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Issue 1

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Editorial

Editorial

Exploit: Pan-European Exploitation of the Results of the Libraries Programme

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.

Bernadette Daly and Philip Hunter

Features

From the Telematics for Libraries Projects:

From the Broader Community:

Feature Articles

The European Virtual Children's Library on the Internet - a New Service to Foster Children's Computer Literacy

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.

Introduction

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]

CHILIAS Home Page (Stuttgart)
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.

What has CHILIAS Done?

CHILIAS logoCHILIAS 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:

  1. A virtual library - the Infoplanet Website which contains Web pages for children aged 9-12 years on authors, books, media, topics like animals, sports, music and the library in German, Finnish, English, Greek, Spanish and Portuguese.
  2. An interactive application for creative input from children, the storybuilder.
  3. A discussion and feed-back tool for use by children, the guestbook.
  4. An information skills tool - Infoton.

1. The Infoplanet

The Space Metaphor

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 topics

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.

Topic "Library"

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.

Our Town

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.

Music, Animals and Sports

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 Author Gallery

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.

Navigation Tools

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.

2. The Storybuilder

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.

3. The Guestbook

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.

4. Infoton - a tool to improve children’s information skills

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.

The Library as a New Learning Environment

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]

CHILIAS International Home Page
Figure 2: CHILIAS International Home Page

The General Benefits of CHILIAS

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.

The CHILIAS Consortium:

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).


References

  1. CHILIAS Home Page (Stuttgart)
    URL: <http://chilias.stuttgart.de:8080/chilias/>
  2. CHILIAS International Home Page with links to all Infoplanets
    URL: <http://chilias.isegi.unl.pt/chilias_int/>

Author Details

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/>


Project LISTED

David Hough introduces LISTED: Library Integrated System for Telematics-based Education

Rationale

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.

Background Description of Project LISTED

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.

{The LISTED Team}
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)

Preparatory Work Leading to the Demonstration of the LISTED Service

  1. Analysis of the needs of users and of public library staff
  2. Investigations into appropriate technologies and the development of implementation procedures
  3. Development of the Web-site and materials catalogue
  4. Market analysis and investigation of learning materials
  5. Production of guidelines for library staff on copyright issues
  6. Setting up test site equipment, software, training of staff, and marketing the service
  7. Testing and evaluation of the pilot service
  8. Refinement of the pilot service

Outline Model - Showing Roles and Parties in the LISTED Set-up

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.

{The LISTED Set-up}
Figure 2: The LISTED Set-up

The Extended Interactive Catalogue (EIC)

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.

Key Results

Outcomes of Project LISTED by November 1998 are:

  1. An Extended Interactive Catalogue which:
  2. Six public library test sites in four EU countries
  3. Two test sites in a CEE country (Hungary) adapting and developing the LISTED service
  4. An internet-based information service containing report summaries and contact details
  5. A total of 16 reports and other deliverables available to help with exploitation

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

LISTED Project Partners

United Kingdom

Ireland

Denmark

Portugal

Spain

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).


Author Details


David Hough
Email: davidhough@compuserve.com
URL: http://www.itpoint.org.uk/listed.html
Tel: +44 (0)1902 326126
Fax: +44 (0)1902 326126

David Hough

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/>

DERAL - Distance Education in Rural Areas via Libraries

Developments in the field of telecommunications and computing have resulted in completely new ways of disseminating information and knowledge, as well as changing methods of education. The importance of public libraries as providers of infrastructure and as brokers of information is evident. All should be able to participate in distance education from their nearest public library. Brigitte Kühne introduces the DERAL Project.

Background

Developments in the field of telecommunications and computing have resulted in completely new ways of disseminating information and knowledge, as well as changing methods of education. We have also come to realise that, with the frenetic pace of technological change, skills acquired in youth are no longer sufficient to ensure either employment or comfort in the surrounding world. The explosive growth and very rapid technical evolution of Internet based technologies offers a promising overall platform for delivery of information, knowledge and learning. The importance of public libraries as providers of infrastructure and as brokers of information is once again evident in the whole of Europe, and all who want to participate in lifelong learning or who want to educate themselves in any subject in order to be able to follow the development in a changing society should be able to participate in distance education from their nearest public library once the tools for such distance education have been developed.

Our intention in the DERAL-project is to find guidelines for public libraries and librarians in the different European countries. Active learning and the use of information technology for educational purposes has to be supported, and therefore programmes for interactive learning have to be developed. If these programmes are developed to suit public library environments no part of a population needs to be excluded, everybody can participate.

Public libraries will play a very active role in building the new information society. It means however that librarians must be educated for a new, tutoring, role and that the libraries must be equipped with supporting reference material, specific for the different courses that are needed or wanted by the inhabitants of this area. To investigate this is part of the project.

No extensive analysis of user requirements have been done so far, but "everybody" seems to be concerned about life-long learning, how to raise one's educational level, how to be able to participate in the "information society" etc. The European Commission in their comments on the V Framework Programme wrote in their "Draft for Large Scale Consulting" in October 1997: ".. the success of the information society in the EU is critically dependent on effective delivery of life-long learning to all its citizens and that a large scale European-wide action is needed in order to bring together the expertise available within the Member States." and "... there will be a growing need for distance learning services addressing large user groups."

From a pilot project in the Kalmar County we knew after a questionnaire that public library staff wanted to know more about computers, IT, and Internet and how these things could be used in library service. Through follow up questionnaires, also in other parts of Sweden, we know that library staff want more than basic education in these matters. They want it in order to serve library visitors better and to help them in their information seeking. This could be extended to people who want to participate in life-long learning and/or distance education.

EU Call Topic

The DERAL-project was proposed under the European Union Telematics for Libraries programme, fourth framework. It belongs to Action Line C: Library services for access to networked information resources; Call Topic 12: Integrating library services with distance learning. It is funded with 368,000 ECU.

Participants:

Previous Work

The pilot project in Kalmar, Sweden

In 1995-96 the Kalmar County Library carried out an Internet- based information technology project, called "Telematics for librarians" together with the University College of Kalmar and partfunded by the Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs. In the pilot project the participants learnt about computers and telematics via Internet and e-mail ("learning by doing"). The subject was the new technology of media/IT in regard to librarians and libraries. The aim was to link the twelve main libraries in the County together, partly to be able to help each other in information seeking and partly in order to be able to be used for distance education via the Internet. The participants benefited from the course by using the Internet as a tool for education. The long-term aim was to improve the service to the public, but in the short term the team stimulated an internal discussion of the likely consequences of the development of new forms of media. Participants were interested in the possible extension of the role of librarians to being tutors to the people who participate in courses brought to libraries. At the end of 1997 a similar course started together with the Swedish DIK-förbund, the Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs, the Universities of Lund, Uppsala and Umeå and the BHS in Borås. (Brigitte Kühne is a member of the working group for this project.) This course is offered to all librarians in Sweden and has had very good results. The course has been doubled several times since the start.

See <http://www.mc.hik.se/EDIT/studion.html> Link to broken external resource for the University College of Kalmar and <http://www.dds.se/distans/> Link to external resource for the DIK-course.

General Description

Recent European Union reports have recognised that libraries, especially public libraries with their network of some 70.000 branches (figures differ, depending on how to define a "branch library") throughout Europe, can help society to meet key challenges. It is thereby important to identify barriers or problems in the transition to the Information Society and their implications for libraries. We need:

  1. to recognise how one can help citizens to benefit from the Information Society, having access to information, knowledge and lifelong learning, including the provision of access points and services for those without their own means
  2. to observe the relative difficulty that users in certain (rural) regions have in accessing networked information resources and Europe's education and training systems because of own unfamiliarity in technologies, but also in lack of skills from library staff in handling these questions
  3. to help citizens to overcome social and psychological barriers while participating in using and developing the new multimedia tools at their nearest public library system, thus giving citizens the skills they need to stay in their home regions and still being able to participate and work in the information society of the future
  4. to identify the danger that access to certain information and educating resources could be curtailed by commercial interests leading to a widening gap between the information rich and the information poor

In the DERAL-project we have chosen rural areas in Sweden (the Kalmar County in the south-eastern part of Sweden, a part that is known for having among the lowest average education level in the whole country and also being at the lowest level of average income in the whole country), in Spain (the North East of Spain), in Austria (public libraries in the Wiener Neustadt, in Nieder- and in Oberoesterreich), in Northern Ireland - the county of North Antrim, a primarily rural area with many small towns and villages and in Ireland the region outside Dublin. These regions have quite different but complementing experiences in public libraries´ roles in ordinary peoples´ lives in educational matters: Austria has not much experience at all; Huesca will soon have a digital library, but no experience in how this could be used in distance education; Northern Ireland has much experience in distance education, but not involving public libraries, Ireland has experience in distance education with the participation of public libraries but wants more and the Kalmar county has experience in distance learning for public library staff, but not for ordinary library visitors.

In the DERAL project it is our aim to develop a module or a set of guidelines which is applicable to different topics for learning when public libraries in rural areas are to be involved in distance learning for visitors to their libraries.

After we had looked at the ,,State of the art" and gathered information from the different participating regions we equipped the participating public libraries with PC:s, printers, scanners etc. and connected them to the Internet. We have trained the staff and have also connected them together in discussion groups via e-mail, teaching them how to use the multimedia resources. In this way we want to create a platform based on Internet for international co-operation between public librarians who want to share experiences in distance education, exchange opinions and ideas, and get access to expert advice and training.

The DERAL homepage is found at: <http://deral.infc.ulst.ac.uk> Link to broken external resource

We will then catalogue distance learning resources which are currently available on-line - we will create an interface of resources which are available on the Web. We want to test hardware and software for educational purposes if these are suitable for distance education via public libraries.

Finally we will develop the guidelines for public librarians and visitors to public libraries.

We have seen the first problems. Some of them are on a large scale: still insufficient education with librarians, technical problems, library directors´ unwillingness, economy, etc, while others are smaller: where to put the PC in the library, type of furniture, how many supplementing books, lack of time, etc.

The DERAL-project started at May 13, 1998, with a kick-off meeting in Kalmar, Sweden, and will be finished after 27 months with a as complete as possible set of guideline for public librarians and visitors to public libraries. So far we have arranged workshops in most of the participating countries in order to educate library staff, to market the project to education providers and to inform people who want to follow distance courses.

"Technical approach"

In the project there are different workpackages that contain for instance:

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

References

  1. Ellis-King, Deirdre, Irish Library News. Prel. November 1998. About the seminar in Belfast November 1998.
  2. Kühne, Brigitte, Om DERAL-projektet. Biblioteksbladet. Prel. November 1998.
  3. Leitner, Gerald, Büchereiperspektiven, no 2/98
  4. Leitner, Gerald, Economic Network Vienna - Future Contents of the Austrian Public Library Network.
  5. DERAL homepage: <http://deral.infc.ulst.ac.uk< Link to external resource

Author Details

Dr. Brigitte Kühne
Kalmar Läns Bibliotek
P.O.Box 963
S-39129 Kalmar
Sweden

Email: <brigitte.kuhne@kalmar.regionforbund.se>
URL: <http://deral.infc.ulst.ac.uk>

For citation purposes:
Dr. Brigitte Kühne, "DERAL - Distance Education in Rural Areas via Libraries," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/deral/>

The LIBERATOR Project: Overview and key areas/challenges

Pedro Isaias describes the LIBERATOR project; pointing out its most relevant key areas/challenges. LIBERATOR stands for Libraries in European Regions Access to Telematics and Other Resources. It is funded by the European Commission's DG XIII Telematics for Libraries Programme.

Introduction

The project involves full partners from England (Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council Libraries and Arts Service), Portugal (Instituto Superior de Estatística e Gestão de Informação da Universidade Nova de Lisboa), Belgium (Provincie Vlaams-Brabant ("Leuven")), Denmark (Royal School of Library and Information Science) and France (Centre Européen de la Communication). With several associate partners and a sponsoring partner, project participants total 20 in all.

The LIBERATOR Team
The LIBERATOR Team

Project Aims

The LIBERATOR project aims to establish three Regional Information Services (RIS) in Alentejo (Portugal), Vlaams-Brabant (Belgium) and Aquitaine (France) based on the English RIS [1] experience. The 2-year project started on 1st February 1998 and focuses on networked public library services and regional web sites which co-ordinate all web activity relevant to the needs of the participating regions. Sites will be multifunctional offering mediated gateways to the Internet for citizens, virtual shop windows to stimulate regional economies and new retrieval tools for information mediators. The sites will also address presentation and access by incorporating facilities such as localised searching, filters and security features.

The demonstrators that will be established will be completely web based and fully integrated into the mediation services provided by the participating public libraries. Mediation will take various forms including enquiry handling through electronic mail. The Royal School of Library and Information Science has studied and evaluated the North of England RIS and produced a set of recommendations for the benefit of the other partners. The result of this study was the publication of a Keynote Report entitled 'Regional Information Services - A Key Role for Public Libraries in Europe' [2] which covers the following main themes: RIS visions and policies; RIS maintenance; RIS functionality; Opportunities; and Barriers.

Continued Development of the Regional Information Services

The LIBERATOR consortium will refer to the Keynote Report as they continue to develop their Regional Information Services. Embryonic versions of RIS now exist in each region (please refer to [3] for the Alentejo embryonic RIS and [4] for the Vlaams-Brabant embryonic RIS), demonstrators are being developed and the validation process is to take place soon.

The idea of the consortium is not to produce a sole model for RIS development but four different and region specific systems using common guidelines and based on several key areas/challenges.

Key Areas/Challenges

The most relevant key areas/challenges of the LIBERATOR project are the following:

Bearing these key areas/challenges in mind, the LIBERATOR consortium will pursue RIS development through the use of new concepts and supporting technologies that can benefit its consolidation and further expansion in the future.

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).


References

  1. The North of England Regional Information Service. Developed by Northern Informatics Applications Agency and managed by Gateshead MBC Libraries and Arts Service
    URL: <http://ris.niaa.org.uk/> [December 14th 1998]
  2. Albrechtsen, H., 1998. Keynote Report: Regional Information Services - A Role for Public Libraries in Europe.
    URL: <http://ris.niaa.org.uk/liberator/keynote/> [December 14th 1998]
  3. SIR - Sistema de Informação Regional. The Alentejo (Portugal) RIS in embryonic version. Owner/maintainer: Instituto Superior de Estatística e Gestão de Informação da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal.
    URL: <http://adamastor.isegi.unl.pt/sir/> [December 14th 1998]
  4. RIS Vlaams-Brabant. The Vlaams-Brabant (Belgium) RIS in embryonic version. Owner: Provincie Vlaams Brabant, Belgium.
    URL: <http://liberator.vl-brabant.be/lip/> [December 14th 1998]
  5. LIBERATOR. International dissemination page. Owner/maintainer: The LIBERATOR consortium.
    URL: <http://ris.niaa.org.uk/liberator/> [December 14th 1998]
  6. LIBERATOR. Portuguese dissemination page. Owner/maintainer: Instituto Superior de Estatística e Gestão de Informação da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal.
    URL: <http://adamastor.isegi.unl.pt/liberatordis/ > [December 14th 1998]
  7. LIBERATOR. Belgium dissemination page. Owner: Provincie Vlaams Brabant, Belgium.
    URL: <http://liberator.vl-brabant.be/> [December 14th 1998]

Author Details


Pedro Isaias
Local LIBERATOR Project Manager
Instituto Superior de Estatística e Gestão de Informação
Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal
Email: isaias@isegi.unl.pt

Pedro Isaias Pedro Isaias is the local Project Manager at Instituto Superior de Estatstica e Gesto de Informao (ISEGI) da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, for projects LIBERATOR and VERITY. He has also been responsible for locally managing the CHILIAS project. He has a Master degree and is now finishing the PhD in Information Management at Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

For citation purposes:
Pedro Isaias, "The LIBERATOR Project: Overview and key areas/challenges," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/liberator/>


Oiling the Works: the PRIDE Project Develops an Information Brokerage Service

The Pride Project Team describe a state of the art review and user requirements, including user scenarios and technical, commercial and legal implementation factors. PRIDE is an interoperability project developing software to create an international distributed directory of library services and resources. The directory will store information about Patrons and Services and will be used to provide a range of interlibrary loan, personalised alerting, information retrieval and payment functions.

Introduction

People and Resources Identification for Distributed Environments (PRIDE) [1] is a two year project with funding from the European Commission TAP Libraries Programme [2], which started in June 1998. The project will develop a distributed directory service supporting a range of library services and users. It will demonstrate solutions to various technical and managerial problems that arise when libraries attempt to provide their users with efficient one-stop access to dispersed organised information in printed and electronic forms.

PRIDE will enable access via a single point to a global range of information resources in a way that supports a large number of services and functions. It will provide:

PRIDE logo

PRIDE project teams in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Hungary and Australia have completed a systematic specification of “PRIDE Requirements and Success Factors”, and are about to move into the design and implementation phase of the project, with a view to demonstrating services from the latter half of 1999. This article seeks to explain the objectives of the project and some of our findings to date. It is not too late for others to influence progress of the project, and, through this paper, the project hopes to attract interest, critical comment and particularly additional sponsors, who will help create an effective and far-reaching brokerage service for the global information community.

Distributed Environments

The Information Landscape

It has been found useful to consider global information infrastructures as landscapes. Users may navigate from one place to many others with greater or lesser ease. Most users will follow well-trodden paths, but they also tend to mould the landscape themselves through the ways in which they interact with ‘features’ of the landscape, such as resources and resource collections.

Making Connections

Human knowledge develops through making and strengthening some linkages at the expense of others. The global information infrastructure will develop in the same way. PRIDE will help libraries and existing resource sharing agencies to develop the ‘synapses’ of the global electronic brain, but commercial players are likely to become increasingly important.

