UKOLN Newsletter Issue No 3 January 1995 ISSN 0963-7354
This SPECIAL ISSUE of the UKOLN newsletter has been kindly sponsored
by:
SLS (Information Systems) Ltd
The new Director of UKOLN: the Office for Library and Information Networking is Lorcan Dempsey. Lorcan will be well known to readers of the Newsletter. He has worked at the University of Bath for 7 years, first with the Centre for Bibliographic Management and then with UKOLN. During that time he has researched, written and spoken widely on the use of networks by libraries and on bibliographic management, and is a well-known figure in the UK and abroad. He has consulted regularly for the libraries section of the Commission, is founder editor of the Journal of Information Networking, sits on several committees including the JISC Standards Working Group and DOT/7. He advises a number of organisations on standards, networking and library issues.
Howard Nicholson, University Librarian, continues as Project Head, providing the link between UKOLN and its funding bodies, the British Library R&D Department and the Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher Education Funding Councils. We are very pleased that Professor Mel Collier, Head of the Division of Learning Development at De Montfort University, has agreed to take over as Chair of the Management Committee in January 1995. The unit's expanding work programme will result in UKOLN recruiting new staff early in the new year. New management and advisory committees are in the process of being set up.
NETWORK SERVICES
UKOLN will present a brighter face on the network early in 1995 when we unveil our new web pages, which will give a range of information about UKOLN activities and staff. The URL for the UKOLN web server is:
UKOLN currently hosts BUBL, manages the UK Gopher national entry point, provides access to Hytelnet, and has begun to make various documents available to a wider audience on its server - a donation of Sun Microsystems Ltd. UKOLN's network services will grow as we provide support for dissemination of the reports and papers of the Follett Implementation Group on Information Technology and the IT projects funded as part of the Follett Initiative.
NETWORKING AND THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIES 2
Much of this issue is devoted to the next UKOLN conference, 19-21 April, 1995. The provisional programme is included overleaf. This is the latest in a series of very successful conferences to be held at Bath. It takes up the themes of Networking and the future of libraries 1, and the international emphasis of Bibliographic access in Europe. Speakers are confirmed from Europe, North America, Australia and Asia and we look forward to seeing very many of you here again. This conference has an additional special significance. While it signals the beginning of a new phase in the life of UKOLN, it also marks the retirement of Philip Bryant as its Director. The conference papers will be published as a festschrift for Philip, who has been associated with UKOLN and its antecedent organisations at Bath for many years. Philip continues to work at the University of Bath in a part-time capacity as Senior Research Fellow in Bibliographic Management. This post is funded by the British Library R&D Department.
Networks, libraries and information: progress on priorities
for the UK 1992-1994.
Library and Information Briefings
55/56, December 1994
A special Library and Information Briefing
edited by Philip Bryant and Ian Mowat
A strategic statement Networks, libraries and information: priorities for the UK was issued by UKOLN in January 1993. This identified ten key issues of importance to all sectors of the library and information community. This briefing records the progress made to Summer 1994 in the various areas identified in the strategic statement. It contains updates on such issues as copyright (Charles Oppenheim), awareness and understanding (Peter Brophy and Anne Irving), the role of national libraries (Anne Matheson), education and training (Tom Wilson), standards (Bill Tuck) as well contributions on policy and strategy issues from Philip Bryant and Ian Mowat.
(Available from LITC, fax +44 (0)71 815 6699. [sterling]10 UK, [sterling]15 overseas)
Accessing the Internet: a guide for the UK and Ireland
John Smith
Andover: International Thomson Publishing, 1994
(forthcoming)
ISBN 1-850-32147-7
This is a directory of companies in the UK and Ireland offering Internet connections. Entries give contact details, and outline the services provided by each company and their costs. It also contains an introductory guide to Internet technologies and services, advice about the type of access service required, and a useful glossary of terms. It will be the fullest guide to UK and Irish access providers currently available.
(Available from International Thomson Publishing Services Ltd. Fax +44 (0)264 364418. [sterling]8.95 plus p&p)
The UK, networking and the European Libraries Programme
Library and Information Briefing 57, January 1995
Lorcan
Dempsey
This briefing reviews UK involvement in what is popularly known as the European Libraries Programme. It also looks forward to the new Libraries Programme, approved by the Council of Ministers in September 1994, and which will be launched in March 1995, as part of the Fourth Framework Programme. It will be of use to anybody who wishes to learn more about the current state and future directions of the EU Libraries Programme.
