Newsletter No. 128
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Free Pint
"Helping 55,000 people use the Web for their work"
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ISSN 1460-7239 9th January 2003 No.128
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IN THIS ISSUE
EDITORIAL
MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By Veronica Bezear
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JOBS
Information Officer
Consumer Industry Sector Specialist
Product Trainer
Records Manager
TIPS ARTICLE
"Keeping IT Simple"
By Alison Scammell
BOOKSHELF
"Attracting, Educating and Serving Remote Users Through the Web"
Reviewed by Mark Kerr
FEATURE ARTICLE
"Digital Libraries"
By Anjlee Bhatt
EVENTS, GOLD AND FORTHCOMING ARTICLES
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Sue Hill Recruitment - jobs every day - good candidates needed!
Flexible, adaptable, individuals with recognised library, information
or records qualifications / for all sectors. We offer interesting
permanent & temporary assignments. Our clients are throughout the UK.
They want the best & trust us to provide it. Be part of our success!
Tel: 020 7378 7068 jobs@suehill.com www.suehill.com
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>>> ABOUT FREE PINT <<<
Free Pint is an online community of information researchers. Members
receive this free newsletter every two weeks packed with tips on
finding quality and reliable business information on the Internet.
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EDITORIAL
We've certainly experienced some extremes over the last few weeks.
There's been extremes of weather, with flooding on the river
Thames and the evacuation of my family from our house since last
weekend. Now we have snow and ice surrounding the flooding, but at
least I've managed to wade out and come into the office to write this.
We've been cheered by the seasonal greetings cards that have been
coming in from Free Pinters in extreme corners of the world. From the
West of Canada ("soggy Vancouver") to the East (Singapore and Hong
Kong). We've been greeted in many languages, from Estonian --
"Rahulikke joulupuhi ja edukat Uut Aastat" (Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year) -- to Finnish -- "Joulutervehdys" (Season's
Greetings). So, I hope you've had a slightly less extreme start to
2003 than we have here, and thank you for your festive cards.
To brighten things up a bit the Free Pint Sale is now on, with 'buy
one get one free' on UK company and director reports, and 'buy two get
two free' on newsletter and banner advertising. Snap up a bargain by
visiting <http://www.freepint.com/shop>.
We're also looking forward to our new Exchange workshops which start
at the end of January. They're all in central London, and the first
few cover topics like 'Communities of Practice', an introduction to
financial information sources, and 'Electronic Copyright'. The price
of these afternoon sessions has been subsidised, which should make
them very accessible to anyone interested in these hot topics. Do
check out the full details at <http://www.freepint.com/exchange>.
We bring you a very 'information-oriented' issue of Free Pint today.
The articles and book reviews cover information technology resources,
digital libraries, and how to identify and service users remotely.
If you're yearning for more resources after reading this issue, then
check out the ResourceShelf <http://www.resourceshelf.com/>. The site
has just been named 'Best Search Engine Weblog' in the latest search
engine awards. It is updated every day with new resources of interest
to information professionals, educators, journalists, etc., and you
can sign up for the free weekly update.
Happy new year to all Free Pinters. Let's raise a virtual toast to a
2003 without extremes.
Cheers
William
William Hann BSc(Hons) MCLIP, Founder and Managing Editor
Email: <william@freepint.com> Tel: +44 (0)1784 420044
Free Pint is a Registered Trademark of Free Pint Limited (R) 1997-2002
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DATA PROTECTION TRAINING FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR
Do you know what legislation applies to information handling?
Data Protection Act, Freedom of Information Act, the Regulation
of Investigatory Powers Act, Article 8 of the Human Rights Act
- all these impact on how you handle information. Are you processing
lawfully? Will you comply with the Freedom of Information regime?