Adding Value Through Middleware

In many cases, libraries will be able to expose their whole user populations to publishers’ products through middleware, with advantages for all parties. Libraries will themselves therefore come to behave more like publishers, selectively adding value in various ways for a range of target audiences and marketing themselves appropriately for each one. Libraries are in a strong position to provide high quality networked services and to improve the experiences of many users of the Internet and conventional libraries.

Libraries must help users make information connections

Certain characteristics of the Information Society affect PRIDE:

Libraries risk losing users to services better able to add value for users.

Directories for Progress

PRIDE will oil the information works. Directories can support a wider range of uses of existing library services for more people, without requiring wholesale replacement of systems. The PRIDE directory architecture will evolve according to need, although in the two year project we will only be able to begin to demonstrate the possibilities.

The PRIDE Project Approach

The scope of its wide-ranging consortium partnerships will ensure not only that a range of services becomes available quickly in several European countries, but that PRIDE leverages some of the world’s most advanced practical thinking about interlibrary loans and document delivery systems, in Australia.

The project has divided its staff resources into three groups for the purpose of defining PRIDE requirements and success factors, as described below.

User Requirements

The first group, with most input from the London and South Eastern Library Region (LASER), which is co-ordinating the project and Australian partner Macquarie University, Sydney, looked at user requirements and scenarios.

Directories will have wide application, but PRIDE will concentrate on the most important features lacking in the current environment, which are solutions for making distributed Patron information and distributed Service information available.

Patron Information

In general, at present library users:

The library itself has three main options for handling users:

1. Treat them all alike. This creates no barriers to use and suits users well, except where personalised or customised services need to be provided, but is likely to mean that resources which can be provided are severely limited. Little or no administration overheads may accompany low use of the network. Also, libraries do not provide any added value in terms of administrative convenience for users. Furthermore, even a specialist library, which focuses on a single user community and provides the same service for everyone, may want to restrict access to members only, which places them in the next category.

2. Treat them as groups. The commonest way to provide access to academic materials, this option relies on identifying the user within a group somehow – usually by using an IP address or shared username/password or some combination of these. Administration overhead is determined by the number of groups. This option typically works best within a campus type institution where there is some control over IP addresses and users. Group information cannot easily be shared across institutions without the use of intermediary directories. Users may benefit from group membership of services, but they may find that the number of groups they belong to transparently is confusing, so they may be unaware of all the services to which they are entitled.

3. Treat them as individuals. This gives information providers the maximum flexibility to group users, exchange rights information, develop personalised and customised services. However, it is unlikely that any other service will be able to share this information without intensive proprietary effort. Services following this option can deliver much added value to users, but a user will either have to restrict the number of such services used or will have to deal with a large number of separate systems offering different passwords, commands and search languages.

Libraries therefore:

The availability of distributed Patron information (not restricted to the local library automation system) will facilitate a range of services that can be applied to users regardless of their library services affiliation (membership). These include:

The PRIDE project seeks:

Service Information

The availability of distributed Service information will facilitate all the services currently envisaged for the global library space. For example:

Information stored in PRIDE directories will include both service and collection descriptions [3], and not just those describing traditional library catalogue materials.

Some of these services are essential if the concept of the virtual, distributed or federated library is to become a business reality, whilst others add significant value to the opportunities. They are complementary to core services (such as Search, Locate, Request and Deliver) and must inter-operate seamlessly with them.

The PRIDE project seeks:

Interfacing with the Wider World

Beyond the library world, generic and focused services will be developed for the home, the office and the public place by major corporations, offering searching and payment options, support for hobbies and interests, edutainment and lifelong learning. To guarantee a place in the public eye, library services must therefore be able to inter-operate with those services in terms of

The PRIDE application therefore will provide distributed Patron and Service / Collection information in a manner that is capable of integration with the broader offerings in the wider digital services marketplace.

Given the inevitable distribution, specialisation & also competition between these services, a number of issues become critical. There must not be a restrictive view of a single 'top node' (root) in any directory structure. Standards implementation profiles need to be established to allow directory service providers to inter-operate and to contribute to a common downstream view. Inheritance and local/domain specialisation must be implemented.

Application Sites - the PRIDE Demonstrator

The PRIDE project has elected to establish directory services for each member state (UK, Ireland, France and Germany) in such a manner that they can seamlessly interoperate to provide cross-border services - and indeed global services as indicated by the participation of an Eastern European (Hungary) and a Pacific Rim (Australia) state in the project.

PRIDE will build on the work of the EU funded LIRN project [5], which produced a directory of business library service information.

Finally the PRIDE demonstrator will incorporate the dimension of 'people' services operating beyond the world of libraries and networked information brokerage:

These links to the wider world of service developments will be achieved through the contributions of sponsoring partners and through direct exploitation of relevant Framework Programme demonstrators, and interested parties are encouraged to contact the project early in 1999.

Application Scenarios

PRIDE is developing a range of application scenarios which will be supported by the distributed directory service.

Application Scenario 1: Large-Scale Distributed Searching

Large-Scale Distributed Searching
Figure 1: Large-Scale Distributed Searching

The Service - Forward Knowledge & Intelligent Query Routing

The user submits a query to the PRIDE server to ascertain which databases hold information on the required topic. The PRIDE server responds with a list of potential targets based on its knowledge of their contents and provides the client with contact information for the targets. This contact information includes address details as well as semantic inter-operability information gleaned from its Explain service (e.g. query attributes supported, schema and record syntax details etc). The client then dynamically re-configures itself in line with the available services from the target databases. The query is then entered against the list of supported attributes for the targets and issued to them in parallel.

Alternatively, the user can issue the initial search to the PRIDE server and the server will forward the query to the appropriate databases based on its knowledge of their content.

The Benefit to End-User

Distributed database searching is now becoming possible through the use of parallel Z39.50 [7] clients. However, the initial problem of finding out which databases should be searched is as yet unsolved. PRIDE aims to provide this initial referral capability and integrate it with distributed searching to provide an end-to-end information discovery service. Additionally, as more Z39.50 servers are becoming available, the problems of semantic inter-operability are becoming more apparent and the need for dynamic interface configuration is now well recognised. Through its Explain service the PRIDE server will provide dynamic inter-operability information to connected clients.

Application Scenario 2: Distributed Authentication for Document Delivery

Distributed authentication for document delivery
Figure 2: Distributed Authentication for Document Delivery

 

The Service - Distributed Authentication

After locating an item of interest (using the above scenario) the user issues a document request either through Z39.50 item order or through an ISO ILL request message to the supplier. The supplier must establish the authenticity of the user and obtain payment information. To do this the supplier contacts the PRIDE directory service, which establishes a 'trust path' to the user and obtains account information for that user.

The Benefit to the Service Provider

This is essential for all service providers who wish to provide large scale commercial services. It should be noted that at present large scale document delivery services do not deal directly with the public as a result of this problem (for example BLDSC only deals with libraries who operate on behalf of members of the public).

The Benefit to the End User

Without such a service in place, end users will never be able to deal directly with document suppliers.

Applicable Developments and Projects

The Australian partner in the PRIDE project has contributed details of how such a Directory service would be applied to the well advanced Australian interlending and resource sharing developments, giving extremely valuable advance information of priorities. The PRIDE website will list other relevant projects

Technology Survey

The second project team consists of academic and commercial partners from University College, Dublin, the UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN) at the University of Bath and Fretwell-Downing Informatics. The PRIDE directory services will essentially provide accessible ‘forward’ information about people, rights and resource collections and have the capability to support directly or indirectly the translation of queries and responses from one protocol to another, so that PRIDE can act as a brokerage service. It is important to realise that we do not yet fully understand all the services which will be provided by PRIDE or which will be enabled through others’ use of PRIDE services. Nor do we understand what will be the final optimal implementation infrastructure for a network of PRIDE and related directories. The scope of our completed technology survey demonstrates a huge range of potentially relevant standards, techniques and software. The main purpose of the survey is to help partners design the architecture of the PRIDE service and select the technologies to use. We had two goals in collecting the information:

The availability of such a comprehensive collection of technical analysis and advice will inform the managerial decisions about to be taken regarding the demonstrator network, and should reduce the risk of obsolescence.

We have examined a wide range of user interfaces, query languages, search engines. Directory service models and directory standards studied include X.500, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Microsoft Active Directory (MAD), WHOIS++. We have also examined Corba Trader standards from the Object Management Group (OMG), and the Domain Name System (DNS).

Search and Retrieve systems have been analysed, as the work force of Information Retrieval (IR). They provide access to various document databases, performing selection functions according to the user requests. There are three important characteristics that distinguish different Search and Retrieve systems:

Search techniques are differentiated by the types of search requests they accept; for example, a hierarchical system will present to the user a set of alternatives to choose from, while a keyword-based search system will ask for keywords to look for.

We have looked at types of search request; the Z39.50 protocol; the present and future of HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP); the ILL protocol (ISO 10160/1), developed in the context of managing the entire document request lifecycle within a distributed environment; Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) including EDIFACT (Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce And Transport, ISO 9735); CORBA Object Query Service, which is a general service for querying networked information services alongside CORBA facilities for Trader (distributed directories), Interface Repositories and Type Management.

In addition, we have collected information about harvesting and Web crawlers, meta-information, security and payment systems from a technical point of view. It is likely that we shall choose either to make PRIDE behave transparently to these technologies, or to select a small number of them for implementation in the working demonstrator. We shall concentrate on those relating to authorisation, collection description and payment, as these are least well understood in the libraries sector.

Commercial and Legal Issues

A third study has been undertaken, by LITC (Library Information Technology Centre) at South Bank University, London, of the commercial and legal issues which we either face already or which may arise during the project. This sought to provide a brief management overview of a wide range of issues which may affect the design or operation of a distributed PRIDE directory service. It highlights potential problem areas and makes recommendations to the other project partners on functionality and project management.

Complex areas reviewed from a PRIDE perspective included copyright law, international data protection legislation, self-regulation options. We also considered commercial issues such as the potential need to make international electronic contracts or pay taxes on transactions. The need to comply with licenses and regulations through differing service levels for users is raised, along with questions of marketing and how to position the PRIDE service so that users are aware of it and can make use of it.

Self regulation

PRIDE services will abide by the law. Unfortunately, we do not know what this is for many likely scenarios, particularly in the international context. Non-library interests drive many new laws, and some efforts are being made internationally by libraries, especially in the area of copyright. During the short timescales for the PRIDE project, we are inevitably forced to adopt various levels of self-regulation. We are seeking to develop consensus solutions, and to follow best practice through case studies and liaison with those working in these fields.

One example of self regulation will be the handling of personal information.

Personal information is widely available because it is collected by numerous organisations such as schools, universities, business (employers and telephone companies) and membership records. While the protection of privacy on the Internet is in its infancy, PRIDE will adopt a self-regulation policy,This policy may involve the selection of those sites for inclusion in the directory that adopt data protection principles of disclosure and informed consent or adopt the use of a branded on-line seal or trustmark to signify compliance with personal information policy.

This policy is already being used by organisations like CommerceNet [8] and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) [9]. Sites that display the trustmark have formally agreed to adhere to privacy principles, disclose their information gathering and dissemination practices, and submit to a comprehensive assurance process.

The main industry principles include removing certain categories of non-essential, personally identifiable data from information products and services such as financial or medical records, removing the records of individuals under the age of eighteen from locator service products.

Contracts and Licensing

As PRIDE moves towards customised services for users, the need for handling contracts with end users will inevitably arise, whether these are made with PRIDE itself or with providers of PRIDE linked services.

Personal data contracts

The development of model contract clauses to guarantee the protection of personal data is one possibility for dealing with the EU principle on transfer of personal data overseas but the problem of enforcing such a contract to protect the data subject is still being considered.

The International Chamber of Commerce [10] has written a model contract for cybertrading in relation to data protection. Under the terms of the model clauses companies outside the European Union would undertake to give personal data emanating from within the EU the same level of protection as the EU’s data protection directive. The clauses also provide for legal remedies if consumers believe their legal rights on privacy have been breached.

Electronic contracts

All electronic contracts try to impose certain terms and conditions such as use of services, maximum liabilities, payment methods, disclaimers and various other points. It is assumed that PRIDE will be using electronic contracts for the purpose of agreement between users.

This raises questions of liability and applicable law. For example, web-wrap or click-wrap agreements are web page accept buttons which oblige the user to accept the standard terms and conditions before they see the rest of the site or place a query. Although no English case law exists concerning web-wrap contracts these were upheld in the US in the case of Hotmail v Van Money Pie 1998 [11].

Under the draft US Uniform Commercial Code 2B regulations [12], contract terms must be presented at the time of access to, or immediately prior to the placing of a query on an online service. The user must also be required to take certain affirmative action to indicate acceptance, such as by clicking on an accept button and be able to cancel the query at any time before transmission. European rules on electronic commerce,have not yet been made clear, although the European Commission has proposed Directives allowing electronic contracts to be made using digital signatures [13][14][15].

Levels of Service

From the selection of points above, it is clear that not all PRIDE users can be treated equally. PRIDE will therefore be able to support a range of service levels, based not merely on technical or geographical issues but also on commercial and legal ones.

Questions arise about who will be responsible for managing the necessary operational services, co-ordinating development activities and liasing with contracted repositories. How can we distribute management most effectively and efficiently?

In order to protect against abuse by users, PRIDE Administration will have to maintain certain records, including the identity of subscribers (for authentication and authorisation) and the terms and conditions agreed by them.

One key area we hope to explore is links to payment systems. In a global environment PRIDE will need the support of at least one bank to be able to support multiple payment models in order to do business with customers. By supporting credit card payments, for example, we shall pursue issues relating to the authentication of individuals, transactions and security, including use of public key infrastructures (PKIs), certificates, Certification Authorities (perhaps for the library community specifically, along the lines of the international IFLA interloans voucher scheme), digital signatures and digital passports.

Marketing

John Kay's book (OUP, 1993) 'Foundations of Corporate Success' is recognized by Arthur Andersen Consulting staff as identifying four areas in which ventures must succeed: innovation, branding, access to strategic assets and good business architecture (the web of relationships within which the business operates).

As a whole, assessing libraries against this suggests:

  1. libraries have been innovative, but may be lagging behind other organizations in Web development;
  2. there is currently a problem with branding libraries together, by region, subject area or library/service type, as no infrastructure exists to build or support the brand(s), despite the relative popularity of public libraries compared with other public services, and the acknowledged role of librarians in corporate, government and educational institutions;
  3. strategic assets are a strong point, but access terms are critical;
  4. libraries need to take the best of their traditional networking, such as the UK ILL network and international ILL/ national library networks, but be prepared to set up new relationships to strengthen the overall network presence. Strong research-based development of clearly-defined goals and a roadmap of service developments are needed. Pilots should be based on involving key players with specific expertise. Areas to be looked at should include discussion with organizations such as major publishers, broadcasters, associations which have existing large communities (such as the Library Association), new media companies, for digital TV and Web development and also government, local and national. EARL in the UK could be used to provide the basis for international understanding of the way forward

An early aim could be to establish PRIDE library services as an entity which could be added to Net directories, portals and homepages of other organizations through simple links which would results from negotiations with the operators. Trials and pilots combined with careful measurement of results would then guide future marketing efforts. This strategy might then result in some restructuring of supplier services to better match demand.

Conclusion

In the traditional library world, we have learnt that not all users want to do all the work of information (and book) management themselves. Libraries can respond collectively more quickly and effectively to publication growth, market forces, new technologies than individuals can themselves, although their needs have always driven service development. Because of libraries, new publications, new ways of organising information and new ideas spread more quickly, in ways that are still poorly understood because they are so pervasive.

Effectively, what PRIDE is doing is allowing managed and organised changes in the clustering of resources and users to be made easier. Services should then improve. These kinds of changes will happen without the implementation of directories, but their use will give libraries a higher profile in the wider information society, leveraging existing investment in the skills of library and information staff.

End users may well play a larger role in the development of the network than hitherto, through their decisions to use certain features of services, to release personal information or to pay for information services.

Library managers will have to reconsider what services to provide, where to focus staff support and what level of audience to aim for, as well as how to fund the services. PRIDE will help lubricate change, but both library staff and their users will be able to steer paths more easily, without needing a detailed understanding of information retrieval, metadata or directory protocols. In the end, few are concerned with the efficiency of ‘engines’ such as PRIDE themselves. Although directories will be ubiquitous, most people will be too busy creating and exploring the collective mind of the planet.

PRIDE Project Team
Figure 3: PRIDE Project Team

Back row (left to right):
Peter Tolgyesi, Peter Cheng, Peter Smith, Nikita Schmidt,
Andy Powell, Alexey Marinichev, Geoff Butters, Robin Yeates, Peter Brophy.
Front row (left to right):
Kerry Blinco, Paul Harvey, Andrew Colleran, Eckhard Blume.

