The MAGiC Project

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The MAGiC Project Paul Needham, Research Officer,
Cranfield University ASLIB Seminar - Raising
Awareness of Engineering Information 23rd May 2002
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Partners

• British Library Document Supply Centre
• Cranfield University
• DSTL (was DERA)
• Loughborough University, Dept of Information
  Science
• The Public Records Office
• SIRSI Limited

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Outline

• Background
• Aims and objectives
• Work packages
• Progress to date
• The demonstrator service
• Demonstration
• Benefits and outcomes

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Background

• Access to electronic information resources
• Journals vs. grey literature
• US
• strenuous attempts to disseminate research
• NASA, DoE, DoT
• UK
• major collections are scattered
• difficult to find
• The MAGiC project

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Aims objectives

• To enhance awareness, access and use of key
  collections of technical reports (grey
  literature) for the benefit of UK engineers and
  UK plc.
• Collection development, management and retention
• Improve the visibility of key collections
• Enhance access via electronic storage and
  document supply

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Work packages

• WP1 - Assessment of the use and value of
  engineering grey literature
• WP2 - Mapping and collection management
• WP3 - National Reports Catalogue
• WP4 - Full-text archive
• WP5 - Project management

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Progress to date

• WP1 - Assessment of the use and value of
  engineering grey literature
• literature review
• impact study with emphasis on value

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Progress to date

• WP2 - Mapping and collection management
• Mapping collections
• preliminary reports holdings questionnaire
• preliminary reports producers questionnaire
• signposts within reports series
• Collection analysis methodology
• quantitative indicators
• qualitative indicators
• use of electronic discussion forums

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Progress to date

• WP3 National Reports Catalogue
• Options for the NRC Z39.50
• academic libraries, BL PRO
• libraries in government and industry
• does nothing for collection rationalisation
• concerns over unresolved technical and
  performance issues associated with distributed
  searching

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Progress to date

• WP3 National Reports Catalogue
• Options for the NRC local database metadata
  harvesting
• facilitate collection rationalisation
• consistent resource descriptions
• metadata without the constraints of MARC
• Interoperability via Z39.50 and OAI-compliance

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Progress to date

• WP4 Full text archive
• Digitisation
• Options
• ARC Reports Memoranda
• NACA reports
• http//naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/

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The demonstrator service

• WP3 WP4 a web interface some other bits and
  pieces The demonstrator service
• METReS

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Metadata exchange between MAGiC and other
organisations
DNER
Metadata recipients
Metadata providers
Engineering portal
British Library
MARC/ Z39.50 XMLDC etc.
ILL or document supply system
Full textelectronic document archives
Harvest full text indexes
METReS
Authentication
http

• Local metadata store
• National Reports Catalogue
• Corporate sources
• Series descriptions
• Report descriptions
• Collection descriptions
• Full text indexes

End user searches or browses tech reports
metadata/full text indexes. A list of reports,
physical or electronic, matching requirements is
returned, along with their locations. Subject to
authentication and payment, the user can receive
electronic reports at the desktop. Print reports
can be ordered through ILL requests, for loan,
photocopy, fax or email using digitization on
demand.
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METReS demonstration
http//magic-reports.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/
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Benefits and outcomes

• Technical reports collections
• greater awareness and better access
• enhanced competitiveness
• ARC and NACA reports
• National Reports Catalogue
• identification, location and supply
• content for engineering portals
• Framework for collection management
• Commercial viability

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Thank you for listening! any questions?
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• Thank you for listening