B 4EA
Tel: 07760 477954
Email: john.dolan@mla.gov.uk

[Source: MLA]

[Received: April 2007]
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Better Stock, Better Libraries: Progress Update

The Better Stock Better Libraries Programme will help public libraries buy cheaper books, better matched to readers' requirements and which are available as quickly as from the high street and online booksellers. By 2008, foundations will be in place to support chief librarians to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their stock procurement. The latest Progress Update is available on the MLA Website as a .pdf document.

This outlines the most recent feedback received, outlines key developments in the programme, and comes with a summary from the March Programme Board meeting and a timetable for phase 1 implementation.

MLA would welcome involvement in the programme in a number of areas:

To participate in the Better Stock Better Libraries Programme in these or in other ways, practitioners are invited respond to bsbl@mla.gov.uk indicating the type of contribution they wish to make.

[Source: MLA]

[Received: May 2007]
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JISC sponsors 'Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year' Award

This year, in a call to institutions to 'bring to wider attention examples of innovation in the use of ICT', JISC is sponsoring an 'Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year' award which will showcase the most innovative and potentially far-reaching ICT initiatives across the UK. The award, one of the Times Higher's 2007 Awards, will 'recognise and reward an institutional ICT initiative which has demonstrated an innovative and strategic use of ICT in support of the goals of that institution.'

The award, for which all Higher Education institutions, teams or departments in the UK are eligible, is now open for entries until 29 June 2007. The award will be presented at an event on 29 November 2007.

The judges of the award are:

Speaking to the Times Higher Education Supplement this week, Professor Baker said: 'There is a need for good practice and examples of innovation to be more widely shared. With the THES awards having quickly become a showcase for some of the best and most exciting work being done in higher education, we hope this ICT award will likewise bring to wider attention examples of innovative and far-reaching uses of ICT.'

Information on the Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year Award, is available at: http://www.thes.co.uk/Awards/2007/

See also: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/THESAwards

For further information:

Please contact Philip Pothen (JISC) on 07887 564 006 or p.pothen@jisc.ac.uk

[Source: JISC]

[Received: May 2007]
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Art Fund International

The Art Fund has committed £5 million to a new initiative, Art Fund International, to develop collections of international contemporary art in UK regional museums and galleries. The scheme aims to encourage museums and galleries which house permanent collections to work with contemporary arts organisations which do not. Up to five projects will be selected in 2007 and will be allocated funding to spend over the next five years.

The application process is in two stages. In the first stage, the Fund will be inviting Expressions of Interest from institutions which wish to participate in the scheme. The deadline for submitting Expressions of Interest is noon, Friday 22 June 2007 but any institution wishing to participate is asked to contact The Art Fund as soon as possible.

See The Art Fund's Web site for more information on how to apply: http://www.artfund.org/grants/artfundinternational.html

[Source:MLA]

[Received: April 2007]
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New Look for UnityUK

On 2 April 2007 The Combined Regions (TCR), in partnership with OCLC PICA, went live with the next version of the UnityUK resource sharing service. The new version delivers significant enhancements in workflow and usability and has been developed in partnership with the service's user community of over 120 libraries.

The new features have been designed to enhance the system in line with the needs of its users. It has been developed in response to comments and suggestions gathered from numerous discussions, workshops, user groups and surveys with the user community during the 12 months since the service went live, and also from the outcome of the LinkUK integration project. This is the first major release for the service, which is part-financed by the European Union's European Regional Development Fund delivered through the South Yorkshire Objective 1 Programme.

The new developments are designed to deliver significant enhancements in two key areas. Firstly, the workflow through the requesting process has been simplified which will make the service easier and quicker to use. Secondly, the introduction of a new facility that enables UnityUK members and non UnityUK libraries to manage responses through the service. This new feature removes the need for individual email responses to be updated manually.

All the information that users need in order to make the best of the new release is easily available via the UnityUK Members' Area Web site, which is free to members. For the first time, users will be able to download short training films which demonstrate the key features of the new version.

OCLC PICA, in conjunction with the UnityUK user community, is planning further new developments for release later in 2007. Ideas currently under discussion include the integration of fee management in to the service and an end-to-end improvement in the interface and workflow with the British Library.

For further information:
See http://www.combinedregions.com/ or contact k.birch@oclcpica.org

[Source: TheAnswer Ltd]

[Received: April 2007]
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Publication Date: 30-April-2007 Publication: Ariadne Issue 51
Originating URL: http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue51/newsline/