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Welcome. In this first issue of Exploit Interactive we begin to explore some of the Telematics for Libraries projects covering the broad areas of interoperability and access. Promotion and discussion of the project context and related issues and challenges will be a first step toward dissemination and exploitation of transferable project results. Over the course of the Exploit project, the magazine will evolve to further facilitate such transfers reflecting the work of the DBI and other members of the Exploit Consortium.
From the broader community, the commercial trio of Amazon.co.uk, Seasoft and the Cambridge Management Group introduce a range of topics including cash generating ideas, document delivery systems outside the firewall, and of interest to us all, discussion on EC funding and options for libraries in the Fifth Framework Programme. Other contributions include suggestions for bandwidth savings to options and potential opportunities for seeking international project partners.
The Regular Columns comprise At the Event, Behind the Web Site, The Citizen's Gateway and Web Technologies offering a brief visit to Bratislava, a glimpse behind the scenes at euroguide, an introduction to PubliCA with a focus on Public Libraries in Europe, a look at web protocols and formats and an analysis of the URLs used in the Telematics for Libraries web pages.
The Java Crossword Puzzle in the Et cetera column offers a brief escape from the articles, only to test your knowledge of Telematics for Libraries and computing trivia. As the Crossword uses a Java applet to allow for user interaction, you'll need to be using a browser with support for Java. Please let us know if you encounter any difficulties accessing the crossword. Theme ideas for future crosswords can be sent to the editors at exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk. Also in the Et cetera column is the Jobs listing which we hope will become a useful listing for both seekers and providers of current project, networking and library related positions.
In closing, we would like to thank all who have contributed to the development of this first issue of Exploit Interactive. We wish to thank Concha Fernandez de la Puente and the European Commission, DGXIII/E-2, for making this project possible; DBI, and particularly Klaus Reinhardt, for backing this project since the beginning; the British Council and their representatives in Warsaw and Frankfurt; the National Focal Points, in particular Rosalind Johnson for information received via the lis-european-programmes mailing list; and UKOLN, for providing a physical base for the magazine arm of the Exploit project and extensive technical services. Thanks are also due to Brian Kelly for transforming the idea into a real project and Adam Batenin who provided technical support for Microsoft Site Server 3.0. Lastly, our appreciation goes out to the design team based at ILRT in Bristol; Jan Chipchase (interface design) and Keiko Mori (graphic design). We invite your feedback on issue 1 and ideas for upcoming issues.
Ingrid Bussmann takes us on the CHILIAS journey. At the end of October 1998, project CHILIAS finished, but Infoplanet (a Web-forum for children about books, media and the library - the result of the project) will be an ongoing service of the participating children's and school libraries.
CHILIAS - the European Virtual Children's Library of the Future - an EC Telematics for Libraries project, 1994-1998, was completed successfully in October 1998. Under the co-ordination of Stuttgart City Library, Germany, CHILIAS has created a multimedia virtual simulation of a children’s library on the Web/Internet. CHILIAS was developed between 1996 and 1998 in collaboration with partners from Finland, Great Britain, Greece, Portugal and Spain. The CHILIAS Home Page in Stuttgart is shown in Figure 1. [1]
 Figure 1: CHILIAS Home Page (Stuttgart) |
CHILIAS stands for: children's library - information - animation - skills. CHILIAS has explored new Internet/WWW based children's and school library services for children aged 9-12 years.
The main challenge of the changing information and media society is not access to information, but the processing of information into useful knowledge and inspiring wisdom. Libraries have a responsibility to enable their users to find their way through the complexity of the new information world and support new ways of learning based on new technology. There are many ways for libraries to meet the challenges of the future and to serve the changing needs of their users.
The project CHILIAS has addressed the needs and requirements of children aged 9-12 years using interactive multimedia and networked information and communication systems.
Children grow up in the changing media world. They are used to computers and multimedia technology. They enjoy the technology as a kind of new tool for playing. But they need support in developing their information skills and new ways of learning. The Internet and multimedia give them new means for acquiring information and learning. These demand a corresponding range of new information-seeking and information-handling skills. Children’s libraries and school libraries have traditionally provided a stimulating environment for learning. The traditional library model must be adapted to the networked multimedia environment bridging traditional media and library access and new technology in a creative way. The European project CHILIAS has explored a new role of children’s libraries and school libraries providing a new Internet based service to enhance children’s computer literacy and the creative use of new technology.
