USTLG Meeting
“Access to e-resources”
17th June 2004
Roddy MacLeod
EEVL Manager
Heriot Watt University Library
Movies
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Setting the scene
Development of plot
Main action
Finale
– Happy ending
– Sad ending
– Keep in suspense
Background to EEVL
Some recent developments
Subject Portal Demonstrator
New EEVL Portal: the movie
Background
• EEVL, the Internet guide to engineering,
mathematics and computing
• Available since 1996 at: www.eevl.ac.uk
• Part of the Resource Discovery Network
– network of subject based information services
• One of 8 ‘Hubs’ covering different subject
areas
• Free service
Catalogue
• Internet Resource Catalogue of over 10,000
quality resources – Best of the Web
– E-Books, Conference Papers, Patents, Standards,
Government Publications, Thesis/Dissertation,
Journals, Higher Education, Further Education,
Society/Institution, Company/Commercial,
Recruitment/Employment, Government, Publishers,
Product News, Product Information, Image/Video,
International agency, Project Web Site, Research
Centre, Learning Material, Mailing List, Event
Announcement, FAQ, Database, Reference, Resource
Guide, Contracts/Procurement, Legislation/Regulation,
Software, Library catalogues, Statistics.
Typical EEVL Record
Title: National Grid for Learning
URL: http://www.ngfl.gov.uk/
Description: This site provides links to educational resources on the
Internet. These include lesson plans, learning materials, advice, and
links to government and library sites. It is part of the Government's
National Grid for Learning strategy to help learners and educators in
the UK benefit from information and communications technology (ICT).
Resources: Government
Resource Guide/Directory
Computing Classification:
Computing Milieux->Computers And Education->Computers And
Education (General)
Computer Applications->Administrative Data Processing
more…
Why?
Help people (especially within UK HE/FE)
find good quality networked material.
“Search engines do not evaluate, quantify,
check, confirm or otherwise ensure that
we’re finding good-quality information.”
Phil Bradley, Online Conference 2003
Other Services
• Recent Advances in Manufacturing (RAM)
• Engineering E-journal Search Engine
– Updated version soon. Versions for
Mathematics and Computing, soon.
• Offshore Engineering Information Service
• Virtual Training Suite (VTS) Web Tutorials
• Specialist databases (LCD, Jet
Impingement)
Other Services
• USTLG Contact Database
• Free Printed Trade Publications to Qualified
Professionals – 120 subs per month.
• Book store
Monthly
offers big discounts
Recent Developments
• Current awareness section updated
– Internet/books/articles/conferences
• Four new Teaching & Learning resources
RSS feeds
• Booklets: Information sources in
Engineering/Computing/Mathematics
– New editions being planned
EEVL and VLEs & Portals
• EEVL Search box in other sites
• Z39.50 protocol to search EEVL catalogue from
within other portals
• Embedding the latest EEVL News and new
resource lists (plus teaching & learning) via RSS
• Including the Virtual Training Suite within VLEs
• Use EEVL to find suitable content for institutional
portals
• “EEVL, VLEs, Institutional and Library Portals”
Ariadne issue 39 www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue39/eevl/
OneSteps
• OneStep Jobs
– Aggregates job announcements
– New content added. More to come.
• OneStep Industry News
– Aggregates subject news items
– New content added. More to come.
• New OneStep posters available
Future Developments
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Add L&T resources to Catalogue (RDN/LTSN Project)
Add resources of interest to FE to Catalogue (RDNFE
Project)
Maths Events listings
Investigating Hot Topics
Considering new OneStep services
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L&T resource announcements
Research funding announcements
New book announcements
Professional society news
Journal Table of Contents aggregation by subject
Subject Portal Demonstrator
Subject Portal Demonstrator
• Search for the best web sites, books, details of
articles, full text e-documents, the latest industry
news, job announcements and more…
• Search by subject: Engineering, Mathematics or
Computing, or all three together
• Search multiple content sources
• Search free and subscription-based sources from
various publishers
• Set up alerts, save searches, email results, and
select from available sources
Subject Portal Demonstrator
• Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS)
• Home page:
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Navigation
Basic search box
Welcome and Explanation
Login
Subject Portal Demonstrator
• Search results – no ‘Brandscape!’
• Results delivered by type of resource
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Best of the web
Books
Abstracts/Indexes of Articles
e-documents (full text)
Industry news
Job Announcements…
Subject Portal Demonstrator
• No login required to search or browse freely
available sources
• Login (MyPortal Account)
– Free, and enables stored searches, alerts, etc
• Login via Athens
– Enables searching of subscription-based content
(where authorised) as well as freely available
content, plus enables stored searches, alerts, etc.
Subject Portal Demonstrator
• Fancy search stuff – Advanced search
– Exact phrase searching, Boolean searching, etc
– Search from selected from databases
– Create ‘landscapes/profiles’
Subject Portal Demonstrator
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Databases
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EEVL Catalogue, PSIgate Catalogue, COPAC,
ZETOC, RAM, Inspec, Inderscience, IoP, CSA,
NACA, Langley Technical Report Server, Computer
Science Preprint Server, Mathematics Preprint Server,
Mathematics ArXiv, Euclid, Aeronautical Research
Council
News & Jobs
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52 RSS feeds; 13 RSS feeds
Subject Portal Demonstrator
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Add more free content
Add more subscription databases
Add full-text subject search engine target
ePrint archives
Technical reports
Patents
Standards
Subject Portal / Institutional Portal
• Institutional portal - Webmaster
– Include EEVL Catalogue in database search
– Help identify subject databases from EEVL
– Help identify subject news, jobs, and other RSS
feeds from EEVL
– EEVL encourages publishers produce content
– Include other possible content from EEVL
– Use SPP portal software?
Subject Portal / Institutional Portal
• Institutional portal user
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Institutional portal always user’s 1st port of call
Search subscribed databases
Cross-search EEVL Catalogue
Access to local information
Access to VLE
Access to the Internet, Google, etc
Subject Portal / Institutional Portal
• Arrive at EEVL after searching Google
• Arrive at EEVL when looking for ‘extra’
information
• Get additional information from using
EEVL - Hot Topics, Bookstore, magazine
subscriptions, specialist databases
Subject Portal / Institutional Portal
• Use EEVL if institution has no portal
‘Portal’ Developments
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New EEVL site, December 2004
Integrate ‘portal’ and other services
Better design
‘Trusted broker’ subject-based service.
Subject Portal Demonstrator
• Funding position unclear
• Investment funding from Heriot Watt
• Need to generate income
– Sponsorship, publishers, etc
• Need feedback - positive/negative
EEVL Portal