DESIRE II: Project Deliverable

Project Number:

RE 4004 (RE)

Project Title:

DESIRE II - Development of a European Service for Information on Research and Education II

Deliverable Type:

(PU/LI/RP)

Deliverable Number:

D5.1

Contractual Date of Delivery:

Month 15 – September 1999

Actual Date of Delivery:

30 September 1999

Title of Deliverable:

Training and Dissemination Activities: Building National and Large-scale Internet Information Gateways Workshop

Workpackage(s) contributing to the Deliverable:

WP5

Nature of the Deliverable:

RE

Author:

Martin Belcher

Contact Details:

Institute for Learning and Research Technology
University of Bristol
8-10 Berkeley Square
BRISTOL
BS8 1HH
Tel: +44 (0)117 928 7192
Fax: +44 (0)117 928 7112
Email: martin.belcher@bristol.ac.uk

Other Authors:

NA

URL

http://www.desire.org/html/research/deliverables/D5.1/

Abstract

This document reports on the "Building national and large-scale Internet Information Gateways workshop" held at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, The Netherlands. An electronic copy of all materials is available from http://www.desire.org/html/research/deliverables/D5.1/ and a full set of workshop materials, peer review analysis by participants and questionnaire form is available from the DESIRE Project Manager on demand.

Keywords

Information gateway
Internet resource discovery
quality controlled
Metadata
Web standards
Internet cataloguing
National Libraries
strategic managers
collaboration
international perspective

Distribution List:

Commission
Project Partners
Web site

Issue:

V1.0

Reference:

http://www.desire.org/html/subjectgateways/workshop/

Total Number of Pages:

Web document, prints to approximately 115 A4 sides.

 

Table of Contents

Table for contents taken from http://www.desire.org/html/subjectgateways/handbook/contents.html

Part II

General information

The workshop was aimed at strategic managers from the National libraries of Europe, interested in learning more about developing large-scale subject-based Internet information gateways.

The workshop aims to encourage collaboration between the National Libraries of Europe in building national and large-scale Internet Information gateways.

The workshop will focus on strategic issues and will cover the following:

  1. The role of National Libraries in Internet resource discovery

  2. The international perspective: current practice in different countries and the potential for collaboration

  3. The investments and resources required to build and operate a large-scale Internet information gateway

  4. The practical steps required to build and maintain a gateway

Speakers were drawn from a number of National initiatives in this area and were selected to give a range of information and ideas on activities within this area. The workshop offered an excellent opportunity for librarians to learn about the initiatives of colleagues in other libraries.

Executive Summary

The workshop focused on some of the key areas in the setting up and running or large-scale information gateways.

Presentation sessions included:

What is an information gateway? Definitions and a guided tour of an example (SOSIG/DutchESS)

Why set up large-scale and national gateways? The benefits for you and your users (including academic and financial benefits)

Information gateways in perspective

Information Gateways and the international perspective. The Reynard project proposal (a view on European collaboration), cross searching and collaborative working

Sustaining resource description. A look at varying approaches to organising and sustaining network resource description (with special reference to the UK Resource Discovery Network and some national library issues)

Setting up a gateway - practical issues. A brief description of the process and time scales for setting up a gateway and tools available

Scope Statement

The Building national and large-scale Internet Information Gateways workshop provides materials to support development and exploitation of technologies resulted from DESIRE II developments in Internet resource discovery, quality criteria and information gateways. All these materials were developed and tested in real training for information specialists and national librarians throughout Europe. The training program and workshop materials created a bridge between the latest developments within DESIRE II and information specialists and end-users in the research, academic and library community within Europe.

Workshop Program and Materials

Workshop Program and materials are available at:

http://www.desire.org/html/subjectgateways/workshop/

Main topics covered by the workshop program were:

Key speakers were:

Eric Miller, OCLC, United States

Toini Alhainen, Finnish Virtual Library Project, Finland

Lorcan Dempsey (Resource Discovery Network Centre, UK)

Titia van der Werf, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Netherlands

Nicky Ferguson, Institute for Learning and Research Technology, UK

Marianne Peereboom, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Netherlands

Rachel Heery, UKOLN, UK

Emma Place, Institute for Learning and Research Technology, UK

Traugott Koch, NetLab, Lund University Library Sweden

Debra Hiom, SOSIG, UK

Participants

Total number of workshop participants was 27 people from 20 European countries including several representatives from Central European countries. Each country was represented by either their national library or one of the leading national university libraries.

A full list of participants is available online at:

http://www.desire.org/html/subjectgateways/workshops/work1.html

Peer Review Evaluation

Peer review was conducted in the form of feedback and evaluation forms distributed during the workshop. 17 of the 27 participants completed and returned these forms. Generally the feedback was very positive with most respondents giving a very positive rating of the workshop overall. A full set of feedback and evaluation data is available in the separate peer review report.