CHILIAS has developed a new concept for European children’s
libraries and school libraries for innovative learning and creative use of
Internet technology. Chilias has explored a new role of children's
libraries and school libraries as active content provider in data networks
by publishing new content on the Web, content which addresses children's
needs and requirements and provides children adequate information.
CHILIAS has developed four complementary and integrated applications in a WWW environment:
The Infoplanet invites children to browse through a collection of Web pages with creative and playful information. To symbolise the idea of a virtual library (information - knowledge - wisdom) several symbols could have been used. The CHILIAS project has started with a User Needs Analysis and children were asked to draw their ideas of a virtual place. Very often they used images from nature and space. So the CHILIAS consortium decided to use the space metaphor as a symbol for the virtual library. Beside the attraction of space, planets and stars for children, space symbolises the infinite human thirst for knowledge, might be the limits of knowledge and wisdom as well. Planets and stars can be an appropriate symbol for information. And they stand for exploration and adventure. This is the idea of the virtual library: exploration. Children can browse through the cyberspace metaphor and click here and there. Or they can directly click to the topics provided in the main frame: the library, the author gallery, animals, music, sports, our town.
The Infoplanet has been created in six language versions. Although the idea and the general framework is common in all Infoplanets, content and materials are local because of the cultural diversity. All Infoplanets are linked together by flag symbols and a European map, so that children can easily browse through all language versions.
The Infoplanets provide common topics based on the results of the User Needs Analyses done at the beginning of the project. All sites have chosen local topics as well according to the needs of their users, e.g. 'environment' in the Portuguese version. All topics are presented with graphics, images, sound and text. They provide relevant information in a playful and stimulating way as a kind of appetizer, raising children’s curiosity to browse through the virtual library and then, perhaps, to come to the real library and enjoy real books and media.
All Infoplanets provide information about the participating libraries, opening hours, library use, library events. In some Infoplanets, e.g. the English version, children can write emails to the library or participate in a homework service. Some local OPACS are linked to the service.
The Infoplanet provides information about the participating towns, Barcelona and Stuttgart, Athens and Lisboa, Gateshead and Vantaa. Children all over Europe can find child-friendly information about the project sites, partly created by children themselves.
The Infoplanets provide information about topics like music, animals and sports; topics children are most interested in as the User Needs Analysis has shown. The information is different in all versions. For example, new books or CDs are presented, or detailed pages about music (instruments in the Finnish version) or about animals in the Portuguese version.
All Infoplanets provide selected Internet links to other Web sites such as homepages of Pop-Groups or Sports, clubs, etc. So the Infoplanet is not only a collection of new Web pages for children, but a guide to child-friendly Internet sites as well.
The core of the Infoplanet is the 'Author Gallery'. All sites provide information about children’s book authors, about their lives, their books, and where to find the books in the library.
Within the term of the project the Author Gallery has been fairly small in scale, but it will grow beyond the lifetime of the project, as all sites plan to maintain the service.
The Author Gallery has been created in close collaboration with the authors themselves. They have provided lots of materials and information, written new stories or songs for the Infoplanet. The new collaboration between authors and the libraries has been one of the most exciting experiences in the project.
Children enjoy the Author Gallery, they like to explore the pages and sometimes they go to the library shelves to get one of the real books. This bridge between the virtual world and the real library is one of the CHILIAS objectives.
As the first tests with children user groups have shown that children are not used to Internet browsers and easily get lost, Infoplanet includes a help function explaining basic navigation skills on the Internet. But CHILIAS validation has proved that children are not very eager to use help functions. They prefer to explore the use of multimedia applications by just clicking and testing what happens. So the application itself has to be self-explanatory, otherwise children lose their patience. The Infoplanet also contains a search function for Infoplanet content. But again validation has shown that children prefer exploring the Infoplanet and do not often use it for detailed searches. The search function is more useful to parents or teachers who are interested in specific information.
The Storybuilder is an interactive application which allows for creative input from children. Children can create stories in their local language using the symbols the Storybuilder provides.
The language problem is a challenge for the project idea to stimulate European communication. Children of the target age group learn English - this has been proved by the User Needs Analysis - but they have difficulties in writing in English. So the project has arranged storybuilding events in all sites in the local language. A selection of stories has been translated into English to share the ideas all over Europe.
