Ariadne and ExploitMag: Web Review and European Library Telematics

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Ariadne and Exploit-MagWeb Reviewand European
Library Telematics

• Philip Hunter
• UKOLN
• University of Bath
• Bath, BA2 7AY
• p.j.hunter_at_ukoln.ac.uk

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UKOLN Background

• UKOLN (The UK Office for Library and Information
  Networking) provides awareness, research and
  information services and has the following goals
• To promote awareness of emergent issues at
  technical, service and policy levels
• To provide a focal point for research,
  development, and performance measurement
• To influence policy makers and service providers
  in the interests of the communities it serves
• To demonstrate high-quality information services

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UKOLN Project Involvement

• UKOLN is represented on many national committees
  and initiatives and works to influence practice
  and policy
• It provides support to the UK Electronic
  Libraries Programme, and to the Libraries and
  Information Commission
• It maintains research and awareness programmes in
  distributed library and information systems and
  in public library networking
• UKOLN has also established itself as a central
  source of expertise in the area of metadata

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UKOLN Project Involvement

• BIBLINK (EU - Telematics for Libraries) - project
  led by the British Library looking at the
  transmission of metadata between electronic
  publishers and national bibliographic agencies
• DESIRE (EU - Telematics for Research) - large
  project looking at aspects of Web-based
  information management
• ROADS (UK Electronic Libraries Programme) -
  project creating a distributed standards based
  system for subject information gateways
• NewsAgent (UK Electronic Libraries Programme) -
  project creating a systems framework to provide a
  current awareness service

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UKOLN and eLib

• UKOLN is funded by JISC, the British Library
  Research and Innovation Centre, the Electronic
  Libraries Programme, and the European Union
• UKOLN hosts and maintains project pages on behalf
  of the eLib programme

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UKOLN and eLib

• Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) established
  in 1994
• Initial budget of 24 million US dollars over 3
  years
• Objectives include the use of IT to improve
  delivery of information through increased use of
  electronic library services and to encourage new
  methods of scholarly publishing
• Ariadne is an eLib project

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Ariadne

• Bi-monthly newsletter in parallel hard copy and
  electronic format
• Originally aimed primarily at academic libraries
• Describes and evaluates sources and services
  available on the Internet of potential use to
  librarians and information professionals
• Reports to the library community on eLib

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Ariadne

• Ariadne registered well over a million hits in
  its first year (founded in January 1996) and, a
  search on Alta-Vista in March 1997 found that
  about 500 sites link to Ariadne
• Ariadne has become a central part of the UK's
  information landscape, and an important
  international resource

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Ariadne

• Ariadne is moving towards a greater concentration
  on the reporting, discussion and evaluation of
  technical issues arising from information
  networking
• The fluidity of the Internet as a communications
  and publishing medium created an urgent need
  among academic librarians for an authoritative
  publication

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Ariadne Exploit-Mag

• Exploit-Mag is to provide unified access to
  information concerning European and national
  library projects
• Editorial board drawn from the Exploit consortium
  
• Experience of Ariadne with UK eLib Programme is
  directly applicable to Exploit-Mag and the EU
  Telematics for Libraries Programme

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Exploit-Mag

• Few genuine pan-European communication and
  dissemination vehicles in existence
• Exploit-Mag is intended to promote the
  development of effective mechanisms for the
  exploitation of results emerging from the
  Telematics for Libraries Programme
• Envisaged that it will promote the transfer of
  know-how in this area to those CEE countries
  which have applied for accession to the EU

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Exploit-Mag Technical Development

• Both Ariadne Exploit-Mag will be managed with
  the aid of site tools
• Production of Exploit-Mag will be automated,
  allowing the reuse of common materials from a
  central database
• Exploit-Mag will be produced using Cascading
  Style Sheets

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What you can do

• The idea of Exploit-Mag is to service the
  requirements of the European Union Libraries
  Telematics Programme. Exploit-Mag would be happy
  to receive suggestions about ways in which the
  magazine might be tailored and adapted to its
  precise environment
• Email exploit_at_ukoln.ac.uk
• http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/ (UKOLN home pages)
• http//www.ariadne.ac.uk/ (Ariadne home pages)

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