Behind the Scenes at EDINA

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Promoting EDINA Services Locally

by Margarete Tubby, Moira Massey, and Andrew Bevan

Planning the promotion of the Digimap national service has reinforced what we here at EDINA have always known: that the promotion of services at the local level is very important, and more complicated than it might seem at first glance. Thank goodness for the extremely capable people in higher education institutions who act for EDINA!

Local promotion can be viewed as a two-stage process. First, when a new resource becomes available to the higher education community, we promote it to decision-makers so that they can assess its potential value. Then, with the launch of a resource, we promote it to the local user community so that they can be aware of it and put it to good use. Both stages are necessary if the resource is to be of real value (financially and otherwise) to the subscribing institution.

As service providers we work closely with our site representatives. Importantly, we also work with others in the electronic library, notably the Computing and Teaching Initiatives (CTIs), the Subject Gateways and Netskills. These organisations add subject-specific expertise and knowledge of teaching and learning issues to our support activities. Collaboration with other organisations is proving successful at a national level, so can there be a parallel approach at the local level?

With their first-hand knowledge of users' information needs, libraries and computing services obviously play an important role. Both services have a long history of inter-working, and subject liaison staff usually provide the vital link to faculties and departments. However, their role is becoming increasingly complex as the range, type and use of electronic resources is growing, and some services that have traditionally been responsible for certain areas of information are disappearing.

On the positive side, information issues are increasingly "owned" by the whole institution. Information strategy departments, or people charged with producing an information strategy for their institution, are interested in the coordination of research, teaching and learning resources.

In addition, Learning Technology services may be interested in making arrangements with the library and the computing service to give workshops or demonstrations to lecturing staff using electronic resources.

At different levels, these services support and co-ordinate the use of information and technology across the institution, complementing the activities of the traditional support services - the library and the computing services. They are charged with raising awareness of information issues in the departments. We are investigating how they could help us and our local site representatives in promoting EDINA Digimap to the decision-makers and users in the faculties and departments. Of course, we should also investigate whether the same principles could apply to more 'traditional' bibliographic services, especially as we are already thinking about the next academic year.

To support the launch of the EDINA Digimap service, we are planning a special pre-service training and awareness programme. We also plan a series of subject based summer workshops for our bibliographic services. And, as usual, we will be making the flyers and posters for all our services available free of charge. We will also build on our links with other organisations in the electronic library - this includes making special efforts to make links with the successors to the SBIGs and CTIs.

No doubt our site representatives are making their own preparations. Working with their local Information Strategy or Learning Technology services may well be part of it. If we can help by getting in touch with the relevant people then please let us know whom to contact. Of course, if there is any other way in which we can help you with your promotional and support plans we would like to hear about your ideas.

AGDEX

by Morag Macgregor and John Murison

AGDEX is an information service aimed towards practical agriculturalists, horticulturists, and others involved in rural management. The AGDEX service is based on a database of references and abstracts compiled (since 1971) by the Scottish Agricultural College (SAC), Edinburgh, from the practical and business literature of agriculture and related subjects.

Sources covered include the farming press, trade and business literature, advisory publications, research and development literature, and semi-scientific journals. References are also collected from less widely distributed publications, such as Farm Management Survey Reports, reports from the Meat and Livestock Commission and the Milk Marketing Board, and conference reports.

EDINA has reached agreement with the SAC to provide a web-based AGDEX service to the UK academic community and beyond. A user interface has been developed and is now ready for field trials. Please contact EDINA if you are interested in this service, or if you are willing to take part in the AGDEX field trials, which will start during June and last for about a month.

Many of the journals contained in AGDEX come out weekly, and the information contained in them is very up-to-date and topical. Among other things, results of trials are published here, and new products are highlighted. These sources do not produce any indexes, making searching for material in back issues difficult and time-consuming.

AGDEX provides a simple solution to this problem. Articles are assigned broad subject headings (e.g. dairy-cattle; human-health; weed-control), known as Broad Keywords. A search performed on such a Broad Keyword will find all the articles on that subject. Other searchable fields include Source, Authors, Narrow Keywords, Product, Title, and Abstract, providing the AGDEX user with the capability to define a very precise search and easily discover articles of relevance.

We envisage that the majority of users will come from the UK Higher Education community, in particular those sectors with an interest in agriculture and the impact of agriculture (e.g. conservation and environmental studies). We hope also to attract users from outside higher education, including producers and distributors of agricultural products, advisory services, charitable bodies, and marketing agencies.

Details of licensing are currently being agreed, and it is hoped that a full AGDEX service will be available by the start of the next academic year.

And your specialist subject is . . .

by Betsy Anagnostelis

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) collection development policy for the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER) is distinctly subject-orientated. This is beginning to be reflected in the way in which the JISC data centres present available resources; for example, EDINA presents a faculty approach. Subject-based Resource Guides are also beginning to appear.

The JIBS User Group Committee recognises the importance of this subject orientation, and is seeking to recast its activities accordingly.

The JIBS User Group

The JIBS User Group pursues a number of aims, principally

• to stimulate and maintain interest in JISC-supported online bibliographical and related services;
• to provide a forum for users of these services;
• to influence the development of these services;
• to bring matters of concern to the attention of the data suppliers and the data service providers.

Over the past year, recommendations received from users and service providers have prompted the JIBS User Group Committee to expand its remit. It is now considering how best to organise this expansion.

