Public Library Networking Focus

About the Public Library Networking Focus

The Public Library Networking Focus was a national post (from 1996 to 2004) working in collaboration with MLA, the British Library and the higher and further education communities.

The aims of the Focus were to contribute to strategic, policy-making, awareness raising and development activities in the area of public library networking and lifelong learning.

The original post holder was Sarah Ormes who was followed by Penny Garrod. Following Penny's departure in August 2004 it was agreed with the funders that the post should be merged with UKOLN's Interoperability Focus team. This area of the Web site will no longer be developed, but will be kept for historical purposes. An archive version of this web page is available on the Internet Archive On 13 March 2013 http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/public/ had been crawled 160 times, going back to 1 December 1998.

Focus Activities

Networked Services Policy Taskgroup

• The NSPTG started in 1996 as a partnership between EARL (a public library networking consortium, now disbanded), the Library Association (LA) and UKOLN. During this period the NSPTG produced a series of Issue Papers on aspects of policy relating to networked service provision.
• The NSPTG was relaunched in November 2001 as an expert partnership forum comprising MLA, CILIP (the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) and UKOLN (EARL was closed down in September 2001).
• The role of the NSPTG is to promote best practice in the formation of networked services policy and inform the strategic development of networked services.
• The NSPTG is in process of commissioning further issue papers on a range of topics surrounding the implementation of the People's Network and will take account of feedback from the People's Network programme of events which took place between March and June 2002.

Reader development: Web-based projects for children

• Stories From the Web: Stories from the Web is a Reader Development Programme managed by Birmingham Library and Information Services. It was originally funded through a Library and Information Commission research grant. The site and the clubs aim to develop both traditional literacy skills and Internet -based skills in children, through reading and interacting with the web site. Note: There are now two web sites: one for readers aged 8-11 and one for readers aged 11-14.

• Treasure Island: a 1997 pilot project for Stories from the Web. The site won a number of 'site of the week' awards and remains popular with children from the UK, USA and Australia who regularly submit designs for pirates under the 'things to do' section. An archive version of the Treasure Island web site is available on the Internet Archive. On 13 March 2013 http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/public/ had been crawled 397 times, going back to 25 January 1998.

Ebooks 2003

The following projects have received funding to trial and evaluate several ebook models in public libraries.

"Electronic books in public libraries - a feasibility study"

• The Laser foundation has awarded Loughborough University and Co-East library consortium funding to deliver and evaluate various models for the delivery of ebooks in Essex libraries.
• The Project Advisory Board convened for the first time in May 2003 - the Focus is a member of the board and public libraries that are already involved in ebook services are also represented.
• Higher education is represented by The Joint Information Systems Committee(JISC) Working Group on ebooks.

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames ebooks service: The London Borough of Richmond launched an ebooks service in March 2003.

• Richmond received funding from The People's Network Excellence Fund to pilot ebooks and audio books in Borough libraries.

Dissemination

• Publications
• Presentations
• Events

Resources

• lis-pub-libs. An email discussion list for UK public library staff and thers who may be interested in what's going on.
• New Library: The People's Network. Report from 1997 plus associated documents hosted on behalf of the Library and Information Commission.
• New Library Briefing Pack. A downloadable training pack about the New Library report
• Virtually New: Creating the Digital Collection. A review of digitisation projects in local authorities, libraries and archives.
• Networked Services Policy Task Group Issue Papers
• NOF digitise Technical Advisory Service
• Public Library People (no longer available). This was a directory of contact information for UK public library staff.

Previous Project Work

• CIRCE: Resource organisation and discovery in subject-based services
• People Flows: Exploring why and when people use different types of libraries

Archive

An archive of the Public Library Networking Focus Web site is available on the Internet Archive. On 11 June 2013 this Web site had been crawled 149 times going back to 1 December 1998. The most recent archive was taken on 2 May 2013.

Note that this Web site is also available on the UK Web archive.