Collection Description Focus
Showcase

Mapping the Information Landscape:
A Showcase of Collection Description Projects and Services

Tuesday 25th March 2003
The British Library Conference Centre, St Pancras, London

Introduction

There is an increasing emphasis on mapping and managing our information resources in a way which will allow users to find, access, use and disseminate resources from a range of diverse collections. JISC's vision of a managed "information environment" and new programmes of digital content creation have highlighted the role of collection-level description.

This Showcase Event will focus on the challenge of bringing together distributed content and how collection-level description can help to facilitate this process.

The programme will include input from several major strategic initiatives including the NOF portal, JISC's IE Service Registry, the CC-Interop (COPAC/Clumps Continuing Technical Cooperation) project and the Natural History Museum's CLD project. The day will also feature a unique "Showcase" of demonstrator/pilot services in the adjoining meeting rooms, with contributions from a wide range of CLD services.

The event will conclude with an exploration of how the concept of collections can be applied to other environments and knowledge spaces.

The event is aimed at information managers who are developing and directing policy, and anyone with an interest in employing collection-level description as a component part of their information services.

The programme for the day is yet to be finalised but will include the following speakers:

• Chris Batt, Director Libraries and Information Society Team, Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries - Chair
• Chris Anderson, New Opportunities Fund and Pete Dowdell, UKOLN, University of Bath, NOF-digitise Technical Advisor/ RDN Systems Developer
• Neil Thomson, Head of Systems & Central Services, Natural History Museum
• Gordon Dunsire, Research and Projects Manager for Napier University Learning Information Services and Dennis Nicholson, Director, Centre for Digital Library Research, Strathclyde University
• Rachel Bruce, Infrastructure Programme Manager, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
• Liz Lyon, Director, UKOLN, University of Bath

In addition to the formal presentations in the auditorium there will be an opportunity to see demonstrations of a variety of Collection Description services in the adjoining meeting rooms including:

• The new NOF Portal,
• The Natural History Museum's CLD project
• Science Museum
• JISC/IE ITAM project
• Cecilia - An online guide to music collections in archives, libraries and museums in the UK and Ireland
• Crossroads - A database of collections relating to the pottery industry of North Staffordshire.
• REVEAL - The National Database of Resources in Accessible Formats
• AIM25 - Collection-level descriptions of the archives of over fifty higher education institutions and learned societies within the greater London area.
• Archives Hub