Sign up for our free newsletter at www.actnow.org.uk or see our
courses in information management at www.actnowtraining.co.uk
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>>> Free Pint Communities of Practice Exchange <<<
Thursday 30th January 2003, Central London, UK
"Understand what CoPs can do, and the organizational,
managerial and technical issues of supporting them"
Find out more at <http://www.freepint.com/exchange>
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MY FAVOURITE TIPPLES
By Veronica Bezear
* Omniglot <http://www.omniglot.com> - For lovers of language, a simple
and clear guide to the alphabets, writing systems and logographic
systems of the world. Basic contexts included and representation of
each letter, as well as links to related sites. Includes modern
languages such as Georgian, ancient languages such as Mayan (!) and
Ancient Egyptian, and alternative writing systems such as braille.
* <http://www.yourdictionary.com> - Another linguists dream - a
collection of links to dictionaries for 150 languages. European,
African, American and Asian languages are all there, including many
you will not have heard of. Also includes grammar and language
courses for 70 languages and some language-based games.
* HTML Goodies <http://www.htmlgoodies.com> - For beginners with
technical ambitions - a collection of tutorials, primers and
newsletters on HTML, Ad Banners, Javascript, Perl & CGI, ASP,
Database-SQL, XML, DHTML. A lot of useful instruction, well
organised, and free. Also gives recommendations of related books.
* Political Sciences Resources Web Page <http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk>
- For politically aware global citizens. Particularly impressive are
the collections of government, local government, and political party
websites from around the world (diverse countries from
Azerbaijan, to Lesotho, and Bikini Atoll all included). Also links to
international relations and political-thought resources.
* CitizensConnect.net <http://www.justdosomething.net/home.vdf>
- UK based resource site for potential world changers - information
on setting up charities, campaigning, how society works, leadership
opportunities, getting funding, the law and you, and a searchable
directory of resources to further challenge and inspire.
Veronica Bezear currently works as an Information Officer for Surrey
County Council Adults and Community Care Service.
Submit your top five favourite Web sites. See the guidelines at
<http://www.freepint.com/author.htm>.
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*Hear all about it - Factiva.com Short Learning Topics now available*
Factiva Learning Programs now offers short online multimedia learning
topics, solving your just-in-time learning needs with eight to ten
minute topics. Led by a Factiva expert, each one provides an overview
of a selected Factiva.com area and focuses on specific features and
functionality. Register for your free headphones to help you with your
Factiva eLearning http://www.factiva.com/redirects/learning/topics
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As well as the selected listings below, check out the weekly Bar
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Here are some of the latest featured jobs:
Information Officer
Junior information officer required to join busy city law firm.
Should be qualified and have between 12 and 36 months experience.
Recruiter: Recruit Media
<http://www.freepint.com/go/j2189>
Consumer Industry Sector Specialist
Qualified Information Specialist with knowledge of Retail/FMCG/Media
industries for specialist Consultancy. 45,000 pounds plus Bonus.
Recruiter: Glen Recruitment
<http://www.freepint.com/go/j2201>
Product Trainer
Put your information, training and French skills to use at this
leading vendor in exchange for good salary & overseas travel
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Records Manager
Develop & maintain records management service. Promote new business
opps, manage external contracts & develop records management policy.
Recruiter: BBC
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>>> Free Pint Tour of the City Exchange <<<
Thursday 6th February 2003, Central London, UK
"This Exchange aims to provide an overview of the City
and an introduction to some of its key information sources."
Find out more at <http://www.freepint.com/exchange>
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TIPS ARTICLE
<http://www.freepint.com/issues/090103.htm#tips>
"Keeping IT Simple"
By Alison Scammell
With such a huge amount of IT material on the Internet it is not
surprising that the right information is hard to find. This is not
helped by the fact that there is a morass of different forms of
information: news reports, business summaries, journalistic comment,
academic journals, analyst research, white papers, vendor material,
events information, product reviews, software and hardware resources.
Using a search engine, even one as good as Google, is unlikely to
match your exact requirements. Most researchers rely on a small number
of tried and tested sites to deliver the most appropriate information
for their needs. The following is a selective round up of the sites I
have found most useful in researching for IT clients.
Meta site
---------
Cyberatlas <http://cyberatlas.internet.com/> is a good starting point
for market data on Internet related technology (and quite a bit more).
As a meta site it brings together market research from the big
analysts such as Forrester, Gartner, IDC and META Group. It provides
useful page-size summaries giving a business perspective to
developments in the sector.
