In Newsline 7.1

Creating the Sound and Picture Studio

by Peter Burnhill, Director of EDINA

EDINA is delighted to have the challenge of delivering several important JISC collections of image and moving picture/ sound files by the start of the next academic session. You can read up-to-date news about these services on the EDINA web site.

Picture this

The image collections to be hosted by EDINA are: the British Geological Survey images (of geological features, of rocks, fossils and the BGS at work); the Derby Earth Sciences 3-D images (of fossils and rocks suitable for use in courseware), the Magee collection of 3000 photographs of Derry and North West Ireland (1860 - 1970) and the Gertrude Bell Archive of photographs taken by Bell (1868- 1921) during her extensive travels of the Middle East and the Arab world. All were digitised for the JISC-funded JIDI project, and complement those already available at the Visual Arts Data Service.

Moving Pictures and Sounds

The ten collections of moving pictures comprise some 500 digitised films and videos, representing about 300 hours of film/video. There are also stills and a variety of associated written work that has been scanned in, including directors' script. The topics covered are vast, ranging across nearly all disciplines and including several applied fields. Any brief description would be inadequate, so see http://www.filmandsound.ac.uk for the inventory. That said, we can report that there is extensive footage on what constitutes key primary source material on twentieth century history in the Educational Television Films Ltd collection, and in the 157 documentary films in the Films of Scotland collection which chart the changing face of Scotland from the 1930s to 1982. There will also be access to the archive of the Post Office's Film Unit (including documentaries by John Grierson). The collections from Healthcare Productions, the Wellcome Trust, St George's Hospital, Sheffield University and IWF Image Media offer much to those interested in bio-medical sciences.

The use of video and film sequences is not well developed in most areas of research and teaching, and JISC is keen to ensure reach into all relevant subject communities. We are therefore planning 'Phase Two: building the usage platform'. For this, EDINA will work with other JISC-sponsored services and the LTSNs, and we will expose the descriptive metadata on these materials to hubs, gateways and portals in the Resource Discovery Network to facilitate more general discovery and location of films.

Television and Radio

Already well in hand are preparations for the launch of a third, related service this coming academic session: that for TRILT - a JISC-funded project led by the British Universities Film & Video Council to provide a Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching.

EDINA has made TRILT into a comprehensive online listing of all national, regional and local TV and radio stations in the UK with data available up to 10 days before transmission, and stretching back in time. Records are enhanced with additional information including weblinks, bibliographies, keywords and images. Information and schedules come from Broadcasting Data Services, acting on behalf of the BBC and other broadcasters.

Strategic Development

These developments mark the third significant transformation of EDINA in its role as a national data centre. The first was in 1996 with the first of its present array of key bibliographic datasets. The second was Digimap in 2000, the key source of Ordnance Survey mapping that provides the framework for related geographical data services. To reflect the launch of these new multimedia services in 2002/3, EDINA will shortly be announcing a makeover of its web site, in order to enhance access to services on 'words, numbers, picture and sounds'. Integral to this launch will be the creation of a Sound and Picture Studio. If you have ideas on what you would like to see provided in that online studio, such as links to other online resources, or to software, do let us know, by contacting edina@ed.ac.uk.

GeoXwalk Gazetteer

JISC are to fund a joint EDINA/History Data Service project to develop a demonstrator place and feature gazetteer service for HE/FE.

GeoXwalk Gazetteer should provide researchers and teaching staff with access to an on-line gazetteer for reference and cataloguing purposes. The gazetteer service will also act as a middleware server for other information services which use geographic searching.

This gazetteer will be more than a list of place names and their geographic coordinates. It will also classify features into types, e.g. city, river, etc., and will store an appropriate spatial 'footprint' against each feature: settlements are represented as areas, rivers as lines and so on. It then becomes possible to 'crosswalk' across geographies enabling answers to the following types of queries to be returned:

• Where is Ormskirk and what major towns are within 50 miles of it?
• Through which counties does the river Severn flow?
• Which police force areas cover southwest England?

A wide variety of parties both inside and outside UK academia have expressed an interest in the project.

The Phase I documentation outlining the aims and objectives, as well as potential data sources and likely stakeholders, is available. The Phase II project to develop the working demonstrator commenced in April.

GoGeo Portal

Increasing amounts of geo-spatial data are being created within the HE community. At the same time, demand for access to these data is growing, as the tools become more commonly available.

Two major barriers confront the potential user of geo-spatial data resources: how to find out what data exist, and how to ascertain their quality and suitability for use.

To overcome these barriers, comprehensive, standardised metadata, available through a web-searchable database, is needed. To this end, this project aims to deliver the GoGeo Portal as a functioning proof of concept. The resulting service will illustrate cross-searching of the following:

• a database local to the portal
• an existing geo-data directory service hosted by another JISC service provider
• an existing resource catalogue within the DNER containing geo-related resources
• the National Geographic Data Framework Gateway, which provides information about data sets held by central and local government and private organisations

Phase I of the project has already been completed and full documentation can be found on the EDINA web site.

