July 2005: Volume 10.2
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In this issue:
Go-Geo! is the JISC-funded UK academic spatial data portal that is now operated and maintained at EDINA. The portal is a key component of the UK academic Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI).
Metadata creation
Work is currently under way to provide a full complement of resources to support metadata creation for Go-Geo!
During previous project phases (collaborative efforts between EDINA and the UK Data Archive, University of Essex), metadata creation was identified as a key action required to sustain the portal. In response to this, resources are being generated to facilitate and support metadata creation and record updates, including the development of an online metadata editor tool.
In addition, comprehensive guidelines and online teaching and learning resources are being generated and updated to support metadata creation and usage of the metadata tool and the Go-Geo! portal.
This complete package of Go-Geo! resources will be launched at the annual Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and Institute of British Geographers (IBG) International Conference in London, 31 August to 2 September 2005.
A news series of workshops, which will provide an overview of metadata and its importance to data sharing and data management, will be organised and run at universities over the course of 2005-2006 academic year. The workshops will also provide hands-on training for the online metadata editor, the Go-Geo! portal, and promote new Go-Geo! resources.
A series of very successful workshops was run during the previous project phase, drawing almost 140 participants from 14 universities.
In addition to the workshops, a metadata co-ordinator is now available to assist in the support of metadata creation and quality assurance reviews of records submitted for publication on the Go-Geo! portal. The coordinator has been working on updating the HE/FE Geospatial Metadata Application Profile, and making it compliant with UK GEMINI, the ISO 19115-compliant geospatial metadata standard for the UK. We are currently seeking ratification of the profile so that its use becomes mandatory within HE and FE.
JISC funding has also been allocated to address the spatial data management and sharing issues that plague data creators. Pilot studies will be conducted at four universities - Edinburgh, Durham, Nottingham and Strathclyde - to investigate and trial local data management schemes using the Go-Geo! resources.
Use of Go-Geo! portal has been steadily increasing with March 2005 recording the highest number of visits since the portal's inception. This is a result, in part, of the large number of web sites in the UK and abroad now pointing at the Go-Geo! site. It even captured the eye of the senior designer for BBC News Interactive, who stated he was "really pleased to have found this really interesting site!"
We are pleased to announce the continued availability of an EDINA interface to CAB Abstracts, available via separate subscription.
After a successful first year, the subscription rate has been set for 2005/06.
The service offers cross-searching of UPDATE (soon to be Land, Life & Leisure) and EDINA BIOSIS for subscribers to those additional services.
Trials are offered for institutions wishing to preview the service by emailing edina@ed.ac.uk with your details.
This summer sees the Culverhouse Collection of classical music files and scores become available via the Education Media OnLine (EMOL) service at EDINA. The Culverhouse Collection is unique in that the terms of use allow users to manipulate and alter the music files.
To learn more about the collection, and about Brian Culverhouse, the man behind it, see the March 2005 issue of Media Online Focus, available as a PDF file from the British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC) web site. Use the drop-down menu to select "Media Online Focus 19 - March 2005" link.
UPDATE, the weekly current awareness service for agricultural and other land-based periodicals, has entered a new phase of its development. Following the first three years (2002-2005) as an EDINA service, a new agreement began on 1 August. As part of a rebranding exercise, the service been given a new name - Land, Life & Leisure.
The primary purpose of the name change is to reflect the wider content of the database which now covers the subject areas of tourism and leisure, in addition to agriculture and other land-based industries. There are also some functional changes being made to the service including:
Potential subscribers are invited to request a trial to the EDINA helpdesk, in order to assess the usefulness of the service for their institution. Subscription rates have been frozen and capped, thanks to continuing JISC subsidy.
Further information on Land, Life & Leisure.
JISC and EDINA are pleased to announce that 7,000 new images have now been added to the Education Image Gallery. These images, which have been chosen in response to user feedback, cover a diverse range of subject areas including: architecture; archaeology; arts, culture & entertainment; child care; environmental issues; fashion; industry; leisure; news; music; politics and transportation.
Users can view these new images, along with 40,000 existing images, as part of the service available to subscribing institutions on the EIG site.
If you have any queries about the new images or any aspect of the EIG service, or to request a trial subscription, please contact the Helpdesk or telephone 0131-650 3302.
Digimap Download
A new Digimap Download facility has been launched. Improvements include more intuitive searching, and clearer selection of tiles via a map. Available from the Digimap Ordnance Survey map and data collection.