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

References

  1. PRIDE project website
    URL: <http://lirn.viscount.org.uk/pride/> (5 January 1999)
  2. European Commission DG XIII Libraries Programme website 16 December 1998,
    URL: <http://www2.echo.lu/libraries/en/libraries.html> (5 January 1999)
  3. Collection Level Descriptions. A review of existing practice.
    URL: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/cld/study/toc/>
  4. C.Weider, J.Fullton & S. Spero, “Architecture of the Whois++ Index Service (rfc1913.txt),” February 1996,
    URL: <http://info.internet.isi.edu:80/in-notes/rfc/files/rfc1913.txt> (5 January 1999)
  5. LIRN project website. 9 December 1998,
    URL: <http://www2.echo.lu/libraries/en/projects/lirn.html> (5 January 1999)
  6. ICE-CAR/ICE-TEL project programme 1 January 1998,
    URL: <http://www.darmstadt.gmd.de/ice-tel/programme/ICE-CAR-ProjectProgramme.html> (5 January 1999)
  7. Z39.50 Maintenance Agency website. 1998, 17 December
    URL: <http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/agency/> (5 January 1999)
  8. CommerceNet. 23 December 1998,
    URL: <http://www.commercenet.com> (5 January 1999)
  9. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), 19 December 1998,
    URL: <http://www.eff.org> (5 January 1999)
  10. International Chamber of Commerce, 22 December 1998,
    URL: <http://www.iccwbo.org> (5 January 1999)
  11. Martin H. Samson, “Click-Wrap Agreement Held Enforceable,” proposed Article for Law Journal EXTRA!, 30 June 1998,
    URL: <http://www.ljx.com/internet/0630click.html> (5 January 1999)
  12. Internet Contracts/Licenses special feature, Law Journal EXTRA!
    URL: <http://www.ljx.com/internet/ir_ucc.html> (5 January 1999)
  13. “Formation and validity of online contracts,” Imprimatur News, Final Project Newsletter [published in Ethos Newsletter Issue 10, December 1998, pp24-25]
    URL: <http://www.imprimatur.alcs.co.uk/IMP_FTP/newsletter4.pdf> (5 January 1999)
  14. European Commission DGXXIV. “Directive 97/7/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 1997 on the Protection of Consumers in respect of Distance Contracts,” 10 March 1998
    URL: <http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg24/policy/developments/dist_sell/dist01_en.html> (5 January 1999)
  15. European Commission DGXV. “Electronic commerce: Commission proposes legal framework,” 18 November 1998
    URL: <http://europa.eu.int/comm/dg15/en/media/eleccomm/999.htm> (5 January 1999)

Author Details

The PRIDE project team
Liaison contact: Robin Yeates, LITC, UK
Andrew Colleran, Quercus Information Limited, Oxford, UK

Email: <Andrew.Colleran@quercus.co.uk>
URL: <http://lirn.viscount.org.uk/pride/>

For citation purposes:
The PRIDE project team, "Oiling the Works: the PRIDE Project Develops an Information Brokerage Service," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/pride/>

International Cooperation - Real Opportunities?

Traugott Koch, of NetLab/EULER, discusses the benefits of conferences with an interdisciplinary approach, and the opportunities to discuss and approach the problems concerning the big cooperative efforts. He notes that there is not enough done to mobilize new potential European partners for digital library efforts.

Conferences: Opportunities from the Interdisciplinary Approach

The Internet is an infrastructure which to a high degree offers the possibility and invites to international cooperation without regard to the location of the partners. For a considerable cooperation between projects, however, personal encounters are necessary and conferences, especially those with an interdisciplinary approach, offer good opportunities for a more in detail exploration of the options and aims and to l earn about and meet potential partners.

Conferences such as last year's 2nd European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries (Heraklion, Crete) [1] seem in this respect to have taken a big step in the right direction. The originally strong connection to the Informatics and Computer Science community has been opened up to a certain degree to other disciplines involved in digital library efforts. That is not to say that the participation e.g. from the European library comunity could not be increased considerably. Accomplishing real interdisciplinarity in an evolving field is not easy and requires a lot of time and effort from all involved disciplines. The increase in international participation is gratifying to a degree that one would wish to see an effort to accomplish a broader European participation in this European conference. There might otherwise be a risk, that the participation remains very similar to the one in the other international digital library conferences (e.g. the ACM and the IEEE sponsored ones in the US or the conferences in Asia) and that there is not enough done to mobilize new potential European partners for digital library efforts.

For us, the participants from the European Union Telematics for Libraries project EULER [2], several interesting opportunities opened up during the conference in Heraklion, in addition to the many individual contacts and discussions in the context of our poster presentation. The working groups for EU and NSF cooperative action presented drafts for an international Digital Library research agenda in the following six areas: Metadata, Resource indexing and discovery in a globally distributed digital library, Interoperability, Intellectual property and economics and Multilingual information access [3].

The outcome of this work has been published as a Summary Report "An International Research Agenda for Digital Libraries" [4]. To our project, several of the metadata and indexing/searching issues are of high importance and we would very much like to see steps taken to joint research with US colleagues and to the creation of testbeds. In general, though, it didn't become clear to us, if there are any special financial support measures intended, to follow up those proposals. At the moment, there does not seem to be any plans from the EU's side to assign special funds for common efforts in this context.

US Partners

For potential US partners, NSF recently (October 1998) published a support program for international cooperation in the digital library sector: "International Digital Libraries Collaborative Research" [5]. At least the first round had a very short time frame for project applications (closed January 15, 1999). This makes it hard to find partners and to write the application. A closer investigation shows, unfortunately, that only the participation of the US partners is funded by NSF. The additional treshold to find money to prepare the application and the funding for all our project work, seems far to high (at least in this short timeframe). It is not clear to us either how the process of reviewing such international projects would be carried out by our potential European and national funding bodies. Furthermore, how could US partners be involved in already running EU Telematics projects like ours? Would there be any additional money available for the extra tasks involved?

At the last ACM Digital Library Conference in Pittsburgh this summer we participated in a "Summit" meeting to prepare real efforts of well focused International Cooperation on Digital Libraries. Twelve countries were represented. An agreement on issues and organisational efforts was reached, a new organization "International Digital Libraries Association" [6] was founded. But the follow up was unfortunately not very good. The writing of a summary and presentation white paper, Report of First Summit on International Cooperation on Digital Libraries [7] was delayed for many months and any other planned initiatives have still not started yet and that in spite of a thoroughly thought through approach, including efforts to secure funding.

During the conference in Heraklion, the UK eLib Programme invited to a meeting with 25 representatives from 15 countries and several continents to discuss possible cooperation between "Quality controlled subject gateways" (SBIG's) on the Internet. A good overview of the efforts so far and the issues and benefits of a cooperation was accomplished. After the conference, a website for IMESH [8] and a discussion list were established immediately and some follow up discussions started. The UK programme and the US Internet Scout project secured funding for a series of invitational workshops in 1999; the first one taking place in the beginning of June in the UK. But even here, soon the online discussions have been slowing down and no one seems to have the time to establish a more organised discussion and cooperation via mail. In this case there is some hope that eLib can assign this task to a new project officer for international cooperation.

This same meeting also led to ad hoc meetings during the conference between the Internet Scout project and several European groups, among others from the DESIRE project [9], preparing a real technical cooperation around an effort proposed in a DLib-Magazine article last June [10]. Several quality controlled subject gateways, who already offer standard-based descriptive metadata of their content intend to explore protocols for distributed searching (CIP/whois++, LDAP) in an effort to accomplish cross- searching in many cooperating databases of this type and to finally offer a public service supporting precise discovery of quality Internet resources in many subject areas. This effort seems to fit well into already running and funded efforts at most partners (Project Isaac [11]).

At least for our project, the participation in such an interdisciplinary and international conference, still presents both information, contacts and cooperation options, very hard to accomplish via Internet communication alone. Due to the fact, that national and European Union institutions in their efforts still fall behind the truly international cooperation options via the Internet and international conferences (lack of funding options for all partners from non-member areas, lack of dedicated and coordinated support for such projects and their preparation etc.), several of the above mentioned very promising options might turn out to be outside our possibilities or even fail to be effective and succesfull at all. The Digital Library conferences in 1999 will provide good opportunities to discuss and approach the problems concerning the big cooperative efforts and for the start of those small and cheap but rewarding real world actions.

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

Further Information

  1. 2nd European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries, September 1998, Heraklion, Crete.
    URL: <http://www.ics.forth.gr/2EuroDL/>
  2. EULER Project
    URL: <http://www.emis.de/projects/EULER/>
  3. Metadata, Resource indexing and discovery in a globally distributed digital library, Interoperability, Intellectual property and economics and Multilingual information access
    URL: <http://www.si.umich.edu/UMDL/EU_Grant/>
  4. An International Research Agenda for Digital Libraries. Summary Report of the Series of Joint NSF-EU Working Groups on Future Directions for Digital Libraries Research. Editors: Peter Schauble and Alan F. Smeaton. October 12, 1998.
    URL: <http://www.iei.pi.cnr.it/DELOS/REPORTS/Brussrep.htm>
  5. International Digital Libraries Collaborative Research
    URL: <http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf996>
  6. International Digital Libraries Association
    URL: <http://www.ks.com/idla/>
  7. Report of First Summit on International Cooperation on Digital Libraries
    URL: <http://www.ks.com/idla-wp-oct98/>
  8. IMESH Web Site and Discussion List
    URL: <http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/discovery/imesh/>
  9. DESIRE project
    URL: <http://www.desire.org/>
  10. A Distributed Architecture for Resource Discovery Using Metadata, DLib Magazine
    URL: <http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june98/scout/06roszkowski.html>
    UK / European mirror at URL:
    <http://mirrored.ukoln.ac.uk/lis-journals/dlib/dlib/dlib/june98/scout/06roszkowski.html>
  11. Project Isaac
    URL: <http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/research/index.html>

Author Details

Traugott Koch
NetLab - Senior Librarian
Electronic InformationServices
Lund University
Library Development Department

Email: traugott.koch@lub.lu.se
URL: http://www.lub.lu.se/person_tk.html

For citation purposes:
Traugott Koch, "International Cooperation - Real Opportunities?," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/opportunities/>


The EU Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Belgium: Extranet-based Document Delivery System

Marc De Wilde discusses the development of the Extranet-based Document Delivery System. The EU Committee is very confident that the system will become an essential tool for distributing all kinds of information to its members. The push system (i.e. forwarding the documents to the users) will increasingly be replaced by a pull approach (i.e. people visiting the site and pulling off documents). People will indeed become familiar with the use of their browser to go and collect information.

Presentation of the organisation

The EU Committee represents 148 large multinational companies of American parentage, active investors in Europe, to the institutions of the European Union and the Council of Europe.

The first purpose of the EU Committee is to play an active role in the development of the single European market (involving the 15 member states) by developing positions and propositions at the drafting stage on policies or legislative initiatives of concern to business.

The EU Committee also co-ordinates EU affairs for the European Council of American Chambers of Commerce (ECACC) representing some 16.000 members over $350 billions of US investment in Europe. The Committee represents directly 3 millions European employees and indirectly 10 millions jobs.

The EU Committee is a Belgian, non-profit making organisation, with its own secretariat and annual budget. This structure is divided into 13 subcommittees (technical and specialised aspects of legislation) and 38 specialised working groups. Total participation in the subcommittees is over 650 individuals drawn from the member companies.

Context

The organisation of the EU Committee (subcommittees, working groups and secretariat) generates a very large amount of documents (about 90.000 copies per month) that are dispatched to its members by normal mail or by fax broadcasting.

The need for an extranet-based document delivery system was obvious. The objective of introducing such as system was plural:

The project would change the patterns of communication. Key documents would be sent (`pushed'), but members would have the flexibility to choose (`pull') which other documents they wished to receive. These documents could be delivered by internet, e-mail or fax.

Contact person presentation

John Russell, European Affairs Manager, has led the EU Committee secretariat for 9 years. With the help of his team composed of 20 persons, he has built a well-organised organisation now viewed as an efficient interest group on the Brussels scene. The EU Committee also publishes a range of books and brochures covering policy issues such as the environment, information society and EU enlargement.

Despite a very busy schedule, John found enough time to provide all necessary information and to supervise the realisation of the extranet project.

Given that the good communication is seen as being central to the success of a public affairs organisation, John is indeed convinced that management must make time available to get involved in this type of project and not just leave it to IT professionals.

Seasoft selected as provider

Seasoft

In September 1997, Seasoft was selected by the EU Committee to provide assistance in the development and set-up of a document delivery system adapted to its specific way of working.

Thanks to its Intranet-based Document Library Solution, Seasoft was able to propose an advanced and cost-effective solution to address the EU Committee documents management requirements.

Methodology

The agreed approach was to start from Seasoft's existing Document Library solution and adapt it to fit the EU Committee's requirements.

A functional analysis was conducted with John Russell and some key collaborators between October and December 1997 to identify where customisation was necessary and to develop additional modules.

To ensure that success of the project, it was realised very quickly that the "buy in" of the secretariat was important. Key users such as documents publishers and administrators of the application were chosen very early in the process. This enabled them to be involved during the entire analysis stage and certainly helped produce a correct definition of the requirements. The resulting project became closely integrated to their existing working patterns. Moreover it also ensured commitment to the delivery solution by the entire staff.

Following the project definition, customisation work started in March 1998. A prototype version was installed in June 1998 in order to get feedback from the staff. Training was organised over two half-days. The final version was installed in August 1998. After an extensive test period of two months, the document delivery system was officially released at the end of October.

Realisation

The document delivery system (DDS) according to EU Committee's requirements includes the following characteristics:

The intranet document delivery solution has been developed in Active Server Page (ASP) using Visual Interdev 1.0. It runs on two Compaq Proliant 1600 servers with 256 RAM and 3 hard disks of 9 Gbytes (in Raid 5). Both servers are running Windows NT 4.0 Server, Internet Information Server 4.0, Index Server 1.0 and SQL Server 6.5 as database engine.

In order to maximise performance for both secretariat staff publishing the documents on the system, and company members pulling off documents, it was decided to split the system. On the one side, an intranet server is located in the EU Committee's premises. On the other side, an extranet server is maintained externally (presently in Seasoft's premises).

An advanced replication mechanism based on MSMQ guarantees instantaneous synchronisation between the two servers through the Internet.

Budget & timing

The initial budget for the project was approximately 3 millions BEF with development costs running at some 60 % of this figure, the remaining cost covering project hardware, standard software and related licenses.

It took about a full-time week for staff to define about 900 users and publish 300 documents.

Technical maintenance costs are very limited, being less than 100,000 BEF per year as the application can be entirely configured by the application administrator via parameter settings. This figure does not include the cost of the Internet connection (because this was needed anyway for the e-mail facility) and the cost of a housing contract with an ISP.

Intranet impact on organisation

All objectives listed above have been met: improvement of communications with members, increase of secretariat productivity with regard to document distribution, reduction of paper and postal costs. It is now easier to get a consensus by building up a virtual meeting place where members can easily exchange their views and related documents.

Moreover, it is anticipated that the electronic document delivery system will have far reaching impact on the way the overall organisation operates, particularly on the frequency and the character of meetings. Indeed it already appears that the need to organise meetings to collect and exchange information will decrease while meeting contents will be more focussed on analyses of policy issues.

The document delivery system also raises new challenges and questions for the organisation: Will the members sustain the increased documents productivity of the secretariat? What is the optimal amount of documents (books, articles) which should be published on line? What will be the exact role of virtual meetings being (conducted through forums)?

Learned lessons

The guarantee of success of such a project is based on three key elements:

Future

The EU Committee is very confident that the extranet-based document delivery system will become an essential tool for distributing all kinds of information to its members. The push system (i.e. forwarding the documents to the users) will increasingly be replaced by a pull approach (i.e. people visiting the site and pulling off documents).

Given the variety of platforms and software through the member companies, it was originally decided to distribute documents in Acrobat PDF format. However, it is anticipated that documents will be distributed in a wider range of formats in the future and the document delivery system has inbuilt flexibility to accommodate this.

As members get accustomed to the new system, the more the system will be configured to define new groups and adapt to new ways of working including increasing interactivity between secretariat and members, and between members. Moreover, the project is seen by management as not static, but evolutionary.

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).


Author Details

Marc De Wilde
Business Development Coordinator/Co-founder of Seasoft
Seasoft
Email: marc@seasoft.be
URL: http://www.seasoft.be

Marc De Wilde

Marc De Wilde (41), Business Development Coordinator, is Co-founder of Seasoft. He supervises all commercial and functional aspects of the developments. He is an energetic man determined to enjoy life to the maximum.

For citation purposes:
Marc De Wilde, "The EU Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Belgium: Extranet-based Document Delivery System," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/seasoft/>


Funds for Cultural Heritage: An Introduction

Wendy Sudbury gives a helpful overview of the Fifth Framework Programme, and suggests where it is that libraries fit within the new programme.

The European Commission's Fifth Framework Research & Technological Development (RTD) Programme has now been approved. It has nearly 14 billion ecu (or EUR as we can say now) available over the next four years. A new web resource [1] has been set up, to assist the cultural heritage community access those funds. The site has information and lessons which can help the library sector too. Shown in Figure 1 is the section 5th RTD Framework Programme - at a glance. [2]

Fifth Framework Programme at a glance
Figure 1: Fifth Framework Programme at a Glance

There are some actions in the Fifth Framework Programme (5FWP) directed expressly at heritage and/or libraries. For example, The City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage has EUR 170m targeted at "the harmonious development of the citizen's urban environment" including "the exploitation of information networks and the concept of digital cities". It's hard to imagine a digital city that did not include library services.

Another action, Digital Heritage and Cultural Content aims to expand the "key contribution of libraries, museums and archives to the emerging culture economy". This is one of a number of tasks in the key action Multimedia Content and Tools, which has a total budget of EUR 564m.

However, the message of the website is that Fifth Framework money is available to heritage (and to libraries) under many other actions, if we are prepared to think innovatively.

For example, heritage bodies (and libraries too) are part of the service economy (including tourism) and certainly part of the knowledge economy (especially education and on-line access). Both are public administrations, often holding archives of public material relevant to civic processes such as planning or local democracy. Both have a role in regional economies, in regional information networks, in social policy, in youth programmes, in integration of minority cultures and of disabled and elderly people. Many heritage bodies are SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises), many are employers in rural areas or urban areas. They employ and train researchers and have facilities which are part of the research infrastructure. They are consumers of training. They are concerned with performance benchmarking, customer service, best business procedures, measuring and testing, standards, prevention of fraud.