UK MasterMap

• the changes users require to the Digimap service as a consequence of the MasterMap programme.
• the implications of the MasterMap programme on institutional use of the data and institutional support.

UKBORDERS

EDINA has been selected to be the Census Geography Unit for the ESRC's 2001-2006 Census Programme, to assist in and support the roll out of the 2001 Census to the UK academic community. As well as providing online access to the 2001 Census geographies, support in the provision of early census boundary data sets and other UK boundaries will be offered through the UKBORDERS service.

UKBORDERS provides a free data download facility to HE/FE for geographic boundary data in a variety of different geographic data formats, which can be used in a range of applications supporting teaching and research, e.g. basic census mapping to visualising health outcomes and geodemographic profiling.

Over the course of the next 12 months, the UKBORDERS interface will undergo a major redesign. Users should find locating, navigating and downloading data a lot easier.

Complementing this, the new Census Registration Service, which is now responsible for registration issues for all Census Units, will assume responsibility for UKBORDERS user registration. Procedures will be overhauled and simplified, providing easy online registration. For existing users a one-off re-registration will be necessary.

A full list of existing and new datasets available, along with details on how to register for this free service.

UPDATE to land-based literature

EDINA is pleased to announce the forthcoming launch of a new service: UPDATE is a bibliographic database of land-based literature whose focus is more practical than scholarly. It covers the popular trade press, in addition to indexing development reports and relevant articles from peer-reviewed journals.

Although new to EDINA, UPDATE has been available in some form for nearly 30 years. Ann Evans edits UPDATE at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. 'It was developed as a service for students at the Welsh College of Agriculture,' she said. 'We started it in 1972 as a card index and typed it up once a week. We first put it onto a computer in 1983 and produced computer print outs.'

UPDATE has been available on the web since 1997, and now includes content from 1990 to the present. It is used not only by students and academic staff at institutions throughout the UK, but also by government organisations, quangos, and environmental agencies.

UPDATE has become so successful that it now needs a dedicated host. EDINA offers robust infrastructure, improved functionality and speed. The EDINA service will be launched in advance of the 2002/03 academic year. For more information, see the current UPDATE pages at Aberystwyth.

FE Focus

Moira Massey, EDINA Learning and Teaching Projects Co-ordinator

Further Education (FE) continues to provide cause for excitement and challenge. The fun part is especially so for staff now settled in EDINA's office at St Helens College, Merseyside, and we would like to record sincere thanks to our new colleagues at St Helens for both support and interest in EDINA and the JISC services. St Helens College currently has access to Art Abstracts and Social Services Abstracts and will report on the use of these bibliographic services in the College to EDINA this Summer.

Opportunity was take in January 2002 to arrange a meeting at St Helens College to which colleagues from JISC, MIMAS and the NW RSC were invited, along with colleagues from St Helens College. Wide-ranging discussions were held about how best to develop our services for FE.

As reported in our last issue of Newsline, EDINA and MIMAS have responded to the challenge of making available the collection of National Learning Network (NLN) learning materials to the FE community. Final arrangements for transfer of the service to the Data Centres are now being made and the switch will be announced shortly. The materials will still be accessed via the NLN website.

In the Autumn 2001 edition of Newsline, we reported on the Digimap in FE Trial. This is progressing well, with an Interim Report issued to the JISC and Ordnance Survey (OS) in early March 2002. Teaching staff in Colleges are very interested in the potential of the Service: some are incorporating the use of Digimap into their classes, while others have commented on time constraints and the lack of a guarantee of service continuing after the current academic year. This pattern was anticipated as it reflects the experience of the original Digimap Trial in HE institutions.

At this stage in the Trial, the most popular OS product is Land-Line.Plus, with 48% of all use, followed by Strategi (at 39%) and then Meridian and Land-Form PANORAMA (which between them account for 18%). On-screen usage of maps is by far the most popular Digimap service in the trial Colleges, at 94% of all usage.

We have received approaches from a number of other Colleges to ask about access to Digimap. We understand that JISC and OS are discussing terms for extension of the Digimap service to FE. At this stage, it is not possible to say whether or not this extension will happen. However, the NW RSC arranged a workshop at St Helens College this April, aimed at Colleges in the NW of England not taking part in the trial. The purpose of the workshop, which proved very successful, was to demonstrate Digimap, and the associated online learning and teaching materials being developed under project e-Map Scholar, and obtain feedback from these colleagues, so that we can report as wide a representation of views in the FE community as possible.

If you would like further information about using EDINA services, check out the website (http://edina.ac.uk) or contact us at edina@ed.ac.uk.

BIOSIS and BIOME

Partly in recognition of the confidence shown, through re-subscriptions, in the continuing value of EDINA BIOSIS, we have improved the user interface further, increasing usability and widening the pool of resources covered.

Enhancements have been made to the search, display and output areas of the interface. Phrase searching in double quotes replaces the w and n operators indicating proximity. We have also modified the appearance of the authority file facility, added a new search field (gene name), and made some improvements to the output options (e.g. mark 'all on page' and a clearer save-to-disk option).