“The dark, dark contest“ is the beginning of a story written by a Greek author for CHILIAS. Written in English, children all over Europe can finish the story. The objective of this part of the storybuilder is to explore the potentiality of common activities between European children in spite of the language difficulties.
The Guestbook is a discussion and feedback tool for use by children. Children can write comments to selected topics and answer messages from other children. Although the language skills of the target age group set limits to European communication, there are many children in all sites with a multicultural background. So the Guestbook can contribute to multicultural European communication.
Infoton provides interactive exercises in basic information-seeking skills such as alphabetical order, classification and categorisation. The CHILIAS User Needs Analysis has clearly shown that children of this particular age have difficulties in both constructing a search and in deciding upon the relevant medium to search. Therefore CHILIAS has created a learning environment aimed at the fostering of expertise in information seeking skills and in subject knowledge. Within the term of the project Infoton could only be developed on a small scale with exercises on basic skills.
CHILIAS is aimed at developing the library as a stimulating environment for innovative learning. Children’s libraries and school libraries have created services and activities to support children’s information needs in a creative way, to enhance their imagination and to enlighten their minds. This traditional model of the library can be adapted to the virtual world. The CHILIAS Infoplanet provides new access to information and learning. Doing the skills exercises they improve their information skills. Browsing through the Infoplanet, they discover new information about authors and books, music and animals, European cities and countries. The virtual children’s library - the Infoplanet - provides access to the physical children’s library showing children what they can expect from it, and raising their curiosity about books and authors. The use of the virtual library is not only to find a specific information, but is like a magazine with rich information and links between the different types of information; a tool for intuitive learning.
Infoplanet has enhanced the attractiveness of the real library. Testing the Infoplanet in the physical environment, the CHILIAS consortium has observed that many children come to the library because of the Infoplanet. And they normally leave the library with some books. So Infoplanet can support the bridge between traditional and new media.
But the learning impact of CHILIAS is more than using the application. CHILIAS has been a user-oriented project involving the end-user group children in the project development from the start. Children have participated in designing the virtual library and in generating content. Many of the Infoplanet Web pages have been written by children. The children’s library in Stuttgart has created the “Internet-Reporter“, library workshops for children to create Web pages. Guided by the librarians, children have designed their own Web-pages on selected topics. And by doing this they have learned how the Internet works and enhanced their computer literacy and their information-handling skills.
Further information will be found on the CHILIAS International Homepage shown in Figure 2. [2]
 Figure 2: CHILIAS International Home Page |
The main benefit of CHILIAS is the development of a useful application for European children, the Infoplanet. As pointed out the Infoplanet can support children’s information needs and help them to prepare their future role as users of the European information society. As CHILIAS is a WWW/Internet service it is accessible for children all over the world.
CHILIAS has established new collaborations across Europe. Teachers and schools have perceived the libraries as relevant partners in the new multimedia area. CHILIAS has developed new relations to authors and publishers providing them a platform on the Internet. In all sites lots of institutions have been involved in the developing process, library colleges and sports clubs, youth associations and media experts. CHILIAS has significantly raised the profile of the participating libraries and increased their value and attractiveness in their local communities and in the public. And again this expertise can encourage children’s libraries and school libraries in Europe to prove their position as “signpost on the new cross-roads of information and culture“.
And last but not least, the collaboration between the CHILIAS consortium has been a contribution to European understanding. CHILIAS has been followed by a new European project, VERITY - Virtual and Electronic Resources for Information skills Training for Young people. Under coordination of University of Sunderland, Great Britain VERITY started in April 1998. VERITY is developing a new electronic library service aiming at the needs of young people between 13 and 19 years with a Virtual Librarian, a Referral Service and an information skills package for the target age group.
If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).
Ingrid Bussmann
Stadtbücherei Stuttgart
Email: u410031@stuttgart.de
URL: http://chilias.stuttgart.de:8080/chilias/
For citation purposes:
Ingrid Bussmann, "The European Virtual Children's Library on the
Internet: a New Service to Foster Children's Computer Literacy," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/chilias/>
David Hough introduces LISTED: Library Integrated System for Telematics-based Education
It is becoming recognised throughout the developed world that, as the application of technology impacts on our working lives, the knowledge and ability to understand and use that technology is a requirement for all people, throughout their working lives. Lifelong Learning is now more than an ideal, it is a necessity. Access to learning can no longer be restricted to the relatively few places available in traditional learning establishments.
