- Project web site
- http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/
- Programme area
- Training and Awareness
Project description
as of June 3rd 1997
Introduction
Information Services at the University of Abertay Dundee and the UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN) have been funded to publish a bi-monthly magazine in parallel hard copy and electronic format for use over the World Wide Web. The magazine is aimed at information service managers and discipline-based information support staff in HE, and has two general aims. It describes and evaluates sources and services available on the Internet of potential use to library and information service (LIS) professionals. It also reports to the information community at large on progress and developments within the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), keeping the busy practitioner abreast of current developments.
Specific Aims
The specific aims of the ARIADNE project are:
- To provide an authoritative Internet publication for UK HE LIS professionals.
- To provide accurate timely reports about Electronic Libraries Programme and other JISC-funded information projects.
- To develop experience in electronic publication which may be capable of being shared with the library and information community.
- To provide a 'debating space' for issues of fundamental importance to the future of the academic library profession arising from the development of networked information services.
Description
We believe that many LIS professionals in HE find it difficult to keep abreast of multiplying Internet resources and technological and service developments. ARIADNE provides a well-produced, comprehensible digest of Internet information resources and technological developments, together with informed opinion from key professionals on the implications of the changes occurring in the profession through the development of the electronic library.
An increasingly valuable core of information services is funded by JISC, and we believe that, by providing a regular critical digest of service developments and enhancements, ARIADNE provides both a valuable information resource for LIS professionals, and helps to further the development of a shared identity for JISC's information services.
It is important that all LIS staff understand how these changes are likely to influence their working environments. The fluidity of the Internet as a communications and publishing medium has created an urgent need among this professional group for an authoritative publication. We intend that ARIADNE should meet that need. By providing a mix of news, comment and reports, as well as considered, well-researched analyses, ARIADNE is ideally positioned to take on the role of an authority and opinion former. ARIADNE: the Web version extends and complements the print version, and also serves as an experiment for a new mode of publishing. A 'common set' of articles appears in both forms of the publication. Often, the versions which appear on the Web are lengthier, since the editors are not bound by the space constraints of the print version. Cited references can be linked directly to the publications they list, and images for which the printed magazine has no space can be included in the Web version. Correspondence and feedback can be linked to the appropriate articles. In addition, a considerable body of material appears in the Web version only.
The first issue of the print and Web magazine appeared in January 1996. Issues appear regularly every two months, with occasional updates to the Web version.
Contact details
- Mr John MacColl, Project Manager/Co-Director,
Information Services, University of Abertay, Dundee, Bell Street, Dundee, DD1 1HG
Phone: 01382 308861 Fax: 01382 308880
Email: j.a.maccoll@tay.ac.ukLyndon Pugh, Managing Editor
Email: lyndon@pewter.u-net.comPhilip Hunter, Web Co-editor
UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY
Phone: 01225 826 354 Fax: 01225 826 354
Email: p.j.hunter@ukoln.ac.ukBernadette Daly, Web Co-editor
UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY
Phone: 01225 323 343 Fax: 01225 323 343
Email: b.m.daly@ukoln.ac.uk