The major change, however, is that users can now cross-search BIOME for internet resources in health and life sciences. BIOME, based at Nottingham University, is part of the Resource Discovery Network (RDN). Cross-searching is done from within the EDINA BIOSIS interface, using experience gained with EDINA Compendex and EEVL. In effect, all searches of the BIOSIS database are simultaneously run against the BIOME database. Results, when they occur, are displayed as a separate set, with connections to the cited websites displayed in a second browser window.

Finally, we are releasing EndNote filter and connection files, and are working on others for ProCite and Reference Manager.

Staff News

Leah Halliday joined EDINA as Bibliographic and Multimedia Services Development Officer in January. Leah has worked in the information professions for the last 12 years in both the public and private sectors. She has an MPhil in Publishing from Stirling University and is currently completing a PhD in Information Science under the supervision of Charles Oppenheim at Loughborough University.

Sarah McConnell started in January as a project officer working on the NLN Learning Materials Delivery Project. Sarah has spent the last 16 months working at Heriot-Watt as a multimedia developer in the Learning Technology Centre. Prior to that she was involved in image analysis and visualisation work in medical imaging based at the Psychiatry Department. She has a first degree in Maths and an MSc in Image Processing and Remote Sensing.

Eddie Boyle started on May 1st as a software engineer on the Geo-spatial Portal project. He has previously worked on web development for the Finance Department of Edinburgh University and worked for two years on the technical development of the SESDL project (a web-based library), also at Edinburgh University. He has worked as a programmer in the IT Industry and as part of the network management team at Heriot-Watt University.

Philip Abrahamson will be working on the geo-spatial portal. Following an Electrical Engineering degree in 1995, Philip left his native New Zealand to form a London based Geographic/ Internet company, High Country Software. He plans to bring his experience gained visualising and searching geographic web and map data to EDINA's geo-spatial portal project.

Margarete Tubby-Hille. We were sorry to say goodbye to Margarete when she left Edinburgh for pastures new in January. Margarete joined us in 1990 as the RAPID Project Officer, and then was one of the initial EDINA project team in 1995. Subsequently she became User Support Manager and latterly the Bibliographic Content Development Officer. We wish her well in her new life, which includes a lot of hill-walking.

Athens Single Sign On

EDINA intend to introduce Athens single sign on for its web-based bibliographic services before the start of the next academic year, enabling users to log in once and use any service for which their institution has a subscription. The new moving picture sound and image database services will support single sign on at launch, as will UPDATE. Discussions are still taking place with Ordnance Survey about whether EDINA Digimap will support single sign on. Concerns over security and audit-trails may mean that, at this point in time, Digimap will not do so.

EDINA Services Accessible

EDINA web services rank high in accessibility, according to a recent audit by the Digital Media Access Group, at the University of Dundee.

The audit was carried out on behalf of the JISC, which seeks to ensure that all its associated data centres comply with recent legislation.

The services identified as having very good accessibility are BIOSIS, AGDEX, Art Abstracts, Art Index Retrospective, Index to The Times 1790-1980, Palmer's Index to The Times, Ei Compendex, SALSER, Statistical Accounts, and Digimap. These are all interfaces which have been designed in-house at EDINA.

Forthcoming Events

EDINA will be exhibiting at:

Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland, 1st Annual Conference 20-23 May 2002 at Peebles Hydro.

Library + Information Show 25-27 June 2002, Excel Arena, London, free tickets are available for this annual library resources exhibition and conference.

Full list of current training courses and other events.

About EDINA

EDINA, based at Edinburgh University Data Library, is a JISC-funded national datacentre. It offers the UK tertiary education and research community networked access to a library of data, information and research resources. All EDINA services are free of charge at the point of use. For information on institutional subscription fees, visit the EDINA web site, or contact us by email.

EDINA services are:

• AGDEX
• Art Abstracts
• Art Index Retrospective
• BIOSIS
• CAB Abstracts
• Digimap®
• EconLit
• Ei Compendex®
• ESPMD
• The Index to The Times, 1790-1980
• Inspec
• Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
• MLA International Bibliography
• PAIS International
• Palmer's Index to The Times
• SALSER
• Social Services Abstracts
• Sociological Abstracts
• The Statistical Accounts of Scotland
• UKBORDERS™
• Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory™

EDINA contacts
Helpdesk: Helen McVey, Paula Cuccurullo, Stuart Macdonald, and Barbara Morris,
Helen Chisholm (EDINA 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

EDINA subscription and registration

Most 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. Please see the EDINA web site for details of the requirements of individual services.

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.

SALSER and the Statistical Accounts for Scotland are completely free services, with no subscription fee. No licence or prior registration is required.

EDINA Newsline is published four times a year by the Edinburgh University Data Library. Suggestions and comments on Newsline may be sent to edina@ed.ac.uk. The next issue of Newsline will appear in Summer 2002. Editor: Paul Milne