Cyberatlas has links to a range of channels covering markets and
sectors (advertising, B2B, broadband, education, finance, healthcare,
professional, retailing, small biz, travel and wireless) as well as
channels covering specific technology subjects. These are provided via
its parent site, Internet.com.
A particularly useful facility is the Cyberatlas Statistics Toolbox.
This provides an easy way to find statistical data on the site,
offering convenient digests by subject. Cyberatlas has everything for
the first stage of your research: a quick round up of the most
relevant analyst research, a manageable spread of channels, easy to
access statistical data and ecommerce links.
Magazines
---------
My second port of call is usually CW360 (Computer Weekly's online
site) at <http://www.cw360.com>. It provides a useful round up of
business news and articles as well as access to an impressive archive
of material. The quality is extremely good: high standards of research
and writing on the most recent developments in the IT industry.
CW360's journalistic feel nicely complements the sometimes bland
analyst output supplied at Cyberatlas. CW360 is billed as a portal
but its appeal for me is that it avoids the flickering overload
associated with most portals and offers a simple, easy to navigate
magazine layout. This lets you get straight to what is really
important: high quality comment on the business application of IT.
BYTE magazine <http://www.byte.com/> strips out the torrent of
news normally encountered on computing sites and offers a range of
articles on computing science written in a lively and off-beat style.
These offer readable and entertaining essays on the many different
ways technology is changing our lives. BYTE is useful when you have
reached saturation point with the usual hype and need a different take
on a well worn subject.
Portals
-------
ZDNet <http://www.zdnet.com> is a premium site offering a refreshingly
uncluttered homepage. You can find just about any IT subject here and
the full range of IT resources is covered. I particularly like the
way it has organized its white paper collection in sensible categories
and sub headings (so much easier than having to guess at keywords in a
subject search). ZDNet has a truly international coverage (useful in a
sector dominated by the US market). You can log straight onto the UK
channel at < http://www.zdnet.co.uk/>.
Datamation at <http://itmanagement.earthweb.com> is a well
established site providing more technically oriented resources as well
as the usual crop of white papers and industry news.
Newspapers
---------
Newspapers, particularly the broadsheets, are a useful source of
commentary and analysis on the IT industry, providing an independent
insight and usually a broader view of developments. This information
used to be free on the web but now the papers are starting to charge.
The Guardian is still free (but the paper is hinting at introducing
charges) and, with one of the better IT supplements of the broadsheets
(its Online section appears in print on Thursday), it is well worth a
search. Articles from the Online supplement can be searched via the
paper's archive at <http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive>.
The Times is now charging for articles from its archive but the last
seven days of the paper can still be accessed for free at
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk>. The other broadsheets are at The
Independent <http://www.independent.co.uk> and The Telegraph
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk> (listing a technology column). There is
also the Financial Times, at <http://www.ft.com>, with good coverage
of IT news and some hefty IT supplements, but you will be charged.
Company Data
------------
A New Guide to UK Computer Companies <http://www.bookmark2000.co.uk/>
is a site I have recently started to compile mail shots. It is
otherwise surprisingly difficult to find all the contact details you
need for computer companies based in the UK. You can search by company
name, products and services or area.
Bibliographies
--------------
For some painless research it's worth abandoning the search engines for
a good bibliography. Current Sites <http://digbig.com/5bawne>
is 'an annotated bibliography of selected articles, books and digital
documents on information technology'. Actually the emphasis is on
library and information technology but it does index good quality
literature on a broad range of developments in IT. The real value of
this site is that it provides the link to the full text of an article,
not just the bibliographic record (which can be so tantalising). You
can also create tailored bibliographies and annotations to receive on
a monthly basis. The Directory of Computing Science Journals
<http://elib.cs.sfu.ca/Collections/CMPT/cs-journals/> is a no frills
but extensive list of journals on computing science, by subject and
title.
Glossary
---------
Webopaedia <http://www.pcwebopaedia.com> is the glossary/encyclopaedia I
use most often although many of the sites listed above also feature
glossaries. The definitions do seem to be updated quite regularly and
there are links to related terms and articles. You can also see a list
of terms that have been added that week, useful if you really want to
be ahead of the game.