All these activities (and more) will be supported under the Fifth Framework Programme - and libraries can claim a share - if they know where to go for information.

We should remember that a cultural heritage or educational component has intrinsic appeal in many EC-funded programmes, even those where the underlying aims relate to technology, economic development or education and training. The European Community has to balance that tension between fostering one "Europe", while preserving the distinctive elements of Europe's cultural diversity. One of the core strategies is to celebrate and sustain cultural diversity, promoting harmony through mutual understanding of languages, customs and history. Museums and libraries have alarge part to play in that.

How are Funding Programmes Organised?

European Commission funding is quite accessible, and information on the various programmes is easy to obtain. The trouble is that announcements and official documents always assume applicants understand the complicated hierarchy of funding schemes. You'll notice that the paragraphs above refer to programmes, key actions, and tasks. You'll very likely have come across names like Telematics, Esprit, SMT, Structural funds, Objective 6, Socrates or Phare. It can be very confusing and time-consuming trying to find your way round the range and complexity of funding programmes, and even more time-consuming working out how and when to bid.

The Hierarchy Explained

At the top end of the hierarchy are the “programmes” or “funds” with high-level objectives such as Research, Technology & Development or Structural Funds. Broadly speaking, these are umbrellas for more targeted programmes run by the different Directorates General (DGs).

The DGs roughly correspond to national governments’ administration departments; just as the UK has its Department of Trade and Industry, so the EC has its DG III (Industry). Each DG has responsibility for specific strands of the umbrella programme. Over time, these strands take on shortened snappier names (such as Telematics or Esprit, or DGXIII’s Advanced Communication Technologies project (itself shortened to ACTS). Within these strands a hierarchy of objectives, themes, actions, lines, and tasks is set out and calls for proposals are issued for a given task. Different tasks get called at different times.

Understanding the hierarchy is helpful because programmes are run by a variety of offices, which means different addresses and contact names. Bids should also be tailored to the specific aspirations of a particular task, and also chime with the higher level objectives of the overall programme.

Added to this are the difficulties associated with absorbing the endless acronyms and knowing in which higher-level programme a given call for proposals fits. So much bumf is available that is often difficult to distinguish between programmes with funds available, projects which have received funding, would-be projects hyping up their bids, and finished projects trumpeting their achievements.

Where is the Real Money?

Understanding the hierarchy is one thing. Knowing where you want to be in it is another. The amount of funding available varies enormously between programmes. The words applicants read and write, and the hoops they must jump through to get their proposal accepted are a constant quantity, unrelated to the amount of money a programme has available. Raphael (the sector-specific programme for cultural heritage) had EUR 30m. Esprit had 2,044m EUR.

Basic Conditions

All programmes require partners to be drawn from a minimum of two or more often three countries, and in the Fifth Framework Programme at least one partner is likely to be from the commercial world. Some programmes permit partners from non-European third countries. Most programmes require to see how benefits can go on flowing after the funding ceases. Funding is rarely more than 50% of total costs and the bureaucracy of the contracts and of getting paid is tedious in the extreme. The effect on cash-flow needs to be watched; usually a small advance payment is made when the contract is signed, and thereafter claims are presented half-yearly.

You don't have to be the lead partner to take part. You can be a member partner, or even subcontracted to a member partner. The lead partner frequently has the most work (and consequently a larger share of the funding). Some partners can turn out to be passengers. Making a bid does not commit you. If the bid is accepted, terms are negotiated and a contract is signed. Although a claim cannot exceed the total amount budgeted, small transfers of budget between tasks is usually permitted, if experience so directs, providing the Commission can see that the overall objectives are likely to be better met that way.

How to Find the Information

Many organisations find it very worthwhile to cultivate the skills needed to bid successfully and turn up again and again among the partners in ongoing projects. Competition is severe, despite the amount of work in preparing a bid. Having your eye in on the overall programme helps a lot, so that you are well prepared when a call for proposals is issued.

The site (http://inf2.pira.co.uk/heritage.html) has a number of overview charts which let you drill down into the tasks that interest you, taking you via hypertext links to the relevant sections of the programme documents (edited for speedy understanding). The site publishes announcements of calls for proposals that are likely to be of interest and points to the official applications forms and documentation (which are often themselves available on-line). Check out the Fifth Framework Programme material now - and good bidding.

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).


References

  1. Cultural Heritage and EC Funding
    URL: <http://inf2.pira.co.uk/heritage.html>
  2. 5th RTD Framework Programme - at a glance
    URL: <http://inf2.pira.co.uk/pub/funding/framework/5fwp/5fwpchart.html>

Author Details


Wendy Sudbury
Director
Cambridge Management Group
Email: wsudbury.camangroup@btinternet.com
URL: http://inf2.pira.co.uk/heritage.html
Tel: +44 1223 315015
Fax: +44 1223 322994
Address: Ford House, 25 St. Barnabas Road, Cambridge, CB1 2BU, UK

For citation purposes:
Wendy Sudbury, "Funds for Cultural Heritage: An Introduction," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/funds/>


A Closer Look at the Telematics for Libraries Web Site

The description given here of the Telematics for Libraries site is based on the facilities which were available towards the end of 1998. While most of the links are still active, the context of R&D in the area of libraries has evolved considerably this year as a result of the launch of the IST programme. Indeed, the current work programme and the related calls now address not only libraries but museums, galleries and archives in the wider context of Digital Heritage and Cultural Content. The new Digicult site <http://www.echo.lu/digicult/> is now closely interlinked to the Telematics for Libraries site and will increasingly become the starting point for library interests too. Additional details of the Digicult site will be presented in a future issue of Exploit Interactive.

Introduction

The Telematics Applications programme is one of the 19 specific programmes which are supported under the European Union's Fourth RTD Framework Programme (1994-1998). Coordinated by the EC's DG XIII C and E, it aims to promote the competitiveness of European industry, help improve the efficiency of services of public interest, and stimulate job creation through the development of new telematics systems and services.

Supporting activities in the field of research and technological development, the programme is closely related to the IT (Information Technologies) programme and the ACTS programme (Advanced Communications Technologies and Services). Together these three programmes are providing the building blocks for Europe's Information Society.

The EU's institutions and, in particular, DG XIII's activities in the area of R&D and the Information Society are promoted and supported through a number of web servers including:

Telematics for Libraries

Telematics for Libraries is one of the 13 sectors of the Telematics Applications Programme and builds on the results of the Libraries component of the Third Framework Programme. Covering three areas of action, it funds research and technological development in the field of library networking and related services. It aims at standardising and harmonising libraries systems, providing for continuity in addressing local systems and services. The long-term objectives of the Libraries Programme are to modernise library services and create an effective libraries infrastructure in Europe based on the use of new technologies and co-operation.

The Telematics for Libraries's web site has a dual purpose:

Telematics for Libraries Home Page
Figure 1: Telematics for Libraries Home Page

The web site is therefore structured into five main areas of interest covering programme information and related events, completed, current and new projects, support activities such as concerted actions and workshops, studies published by the Commission and background documents with links to external resources. Among the background areas covered are national policies for libraries in the Information Society, music resources in the library context, library management systems, journals on libraries and information science, general and technical resources related to library technology, distance learning, services for children, smart cards and multilingual tools and services for librarians. There are also special sections on the emerging scene in Central and Eastern Europe, on public libraries in the Information Society and on preparations for a Green Paper on the Role of Libraries in the Information Society.

The main English-language section is supplemented by supporting pages in French, German, Italian and Spanish which provide translations of key documents as well as news, information and links to external web sites covering items of interest in the various languages.

For ease of access to all the above topics and many more, an A-Z site index is available.

Updating and maintenance

The site is regularly updated and enriched with new documents and new links. An average of about 10 documents are edited each day. This can however extend top to 40 or 50 when we undertake revisions of the project synopses of which there are now more than 100. Evidence of this work is reflected in our What's New section. Most of the updates are made on the basis of information received from users, National Focal Points (i.e. representatives in the Member States) and project participants. Since the site first came on line in 1994, accesses have steadily increased to well over 25,000 per month with some 200 individual visitors every day. Currently, on the basis of country-coded accesses, our most frequent visitors are from Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain.

The News Page, introduced last January, is one of the more frequently accessed pages on the Libraries site. Practically every day, it presents items of general interest to the world of library networking and the information society. We also frequently add to our list of events.

Those interested in receiving news by email of the more important additions and modifications to our pages should complete the questionnaire provided on the 'Keep me Informed' page shown in Figure 2. [1]

Sign up for email notification
Figure 2: Sign up for email notification

Scope of the programme

The programme's activities are focused on applying technology to the creation of new library services. They include a very wide range of projects dealing with bibliographic services, digital imaging, library management, distance learning, multimedia and web-based access (including services for universities, the blind, for children and, indeed, for citizens from all walks of life) and a number of support actions covering public libraries, copyright, networking, national bibliographic services and music information. Typically, activities co-funded by the Commission are managed by partners from several Member States consisting of libraries, networking specialists, software houses, publishers, research departments and universities.

While the programme is still supporting a considerable number of projects under the current Fourth Framework Programme, priorities have already been defined for the Fifth Framework in which libraries will principally be involved in the Multimedia Content and Tools area of the User-Friendly Information Society programme. This will provide a basis for extending tools and services developed for libraries to other cultural institutions such as museums and archives. In addition to the Telematics for Libraries site, information in regard to Digital Heritage and Cultural Content under Key Action 3 of the IST programme is now available at http://www.echo.lu/digicult/

Since dissemination plays an important role in the programme, in addition to information on the web, promotion of the programme is accomplished through activities such as workshops, conferences, publicity material and CD-ROMs. All our projects are also encouraged to participate directly in disseminating results of their work through their own web sites which can usually be found from links in the individual project synopses.

The small team working on Telematics for Libraries at the European Commission is based in Luxembourg, in the Euroforum building on the southern outskirts of the city. Additional support is provided by a team of external experts who, among other things, participate actively in developing the web site.

Euroforum building
Figure 3: Home for some of the Telematics for Libraries Team
in Luxembourg

How you can help

We are constantly trying to enhance the content and the quality of our information and the way in which it is displayed. We are extremely grateful for many useful comments we receive almost every day from users across the globe and welcome further suggestions on possible improvements and additions. These should be sent to Ian Pigott: ian.pigott@lux.dg13.cec.be. And remember you can also help by posting our homepage on your site and in your presentations: it's not hard to remember - http://www.echo.lu/libs/

Further Information

  1. Keep Me Informed (email notification)
    http://www.echo.lu/libraries/en/keepinfo.html

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).


Author Details


Telematics for Libraries Web Development Team
Email: ian.pigott@lux.dg13.cec.be
Email: bmorganti@ip.lu
URL: http://www.echo.lu/libs/
Address: Euroforum building, Cloche d'Or
Rue Robert Stumper, 10
L-2557 Gasperich, Luxembourg

For citation purposes:
Telematics for Libraries Web Development Team, "A Closer Look at the Telematics for Libraries Web Site," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/telematics/>


Look in the Mirror for Bandwidth Savings

Sally Hadland, talks about the lack of bandwidth in Europe; current policies on charging for it and how institutions can take steps to make best use of what bandwidth they have by caching and using mirror sites. Also described is how using HENSA's mirror sites can help save on transatlantic bandwidth.

Introduction

Bandwidth in Europe or lack of it is an issue much discussed amongst many institutions at the moment. Recent comparisons by Internet Service Providers have noted that bandwidth is more expensive in Europe and depending on the country, can cost five to ten times as much as it does in the United States. Coupled with this problem is the increasingly slow link to the US from European countries. In light of these issues, it has been identified by many institutions that measures need to be taken to make best use of the already allocated bandwidth.

Starting with Caching

One way of doing this is to set your browser to find a cached copy of the document, software or web site that you require. The National Janet Web Caching Service (JWCS) in the UK has been set up to support UK academic institutions and provide a caching centre for them. There are also several European projects based on web caching. The TERENA Task Force on WWW Cache Coordination has set up a project in collaboration with the JWCS to look at the impact of caches on networks. The DESIRE project is setting up a network of web caches to serve not only local and national users but also international users.

It is important for all European institutions to think about any way that they can not only save bandwidth but save money. This was made even more of an urgent issue for UK universities when the implementation of charging for transatlantic bandwidth began on August 1st. Universities have had to reorganise their policy on Internet use and think about ways that they can save money whilst still providing the resources that students and lecturers need. The charging for all incoming traffic through the transatlantic gateway means that costs will be incurred when getting information from not just North American sites but almost all overseas destinations outside Europe.

For the most part, this year won't be too much of a strain on the pocket. It has been stated that the JWCS is free in the first year and the Higher Education Funding Councils are subsidising usage for Higher Education Institutions up to an extent. But next year when the Cache could be a charging service and the subsidy disappears it will be a different matter altogether.

This year universities in the UK have been given the time they need to set in motion any plans for saving money before they are faced with the more realistic bill next year. Some universities will be setting up local caches to process requests before they go to the JWCS. This will mean their users will have two chances to find a locally stored copy of the information or web page they need before making the trip through the transatlantic gateway.

Up-to-date Information on Mirror Sites

Many of the measures recently publicised to better use bandwidth have been in the realm of caching and not much about the importance of mirror sites has really been heard. Using mirror sites is the other way of saving money and bandwidth by going directly to sources in the UK that copy or 'mirror' the information that you need.

A mirror site is a site that copies or 'mirrors' another site. This means that the mirror site holds a complete up-to-date copy of a site but can be located in a different part of the world. Accessing the mirror site saves time online and saves bandwidth as the user may access a mirror site in the UK but the originating site could be in the US. Mirrors also hold information that can't be cached and can offer valuable additional services such as searching.

The Higher Education National Software Archive (HENSA)

HENSA is the UK's higher education mirror site funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK Higher Education Funding Councils. Though targeted at universities and research institutions within the UK, access is currently available to all-comers free of charge. The information is mirrored overnight at the low peak time so up-to-date mirrors are available from all over the world.

HENSA holds software and other data, which notoriously takes a long time to download from sites abroad. By downloading software using the HENSA site you are saving money as HENSA is a free service and there is no need to use the transatlantic link. Just as important, you are saving your time as HENSA's network of several servers ensure a faster download. HENSA holds over 80 mirrors of software, data and information. The platforms supported are Windows 3.11, 95/98 and NT, Apple Macintosh, Acorn Archimedes, Palmtops and the Unix platform including Solaris, SunOS and Unix clones for PCs such as Linux and FreeBSD.

HENSA doesn't always just replicate the mirror but tries to provide a more user-friendly interface to the sometimes unintuitive ftp file structure of a mirror. Users have the opportunity to open .zip, .tar and self unpacking .exe files and look inside and retrieve any information files that may help them to decide whether it is the program they require, before downloading. The HENSA search engine has been developed in-house so it is tailored specifically to the way the collections are organised. This is so the maximum information and matching results are returned. HENSA also provides help to users in the form of userguides on-line and an email and telephone helpline.

Among the many HENSA mirrors are Netscape, Microsoft, TUCOWS, Adobe, 3Com, Gnu, Apache, Linux, and FreeBSD. Other non-software collections include the Classical Midi Archives, the Uunet archive and Request for Comment documents. HENSA provides information and software from browsers and programming tools to database programs, screensavers and other subject based academic software. The academic subject software section is produced in collaboration with the Computers in Teaching Initiative (CTI) subject centres.

Software Collections by Mirror
Figure 1: HENSA: Software Collections by Mirror

Conclusion

It is clear that importance is going to increase for bandwidth saving tools as the problem of transatlantic bandwith is only going to become more of an issue. Local caches will become more widespread and use of them encouraged. Using mirror sites will be essential for saving bandwidth costs and time online. In the meantime HENSA will continue to provide a free, up-to-date collection of mirror sites.

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).


References


  1. Development of a European Service for Information on Research and Education (DESIRE)
    URL: <http://www.desire.org>
  2. Higher Education National Software Archive (HENSA)
    URL: <http://www.hensa.ac.uk>
  3. JANET Traffic Accounting - Frequently Asked Questions
    URL: <http://bill.ja.net/common/faq.html>
  4. Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
    URL: <http://www.jisc.ac.uk>
  5. JISC Network Charging - Frequently Asked Questions
    URL: <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/acn/chargefaq.html>
  6. Lee Kimber, "Bandwidth-Starved Europe Gets Caching Software Early," Techweb, 7 May 1998,
    URL: <http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19980507S0005/> (10 December 1998)
  7. National JANET Web Caching Service (JWCS)
    URL:<http://wwwcache.ja.net>
  8. Jakob Nielson, "International Internet Bandwidth Getting Worse,"April 1998,
    URL: <http://dirac.phy.ncu.edu.tw/~u850309/WEB/alertbox/international_bandwidth.html> (10 December 1998)
  9. Ron Rogerson, "JISC Circular 3/98," Joint Information Systems Committee, March 1998,
    URL: <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/pub98/c3_98.html> (10 December 1998)
  10. Ron Rogerson, "JISC Circular 7/98," Joint Information Systems Committee, July 1998,
    URL:<http://www.jisc.ac.uk/pub98/c7_98.html> (10 December 1998)
  11. Margie Semilof, "Alliance Caches in on Bandwidth Boom," Techweb, 17 March 1998,
    URL: <http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19980317S0022/> (10 December 1998)
  12. Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association (TERENA)
    URL: <http://www.terena.org>

Author Details


Sally Hadland
Information Officer
Higher Education National Software Archive (HENSA)
Information Systems Services, Computer Centre Building
Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, UK
Tel: 01524 594287
Email: s.hadland@lancaster.ac.uk
URL: http://www.hensa.ac.uk

HENSA logo Sally graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in 1993 with BA (Hons) in Librarianship and Information Studies. She went on to work as an Information Officer at the National Council for Educational Technology (NCET), now BECTa and later as Internet Development Officer with responsibility for the NCET Website. She has worked as the HENSA Information Officer since July 1997 and is responsible for helpdesk and user support, development of on-line and printed publicity materials, the acquisition of mirror sites, and liason with other services.