At its February 1999 meeting, the Committee discussed the introduction of subject groups for its own activities, aiming to mirror the subject breakdown of content outlined in the appendix of the DNER Collections Policy document. This should enable us to relate more closely with and contribute to the Content Working Group (CWG) of the JISC Committee on Electronic Information (CEI) and Eduserv Chest, as well as to disseminate information back out into the community.

Already, the JIBS User Group Committee is seeking to explore how best to liaise with the range of JISC data centres. The need for closer links with EDINA, MIDAS, and BIDS was clearly identified at the User Group AGM of December 1998. Manchester Computing Centre are soon to host a visit by the JIBS User Group Committee to take some of these ideas forward.

Meanwhile, four subject groups have been identified, based on the subject alignments outlined by the DNER Collections Policy document. Future activities of the User Group are likely to centre around the subject groups, and those interested in supporting this new approach are invited to get in touch and help coordinate activities in future. The lead contacts are as follows:

• Physical Sciences and Technology - Marion Tattersall (M.Tattersall@sheffield.ac.uk)
• Humanities - Malcolm Taggart (lia08@cc.keele.ac.uk)
• Social Sciences - Margaret Robb (margaret.robb@social-studies.oxford.ac.uk)
• Biomedicine - Lorraine Freeman for biological and life sciences (Lorraine.Freeman@umist.ac.uk); Betsy Anagnostelis for health studies (ucylbet@ucl.ac.uk)

What's Next?

• On June 10th, Marion Tattersall will be discussing the new approach with the University Science and Technology Librarians Group (USTLG) in London;
• On July 1st, the JIBS User Group Committee will be launching the new subject-orientated approach more widely, with a sequence of sessions to be held as part of UmbrelLA 5 in Manchester. Service providers from among the JISC data centres and related data services will present details of subject content across the board, irrespective of format. We hope that the JISC Collections Manager will also be available to discuss content development issues with those attending.

By dividing some of its work up along subject lines, the JIBS User Group hopes to work more effectively. Although it started out as the BIDS User Group, with special interest in the ISI database, it now covers a considerably wider resource base. Representing the views of users of these resources is all the more important at a time of change - when the transition of Web of Science to MIDAS is imminent and with the recent move of Compendex to EDINA.

For more information about the JIBS User Group, how to get involved, and news about forthcoming meetings, see the JIBS User Group Web pages and join the lis-jibs-users list at JISCmail.

Staff News

With the demands of the new Digimap service, EDINA has had to take on a number of new staff. Because some of the current staff will be taking up new Digimap positions, new staff will be brought into some existing posts.

So it's musical chairs here at the EDINA offices, with extra desks being squeezed in, and other desks being swapped around to keep teams roughly in proximity to each other.

The following is a reflection of the confirmed changes at the time of writing:

New staff

Gordon Anderson - Software Engineer
Hugh Buchanan - Senior Geodata Support Officer
Gavin Inglis - Software Engineer
Tim Stickland - Software Engineer
Emma Sutton - Geodata Support Officer

Existing staff in new positions

Andy Corbett - Senior Software Engineer
Morag Macgregor - Service Support Officer
Tim Urwin - GIS Development Officer

Off to pastures new

Ciaran Wills - returning to postgraduate studies

Forthcoming Events

Library + Information Show. Birmingham NEC, 8-10 June 1999. EDINA at Stand 539.

UKOLUG meeting. University of Edinburgh, 23 June 1999. Main Library, Wolfson Suite. 'Engineering Resources: Providers and Consumers'.

EDINA Engineering Workshops:
Strathclyde University, Monday, 28 June 9:45am-12:45pm
Imperial College London, Tuesday, 29 June 9:45am-12:45pm
Nottingham Trent University, Wednesday, 30 June 9:45am-12:45pm

ARCLIB'99. Glasgow School of Art, 21-23 July 1999. Demonstration of Art Abstracts and Periodicals Contents Index.

About EDINA

EDINA, based at Edinburgh University Data Library, is a JISC-funded national datacentre. It offers the UK higher education and research community networked access to a library of data, information and research resources. All EDINA services are available free of charge to members of UK higher education institutions for academic use, although university subscription and end-user registration is required for some services.

EDINA services are:

• Art Abstracts
• BIOSIS
• CAB Abstracts
• Ei Compendex®
• ESPMD
• Inspec
• Palmer's Index to The Times
• PCI
• SALSER
• Strategi®
• UKBORDERS™

EDINA subscription and registration

Some EDINA services require the completion of a licence agreement before those services can be made available to users. Free 30-day trials are available for most of these services.

For most services, licence agreements must be obtained from Eduserv Chest (email chest@chest.ac.uk) and a subscription fee must be paid. Individual users must register locally at their library. If in doubt, check with the EDINA website.

For UKBORDERS™, there is no fee for academic institutions within the UK, but a licence agreement must be signed (email edina@ed.ac.uk) and individual users must sign an End User Licence.

For Strategi, each institution is required to hold a current and valid Ordnance Survey® Educational Copyright Licence in addition to a subscription to EDINA. Contact EDINA in the first instance (email edina@ed.ac.uk).

SALSER is a completely free service, with no subscription fee. No licence or prior registration is required.

EDINA contacts
Helen Kerr, Claudia Gröpl and Stuart Macdonald (Helpdesk)
Margarete Tubby (User Support Manager)
Alison Bayley (Manager, EDINA National Services)
Peter Burnhill (Director of EDINA)
Tel: 0131 650 3302
Fax: 0131 650 3308
Email: edina@ed.ac.uk
URL: http://edina.ac.uk

Reference cards

Reference cards for most EDINA services are available for purchase at £12/100. They are also available free from the EDINA Web pages in PDF and PostScript formats.