Subject Gateways
----------------
When you need to do a comprehensive trawl of the literature,
EEVL's section on computing science offers an extensive list of
quality resources <http://www.eevl.ac.uk>. Sites that are particularly
recommended are flagged. Sometimes though, less is more, especially if
you are in a hurry. Dutchess at <http://www.kb.nl/dutchess/> provides
a manageable list of computer science topics to browse. The IEEE
Computer Society <http://www.computer.org/> is worth listing as a
professional society with a learned approach to IT developments. There
is access to journal articles via a Digital Library, news of events
and networking opportunities (sign up for free membership of a number
of committees, councils or task forces).
Directory search
----------------
Lastly, when a broader Internet search is called for, use the superb
computing directory listing at Yahoo <http://www.yahoo.co.uk>. You can
specify UK listings and choose to search from within specific
categories.
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Alison Scammell specialises in writing white papers and other 'thought
leadership' collateral for clients in the IT sector. She also offers a
range of editorial services for financial services clients such as
articles, briefing papers, web content and copy writing. Contact
Alison at <http://www.justbeforedawn.com>.
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Related Free Pint links:
* 'Computer Industry' resources and articles in the Free Pint Portal
<http://www.freepint.com/go/p27>
* Post a message to the author, Alison Scammell, or suggest further
resources at the Free Pint Bar <http://www.freepint.com/bar>
* Read this article online, with activated hyperlinks
<http://www.freepint.com/issues/090103.htm#feature>
* Access the entire archive of Free Pint content
<http://www.freepint.com/portal/content/>
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>>> Free Pint Electronic Copyright Exchange <<<
Thursday 13th February 2003, Central London, UK
"Looking at how copyright protects works in the
electronic environment, and considering the implications
of copyright for websites and intranets, including the
issues to take into account when deep linking"
Find out more at <http://www.freepint.com/exchange>
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FREE PINT BOOKSHELF
<http://www.freepint.com/bookshelf>
"Attracting, Educating and Serving Remote Users Through the Web"
Edited by Donnelyn Curtis
Reviewed by Mark Kerr
The sub-title is "a how-to-do-it manual for librarians". This is what
the book sets out to deliver, and it does that very effectively. By
taking a practical approach to solving the problems of serving users
who may not only be 'distant' but unknown, unseen and unaware of the
services available, this book should help librarians meet the needs of
this growing user segment.
The ten chapters are each taken by a different author, and the book
falls into three main sections. The first four chapters cover the
fundamentals of supporting distance learners, looking at the role of
the library, understanding and attracting the users and their needs.
The second section is on the practical processes of developing and
delivering: providing electronic reference services; maximizing
current awareness and document delivery services; providing library
instruction for remote users and integrating library resources into
inline instruction. The final two chapters cover the technical aspects
of supporting the remote user of licensed resources, and that of
fundraising and public relation in the electronic environment. The
fundraising section is perhaps the least likely to be useful to a UK
reader from the Higher Education sector, but the Public Relations
activities still offer relevant ideas that can be adapted to local
conditions.
The authors are colleagues from the University of Nevada, Reno,
libraries, and there is inevitably an American emphasis in tone and
language in many places. However the issues discussed (and solutions
suggested) are increasingly relevant globally - particularly with
remote users themselves now more likely than ever before to be
international, rather than 'merely' national users. The publishers
have compensated for this by providing a companion Web site for UK and
European users which provides localized references and supplementary
information. This is the best of both worlds - current thinking from
the forefront of user services development, with regionalized support
and background material.
Comprehensive references at the end of each chapter are supplemented
by those on the companion Web site. This enables the reader -
especially one who is concerned as to how the American options will
fare on this side of the Atlantic - to check and assess many of the
sources used by the authors, and then compare that data and research
with the extra references and links provided by Ian Winship on the UK
site. The large format and generous use of white space on the page
makes this book a comfortable read, and at GBP 34.95 it represents
excellent value for the librarian who needs to get to grips with the
needs of remote users, both on a practical and on a strategic level.