For citation purposes:
Sally Hadland, "Look in the Mirror for Bandwidth Savings," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/hensa/>

Books for Everyone...Cash for you...

Elly Russell, Associates Manager, at Amazon.co.uk, introduces the much talked about Associates Programme. As a member of the programme, Amazon.co.uk pays up to 15% of the sale price on books that are purchased as a result of someone coming from a direct link to a specific book on your site t hrough to Amazon.co.uk. In the introduction, Bernadette Daly outlines some of the recently announced Amazon partnerships which will be of interest to the Library Community.

Introduction: Amazon and the Library Community

It would be hard to have missed any mention of the US parent, Amazon.com, or its subsidiaries, Amazon.de or Amazon.co.uk, whatever the medium. As the Internet's number one bookseller, it was named by Ernst & Young as one of the top four e-commerce innovators [1].

But what does all this have to do with libraries? It would seem to have a great deal to do with new models for services and access.

In February, Amazon.co.uk announced its sponsorship of the British Library's Online Public Access Catalogue, OPAC97, [2]; providing free access to the catalogues of the major British Library collections in London and in Boston Spa.

Also involved in negotiations with Amazon.co.uk is Essex Libraries, which is currently setting up an online shop on their EARL web site. Mary Rowlatt, Head of Information Services, notes that they have always resisted the temptation of using valuable library floor space for retailing purposes, but adds that their web site provides them with a unique retailing opportunity. The site, in effect, gives them almost limitless sales space, without impinging on core library services.

In the US, Tacoma Public Library in Tacoma, Washington (comprising a downtown main library and nine branch libraries) became one of the major public libraries to extensively partner with the Amazon.com. Users are able to access Amazon.com's web site from within the main library's catalogue, the nine branch catalogues and via their web site [3].

Of interest to many within the library community is the software used by Amazon to deliver their suite of web services, track user preferences and involve users directly in generating content for services. Some of these innovative services include online customer book reviews and lists of purchases made by customers purchasing a particular book, CD or Video. In coming issues we hope to explore some of these areas.

BernadetteDaly
Co-editor, Exploit Interactive

The Amazon.co.uk Associates Programme

The World Wide Web has grown into a huge mass of websites covering every subject you could imagine. Whether it's a personal or a business site many people are looking for an easy way to use this global broadcast media to make money. You have probably heard of numerous ways to 'get rich quick' on the Internet, but do any of them actually work?

The Amazon.co.uk Associates Programme [4] is not a get rich quick scheme, but it is a way for you to enter into the world of e-commerce with Amazon.co.uk by promoting products on your website to make money.

Opening its Virtual Doors

Amazon.co.uk [5] is an online retailer of books based in Slough, UK. We are the British subsidiary of Amazon.com, which opened its virtual doors in July of 1995 with a mission to use the Internet to offer products that educate, inform, and inspire and now has stores the United States, Germany and UK. Amazon.co.uk has its origins in an independent online store, Bookpages, which was established in 1996, and was subsequently acquired by Amazon.com in early 1998. Amazon.com now has over 5.5 million customers in 160 countries.

Collectively Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk have more than 200,000 associates worldwide ranging from web sites of Internet companies such as Yahoo! and Excite to smaller, more personal sites run by a wide range of associates and enthusiasts all over the world.

Amazon.co.uk offers over 1.5 million UK and US products which you can sell via links and buttons on your website. The Amazon.co.uk Associates Programme is easy to join. You fill in a short online form and are immediately sent a unique ID by email, which you insert into the html link from your site to amazon.co.uk. This ID is then used to track every click-through and sale that comes direct from your site.

So What Do You Get?

Amazon.co.uk pays up to 15% of the sale price, on books that are purchased as a result of someone coming from a direct link to a specific book on your site, through to amazon.co.uk. Alternatively, you can choose just to add a graphical logo as a link to the amazon.co.uk homepage or a searchbox to earn a guaranteed 5% on all books sold through your site. No matter which way you choose to link, if someone purchases a book on Amazon.co.uk after clicking on a link from your site to ours, you will earn a percentage of the sale price.

And what's more, each week Amazon.co.uk will email you a report listing details of all the activity including how many people have clicked through to your site, the sales that have been made and referral fees you have earned. At the end of each financial quarter, you will be sent another report listing how much money you are owed for this quarter and a cheque will be sent to the address you specify in UK pounds sterling.

There are several pages on the Associates Programme area of the Amazon.co.uk site which give you help and advice on setting up your links. They list the code you need to use, ensuring that all you have to do to get going is copy and paste the code into your html and add your unique ID.

Pioneering Amazon Style

The Associates Programme was pioneered by Amazon.com to attract new customers to the site via a new channel. The aim is to give each Associate a way of making money from their website, and at the same time bring in new customers to Amazon.com and now Amazon.co.uk.

Many of our Associate sites are very specialist, with themes such as health, sport or computing and by linking to Amazon.co.uk, each Associate can add value for their site visitors by providing lists of books that are available on a relevant subject. By adding reviews, comments and enthusiasm you are likely to receive the best results.

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

References

  1. Ernst & Young Press Release
    URL: <http://www.ey.com/news/releases/090998.asp> Link to broken external resource
  2. The British Library's Online Public Access Catalogue
    URL: <http://opac97.bl.uk/> Link to external resource
  3. Tacoma Public Library's OPAC, Topcat
    URL: <http://www.tpl.lib.wa.us/topcat/> Link to external resource
  4. Amazon Associates Programme
    URL: <http://www.amazon.co.uk/associates/> Link to external resource
  5. Amazon.co.uk
    URL: <http://www.amazon.co.uk/> Link to external resource

Author Details

Elly Russell
Associates Account Manager
Amazon.co.uk

Email: erussell@amazon.co.uk
URL: http://www.amazon.co.uk/associates/
Tel: +44 0181 636 9256

Elly Russell

Elly Russellis the Associates Account Manager for the highly successful online book seller, Amazon.co.uk. Prior to working for Amazon.co.uk, she has worked for a number of Online Internet Service providers including two years with the Microsoft Network and prior to that two years with UK Online. Her areas of expertise are web design, HTML, and customer service.

For citation purposes:
Elly Russell, "Books for Everyone: Cash for you," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/amazon/>

An Interview with an Associates Programme Member and Webmaster of the Amaxon Bookstore Design Centre

Bernadette Daly asks Thorsten Engler a few practical questions about his experience with the programme. From his site he has links to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de; the US parent company and the UK and German subsidiaries. After reading what Thorsten has to say, you'll be able to search each of the Amazon sites from the search boxes following. Then, Martin Wright adds a few suggestions for those thinking of setting up an online store.

The Wonderland Libraries to Amazon

Thorsten Engler

Thorsten Engler, (19), is a professional software developer and also webmaster of the Wonderland Libraries [1]; a site for science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts, which he maintains as a hobby. Although extremely busy, Thorston agreed to answer a few questions via email. He also set me straight on the status of Amazon.de. Martin Wright follows with some advice on setting up an online bookstore.

When did you join the programme?

Amazon.com, the 4th of June, 1998, and Amazon.co.uk on the 18th of October, 1998.

How did you find out about it?

From the respective main pages at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk [2][3].

Are you making any money?

Yes, but not much... My site started out as (and still is) only a hobby. I've not designed it to make money in the first place... but it's a welcome addition.

Which is more profitable: Amazon.de or Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk? [4]

Amazon.com is much more profitable than Amazon.co.uk... and Amazon.de doesn't have an associates programme yet. I'm linking to them nevertheless.

Talking about money... how much did you receive from Amazon.com in the first cheque?

About US$20.

If it isn't too personal... how much do you receive on average?

About US$200. That's (a) the second, and (b) the newest cheque. I'm still waiting for my first cheque from amazon.co.uk.

How often do you receive the payments?

Quarterly.

What currency are the cheques in?

Amazon.com is in US dollars, and amazon.co.uk is in Sterling.

Did you do well over the Christmas holidays?

I had a revenue drop of about 40 per cent. So you could say that Christmas was pretty bad for me.

That's a surprise. So, which was your busiest period?

Hm... about now (late-February).

Are you able to track users who use the Amazon search boxes on your site?

Yes, they are listed in my weekly reports.

Can you tell where the hits are coming from (Germany, other parts of Europe, the US, etc.)?

No, sorry. I don't have site statistics yet.

It has been suggested that it would be worth designing a site or number of different sites such that one could attract Amazon spenders for a wide variety of specialised or general subject areas. What do you think?

It's much better to have several different and unique sites (design and contents) rather than one big site. If you have one big site with many different books, the visitor could use the search box of the Amazon main page instead.

Good point. Have you bought anything using your Amazon discount?

No. I'm ordering all my books at Amazon.de. There's no shipping and handling for German customers, but they don't have an Associates Programme yet.

Well, any other comments?

Nope.

Thanks, Thorsten. We'll keep in touch, and look forward to an update in a future issue. Now, perhaps we can create a little more traffic for you.

Wonderland Libraries

Figure 1: The Wonderland Libraries site

Try an Amazon Search: the US, UK or Germany

The links and search boxes to the various Amazon sites, are presented quite differently in the members' sites. Here's an example of the search boxes from Thorsten's Wonderland Libraries site:

In assocation with Amazon.com

Keyword:

In assocation with Amazon.co.uk

Keyword:

In Zusammenarbeit mit Amazon.de

Suchbegriff:


Martin Wright's Amaxon Bookstore Design Centre

Amaxon logo

From Martin's Bookstore Design Centre, [5] he offers advice for linking your site to Amazon. The main areas addressed include: designing your site for maximum direct links, linking to both UK and US sites, converting links for both US and UK visitors, making your Amazon logos prominent and the use of search boxes.

Martin, can you tell something about building an online bookstore that could be used for the Associates Programme?

The process of linking to Amazon is straightforward. A simple hyperlink to the relevant page on any of the Amazon sites will allow the visitor's purchase to be monitored. You can link to a specific book, the Top 100 Books, or provide a search engine link. The best way to create a successful bookstore is to link to books that are related to the content in your web site.

How much does Amazon pay for each link?

If the purchase is an item that you linked to, then the payment will be up to 15%, but even if they purchase an unrelated item as a result of linking from your site you can receive a 5% payment. Depending upon the purchase made, you will receive a percentage of the price of the item.

So, how much could a person earn?

Well, no one has yet retired on earnings received from Amazon, but many people do find that the payments will cover the cost of their Internet connection and phone charges for the year. Basically, a well designed online bookstore on a popular site will generate a worthwhile revenue.

Thanks, Martin.

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

References

  1. Wonderland Libraries
    URL: <http://people.mainz.netsurf.de/~engler/>
  2. Amazon.com(United States)
    URL: <http://www.amazon.com/>
  3. Amazon.co.uk(United Kingdom)
    URL: <http://www.amazon.co.uk/>
  4. Amazon.de (Germany)
    URL: <http://www.amazon.de/>
  5. Amaxon Bookstore Design Centre
    URL: <http://www.qucumber.demon.co.uk/amaxon/resource.htm>

Author Details

Thorsten Engler
Ingelheim, Germany
Email: Thorsten.Engler@gmx.net
URL: http://people.mainz.netsurf.de/~engler/index.html


Bernadette Daly
Information Officer
Email: b.m.daly@ukoln.ac.uk
URL: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk
Tel: +44 1225 323343
Fax: +44 1225 826838
Address: UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, UK, BA2 7AY

Bernadette Daly Bernadette Daly is an Information Officer at UKOLN and Co-editor of Exploit Interactive and Ariadne web magazines. Bernadette recently returned to the UK after spending many years in Canada. Before joining UKOLN, she had been working for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Toronto on an intranet development team for the Corporate Governance Group. She has a Master's Degree in Library & Information Science from the University of Western Ontario (UWO), and undergraduate degrees in Linguistics and Comparative Development Studies.

For citation purposes:
Bernadette Daly, "An Interview with an Associates Programme Member and Webmaster of the Amaxon Bookstore Design Centre", Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/thorsten/>

Regular Columns

Regular Articles


At the Event: 7th International BOBCATSSS Symposium

Christine Dugdale reports on the 7th International BOBCATSSS Symposium on Library and Information Science in Bratislava, Slovakia, 25-27 January 1999.

The Learning Society, Learning Organisation and Lifelong Learning

The conference was held in the modern Istropolis Congress Centre in a somewhat damp and foggy Bratislava in Slovakia from the 25th-27th of January.

Although the gloom outside was lifted by the enthusiasm of the many young delegates, this year’s conference was a disappointment. In particular, the somewhat muddled 3-pronged themes of ‘Learning Society’, ‘Learning Organisation’ and ‘Lifelong Learning’ were not often addressed directly. The opening remarks stressed the importance of learning throughout life. Great emphasis was placed upon the role of information professionals in providing information, and teaching learning, awareness, selection, navigational and retrieval skills in addition to encouraging active learning. These strands of thought, however, tended to be absent from the following papers.

The conference is unique in both being organised by library school students as part of their studies and in its emphasis upon encouraging and supporting papers from students as well as lecturers and practitioners. But, whereas some of the clearer and more refreshing overviews were given by LIS students last year, this year they seemed to follow a more pedestrian approach of simply detailing literature reviews, describing courses and existing teaching initiatives rather than a more adventurous ‘star-gazing’ from the stance of a future practitioner. This pattern was followed by other speakers and there was little discussion about on-going research or announcements of new findings. Indeed, papers tended, overall, to be descriptive of existing practices or situations with well rehearsed accounts of the information needs of the organisations/citizens of tomorrow. There was no attempt to suggest ways of meeting those needs.

As might be expected from a conference organised by library and information students with ‘learning’ as a theme, there was a heavy emphasis on the training of future information professionals and on Continuing Professional Development for existing practitioners in papers presented by LIS students and lecturers. More papers discussing different ways of helping or educating users to navigate today’s information maze, presented by practitioners from public and specialist libraries, would have offered a more balanced approach. Indeed, whereas it is true that lifelong learning, the acquisition of new skills and a flexible and inquisitive mind is essential for those working in the field of library and information science, there was a disturbing near-silence about users. Very few speakers even mentioned, in passing, the place/needs/demands of users with regard to lifelong learning in the learning organisation.

According to the programme, conference themes should have centred around the issues of new media for schools, lifelong learning via libraries, learning and knowledge management, library education, self-directed learning, strategies for a learning society, learning organisations, and qualifications for the learning society. There was, therefore, ample opportunity to discuss the impact both of future sources of information and of information systems. Despite this, very few papers ever even mentioned system users or recipients of the help/advice which the well-educated librarian of the future would be qualified to offer. One would have expected the needs of users to be high on the curricula of library schools and, therefore, to be reflected in a conference organised by students which included several papers presented by existing students. Any discussions about library school curricula, the training of future information professionals and the design of digital infrastructures must, surely, be meaningless without any consideration of the user’s needs or the impact of these programmes/systems upon users? It is possible that system development has been so fast and concentration upon technology so great that librarians have lost sight of this most important fact - that all developments exist in order that they might be harnessed to provide information for the end-user and that their primary task is to help end users to satisfy their needs. One would have expected all this to underlie all system development and LIS student training. One would also have expected that emphasis would always be on the content and access to that content rather than on the media itself. If this conference is typical of current student thinking, then we will not be an IT-using society, but an IT-driven society. In a customer-care ethos, everything else is a means to the end of serving the information needs of the end-user.

There were descriptions of existing services in a number of very different countries scattered among papers, but little about the impact that these services were having upon individual users, organisations or, indeed, how widespread their use was. One often wondered how extensive a coverage some of the more advanced systems being described actually were. One speaker from an Eastern European country did stress her frustration on returning home bubbling over with enthusiasm about all she had learnt about web services whilst in America as well as all the knowledge she had gained and the information that she could pass on - only to meet with indifference and a lack of support.

The opening addresses emphasised that there is now a greater exchange of information than ever before. They also made fascinating references to the idea of a new-found greater equality of access to information and more equality in the information exchange process - between the ‘transmitters’ of information and the ‘receivers’ of information. Unfortunately, these thoughts were not taken up by later speakers.

One of the aims of the symposium is to provide a platform for a dialogue between librarians, teachers, information managers, and students from Western and Eastern Europe. The symposium did achieve this objective with more than 50 papers and workshops and over 200 participants from over 20 countries in Europe and beyond. Speakers came both from those countries with well-developed electronic networks and those which are still devising policies on digitisation to support educational and cultural initiatives.

Whereas, last year, a large number of the papers presented by speakers from East European countries frequently mentioned the new millennium and quoted their government’s or their organisation’s use of the year 2000 as a spur to new developments, this was strangely missing from this year’s papers. One was left wondering whether initiatives were so well advanced that speakers’ thoughts were turning towards new directions or whether the momentum had been lost and these projects would struggle to meet their year 2000 deadlines - or had even been abandoned.

