A distributed alerting service for open digital library software

Alerting for Digital Libraries (DL) is an important and useful feature for the library users. To date, two independent services and a few publisher-hosted proprietary services have been developed. Here, we address the problem of integrating alerting as functionality into open source software for distributed digital libraries. DL software is one application out of many that constitute so-called meta-software: software where its installation determines the properties of the actual running system (here: the Digital Library system). For this type of application, existing alerting solutions are insufficient; new ways have to be found for supporting a fragmented network of distributed digital library servers. We propose the design and usage of a distributed Directory Service. This paper also introduces our hybrid approach using two networks and a combination of different distributed routing strategies for event filtering

Open to Ideas: Information flows from Dairy Directions to Dairy Farmers

The ‘openness’ of farming systems that is the focus of this paper is ‘open to information’, in particular the way that new information from the farming systems research project, Dairy Directions, flows from research outputs to dairy farmers. Dairy Directions is a multidisciplinary research activity centred on a steering group of interested parties, mostly farmers, scientists and economists, but also drawing on extension agents, natural resource managers, water service providers, community service providers and public policy participants. The core general research question of Dairy Directions is ‘What options do farmers running different dairy farming systems have to achieve their goals in an uncertain future?’ The goals analysed by the project are predominantly economic and financial – maintaining or increasing profit and cash flow, growing wealth, managing risk, preparing for succession and balancing the dairy work-life balance. Their uncertain future encompasses variability in prices, as well as the natural environment and the policy setting.Farm Management,

Probabilistic learning for selective dissemination of information

New methods and new systems are needed to filter or to selectively distribute the increasing volume of electronic information being produced nowadays. An effective information filtering system is one that provides the exact information that fulfills user's interests with the minimum effort by the user to describe it. Such a system will have to be adaptive to the user changing interest. In this paper we describe and evaluate a learning model for information filtering which is an adaptation of the generalized probabilistic model of information retrieval. The model is based on the concept of 'uncertainty sampling', a technique that allows for relevance feedback both on relevant and nonrelevant documents. The proposed learning model is the core of a prototype information filtering system called ProFile

Repentir: Digital exploration beneath the surface of an oil painting

Repentir is a mobile application that employs marker-less tracking and augmented reality to enable gallery visitors to explore the under drawing and successive stages of pigment beneath an oil painting's surface. Repentir recognises the position and orientation of a specific painting within a photograph and precisely overlays images that were captured during that painting's creation. The viewer may then browse through the work's multiple states and closely examine its painted surface in one of two ways: sliding or rubbing. Our current prototype recognises realist painter Nathan Walsh's most recent work, "Transamerica". Repentir enables the viewer to explore intermediary stages in the painting's development and see what is usually lost within the materially additive painting process. The prototype offers an innovative approach to digital reproduction and provides users with unique insights into the painter's working method

Community-led Evaluation and Dissemination of Support Resources – Pilot. Report to JISC

This report to JISC summarises progress to date on the Community-led Evaluation and Dissemination of Support Resources pilot system developed by ALT during 2011/2012

Towards Social Information Seeking and Interaction on the Web

User generated content is one of the key concepts of the social web (a. k. a “Web 2.0”) and enables users to search and interact with information that has been created (e.g. blogs) or annotated by other users (e.g. in tagging systems). Consequently, information seeking and interaction have been extended by a social dimension. The interaction can be social in so far that user generated content is searched and retrieved or, in a more direct manner that social interactions are carried out before, during or after search by communicating through Web 2.0 features like (micro-)blog posts, comments, and ratings. This paper focuses on social interactions during the search process by combining a model introduced by Shneiderman (2002) which attempts to describe human motivation for collaboratively using computers with an explorative model for social search by Evans and Chi (2008)

Where is the evidence: realising the value of grey literature for public policy and practice

This paper discusses the ways in which the internet has profoundly changed how we produce, use and collect research and information for public policy and practice, particularly focusing on the benefits and challenges presented by grey literature. The authors argue that grey literature (i.e. material produced and published by organisations  without recourse to the commercial or scholarly publishing industry) is a key part of the evidence produced and used for public policy and practice. Through surveys of users, producing organisations and collecting services a detailed picture is provided of the role, importance and economic value of grey literature. However, finding and accessing policy information is a time-consuming task made harder by poor production and management of resources and a lack of large-scale collection services able to host and make available  relevant, high-quality resources quickly and efficiently. The paper makes recommendations for changes that would maximise the benefits of grey literature in the public interest and seeks feedback from readers to inform the final report of the research project. Public policy work increasingly relies on a wide range of resources — some are traditional scholarly publications, but the majority are ‘grey literature’. Reports, discussion papers, briefings, reviews and data sets produced by government, academic centres, NGOs, think tanks and companies are heavily used and highly valued in policy and practice work, forming a key part of the evidence base. The huge amount of information and research published online provides unprecedented access to knowledge, from a wide range of sources, enabling a much greater level of understanding and participation in public interest issues. It also brings a number of challenges: searching, sifting, evaluating and accessing information and research are time-consuming and often frustrating tasks occupying a large portion of the work hours of those engaged in policy work. Online publishing also creates a new paradigm for those whose task it is to support policy and practice work through effective resource provision and information management. As a result, digital curation of policy resources, particularly grey literature, is dispersed and fragmented, creating a digital black hole of resources that are lost from online access over time. The aim of the Grey Literature Strategies research project is to investigate grey literature’s role and importance in policy work and find ways to enhance its value. A key method used was online surveys of producers, users, and collectors of information and research for policy and practice, conducted during 2013