Print Editorial: Introduction to Issue 8

The impact of the eLib programme [1], now two years old, is becoming increasingly apparent in the electronic library infrastructure of the UK and beyond. The significance of the work of the MODELS [2] project in designing a national system of resource discovery, is recognised by the new Call for proposals from JISC’s Committee for Electronic Information. As our cover article [3] indicates, with physical and virtual ‘clumps’ of the national metadata resource actively being sought, the electronic catalogue infrastructure of the UK, begun several years ago when the first university library OPACs were connected to the JANET network, appears to be coming of age.

Elsewhere, our Interface with Jane Core [4] reveals that the EduLib project is now running workshops to skill LIS professionals as higher eucation teachers. And the JEDDS project [5]proves that international collaboration among HE funding bodies is developing a document delivery service for the global research community.

Yet the electronic library still faces the persistent scholarly journal dilemma. Stevan Harnad gives his views on ‘skywriting’ in this issue [6] . If librarians could collaborate to resolve the polarisation created by this issue, no doubt they would.

We’d like to thank those of you who responded to our survey at the end of last year. Results are summarised [7] in the Web version of Ariadne.

References

1. eLib Web Site,
   http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/elib/
2. MODELS - eLib project article,
   http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ariadne/issue8/models/
3. CEI Looks for Bold Response,
   http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ariadne/issue8/cover/
4. Interface - Jane Core,
   http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ariadne/issue8/interface/
5. JEDDS - eLib project article,
   http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ariadne/issue8/jedds/
6. The Paper House of Cards (and why it’s taking so long to collapse),
   http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ariadne/issue8/harnad/
7. Results of the Ariadne survey,
   http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ariadne/issue8/survey-results/

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