The theme of fast changing technology and the phenomenal proliferation of information of varying degrees of quality, however, was carried forward into this year’s symposium. It was stressed that information had been revolutionised many times in the present millennium, albeit, generally, at a slow pace. The greatest development, Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press, had served to organise and standardise the exchange and spread of information. Advances in the next millennium were more likely to increase the spread of information at ever faster rates, but in a far more disorganised non-standard way through electronic sources and, especially, the internet.

It was, however, perhaps an appreciation of this, that led to one very interesting thought being voiced. It was suggested that, in the next millennium, the information professional will have a more stable career path than others. In the face of rapid advances in technology and communications and a volatile global working environment, information will become ever more important. While information specialists will need to change their methods of working and their information sets frequently, they will not need to change careers like others. The need for information managers and information intermediaries will grow and become more and more important in the learning organisations of the future.

The theme which emerged most strongly from many of the papers throughout the symposium was the importance of information management and the role of the information manager now and, especially, in the future within every sphere of life throughout the world. Information will become more and more important in the future and information will need managing in every area of society. Without management, information cannot be accessed, retrieved or used. Without carefully selected and organised information, individuals, companies, and countries will not be able to turn information into knowledge to equip them to live and work effectively in tomorrow’s global society. It was stressed that management skills were essential for the information professional and that these skills figured large in many library schools’ curricula today. One speaker even suggested that more emphasis is placed on the assimilation of management skills in library schools than on many syllabi for business students. Information management was important in every discipline and this was highlighted by the large number of students at the symposium who all saw themselves as future information managers, but who came from a wide variety of backgrounds and were studying in departments with an impressive range of titles. It was stressed over and over again that the future picture of information systems was one of merging, converging and cohesion. There was an important need for local information systems, but these should all be components of an interdependent whole. Different information systems must be inter-joined for efficiency and effectiveness. This calls for ever greater management skills. Yet, when questioned, most librarians do not cite management as one of their most important skills.

This year’s conference was organised by the students of the Fachhochschule Darmstadt and the Hochschule fuer Bibliotheks- und Informationswesen Stuttgart. Next year’s conference will be held in Krakow, Poland on 24-26 January and will be organised by the students of the Royal School of Library and Information Science, Denmark on the them of "Intellectual Property v The Right of Knowledge?".

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).


Further Information

  1. 1998 BOBCATSSS symposium
    URL: <http://www.db.dk/bobcatsss/>
  2. 1999 BOBCATSSS symposium
    URL: <http://www.fh-darmstadt.de/BOBCATSSS/conf99.htm>
  3. 2000 BOBCATSSS symposium
    URL: <http://www.bobcatsss.com>

Author Details


Christine Dugdale
ResIDe Electronic Library
University of the West of England
Email: Christine.Dugdale@uwe.ac.uk
URL: http://www.uwe.ac.uk/library/itdev/reside/
Tel: 0117 965 6261 ext 3646

ResIDe logoChristine Dugdale manages the ResIDe Electronic Library at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Funded as an eLib short loan project, the ResIDe Electronic Library sought to explore such issues surrounding the implementation of an electronic reserve as copyright and collection management systems. ResIDe has expanded to include a current awareness database and a past examination paper database and is now a permanent part of the University's Library Services.

For citation purposes:
Christine Dugdale, "7th International BOBCATSSS Symposium," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/bobcat/>

Behind the Web Site: The Development of euroguide

Marc Garnerwill walk you through the development of euroguide; a subject gateway to EU websites, which was developed by Essex Libraries (UK) with input from members of the EARL European Task Group, and design work by Sixtyeight Creative Solutions.

What is euroguide?

Euroguide [1] is a subject gateway to websites which contain information about the European Union. It has been developed by Essex Libraries [2] with input from members of the EARL European Task Group. EARL (Electronic Access to Resources in Libraries) [3] is a consortium of 146 public library authorities who are working together to develop and deliver networked information services in public libraries.

Objectives

There were two main objectives behind the development of the euroguide site.

1. To assist individual members of the public (European citizens) to find their way through the maze of European information on the Internet, and to guide them to authoritative sources of European Union information on the web.

2. To provide a more efficient and cost effective way for public libraries offering public Internet access to help their users make best use of the web. In the past each authority would have had to construct its own guide to websites containing EU information, now it is hoped that they will simply ‘point’ to Euroguide.
URL

Design Considerations

Essex Libraries approached Sixtyeight Creative Solutions [4], who specialise in internet solutions, with whom they have previously collaborated on a number of other web projects including:

The design of the site had to take account of a number of goals. Firstly, the site is aimed at naive users, i.e. users who might have little experience of using the Internet and/or who might have little understanding of the European Union and European information. Therefore the site had to be very easy to use and to avoid specialist terminology. Euroguide points users to specific pages within sites, as well as homepages wherever possible. Secondly, the site is intended to be adopted by individual public library authorities and therefore it was important that it should look visually attractive and interesting, and that it should establish its own identity and domain name (rather than Essex Libraries). Thirdly, the site is intended to be very participative, and to encourage users to suggest useful sites for inclusion, send comments and ideas, and also ask for help if they couldn't find the information they were looking for.

Phase One

Montage of site

It was decided that as a first phase the site would offer:

An alphabetical list of subject categories. Initially, the guide offers access by 60 subject categories, which have been chosen to represent the terms that people use when searching for information, rather than ‘Eurojargon.’ Clicking on a category takes the user to a list of sites which contain information relevant to the topic.

How Was It Done?

Sixtyeight used the professional web authoring package 'Golive CyberStudio' to create the site.
Adobe Photoshop 5 was used as the main graphics tool for the user interface. Titles, graphics and buttons were created in Photoshop and then exported as GIF or JPEG files. 'Sixtyeight' sketch out the page layout and ideas for the user interface on paper. Once happy with the structure and concept, this is then worked up within Adobe Illustrator and/or Photoshop as a complete page. The client is then presented with either printouts of these designs or a working web demo. Once approved a test site is produced and after final ammendments 'goes live'. 'Sixtyeight' tailor their service to the specific needs of each client and approach projects as more of a partner than a supplier. "We enjoy what we do and see no reason why the client should miss out on that either." says Marc Garner "...euroguide is meant to feel uncomplicated to use and Phase Two will make it even simpler for the euroguide team to maintain. We aimed to 'create a presence on the Net' for the euroguide team and not a daunting presence in their office."

Phase Two

The site, as it is now is very much in its infancy. There are ambitious plans for further development, both in terms of the content and the technology supporting it. With regard to the content the guiding principle is ‘quality not quantity.’ The aim is to guide users to the key, authoritative European information sites, not to try to list as many as possible. Developments in this area will focus on keeping up with changes and adding new sites as appropriate – hopefully guided by input from users. We are also beginning to work on short descriptions of the sites so as to make it easier for users to select suitable sites from the listings.

Developments are now beginning on the core part of Phase Two. This is to provide the euroguide team with direct access to a database of categories and their entries. 'Sixtyeight' proposed various functions to the euroguide team. Below is a summary of the updating procedures planned, all the administration takes place through a standard web browser.

Euroguide Team member logs into the admin area through their web browser

1. They can add a new category, edit the name of existing categories or edit the contents of any category.

2. Either the whole database or just one category can be viewed and its entries edited.

3. Entries contain the 'Title', a description to appear below the title and the URL to display if the title is clicked.

4. Entries can be edited at any time and the web site is therefore updated immediately.

5. If a new entry is added it appears at the top of the list of entries for that category and flagged 'NEW'. A preset controls how long entries remain 'NEW', this preset can be changed at any time through the admin area. When the preset period expires the 'NEW ' flag is removed and the entry reverts to its alphabetical position within the list. 'NEW' entries are also automatically added to the 'What's New' page until the preset period expires.

6. Some entries may fall under more than one category. Therefore to avoid having to enter data twice, entries can easily be duplicated to another category or moved to another category.

'Sixtyeight' were keen to provide a solution which could be easily managed by the euroguide team. But which was also flexible enough to cope with future developments or requirements.

Launching euroguide

The site was launched around October 1998, and seems to have addressed a real need. Usage rates are impressive. Enquiries and questions such as the following arrive regularly:

Sara Ann Kelly of the euroguide team comments "Overall the comments have been very positive, but it's also useful to receive constructive criticism. I am very excited about the future of euroguide."

Further Information

Marc Garner, Sixtyeight Creative Solutions, email: solutions@sixtyeight.co.uk
Sara Ann Kelly, European Information Officer, Essex Libraries, email: Sara.Ann.Kelly@essexcc.gov.uk
Mary Rowlatt, Information Services Manager, Essex Libraries, email: maryr@essexcc.gov.uk

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

References

  1. euroguide
    URL: <http://www.euroguide.org>
  2. Essex Libraries website
    URL: <http://www.essexcc.gov.uk/libraries/>
  3. EARL: the Consortium for Public Library Networking
    URL: <http://www.earl.org.uk/index.html>
  4. Sixtyeight Creative Solutions
    URL: <http://www.sixtyeight.co.uk>
  5. Essex County Council website
    URL: <http://www.essexcc.gov.uk>
  6. Essex Millennium Festival website
    URL: <http://millennium.essexcc.gov.uk>
  7. Essex Libraries website
    URL: <http://www.essexcc.gov.uk/libraries/>
  8. ISTAR project website
    URL: <http://www.istar.org>

Author Details

Marc Garner
Sixtyeight Creative Solutions
Email: solutions@sixtyeight.co.uk
URL: http://www.sixtyeight.co.uk

Sixtyeight logo

Sixtyeight Creative Solutions, known as '68' to its friends and clients, has been developing internet solutions for 3 years. Marc Garner, who formed the company, has strong roots in creative design and advertising. '68' are able to provide complete campaign packages including not only a structured internet presence but also supporting printed literature and promotion. '68' have seen steady growth with clients such as Essex County Council, Kotschy & Kotschy Advertising, Oyez Press, Marketing International and H.E. Stringer Ltd.

For citation purposes:
Marc Garner, "The Development of euroguide," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/euroguide/>


The Citizen’s Gateways: Public Libraries in Europe - Meet PubliCA

Sue Welsh, PubliCA Webmaster, introduces the Concerted Action for Public Libraries. The Citizen's Gateway will be a regular column in Exploit Interactive.

Introduction

PubliCA, the Concerted Action for public libraries, was two years old at the beginning of the year. Those not familiar with its work may be asking: what is a concerted action? and why do public libraries need one? This article will seek to answer those questions by describing PubliCA's aims, achievements and forthcoming a ctivities. This is the first in a regular series of articles focusing on European public libraries and PubliCA activities.

A concerted action is a Libraries Programme mechanism designed to create a human network united by shared concerns, for the stimulation of action in pursuit of common goals. Concerted actions provide cohesion across projects and countries for issues with wide ranging significance such a copyright and standards.

Public libraries became an issue because of their past lack of engagement, compared to other library sectors, in European telematics activities. The Public Libraries in the Information Society study, set up to examine the challenges that are experienced by public libraries predicatably found that they encounter a lack of funding, technical and IT skills amongst staff and training opportunities, but equally that there is uncertainty about policy and a lack of overall strategy for development in this area [1].

Aims

The stated aims of PubliCA [2], the concerted action for public libraries are to:

A key element in all these aims is dissemination and exchange of information, about telematics research activities to the libraries, about the libraries needs and activities to each other and about the activities of public libraries to the world in general and key decision makers in particular.

Dissemination Tools

PubliCA has established a mailing list and a web site as important dissemination tools (see below). In addition, as the definition of concerted action above implies, these aims are realised through PubliCA's human network. Since January 1997 PubliCA has organised three face to face workshops, each attracting 35 or more librarians from European Union members states and Central and Eastern Europe.

After the most recent of these, held in Leuven, Belgium in August 1998, the Leuven Communique was produced and agreed by all participants. Addressing the issue of the role of public libraries in the information society the Communique stressed their importance to democracy and citizenship, income and social development, lifelong learning and cultural and linguistic diversity. The participants called for national and federal public library policy to improve citizen’s access to information, help citizens to benefit from the information society, work to remove the disparities between access in different regions and meet the cost of extending library services to the information society. The Communique has since been translated into 14 languages and distributed widely in paper and electronic format [3].

Looking forward, in 1999 PubliCA will organise a major conference on public libraries, focusing on national policies and their practical application. This year will also see the realisation of PubliCA's training placements scheme, matching expressed training needs of senior library staff in the Central and Eastern European states with libraries in the West willing to offer training.

The PubliCA web site [4] is an excellent source of information about the project and is also used to disseminate information from the projects extensive network of country contacts. It can be used as a source of contacts for public libraries thinking of embarking on new projects, and as a source of information about public libraries in European countries. Recently, a new section describing previous and ongoing EU funded projects involving public libraries has been added. This column will feature regular reports culled from the PubliCA web site and other PubliCA sources covering all aspects of public libraries activity in Europe - stay tuned!

PubliCA is lead by a consortium of European public libraries and related organisations, and supported by the European Union under Framework Programme 4. Enquiries and suggestions regarding this column should be sent to Sue Welsh (swelsh@library.croydon.gov.uk).

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

References

  1. Ormes, S. Public Libraries Corner. Ariadne 4.
    URL: <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue4/public_libraries/> [Accessed 9th February 1999]
  2. PubliCA Project Background.
    URL: <http://www.croydon.gov.uk/publica/projback.htm> [Accessed 9th February 1999]
  3. PubliCA Leuven Communique.
    URL: <http://www.croydon.gov.uk/publica/communique.htm> [9th February 1999]
  4. PubliCA web site.
    URL: <http://www.croydon.gov.uk/publica/> [Accessed 9th February 1999]

Author Details


Sue Welsh
PubliCA Webmaster
Email: swelsh@library.croydon.gov.uk
URL: http://www.croydon.gov.uk/publica/

For citation purposes:
Sue Welsh, " Public Libraries in Europe: Meet PubliCA," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/citizens/>


Web Technologies: The Development Of Web Protocols And Formats

Many project developers will be making use of the Web, either as a integral part of the project or to provide information about the project. In a regular column on Web Technologies Brian Kelly reviews developments of Web protocols and formats. The article is intended to provide background information for projects which are about to make decisions on appropriate Web technologies to use.

Introduction

As all Web developers will know, the Web originally consisted of three architectural components:

  1. Data Formats: HTML
  2. Addressing: URLs
  3. Transport: HTTP

How have these developed since Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the Web, began development of the web in the early 1990s?

HTML Developments

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) originally provided a simple mechanism for defining some simple structural elements common to many documents, such as paragraphs (the <P> element), headings (<H1>, <H2>, etc.), and simple character formatting (bold, italics, etc.)

As the Web grew in popularity during the mid 1990s we began to see a battle for market share in the browser market, with Netscape and Microsoft releasing numerous HTML extensions (<FONT> and <CENTER> and, more controversially, <BLINK> and <MARQUEE>, etc.).

Although the frequent release of new browsers with new functionality (including not only support for extended HTML tag sets but also improved bookmark managers, email and news interfaces, etc.) initially appealed to many Web users, as the set of HTML extensions began to grow concerns were expressed over (a) the loss of browser independence, (b) the difficulties of developing authoring tools which could support new elements, (c) the dangers of using proprietary rather than open standards and (d) the architectural flaws in many of the extensions, with their role in defining the appearance of Web resources, rather than the underlying document structure.

Fortunately pressures from commercial companies which were making large-scale use of the Web together with, no doubt, an awareness from the browser vendors of the architectural flaws in their approachs to extending HTML, seems to have had some success. Both the major browser vendors have now stated their commitment to two important developments in the area of data formats: Cascading Style Sheets and XML.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) have been developed to complement HTML. HTML, as an SGML application, was originally intended to define the structure of a document. CSS provides a mechanism for describing how a HTML document should appear. Although CSS level 1 was not widely deployed (due to the failure of Netscape, the browser vendor with the largest market share, to support it) CSS level 2 [1] is now supported (although admittedly not fully) by version 4 of Netscape and Internet Explorer.

The main advantages of using CSS rather than using HTML elements to describe the appearance of a page are:

XML

Although HTML 4.0 and CSS 2.0 are the currently recommended data format standards for the Web, they have their limitations. Adding new elements to HTML can be very time-consuming, unless you are Netscape or Microsoft - but as we have seen, introduction of new elements by browser vendors is unpopular. In addition there are many elements which we would not expect to become part of a future HTML standard. Mathematical elements, for example, (<INTEGRAL>) are too subject-specific. There are innumerable application-specific examples which could also be given (such as <STAFF-NUMBER> or <PART-NUMBER>).

XML, the Extensible Markup Language, addresses HTML lack of extensibility. With XML arbitrary new elements can be defined, as illustrated in Figure 1.

<MEMO>
<FROM>Jo Smith</FROM>
<TO>Hans Schmidt</TO>
<SUBJECT>XML</SUBJECT>
<CONTENT>Have you read the latest news about XML?
It seems <STRONG>very</STRONG> interesting!
</CONTENT>
</MEMO>
Figure 1: Example of an XML Document.

XML appears to have a great deal of momentum behind it, as can be seen by looking at web sites such as XML.COM [2], The SGML/XML Web Page [3], the XMLINFO.COM [4] and XMLSOFTWARE.COM [5] pages, W3C's Extensible Markup Language (XML) pages [6] and Peter Flynn's Frequently Asked Questions about the Extensible Markup Language [7].

Other Data Format Developments

HTML 4.0 and CSS 2.0 would appear to provide the recommended data formats for today, with a watching brief needed for XML - which could have a role to play for storing structured resources, which are delivered in HTML/CSS format. What other data formats developments may be relevant?