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Mark Kerr is Centre Manager of London Aspect, South Bank
University's external IT Training unit, which delivers training in a
wide range of IT topics to over 1,000 people each year from small
businesses, charities, academic and local government organizations.
Mark <kerrmw@sbu.ac.uk> has written 'How to Promote Your Web Site
Effectively' and 'Tips and Tricks for Web Site Managers', both
published by ASLIB, as well as a number of articles and book
reviews for publications such as Managing Information, Program and
Library Technology <http://www.sbu.ac.uk/it-training>.
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Related Free Pint links:
* Find out more about this book online at the Free Pint Bookshelf
<http://www.freepint.com/bookshelf/remote.htm>
* Read customer comments and buy this book at Amazon.co.uk
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1856044610/freepint0c>
or Amazon.com
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1555704360/freepint00>
* "Attracting, Educating and Serving Remote Users Through the Web:
A How-to-do-it Manual for Librarians" ISBN 1856044610, published by
CyberAge Books, edited by Donnelyn Curtis
* Search for and purchase any book from Amazon via the Free Pint
Bookshelf at <http://www.freepint.com/bookshelf>
* Read about other Internet Strategy books on the Free Pint Bookshelf
<http://www.freepint.com/bookshelf/strategy.htm>
To propose an information-related book for review, send details
to <bookshelf@freepint.com>.
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>>> FREE PINT SALE NOW ON FOR A LIMITED TIME <<<
* 'Buy one, get one free' on UK company and director reports
* 'Buy two, get two free' on newsletter and banner adverts
Find out more today, visit <http://www.freepint.com/shop>
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FEATURE ARTICLE
<http://www.freepint.com/issues/090103.htm#feature>
"Digital Libraries"
By Anjlee Bhatt
Question: What is a digital library? Answer: It is the first question
I asked myself, when I began to think about writing this article.
A 'digital library' means so many different things to so many
different people that it is very difficult to pin down and it has
been the cause of some discussion within the information community.
However, most of the definitions are based on the idea of a library or
information service that provides electronic access to documents
and/or services. This idea allows for most of the different variants
that use the 'electronic', 'virtual', and 'hybrid' prepositions in
varying combinations with library, collection, repository and archive.
For example, a virtual library will usually describe a traditional
'bricks and mortar' library's presence on the web, in terms of library
opening hours, web-based catalogue, subject links pages, etc..
Whereas, the usual description of a 'digital library' will include
direct user access to electronic collections, such as research papers
or video clips across a local area network or the Internet.
Unfortunately, because all the different phrases have slightly
different connotations and can be used quite subjectively, it can get
very confusing.
How did digital libraries happen?
---------------------------------
Way back in the mists of time, someone somewhere had a bright idea!
Digital libraries are a natural progression from electronic document
sharing that was already happening in the public and private sectors,
and the ideas and developments that have come out of schemes like the
European Telematics for Libraries Programme
<http://www.cordis.lu/libraries> and 'Project Gutenberg' -- "the
brainchild of Michael Hart, who in 1971 decided that it would be a
really good idea if lots of famous and important texts were freely
available to everyone in the world" <http://promo.net/pg>.
In the UK Higher Education sector, the driving force for the
development of digital libraries came out of the Joint Funding
Council's Libraries Review Group Report in 1993, also known as 'The
Follett Report'
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/papers/follett/report>. One of the key
findings of this report -- "The exploitation of IT is essential to
create the effective library service of the future" -- led to the UK
Electronic Libraries Program (eLib) <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib>.
More of a historical context can be gained from "Towards the Hybrid
Library" by Chris Rusbridge
<http://digbig.com/5bawnd>
and the conference proceedings of 'Beyond the Beginning: The Global
Digital Library' <http://digbig.com/5bawnf>.
