Ariadne Issue 69 Now Available

Ariadne Issue 69 has been published recently with its usual mix of features both technical and more wide-ranging together with event reports and a raft of reviews on recent publications. This issue includes a technical feature from the Innovation Support Centre about the re-development of Ariadne Web Magazine and entitled Moving Ariadne: Migrating and Enriching Content with Drupal. We were also delighted to include an article from our colleagues here at the University of Bath Library concerning their work on Walk-in Access to e-Resources at the University of Bath in which they describe the solution they have devised to the increasing problem of providing special groups with acceptable access to electronic resources. Another contribution entitled Redeveloping the Loughborough Online Reading List System goes to prove, if proof were needed, that some systems do not go quickly out of style but instead re-invent themselves by popular demand.

Also welcome was the opportunity to read about the aims, demands and challenges of Launching a New Community-owned Content Service, that is, JISC eCollections, where we learn about the research and other considerations that guided the development of the new service. For anyone involved in supporting the progress of students in FHE, the findings of the JISC-funded Evaluation of Assessment Diaries and GradeMark at the University of Glamorgan will be of interest because of the manner in which technological support has come to the aid of students and their teachers in getting the better of commonplace problems that arise over assessment. Another feature article, Wikipedia: Reflections on Use and Acceptance in Academic Environments goes to impressive and detailed length to question whether attitudes to the value and reliability of Wikipedia may need to change. Approaching the subject from the standpoint of a geologist, the author also queries whether the current advice given to students also perhaps deserves revision in the light of practices now developed for writing contributions to Wikipedia. Meanwhile we have also received suggestions on some of the ways of Making the Most of a Conference in which project team members have set about their attendance at Open Repositories 2012 with a planned agenda on how to maximise the contacts, discussions and sessions of OR12 to the benefit of their project but also their fellow delegates. With its strategies divided into what might be described as transmit, receive and monitor, this article will be of particular value to practitioners keen to get the most value of conference attendance. A further contribution from the University of Pretoria takes forward its work on technological support for a post-graduate programme. In Enhancing Collaboration and Interaction in a Post-graduate Research Programme we learn of the pros and cons of applications that could be deployed to support the programme and why some work better than others for specific requirements. The key issue for the programme is improved communication and inclusiveness to ensure that all members of the programme whether full- or part-time do not feel as if they are working in isolation. At the same time this article examines the role of the information specialist on the programme and reflects upon the nature of research collaboration and the degree of value it represents to participants.

As usual the new issue also offers a variety of event reports and reviews of recent publications. Ariadne welcomes proposals for articles for forthcoming issues.