XLink [8] and XPointer [9] are proposals which will provide richer hypertext functionality for XML resources. As described in the What Are .. XLink and XPointer article published in the Web version of Ariadne [10], XLink is intended to provide richer forms of hyperlinking (e.g. to allow hyperlinked resources to be embedded in the document or displayed in a new window as well as replace the existing document, which the <A> element can do in HTML). XPointer will enable arbitrary portions of an XML resource to be processed, such as link to the fourth paragraph in the second sentence.

In the area of graphics, we are seeing many developments including WebCGM [11], HGML [12] and PNG [13]. The W3C's User Interface domain is active in coordinating such developments and has released an activity statement [14]. A Scalable Vector Graphics Working Group has been set up which has produced a document on Scalable Vector Graphics Requirements [15]. In the related area of multimedia the main development has probably been the release of the SMIL specification [16].

Although not a data format DOM, the Document Object Model [17], defines a object model for HTML, CSS and XML which will enable elements, attributes and content to be manipulated by client-side languages such as JavaScript. Note that the term DHTML (Dynamic HTML) is sometimes used to refer to use of the DOM.

Addressing

Resources on the web are referred to by use of a URL - Uniform Resource Locator [18]. For example the URL <http://www2.echo.lu/oii/en/oii-home.html> (normally) refers to a document held on a computer with the domain name www2.echo.lu with the file name oii-home.html which is stored in a directory /oii/en/ beneath the web root directory and which is accessed using the http protocol.

A major problem with URLs is that they confuse the name of a resource with its location. We are familiar with the distinction in the library world between an ISBN, which identifies a document, and an accession number, which defines the location of a document within a library. In the Web, however, there is no way of, for example, easily referring to multiple locations of a resource.

Uniform Resources Names (URNs) [19] are a proposed mechanism for identifying a resource. The resource identified by a URN may reside in one or more locations, may move, or may not actually be available at a given time. The URN, has two interpretations, the first is as a globally unique and persistent identifier for a resource (achieved though an institutional commitment) that is accessible over a network; the second is as the specific "URN" scheme which will embody the requirements for a standardised URN namespace.

The Document Object Identifier (DOI) is an example of a proposed URN application. The goals of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) system [20] are to provide a framework for managing intellectual content, link customers with publishers, facilitate electronic commerce, and enable automated copyright management. The components of the DOI system are: (A) An Identifier which consists of a prefix that is assigned to a publisher by a registration authority and a suffix that is assigned by the publisher (note that publishers may choose to use existing international standard identifiers, for example, ISBN numbers for books); (B) A directory which forms the basis for a resolution system (the directory is centralised and provides the mapping of DOIs to URLs) and (C) A database by which detailed information on an object may be maintained by the publisher.

Transport

HTTP, the HyperText Transfer Protocol, governs the transfer of resources between a web browser and a web server. Typically clicking on a hypertext link in a web browser will sent a HTTP GET request to the server. The server will respond by send requested resource (if it exists) together with a series of headers.

Although HTTP/1.0 was used during the exponential growth of the web in the mid 1990s, there are a number of problems with it:

HTTP/1.1 [21] has been designed to address the deficiencies and to fix a number of bugs in HTTP/1.0. The HTTP/1.1 specification provides support for multiple TCP connections and improved support for caching.

Although HTTP/1.1 provides performance benefits, it is still not scalable and it has not been designed to be extensible. HTTP/NG, the Next Generation of HTTP, [22] is a complete redesign of HTTP, which addresses these deficiencies.

Metadata

The original version of the Web, which was developed by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in the early 1990s was based on the three architectural components described above: Data Format (HTML 1.0, which has developed to HTML 4.0 and is now complemented by CSS and XML), Transport (originally HTTP/0.9, and now HTTP/1.1 with development work on HTTP/NG) and Addressing (originally URLs).

During the mid 1990s much development work began to take place in areas such as content filtering, digital signatures, enhanced navigation of web sites, resource discovery and web collections. This work included:

PICS
The development of PICS [23], coordinated by the W3C, as a means of filtering undesirable content, such as pornography.
MCF
The development of MCF [24] by Apple. MCF, the Meta Content Framework, was intended to provide a variety of enhanced user interfaces to websites.
Dublin Core
The development of the Dublin Core set of attributes to facilitate discovery of resources on the Web [25].
Web Collections
A proposal submitted by Microsoft to the W3C to provide a mechanism for grouped collections of related Web resources [26]

As it became apparent that these developments were all related to metadata the World Wide Web Consortium set up a group to coordinate these developments [27].

Influenced by work such as Dublin Core, PICS and MCF, the Metadata Coordination Group developed a framework for metadata developments known as the Resource Description Framework (RDF) [28]. The importance of RDF to the Web infrastructure is illustrated in Figure 2.

Metadata, the missing architectural component from the web
Figure 2: Metadata, the missing architectural component from the web

RDF Applications

Although the RDF specifications are relatively new, we are already seeing a number of other specifications and applications being developed using RDF. As illustrated in Figure 3 (taken from "W3C Data Formats" [29]) W3C regard RDF as the key metadata format.

The Role of RDF in the Data Format Architecture for the Web
Figure 3: The Role of RDF in the Data Format Architecture for the Web

A number of example of uses of RDF are given below.

Mozilla Support For RDF
Figure 5: Mozilla Support For RDF

In addition to these examples, we can expect to see a number of other specifications based on RDF being developed. For example, W3C are likely to be producing specifications in the areas of digital signatures and privacy.

What Next?

This article has given a brief introduction to recent developments to the web architecture, including developments to data formats, transport, addressing and metadata. A complete description of new web procotols and formats has not been given and areas such as electronic commerce, internationalisation, privacy and other social aspects (including accessibility issues) have not been addressed.

The article also does not address deployment issues. How can new protocols and formats, which are needed in order to develop richly functional and efficient services, when the user community is largely using older browsers? And without the widespread deployment of the latest generation of browsers, there seems to be little motivation for service providers to make use of the technologies described in this article. These issues will be addressed in the next edition of Exploit Interactive.

Finding Out More About Standards For Project

No doubt many projects funded by the European Union carry out surveys of standards relevant to their work, as well as European and national funding bodies. A quick survey revealed the following:

European Commission's Open Information Interchange service
The Open Information Interchange (OII) provide a valuable service in providing overviews of existing and emerging standards related to the exchange of information. in electronic form. See <http://www2.echo.lu/oii/en/oii-home.html>
BIBLINK
Project BIBLINK is funded by DG XIII/E-4 under the Telematics Application Programme of the European Union Fourth Framework Programme. It aims to establish a electronic link between national bibliographic agencies and publishers of electronic material, in order to establish authoritative bibliographic information that will benefit both sectors.
The first phase of the project included delivery of reports on Metadata Formats, Identification and Transmission of Data. See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/biblink/>.
DESIRE
DESIRE: Development of a European Service for Information on Research and Education is a large project funded by the Telematics for Research Sector of the Fourth Framework Programme of the European Union. The project is looking at Web technology and the implementation of pilot information services on behalf of European researchers.
The first phase of the project included delivery of reports on resource discovery including A review of metadata: a survey of current resource description formats and The role of classification schemes in Internet resource description and discovery. See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/desire/>.
PIPER
Project PIPER specialises in providing the free tools and required by EC TAP projects to convert their deliverables into HTML. Their Report D12.1, Study of Web-Based Dissemination reviewed identification developments, such as URNs and DOIs. See <http://piper.ntua.gr/reports/r6.html>.
eLib
The UK's eLib Programme is involved in the development of a wide variety of services related to electronic libraries. A document of relevent standards is available at: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/papers/other/standards/>.

In addition to these reports, a excellent book on web standards is "Wilde's WWW: Technical Foundations of the World Wide Web" [34]. Further details about the book can be obtained from Springer's [35] or Amazon.com's [36] web sites.

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

References

  1. Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 (CSS2) Specification, W3
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/>
  2. XML.COM, Organisational Home Page
    URL: <http://www.xml.com/>
  3. The SGML/XML Web Page, Organisational Home Page
    URL: <http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/xml.html>
  4. XMLINFO.COM, Organisational Home Page
    URL: <http://www.xmlinfo.com/>
  5. XMLSOFTWARE.COM, Organisational Home Page
    URL: <http://www.xmlsoftware.com/>
  6. Extensible Markup Language (XML), W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3c.org/XML/>
  7. Frequently Asked Questions about the Extensible Markup Language, Peter Flynn, University of Cork
    URL: <http://www.ucc.ie/xml/>
  8. XLink, W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xlink>
  9. XPointer, W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-xptr>
  10. What Are ... XLink and XPointer, Ariadne issue 16
    URL: <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue16/what-is/>
  11. WebCGM Profile, W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-WebCGM/>
  12. Hyper Graphics Markup Language (HGML), W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-HGML>
  13. PNG (Portable Network Graphics) Specification, W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-png>
  14. Graphics Activity, W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/Graphics/Activity>
  15. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Requirements, W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/TR/WD-SVGReq>
  16. Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) 1.0 Specification, W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-smil/>
  17. Document Object Model (DOM) 1.0 Specification, W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1/>
  18. Uniform Resource Locators (URL), W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/Addressing/rfc1738.txt>
  19. URN, W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/Addressing/>
  20. HTTP/1.1, W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2068/rfc2068>
  21. HTTP/NG, W3C
    URL: <http://www.w3.org/Protocols/HTTP-NG>
  22. DOI, W3C
    <http://www.doi.org/>
  23. PICS, W3C
    <http://www.w3.org/PICS/>
  24. Meta Content Framework Using XML, Apple
    <http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-MCF-XML/>
  25. Dublin Core, W3C
    <http://purl.org/DC/>
  26. Web Collections, Microsoft
    <http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-XMLsubmit.html>
  27. Metadata and Resource Description, W3C
    <http://www.w3.org/Metadata/>
  28. RDF, W3C
    <http://www.w3.org/RDF/>
  29. W3C Data Formats, W3C
    <http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-rdfarch>
  30. Reggie, DSTC
    <http://metadata.net/dstc/>
  31. DC-dot, UKOLN
    <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/dcdot/>
  32. Document Content Description for XML, W3C
    <http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-dcd>
  33. Mozilla.org, Mozilla
    <http://www.mozilla.org/rdf/doc/>
  34. Wilde's WWW: Technical Foundations of the World Wide Web, Erik Wilde, ISBN 3-540-64285-4, Spinger
  35. Wilde's WWW: Technical Foundations of the World Wide Web, Springer
    <http://www.springer.de/cgi-bin/bag_generate.pl?ISBN=3-540-64285-4>
  36. Wilde's WWW: Technical Foundations of the World Wide Web, Amazon.com
    <http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/3540642854/qid%3D916932222/026-1791844-8088430>

Author Details

Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Tel: +44 1225 323943
Email: B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
Address: UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, UK, BA2 7AY

Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly is employed as UK Web Focus, at UKOLN (UK Office for Library and Information Networking) at the University of Bath, England. Brian's responsibilities include keeping the UK Higher Education community informed of web developments.

For citation purposes:
Brian Kelly, "The Development Of Web Protocols And Formats," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/web/>

Web Technologies: URLs for Telematics for Libraries Project Pages

In what will be a regular Web Technologies column, Brian Kelly and Ian Peacock discuss the results of a recent analysis of the Telematics for Libraries Projects' URLs.

Background

The WebWatch project [1] based at UKOLN, University of Bath, has developed robot software to analyse web technologies in use within a range of communities, and to advise communities on the implications of the findings. The WebWatch project has recently analysed the URLs for Telematics for Libraries projects. This article summaries the findings.

Extracting Information from URLs

As well as providing a hyperlink to a resource, the URL of a Web page also provides useful information. The fully qualified hostname is normally of the form www.project-site.domain (e.g. www.desire.org or www.pride.ac.uk. This can often provide information on the country the server physically resides in (the UK in the first example, although the country is not known in the second example). The hostname can also indicate the nature of the organisation hosting the page (e.g. com or .co refers to a commercial company).

The construction of the directory hierarchy can indicate the relation of the page to the site. It may be possible to develop heuristic techniques to ascertain the ease with which the URL may be used, cited or remembered.

Telematics for Libraries Project Pages

A list of Telematics for Libraries projects is maintained at the ECHO web site [2]. An HTML document exists for each project which provides summary information for each project. If the project has a project web site, the address is provided. Using this information we extracted 50 URLs corresponding to project web pages from the list of 107 projects.

A Perl script was used to obtain information from the project URLs. The script provided the following information for each URL:

URL, Scheme, Hostname, Path, Port, Fragment, Length of hostname, Length of path, Top domain, Secondary domain

Results

Not suprisingly, all URLs used the http scheme. All but one URL (which used port 1999) refered to the (standard) TCP port 80 for data transfer over HTTP.

Five URLs contained the tilde character (~). This is a Web server mechanism that allows users to have Web space under the hierarchy /~user/.

All URLs ended with the suffix .htm (HTML document) or .html ( HTML document) or with a slash (/).

Lengths of URLs

Figure 1 shows the length of the URL without the scheme, i.e of the hostname and path (which includes the first /). The two components are shown in different colours.

Figure 1 - Number of characters in each URL
Figure 1 - Number of characters in each URL

Note that for the longer URLs, the length of the path dominates the length of the overall URL.

Table 1 lists the six project sites which contained only the domain name and no path.

Table 1: Projects with the minimal path
Project URL
BALTICSEAWEB http://www.baltic.vtt.fi/
CASA http://www.casa.issn.org:1999/
DER@L http://deral.infc.ulst.ac.uk/
EUROPAGATE http://europagate.dtv.dk/
MALVINE http://www.malvine.org/
TOLIMAC http://tolimac.ulb.ac.be/

It should be noted that only the MALVINE project has its own domain - the other projects included the project name before the organisational name.

In contrast, Table 2 lists the projects with the longest paths.

Table 2: Projects with the longest path
Project URL
SPRINTELB http://www.iol.ie/resource/dublincitylibrary/sprintel/index.html
BIBDEL http://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/centre/cerlim/projects/bibdelhp.htm
TRANSLIB &lr;http://peterpan.uc3m.es/proyectos/translib/HomePage.htm> Link to broken external resource
HARMONICA http://www.svb.nl/project/harmonica/harmonica.htm
COBRA http://portico.bl.uk/gabriel/en/projects/cobra.html
DECIMAL http://www.mmu.ac.uk/h-ss/dic/research/decimal.htm

In Table 2 it can be noticed that:

Domain Names

The top level and second level domain was extracted from the hostname of each URL. Table 3 shows the findings. Figure 2 gives a pie-chart representation of the data.

Top level domain Frequency Percent
uk 17 30.4
nl 7 12.5
dk 6 10.7
it 4 7.1
be 2 1.8
de 2 3.6
es 2 3.6
fi 2 3.7
ie 2 3.7
org 2 3.7
at 1 1.8
gr 1 1.8
pt 1 1.8
se 1 1.8
14 domains 50 100%
Table 3 - Top level domains found in URLs		 Figure 2 - Top level domains found in URLs
Figure 2 - Top level domains found in URLs

Figure 3 shows the second level domains that comprise the data for Table 3.

Figure 3 - Second level domains found in URLs
Figure 3 - Second level domains found in URLs

Figure 3 shows that ac.uk is the densest in terms of project sites. This in turn means that the top-level uk domain has the highest number of project sites.

Conclusions

It is desirable for projects to provide a short URL for the main entry point for the project, as this is more memorable and less likely to cause mistakes when citing the address (either in print or when speaking).

One way of shortening a long path name is to avoid including the filename, by making use of the web server's default naming convention. For example the URL for the fictuous project Microscape: <http://www.foo.bar.com/projects/microscape/microscape.htm> could be replaced by <http://www.foo.bar.com/projects/microscape/>. This is not only shorter, but also avoids potential mistakes in typing the suffix (e.g. "did she say .htm or .html?").

Organisatiations may have policies governing the directory structure which may result in long URLs. Use of the ~name convention may provide a shortened URL - e.g. <http://www.foo.bar.com/~microscape/>. A problem with this approach is that the ~name convention is often used for personal home pages (many universities use this approach to provide web space for students). End users who have experienced use of this approach may place low value on URLs containing the tilde character, as described in SOSIG's Internet Detective [3]. This tutorial guide to finding quality resources on the Internet states "If the URL contains a tilde then be aware that you are probably (although not definitely) looking at a personal page with personal opinions rather than an official site giving the official line." [4].

If the host organisation permits it, it may be desirable to include the project name within the domain name. For example the Europagate project which is hosted by the DTV (Danmarks Tekniske Videncenter & Bibliotek) has the URL <http://europagate.dtv.dk/>.

Rather than relying on the host organisation's policies for hosting web sites, projects may chose to obtain their own domain name. For example Exploit Interactive obtained the domain name exploit-lib.org. The Exploit Interactive website is hosted at the URL <http://www.exploit-lib.org/>. The domain name was obtained from InterNIC [5]. The first choice of <http://www.exploit.org/> had already been taken.

Another alternative could be to make use of the EU.org [6] organisation. EU.org's organisational home page states that "The goal of EU.org is to provide free subdomain registration to users or non-profit organizations who cannot afford the outrageous fees demanded by some NICs, especially in Europe". Using EU.org it would be possible to use the domain name exploit.eu.org. The Exploit Interactive decided not to pursue this option, since little was known about the EU.org organisation.

A final alternative which could be considered is the use of PURLs [7]. Instead of pointing directly to the location of an Internet resource, a PURL (Persistent URLs) points to an intermediate resolution service. Since EU project deliverables may well be sought after once the project has finished, it may not be desirable to provide a URL which may be deleted once the project has completed (as could happen if the website is hosted by a large organisation, and files are automatically deleted when project staff leave).

In the longer term the use of DOIs (Document Object Identifiers) [8] should be considered for use by projects.