In the US, the Digital Libraries Initiative of the National Science
Foundation <http://www.dli2.nsf.gov> was set up in 1994 with 6 key
projects: The Environmental Electronic Library at the University of
California at Berkeley <http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu>; The Alexandria
Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara
<http://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu>; Informedia at Carnegie Mellon
University <http://www.informedia.cs.cmu.edu>; Federated Repositories
of Scientific Literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign <http://dli.grainger.uiuc.edu>; Intelligent Agents for
Information Location at the University of Michigan
<http://www.si.umich.edu/UMDL>; Infobus at Stanford University
<http://www-diglib.stanford.edu/diglib>.
The main benefit of implementing a digital library is the ability to
provide 24-hour, remote access to high-demand or restricted materials
for multiple concurrent users, and the best way of finding out about
the potential application of such a service is to look at actual
examples.
The ARL Digital Initiatives Database, a collaboration between the
University of Illinois in Chicago and the Association of Research
Libraries, provides an online registry for descriptions of digital
initiatives in, or involving, libraries <http://www.arl.org/did>.
Bibliotheca Universalis <http://www.bl.uk/gabriel/bibliotheca-universalis>
is a collaborative project between 13 national libraries "to put major
works of worldwide cultural and scientific heritage comprising text,
images and sound, at the disposal of the general public ... via
electronic networks".
Annotated links to Digital Library Collections provided by DMOZ - the
Open Directory Project (ODP) can be found at
<http://dmoz.org/Reference/Libraries/Digital> and
<http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Electronic_Text_Archives>.
What are the nuts and bolts?
----------------------------
Setting up a digital library can be as easy or as difficult as any
other new service and will depend on any number of the usual suspects:
money; staff time; ICT support; network capability and so on. One of
the earliest comprehensive papers on designing a digital library was
"The Digital Library Tool Kit" by Dr. Peter Noerr; the 2nd edition was
published in March 2000
<http://digbig.com/5bawng>.
Today, there are a great many 'off-the-shelf' products and solutions,
either specifically designed to do the job or adapted from document
management systems. Here are a few of the more significant examples,
most of which still require a certain amount of customisation for
individual library and information services: Blue Angel Technologies
<http://www.blueangeltech.com>; CONTENTdm <http://contentdm.com>;
Crossnet Systems Ltd <http://www.crxnet.com>; Endeavor Information
Systems <http://encompass.endinfosys.com>; Epixtech
<http://www.epixtech.co.uk/digitalink.html>; ESP
<http://www.espritsoutronpartnership.com/solutions/library/index.asp>;
Ex Libris <http://www.exlibris-usa.com/digitoolibrary/index.html>;
Fretwell-Downing Informatics <http://www.fdgroup.com/fdi>; IBM
<http://www-3.ibm.com/software/data/cm/cmgr>; Sirsi
<http://www.sirsi.com/Sirsiproducts/elibrary.html>; SydneyPlus
International <http://www.sydneyplus.com/main.html>.
An alternative to commercial products is to develop a system in-house
using 'open source' software. This can be a much more cost-effective
approach, and has been successfully implemented by a number of
organisations. The most celebrated example is the Greenstone suite of
software <http://www.greenstone.org> from the New Zealand Digital
Library Project at the University of Waikato. Other projects include
the Advanced Library Collection Management Environment (ALCME) by OCLC
<http://alcme.oclc.org> and Eprints at the University of Southampton
<http://software.eprints.org>. A general directory of open source
software for libraries is available at <http://oss4lib.org>.
Getting Help!
-------------
Setting up a digital library is a great idea, but when it comes to
implementation it is always good to get some practical help. In the
UK Higher Education Community, there are a number of potential sources
of help.
HEDS, the Higher Education Digitisation Service, was established in
September 1996, as part of the eLib Programme, and became a JISC
Service in August 1998. They provide advice, consultancy and a
complete production service for digitisation and digital library
development <http://heds.herts.ac.uk>.
HERON is the UK HE copyright agency for book and journal extracts, a
one-stop clearance and digitisation service, which also began as an
eLib Project in 1998 but was acquired by Ingenta in March 2002. More
recently HERON has expanded its client base to include Further
Education Institutions and other types of organisation
<http://www.heron.ingenta.com/>.
TASI, the Technical Advisory Service for Images is another JISC
service, which provides advice, training and resources on all digital
imaging issues <http://www.tasi.ac.uk>.