"We stand on the brink of a new age. Familiar certainties and old ways of doing things are disappearing. Jobs are changing and with them the skills needed for the world of tomorrow. In our hearts we know we have no choice but to prepare for this new age, in which the key to success will be the education, knowledge and skills of our people". (David Blunkett, UK Secretary of State for Education and Employment - DfEE publication `The Learning Age' February 1998)
Fortunately the same technology which is creating the demand for on-going learning, is also being applied to the learning process. Technology-based training, using the flexibility of audio, video, computer-based, and internet delivered learning packages is a reality. The term Open Learning is used as a very simple, general expression, for styles of learning which put the student in control of the process, and which remove traditional educational and administrative barriers. Open learning, in all its forms, provides the individual user with control over his/her own time, pace and place of learning.
"Learning must be made convenient and welcoming, whether it takes place at work, at home, in shopping centres, schools,libraries, museums or elsewhere" - DfEE publication `The Learning Age' February 1998.
Public libraries, with their traditional core function of helping individuals to fulfill their information and learning needs, are ideally placed to offer access to Open Learning.
Project LISTED is a European Commission project, part funded under the Telematics Applications Programme (Libraries sector). The project started in April 1996 and was planned for completion in July 1998. Project LISTED involves partners from five EC countries, shown in Figure 1, and was designed to develop the use of the latest technology to help to meet the needs of adult independent learners in public libraries. The project has been extended to cover a period of Central and East European involvement; final completion of the CEE phase will be in summer 1999. Two new library-based test sites are being developed, in Hungary, for this purpose.
Figure 1: The LISTED Team |
The work of the project has involved the development of distance learning test-sites in six public libraries. These test-sites, in the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and the UK are equipped to enable library users to sample leaning by `TELEMATICS'. The project built on earlier work carried out mainly under the EC PLAIL project ( Public Library Adult Independent Learners ) and the UK Government's `Open for Learning' project.
The means of access to information on learning materials, and to on-line courseware, in all test-sites, is via multimedia workstations, connected to the INTERNET. A World Wide Web facility, and materials catalogue, has been specially developed for project LISTED. This is called the Extended Interactive Catalogue (EIC)
The roles of the different parties which could eventually be included in the Listed set-up is illustrated below in Figure 2. It would be possible for access to be extended beyond the library, for example from home or from a company, either via the library or directly to the Extended Interactive Catalogue (EIC). By using the EIC, Open Learning packages and their location are identified, and arrangements made for loan. In some cases the material will be available for direct use on-line. In the future it will be possible for information and materials to be added to the EIC remotely, other than just from the libraries, by the authors, publishers or distributors.
Figure 2: The LISTED Set-up |
Central to the operation of the service is the means to access information and course material remotely from any public library. For the purpose of project LISTED, six public library test sites have been used. These are all equipped with computer workstations, linked to the EIC via the World Wide Web.
Functions of the EIC are:
Providing and retrieving information to and from the EIC is presently restricted to interaction between test sites and the web interface. Simply by freeing up access to the web address and passwords it will be possible to extend inputs and outputs to any location.
Further information on the project in general, details of partners and test sites, availability of reports, and actual report summaries are available at: http://www.itpoint.org.uk/listed.html
If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).
David Hough has been involved on a freelance basis, in the development and management of project LISTED since the idea was first being considered by the EC back in 1995. For three years prior to 1995 David was employed by the British Association for Open Learning (BAOL) to manage the UK Government funded 'Open Learning in Public Libraries' programme. This programme was highly successful, and led to the creation of more than 90 Open Learning centres in British public libraries. Before working for BAOL David had spent 20 years with the Manpower Services Commission ( UK Employment Department ) where his career path ranged from trainer, to training centre management, to Regional Development Officer with special responsibility for Open and Flexible Learning. The mix of expertise, gained over 25 years, and covering: training, open learning, the development of new library-based services, and project management, has led to freelance work with Training and Enterprise Councils, Library Services, UK Government and the European Commission. David would welcome any enquiries about becoming involved in further development activities. |
For
citation purposes:
David Hough, "Project
LISTED," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/listed/>