Search results

The UK Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) was a major research and development programme funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK higher education funding councils. One part of its work was concerned with document delivery, and several projects had this topic either as an explicit focus or as a necessary component. Reviews these projects, assessing the contribution of each one to UK document delivery services in academic libraries.

Internet subject gateways were set up under the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) in order to address some of the problems of searching the Internet which have been identified by information professionals, i.e. locating relevant, good quality information. This preliminary study examines the extent to which academics in two universities use three eLib subject gateways (EEVL, OMNI and SOSIG). The results are generally encouraging for the eLib programme, but it is necessary for the gateways to be more effectively promoted. The study also found that academice do not have the same misgivings about the general search engines as the information professionals and seem to use them more readily than the gateways.

The eLib ‘clump’ projects are utilising the Z39.50 bibliographic retrieval protocol to build gateways to library OPACs in the UK, creating virtual union catalogues of university, national and public libraries. In order to facilitate large scale resource discovery, some of the projects are creating databases containing metadata for their libraries' collections. The creation and development of a standard scheme for cataloguing collections, as opposed to cataloguing individual items, is described here.

Following the initial success of the eLib Programme for Higher Education libraries in the UK, the most recent phase of funding has been directed at hybrid library and clump projects. A clump is an aggregation of catalogues which may be physical ‐ a traditional union catalogue ‐ or virtual, being created at the time of searching. The most common protocol in use in clumps is Z39.50 which offers opportunities for creating gateways to a range of catalogues, thus allowing simultaneous parallel searching. Four clump projects have been approved by eLib and started work in January 1998: CAIRNS ‐ Co‐operative Academic Information Retrieval Network for Scotland; M25 Link: Access to London Libraries; Music Libraries Online (a geographically split subject clump); RIDING: Z39.50 Gateway to Yorkshire Libraries.

Digital library research has attracted much attention in the most developed, and in a number of developing, countries. While many digital library research projects are funded by government agencies and national and international bodies, some are run by specific academic and research institutions and libraries, either individually or collaboratively. While some digital library projects, such as the ELINOR project in the UK, the first two phases of the eLib (Electronic Libraries) Programme in the UK, and the first phase of DLI (Digital Library Initiative) in the US, are now over, a number of other projects are currently under way in different parts of the world. Beginning with the definitions and characteristics of digital libraries, as proposed by various researchers, this paper provides brief accounts of some major digital library projects that are currently in progress, or are just completed, in different parts of the world. There follows a review of digital library research under sixteen major headings. Literature for this review has been identified through a search on LISA CD‐ROM database, and a Dialog search on library and information science databases, and the resulting output has been supplemented by a scan of the various issues of D‐Lib Magazine and Ariadne, and the websites of various organisations and institutions engaged in digital library research. The review indicates that we have learned a lot through digital library research within a short span of time. However, a number of issues are yet to be resolved. The paper ends with an indication of the research issues that need to be addressed and resolved in the near future in order to bring the digital library from the researcher‘s laboratory to the real life environment.

This paper is about copyright and digitisation as distinct from copyright in electronic publications. It focuses on Higher Education (HE) in the UK. It discusses the development of digitised collections and the role of the trusted repository specifically with reference to the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) electronic reserve (ER) projects and Higher Education ON demand (HERON), the current eLib national ER project. Licensing developments such as the establishment of the Copyright Licensing Agency's Digitisation Licensing Programme DLP, are also discussed.

The development of the ResIDe Electronic Library at the University of the West of England, Bristol, is traced from its origins as an eLib funded research project. Different aspects of the system are analysed through their potential to increase economy, efficiency and effectiveness in library services. This analysis is related to the utility that it can provide to differing sponsors and the likelihood of their making supporting resources available. While economy and efficiency are relatively easy concepts to define and use, effectiveness can be both contested and multifaceted, varying in accordance with both subjective preference and interests represented. Competing views of effectiveness needed to be balanced whilst emphasising those aspects of the system that would appeal to senior UWE management in a time of the rising “audit society” in higher education.

To provide an in-depth survey and review of innovation in library and information services (LIS) and to identify future trends in innovative research and its practical application in the field.

An in-depth review and summation of relevant literature over the last twenty years, along with an analysis and summary of the other papers in the volume.

Innovation in library and information work varies between the evolutionary and the discontinuous. A taxonomy of innovatory approaches to development and provision in the sector is provided, along with a detailed listing of the key elements of successful and not-so-successful innovative practice.

The work is dependent on existing literature rather than direct empirical work. However, because it draws together all major aspects of the topic, it has the potential to be used as a springboard for further generic studies and also specific programmes of work.

The need for innovation in LIS will be ever more pressing. The present chapter provides a necessary and rigorous overview of the necessary elements required for success in this area. It will be useful as a reference tool for intending researchers in library and information provision in a wide range of environments.

Because the chapter brings together a substantial body of information on the topic of innovation, it provides a comprehensive study of major developments and likely future trends in the field.

Following an overview of on‐demand and electronic reserve (OD/ER) services, the article describes related developments in the UK through the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib), and advances in copyright clearance. The HERON project (Higher Education Resources ON‐demand) is continuing the momentum of the original projects in the OD/ER strand. It is developing a one‐stop shop for copyright clearance and digitisation, and creating a resource bank of electronic texts which will eventually be available to all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK to support teaching and learning.