There are also commercial companies and freelancers that can provide
all-inclusive services or specialist consultancy such as Instant
Library <http://www.instant-library.com> or John Kirriemuir
<http://www.ceangal.com/diglibs>.
Evaluation
----------
Evaluation can often be a feared and highly underrated part of
setting up a new service, but can be extremely useful to support
funding mechanisms and demonstrate service importance and quality.
Some of the key sources of information specific to Electronic
Information Services are the ARL E- Metrics project
<http://www.arl.org/stats/newmeas/emetrics/index.html>, EQUINOX
<http://equinox.dcu.ie>, and eVALUEd <http://www.cie.uce.ac.uk/evalued>.
E-Metrics is "an effort to explore the feasibility of defining and
collecting data on the use and value of electronic resources". EQUINOX
was a project funded under the EU Telematics for Libraries Programme
to develop performance measures for the electronic library
environment. eVALUEd is a project to develop a transferable model for
e-library evaluation funded by the Higher Education Funding Council
for England (HEFCE) <http://www.hefce.ac.uk>.
Where can I find out more about digital libraries?
--------------------------------------------------
DMOZ also has numerous annotated links relating to Digital Library
Development
<http://dmoz.org/Reference/Libraries/
Library_and_Information_Science/Digital_Library_Development>.
There are a number of key journals that focus on digital library
issues: notably Ariadne <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk>; D-Lib Magazine
<http://www.dlib.org>; The Electronic Library
<http://www.emeraldinsight.com/el.htm>; and the Journal of Digital
Information (JODI) <http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk>. From the print
perspective, there are also a number of key readings that have
recently been published: 'Digital Futures - Strategies for the
Information Age' by Marilyn Deegan and Simon Tanner (February 2002)
Neal-Schuman,ISBN 1555704379; 'How to Build a Digital Library' by Ian
H. Witten and David Bainbridge (August 2002) Morgan Kaufmann, ISBN
1558607900; 'Introduction to Digital Libraries' by G.G. Chowdhury and
Sudatta Chowdhury (November 2002) Facet Publishing, ISBN 1856044653;
'Digitizing Collections: strategic issues for the information manager'
by Lorna Hughes and David Green (December 2002) Facet Publishing,
ISBN 1856044661.
In terms of events, the main annual conferences are ECDL in Europe
<http://www.ecdl2003.org>, JCDL in the US <http://www.jcdl.org>, RCDL
in Russia <http://rcdl2002.jinr.ru>, and ICADL in Asia
<http://www.icadl2001.org>.
The following organisations are also good starting points for further
information: The DELOS Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries was
funded by the European Commission's Information Society Technologies
5th Framework Programme (IST-FP5) to actively promote and support work
related to digital libraries <http://delos-noe.iei.pi.cnr.it>; The
Digital Library Federation (DLF) <http://www.diglib.org> is a
consortium of US libraries and related agencies with similar aims and
objectives to DELOS, and a strong focus on researching and promoting
good practice; The IEEE Technical Committee on Digital Libraries
(IEEE-TCDL) <http://www.ieee-tcdl.org> aims to promote research in the
theory and practice of "all aspects of Collective Memories", including
digital libraries, at an international level.
And finally, possibly 'the' most important source of current awareness
and contact with practising professionals is DIGLIB, the Digital
Libraries mailing list, sponsored by IFLA
<http://infoserv.inist.fr/wwsympa.fcgi/info/diglib>.
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Anjlee Bhatt is a Digital Library Officer for UCEEL
<http://www.uce.ac.uk/uceel> and a Researcher on the eVALUEd project
<http://www.cie.uce.ac.uk/evalued>. She holds an MSc in Library and
Information Studies and spends far too much time in front of a
computer writing book reviews and editing for the ODP. Oh, and if
anyone knows a new link for Digital Libraries, Digital Library
Development or Library and Information Science: Research
Organizations, she would really appreciate it if you would submit it
to DMOZ through the 'add URL' link on the appropriate category page
<http://dmoz.org/profiles/anjlee.html>.
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- Publication Date: 9th January 2003
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