Reader Response

If you have any comments on this article, please contact the editors (exploit-editor@ukoln.ac.uk).

References

  1. WebWatch,
    URL: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/webwatch/>.
  2. Telematics For Libraries - Projects,
    URL: <http://www2.echo.lu/libraries/en/projects.html>.
  3. Internet Detective,
    URL: <http://www.sosig.ac.uk/desire/internet-detective.html>.
  4. Get Clues from URLs, Internet Detective (Note registration may be needed to access this page)
    URL: <http://www.netskills.ac.uk/TonicNG/content/detective/7.html>.
  5. InterNIC,
    URL: <http://www.internic.net/>.
  6. EU.org,
    URL: <http://eu.org/>.
  7. Persistent URL Home Page,
    URL: <http://purl.org/>.
  8. The Digital Object Identifier,
    URL: <http://www.doi.org/>.

Author Details

Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN: UK Office for Library and Information Networking
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
UK
BA1 7AY

Tel: +44 1225 323943
Fax: +44 1225 826838
URL: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/>

Ian Peacock
Netcraft
Bath
UK

Email: ip@netcraft.com
URL: http://www.netcraft.com/

Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly is employed as UK Web Focus, at UKOLN (UK Office for Library and Information Networking) at the University of Bath, England. Brian's responsibilities include keeping the UK Higher Education community informed of web developments.
NetcraftIan Peacock recently left UKOLN to join Netcraft; a networking consultancy based in Bath, England. It is well known worldwide for its Web Server Survey, which is widely considered a primary empirical metric for the number of web sites and the relative popularity of web server software on the internet. Clients include IBM, Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems, and Microsoft.

For citation purposes:
Brian Kelly and Ian Peacock, "URLs for Telematics for Libraries Project Pages," Exploit Interactive, issue 1, 10 April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/urls/>

Et cetera

  1. Java Crossword Puzzle
  2. Job Postings: Projects, Networking, Libraries

Etc Articles


Job Postings: Projects, Networking, Libraries


Welcome to Exploit Interactive's Jobs Section. If your organisation has position openings for Telematics Projects, Networking, or Library related work, send details (as shown below) to exploit-jobs@ukoln.ac.uk

Positions from around Europe

BIOME Service Manager
University of Nottingham
Information Services Directorate

A committed and enthusiastic individual is required to lead the newly created BIOME Service. The BIOME Service will form part of the JISC Resource Discovery Network, incorporating the current OMNI subject gateway services, but with extended subject coverage, including all of the life, medical and health sciences. BIOME services will be produced by aconsortium of eight partners, led by The University of Nottingham.

The Service Manager will be responsible for liaison and negotiationwith a range of stakeholders including the JISC; a range of bio-informatics organisations and with the NHS National Electronic Library for Health initiative. The person appointed will manage a team of information and computing professionals; steer the development of the BIOME service, negotiate with potential funders and contribute to the BIOME outreach strategy, incorporating publicity and training initiatives.

Candidates should have excellent communication and negotiation skills; previous experience of managing or directing a medium sized team and a good understanding of biomedical information services. Knowledge of the NHS, especially IT or patient information systems is highly desirable.

Salary will be within the range £26,523 - £31,470 per annum (under review), depending on qualifications and experience. This post will be offered on a fixed-term contract for a period of three years.

Further details and application forms are available from:
Personnel Office
Highfield House
The University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD
Tel: 0115 951 3267 - Fax: 0115 951 5205
Email: Glenis.Roberts@Nottingham.ac.uk

Please quote ref. DRC/217
Closing date: Friday, 16th July 1999

Informal enquiries regarding the position may be made in the strictest confidence to:
John Kirriemuir
OMNI Service Manager
Email: jk@omni.ac.uk
Tel: 0115 924 9924 ext 43980
This advertisment also appears on the web at: http://omni.ac.uk/vacancies/service-manager/

~

Two Vacancies: University of Bristol Institute for Learning and Research Technology
Technical Research Officer - TASI 0.5 FTE(15,735 - 29,048 pro rata)
Learning Technology Adviser 0.5 FTE (18,275 - 23,651 pro rata)
Further details: http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/news/vacancies/
http://www.netcraft.com/jobs/

The Institute has vacancies for two half-time posts.  We would be happy to consider applicants wishing to combine the two posts to form a full-time position. The Institute for Learning and Research Technology, at the University of Bristol, is the largest group of its kind in the UK (nearly 50 staff). It is an international centre of excellence in the development and use of new technology in learning and research and hosts more than 30 high profile national and international projects and services.  Institutestaff play a significant role in the development of national and international standards, systems and services.  The Institute is also host to one of the University's academic services, the Learning Technology Support Service (LTSS).  The Institute has working practices and philosophies that are democratic and team-based with opportunities for career development.

Technical Research Officer - TASI 0.5 FTE(15,735 - 29,048 pro rata)
TASI (www.tasi.ac.uk) has been an established JISC (www.jisc.ac.uk) project for the last two years.  It is an exciting time for creating digital image collections: money has been made available from all sectors to create digital content for teaching, research and learning.  TASI provides advice on all aspects of creating a digital image archive, not just those pertaining to actual digitisation, e.g. copyright and metadata issues.  More information on the issues involved can be found on the TASI Web site.

The main activities of the post are to: advise and support UK Higher Education image digitisation projects; undertake technical research in digital imaging; report writing; technical documentation; keeping abreast of image formats and standards including liaising with industry and standards committees; maintaining an up to date knowledge in digitisation and related issues; creating workshop materials; delivering training workshops and visiting projects for on-site help.

A 12 month contract in the first instance. Ref: 5594  Informal enquiries to Karla Youngs, tel: 0117 928 7060, email: karla.youngs@bristol.ac.uk.

Learning Technology Adviser 0.5 FTE (18,275 - 23,651 pro rata)
The Learning Technology Support Service provides central support for the implementation and promotion of computer facilitated learning in teaching and learning at the University of Bristol (such support has been provided since 1992). Increasingly, departments at the University recognise that computer facilitated learning can play an important role within the curriculum and provide students with tools and resources that enable and enhance active learning.

This post will focus on providing technical advice and support to University staff in the use and application of new technology in teaching and learning and will involve; setting up and maintaining the LTSS server for university-wide use; helping to develop and maintain the LTSS web site; developing the LTSS contacts database; visiting departments to provide on-site technical help, together with departmental technical support officers; contributing technical expertise to university-wide and departmental projects; implementing and adapting software tools and resources to assist in the development of electronic learning materials.  The job also involves contributing towards core activities of the LTSS such as giving presentations and seminars; writing fact sheets about aspects of learning technology; contributing to the workshop and lunch time seminar programme; contributing to departmental and university wide projects.

3 year contract in the first instance Ref: 5595.  Informal enquiries to Ros O'Leary, tel: 0117 928 7151
email: ros.oleary@bristol.ac.uk.

The closing date for both posts is Wednesday 23 June 1999.  It is anticipated that interviews will be held during the week beginning 28 June 1999.

For further details telephone (0117) 925 6450 (answer phone after 5 pm), minicom (0117) 928 8894
Email Recruitment@bris.ac.uk or write to the Personnel Office (EO), University of Bristol, Senate House, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TH quoting the relevant reference numbers.
http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/news/vacancies/

~

Managing Editor - Brussels-based
Landmarks SA, Brussels, Belgium
URL: http://www.landmarks.be
Editor required to manage the print and online versions of the successful European Public Affairs Directory and Directory of Online European Information. This Brussels-based position involves the coordination of research, production and marketing of the yearly print versions and updating of online versions. Successful candidates will have a minimum of 4 years relevant experience, preferably in the publishing or media sectors. Knowledge of the European Institutions and online environment are important. Perfect command of English and good knowledge of French are a necessity. Please send your CV in English to:
Alain Fallik
Landmarks SA
Avenue de Tervuren 402
B-1150 Brussels
Tel: 32-2-779 95 49
Fax: 32-2-779 95 63
E-mail: af@landmarks.be

~

Internet Technology Analyst
Internet Developers
Consultancy Sales
Netcraft, Bath, UK
Further details: http://www.netcraft.com/jobs/
Send CV to: cv@netcraft.com.

Netcraft, a networking consultancy based in Bath, England, has a number of job openings. It is well known worldwide for its Web Server Survey, which is widely considered a primary empirical metric for the number of web sites and the relative popularity of web server software on the Internet.

Applications from outside the UK are welcome if they have citizenship of an EU country or a current work permit for the UK and an excellent command of the English language.

~

Director (£30,496 - £34,464)
University of Bristol
Institute for Learning and Research Technology
Further details: http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/news/vacancies/
Informal enquiries: Nicky Ferguson
Ref: 5449
Email: nicky.ferguson@bristol.ac.uk.

The Institute is home to more than 25 leading edge projects and services with high national and international profiles. It is a challenging and interesting place to work with a strong culture of team working.

To manage and lead a highly motivated staff of 50 you will need management experience at a senior level within an entrepreneurial research and development and/or University research environment and a commitment to informal and democratic working practices. You must be able to understand highly competent technical staff working on a wide variety of information, learning and technology issues and convey in simple terms the essential content and value of the work they do. 12 month contract in the first instance.

The closing date is Friday 9 April. Interviews will be held in the week beginning 26 April.

For further details:
Telephone: (0117) 925 6450
Answer phone (after 5 pm): minicom (0117) 928 8894
Email: Recruitment@bris.ac.uk
Address: Personnel Office (EO), University of Bristol, Senate House, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8

The closing date for all posts is Friday 9 April. Interviews will be held in the week beginning 26 April.

~

Administrator (£18,275 - £29,048)
University of Bristol
Institute for Learning and Research Technology
Further details: http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/news/vacancies/
Informal enquiries: Tracey Hooper
Ref: 5450
Email: t.a.hooper@bristol.ac.uk.

The Institute is home to more than 25 leading edge projects and services with high national and international profiles. It is a challenging and interesting place to work with a strong culture of team working.

As an experienced professional you will coordinate the provision of central administrative support to the Institute with particular emphasis on financial and personnel issues. You will have the support of three central staff and will need excellent organisational and interpersonal skills to support the smooth running of the Institute's work. 12 month contract in the first instance.

The closing date is Friday 9 April. Interviews will be held in the week beginning 26 April.

For further details:
Telephone: (0117) 925 6450
Answer phone (after 5 pm): minicom (0117) 928 8894
Email: Recruitment@bris.ac.uk
Address: Personnel Office (EO), University of Bristol, Senate House, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8

~

Learning Technology Support Service - Two Learning Technology Advisers (£18,275 - £23,651)
University of Bristol
Institute for Learning and Research Technology
Further details: http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/news/vacancies/
Informal enquiries: Tracey Hooper
Ref: 5450
Email: Jane Williams or
ros.oleary@bristol.ac.ukros.oleary@bristol.ac.uk

Two Advisers are required to join the current team providing advice and support to University staff in the use and application of new technology in teaching and learning. Post A will focus on the technical aspects of implementation. Post B will focus on evaluation. Both Advisers will be required to work with staff in departments to:

3 year contracts.

The closing date for all posts is Friday 9 April. Interviews will be held in the week beginning 26 April.

For further details:
Telephone: (0117) 925 6450
Answer phone (after 5 pm): minicom (0117) 928 8894
Email: Recruitment@bris.ac.uk
Address: Personnel Office (EO), University of Bristol, Senate House, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8

~

News

News and Events

News

Conference Report "Beyond the Old Limits: New roads ahead for Europe's libraries"
(Leipzig, 24 March 1999)
URL: <http://www.britcoun.de/e/infoexch/pubs/newroad.htm>

~

News Article: Are you Linking to a Porn Site?
10th April 1999
URL: <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/webtechs/>

Many web managers became concerned in early April on hearing the news that an innocuous web site had transformed into a porn site. Brian Kelly describes the event and its implications.

~

Workshop: Results of Exploit and PubliCA concerted actions
Rome, Italy
17th May 1999
Source: Digital Heritage and Cultural Content web site (31st March 1999)
URL: <http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka3/digicult/en/activity/explowks.html>

In connection with the Annual AIB Conference (Associazione italiana biblioteche) which this year will be held in Rome on 16-19 May, it has been decided to present the results of the Exploit and PubliCA concerted actions during a one-day workshop scheduled for 17 May 1999. This will be structured in various modules focusing on specific topics and providing an overview of a number of relevant projects funded under the Telematics for Libraries Programme. The preliminary agenda is available at the URL given above.

~

Looking for a Fifth Framework Partner?
Source: lis-european-programmes mailing list (31st March 1999)

See: <http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka3/digicult/en/fp5/ideas.html> for a Digital Heritage and Cultural Content site that could be useful for partner finding.

~

IST Call for Proposals March 1999 - closing date
Source: lis-european-programmes mailing list (23 March 1999)

The Closing date for IST Call for Proposals is 16 June 1999 at 5:00 p.m. (Brussels local time).

~

"Beyond the old limits - new roads ahead for Europe's libraries" - A pan-European Conference
Leipzig, Fair, New Fair Premises
Wednesday, 24th March 1999

This Colloquium brought together decision makers and leading practitioners to consider the role of libraries in the networked Information Society. Views from representatives of politics, science and culture were discussed as well the latest developments in infrastructure and services.

Europe's libraries preserve Europe's cultural heritage, offer access to scientific, commercial and leisure related information and are above all one of the most heavily used public institutions. The ever closer convergence of computing and communications in the networked world of the Information Society imposes per se a new dimension and an obligation for co-operation on libraries and their partners - not only the book trade, industry, research associations, but also other science and culture knowledge bases such as museums and archives.

European Culture is characterised by ist textual heritage in a very particular way. Libraries are building the infrastructure for this. For the first time there is the opportunity to weave an information network across Europe that links together past, present and future, that offers access to both printed and electronic media and that puts the diverse intellectual strands of varied European regions in relation to each other.

The European Programme for Libraries, launched in 1990 within the European Commission's Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, was designed to create a process of change and to stimulate awareness of the benefits and implications of European co-operation. Its approximately 100 research projects are making an important contribution, in co-operation with national programmes, to the emergence of the seamless "European Library Space". The time has come to encourage the practical take-up of these research results while at the same time stimulating a wider-discussion about the contribution libraries and their partners can make to the development of the Information Society.

~

PubliCA Training Centres
Source: PubliCA listserv (15 March 1999)
URL: <http://www.croydon.gov.uk/publica/cepp/cepp-intro.htm>
Contact: Sue Welsh
Email: swelsh@library.croydon.gov.uk

PubliCA is launching a series of training attachment programmes of 1-2 weeks duration for public library managers wishing to gain experience of new strategies and services for public libraries. The programmes will be hosted by excellent public library services in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. Content and objectives vary, but are driven by analyses of training priorities for public library managers in Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. The first programmes are available from September 1999.

PubliCA itself will be providing financial support for a number of attachments during the first year of operations. It is hoped that additional support will be available from other funding bodies, such as Soros Foundations and OSI Network Library Programme. Applications are welcome from all public library managers, subject to funding. Application forms are available from PubliCA Country Co-ordinators in Central and Eastern European countries. Further information is available at the PubliCA web site noted above.

~

Digital Preservation Guidelines: The state of the art in libraries, museums and archives.
Source: IWETEL@listserv.rediris.es list, forwarded to lis-european-programmes@mailbase.ac.uk Mailbase list(12 March 1999)
URL: <http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka3/digicult/en/backgrd.html>

Digital Preservation Guidelines: The state of the art in libraries, museums and archives. By Marc Fresko and Kenneth Tombs. European Commission, DG XIII/E. These guidelines are available for downloading in PDF and in MS Word format

~

Events

ECDL'99 Conference Announcement
Source: forwarded to lis-european-programmes mailing list from DIGLIBNS listserve

Third European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for DIGITAL LIBRARIES
Paris, France, 22-24 September 1999

Co-organized by BNF (Bibliotheque Nationale de France) and INRIA (Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique).
English: <http://www-rocq.inria.fr/EuroDL99/>
French: <http://www-rocq.inria.fr/EuroDL99/EuroDL99-francais.html>

~

Russian-British Digital Libraries Workshop
Moscow, 16-17 June 1999
URL: <http://www.iis.ru/rbdlw99/>
Source: lis-elib Mailbase mailing list

The Russian-British Workshop on Digital Libraries will take place on May 27-28, 1999 in Moscow, Russia. The theme is UK eLib Programme and Russian Digital Libraries Programme.

~

Third Metadata Workshop
Luxembourg, 12 April 1999
Contact: Odete Barreirinho
Email: mailto:odete.barreirinho@lux.dg13.cec.be
Fax: +352 4301 33530

This is the announcement for the Third Metadata Workshop and Concertation Meeting being organised under the auspices of the European Commission DGXIII/E2.
The Workshop will take place in the Conference room in the EuroForum building, rue Robert Stumper, zone Cloche d'Or, in Luxembourg on: Monday 12 April 1999 from 9:30 to 16:30.

The objectives of this meeting, which is part of an on-going concertation activity started in 1997, are:

  1. to present recent developments around the Dublin Core metadata element set and look at future directions
  2. to present RDF and XML and look at the practical consequences for metadata implementation
  3. to look at issues related to unique identifiers for electronic resources
  4. to discuss metadata issues related to long-term availability of resources

The intended audience for this Workshop are people responsible for or working on practical implementations of metadata, particularly as applied to describing the record of scientific, intellectual and cultural activity.

Attendance in the workshop is free of charge; however, participants will have to cover their own travel and subsistence cost. If you are involved in a project funded by the European Commission, it might be possible that attending this meeting can be funded through your budget for concertation meetings. If in doubt, please contact your Project Officer.

~

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