(Available from LITC, fax +44 (0)71 815 6699. [sterling]6 UK, [sterling]9 overseas)
Network resource discovery: a European library perspective
In: Libraries, networks and Europe: a European networking study
London: The British Library R&D Department, 1994 (Library and
Information Research Reports, 101)
Lorcan Dempsey
ISBN 0 7123
3295 2, [sterling]25
This report reviews emerging Internet resource discovery systems on the Internet and suggests in what way sustainable services are developing. It also examines distributed library-based systems. It examines how various necessary integration strategies between Internet and library systems might develop.
(may be ordered from Turpin Distribution Services Ltd, fax +44 (0)1462 480947)
Quality of bibliographic records in a shared cataloguing
database: a case study using the BLCMP database.
Ann Chapman
BLR&D Report 6121, 1993
UKOLN's interest in performance measurement and BLCMP's wish to evaluate the quality of records in its own database led to this study. It aimed to find out what proportion of records used from the BLCMP Union Catalogue are edited by BLCMP member libraries, and to ascertain the reasons for such editing.
Use and understanding of the library catalogues in Cambridge
University Library: a survey
Philip Bryant
BLR&D
Report 6124, 1994
This report describes the results of a survey which aimed to discover whether the age of the item sought had any marked influence on the level of detail required by users in catalogue records in a large research library.
(The above two reports are available for purchase as fiche or photocopies or on loan from the British Library Document Supply Centre. For loans apply to User Services, BLDSC; for photocopies or fiche contact Mrs Liz Dambrauskas, British Thesis Service, BLDSC, Boston Spa, Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS23 7BQ.)
Chris Brown joined UKOLN in early Summer, 1994, as Network Systems Officer.
Hazel Gott is working part-time with UKOLN as Conference Administrator.
John Smith spent December 1994 in India, mixing holiday and business. He was invited by the National Centre for Software Technology of India, with the assistance of the British Council, to give several lectures. He also gave a presentation at the IASLIC Conference, Bombay, 19-22 December. This is John's second trip to India. He has an interest in the use of networked information services in developing countries and hopes to prepare a paper on this topic in the new year.
UKOLN is increasing its current staff through the recruitment of Research Officers in early 1995. Posts were advertised in January 1995.
Bath University Library is being refurbished and expanded. This means that after many years in our current offices, we will soon be on the move to more congenial accommodation!
This major conference explores the issues that libraries must face as they develop strategies for Managing the intellectual record in an electronic environment. It is organised around four main themes, and we are very pleased that Paul Evan Peters, of the Coalition for Networked Information, will present the keynote address. The provisional programme follows.
Chair: Maurice B Line, Information and Library Consultant
Chair: Tony Hall, Managing Director, BLCMP Library Services, Ltd.
Chair: Anton Bossers, Deputy Director, Pica, The Netherlands
Chair: Peter Rau, University Librarian, University and State Library, Bonn, Germany
The University of Bath will welcome delegates on the first evening of the conference at a sherry reception. This will be followed by a buffet supper, with music.
The conference dinner will take place in the famous Assembly Rooms, following a civic reception. The Assembly Rooms were described in the 1772 Bath Guide as `the most noble and elegant of any in the kingdom'. Guides will be on hand to show interested delegates around the Museum of Costume. This exhibits over four hundred years of fashion and is one of the world's finest collections. We are very pleased that David Whitaker has agreed to deliver the after dinner speech.
Terminals will be provided for those delegates who cannot survive without access to their e-mail! There will also be a display mounted by several UK national network information providers. We are grateful to Sun Microsystems Ltd for their support in making this possible.
Bath, world famous as the Roman town of Aquae Sulis and for its 18th Century Georgian crescents and parades, has been designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site. Its many visitors enjoy the river setting, the warm Bath stone buildings, the various museums, the Roman Baths, and its many parks. It is an ideal backdrop to the conference.
Bath is conveniently situated, with direct access by road and rail from London, and is about 45 minutes by road from Bristol Airport.
Situated on one of the hills surrounding Bath, the University is just over a mile from the city centre and the landscaped grounds of the campus are complemented by views of the open countryside.
Accommodation on campus is in single study bedrooms, available with or without en suite facilities; those without are provided with a washbasin. The rooms are carpeted and centrally heated and have two-pin shaver points. A desk unit and comfortable chair are part of the fittings and coffee and tea making facilities are available.
The university occupies a compact campus with a regular bus service to the city. There are bank cash machines, a bookshop, post office and small food shop on campus.
The residential fees include all accommodation and meals. The non-residential fee includes all meals except breakfast:
[sterling]370 residential with en suite facilities
[sterling]325
residential
[sterling]280 non-residential
The closing date for bookings is Friday 24 March 1995 and cancellations after this date will incur a cancellation fee of [[sterling]]50. However, a substitute delegate will be accepted.
Newsletter content by Ann Chapman. Web conversion by John Kirriemuir