Clumping towards a UK National catalogue?

This article presents a clumps-oriented perspective on the idea of a UK national catalogue for HE, arguing that a distributed approach based on Z39.50 has a number of attractive features when compared with the alternative physical union catalogue model, but also noting that the many difficulties currently associated with the distributed approach must be resolved before it can itself be regarded as a practical proposition. It is suggested that the distributed model is sufficiently attractive compared to the physical union model to make the expenditure of additional time, effort and resource worthwhile. 'Dynamic clumping' based on collection level description and other appropriate metadata is seen as the key to user navigation in a distributed national catalogue. Large physical union catalogues like COPAC are assumed to have a role, although updating difficulties and the lack of circulation information may limit its scope

Developing the Scottish cooperative infrastructure: the what, who, where, when and why of SPEIR

Brief article describing SPEIR (pronounced "speer"): "Scottish Portals for Education, Information and Research". SPEIR is intended to develop an environment to underpin Scottish portals, creating the basis for: "a coherent virtual learning, information and research landscape for all Scottish citizens, collaboratively built and maintained via an agreed country-wide, standards-based, globally interoperable, co-operative infrastructure"

Interoperable subject retrieval in a distributed multi-scheme environment : new developments in the HILT project

The HILT (HIgh-Level Thesaurus) project (http://hilt.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/), based primarily at the Centre for Digital Library Research (CDLR) (http://cdlr.strath.ac.uk/) at Strathclyde University in Glasgow is entering its fourth stage following the completion of Phases I (http://hilt.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/index1.html) and II (http://hilt.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/index2.html) and the Machine to Machine (M2M) Feasibility Study (http://hilt.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/hiltm2mfs/). HILT is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the United Kingdom (UK) to examine an issue of global significance - facilitating interoperability of subject descriptions in a distributed, cross-service retrieval environment where different services use different subject and classification schemes to describe content, making cross-searching by subject difficult. HILT Phase I determined that there was a community consensus in the UK in favour of using inter-scheme mapping to achieve interoperability between services using different schemes, an approach followed by several recent projects (Heery et al, 2001; Koch et al, 2001; MACS, 2005; Saeed and Chaudhury 2002). HILT Phase II chose a spine-based approach to mapping and chose the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) as the central scheme to which all other schemes would be mapped. It also built an illustrative pilot mapping service, based on an adaptation of the Wordmap (http://www.wordmap.com/) terminology-handling software and made a range of recommendations on issues requiring further research and ongoing development requirements

Subject searching requirements : the HILT II experience

The HILT Phase II project aimed to develop a pilot terminologies server with a view to improving cross-sectoral information retrieval. In order to inform this process, it was first necessary to examine how a representative group of users approached a range of information-related tasks. This paper focuses on exploratory interviews conducted to investigate the proposed ideal and actual strategies of a group of 30 users in relation to eight separate information tasks. In addition, users were asked to give examples of search terms they may employ and to describe how they would formulate search queries in each scenario. The interview process undertaken and the results compiled are outlined, and associated implications for the development of a pilot terminologies server are discussed

User evaluation of a pilot terminologies server for a distributed multi-scheme environment

The present paper reports on a user-centred evaluation of a pilot terminology service developed as part of the High Level Thesaurus (HILT) project at the Centre for Digital Library Research (CDLR) in the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. The pilot terminology service was developed as an experimental platform to investigate issues relating to mapping between various subject schemes, namely Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), the Unesco thesaurus, and the MeSH thesaurus, in order to cater for cross-browsing and cross-searching across distributed digital collections and services. The aim of the evaluation reported here was to investigate users' thought processes, perceptions, and attitudes towards the pilot terminology service and to identify user requirements for developing a full-blown pilot terminology service

The B-ring's surface mass density from hidden density waves: Less than meets the eye?

Saturn's B ring is the most opaque ring in our solar system, but many of its fundamental parameters, including its total mass, are not well constrained. Spiral density waves generated by mean-motion resonances with Saturn's moons provide some of the best constraints on the rings' mass density, but detecting and quantifying such waves in the B ring has been challenging because of this ring's high opacity and abundant fine-scale structure. Using a wavelet-based analyses of 17 occultations of the star gamma Crucis observed by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard the Cassini spacecraft, we are able to examine five density waves in the B ring. Two of these waves are generated by the Janus 2:1 and Mimas 5:2 Inner Lindblad Resonances at 96,427 km and 101,311 km from Saturn's center, respectively. Both of these waves can be detected in individual occultation profiles, but the multi-profile wavelet analysis reveals unexpected variations in the pattern speed of the Janus 2:1 wave that might arise from the periodic changes in Janus' orbit. The other three wave signatures are associated with the Janus 3:2, Enceladus 3:1 and Pandora 3:2 Inner Lindblad Resonances at 115,959 km, 115,207 km and 108,546 km. These waves are not visible in individual profiles, but structures with the correct pattern speeds can be detected in appropriately phase-corrected average wavelets. Estimates of the ring's surface mass density derived from these five waves fall between 40 and 140 g/cm^2, even though the ring's optical depth in these regions ranges from 1.5 to almost 5. This suggests that the total mass of the B ring is most likely between one-third and two-thirds the mass of Saturn's moon Mimas.Comment: 40 Pages, 21 Figures, Accepted for publication in Icarus, a few typos fixe

GDL: a model infrastructure for a regional digital library

This brief article describes the early days of the Glasgow Digital Library (GDL), when it was a cross-sectoral and city-wide collaborative initiative involving Strathclyde, Glasgow and Caledonian Universities, as well as Glasgow City Libraries and Archives and the Glasgow Colleges Group

Terminology server for improved resource discovery: analysis of model and functions

This paper considers the potential to improve distributed information retrieval via a terminologies server. The restriction upon effective resource discovery caused by the use of disparate terminologies across services and collections is outlined, before considering a DDC spine based approach involving inter-scheme mapping as a possible solution. The developing HILT model is discussed alongside other existing models and alternative approaches to solving the terminologies problem. Results from the current HILT pilot are presented to illustrate functionality and suggestions are made for further research and development