Digimap Classic
The map shown on screen is now larger and square rather than rectangular. The size has been increased to 600 x 600 pixels. This change is also reflected in the EPS and PDF files available from the Digimap Classic Map Chest. If you have a very low screen resolution (800 x 600 or less) you may find that horizontal scrolling is necessary to view the whole map on screen.
Digimap Gazetteer Query
For each place name returned there is now a link to a map. Please note, these maps are for reference only, and are therefore not intended for printing.
Free Ordnance Survey Maps for FE
Access to the Ordnance Survey Data Collection available through Digimap will be free of charge to FE institutions between 1 August 2005 and 31 July 2006. Users can create their own customised maps online, or can download map data for use in GIS or CAD. To sign up for the free year, complete the appropriate licence forms on the JISC Collections website. For more information about the Ordnance Survey Data Collection and Digimap, click here.
If you have any comments or queries about any of the above items, please do not hesitate to email us
New data added
EDINA is pleased to announce that 2003 grid square agricultural census data for Scotland, England, and Wales is now available through the EDINA agcensus service. 2004 data for the three UK territories will be announced shortly along with data for those intervening years absent from the existing service. Scottish Agricultural Summary Statistics (in PDF) are also available for the period 1912-1978 inclusively.
The new subscription year for the EDINA agcensus service commences on 1 August 2005 Those institutions who subscribe by this time will get a full year of access to the service.
A Land-Based Resources day was held at the University of Edinburgh on 12 July 2005. This promotional event showcased EDINA's land-based resources including agcensus and the Digimap Historic Map Collection. It is our intention to repeat the event elsewhere in the country later in the year.
Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and Institute of British Geographers (IBG) International Conference
London, 31 August to 2 September 2005.
EDINA will have a stand and will be launching a package of Go-Geo! resources at the conference.
The annual conference of the International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST) was held in Edinburgh on 25-27 May 2005, in collaboration with the International Federation of Data Organisations (IFDO).
Hosted by Edinburgh University Data Library and EDINA, the conference brought together over 200 professionals working in and with information technology and data services to support research and teaching in the social sciences.
Delegates came from as far afield as Australia, Cuba and Vietnam, with more than half from outside the UK. The conference itself was preceded by workshops and followed by a Highland weekend, where less formal views were exchanged.
A record number of presented papers and sessions covered topics from access to international datasets, national strategies for digital preservation and data curation, acquisition policies for data archives, data librarianship as a profession, the lifecycle perspective for survey metadata, and state of the art tools and standards.
Further details including speakers' presentations may be accessed via the IASSIST website.
As we approach EDINA's 10th birthday, having recently celebrated Edinburgh University Data Library's 20th, it is timely to review progress in our area of expertise. Edinburgh University Data Library, EUDL, was set up in 1983 as a joint initiative of the University's Computing Services and Edinburgh University Library. In the computing world of the time mainframes ruled; IBM had just launched their PC desk top machine in Europe; MS-DOS was on version 2.0 (promoted as "also supporting hard disks and subdirectories"); Microsoft had not taken over the earth; TCP/IP was the protocol suite for accessing the emerging Internet; email was becoming routine to the initiated; Domain Name Server (DNS) was introduced and JANET was established in the UK.
In Edinburgh the Program Library Unit section of CAST (Centre Application Software Technology, later absorbed into Edinburgh University Computing Services) converted IBM mainframe software to run on ICL hardware. PLU wrote SASPAC census extraction software - several versions later, SASPAC is still widely used. Disk storage was an expensive, remote commodity. Researchers wanted, nay craved, access to census statistics, government surveys, etc. and petitioned the University of Edinburgh for university wide provision of access to large data sets - hence the birth of EUDL.
Peter Burnhill was appointed Manager in 1984 and Alison Bayley joined in 1985 as a programmer. The total staff then rose mightily to 4 FTE's, including a cartographer expert in GIMMS, the mapping package created by the late Tom Waugh and forerunner of yet to be invented GIS. Census data and boundary files were linked through the in-house software UMapIt. Our interest in spatial data has always been strong and our cartographer mounted the sample digital Ordnance Survey data. Today Digimap rules, along with UKBORDERS.
From very early days, the Data Library offered users information on services, facilities, access restrictions, etc. through 'datalib', a mainframe based online information service navigated through hyperlinks.
In 1986 BBC launched a project to produce Domesday for modern times. The system relied on a BBC micro, plus Phillips interactive video player and 12" optical disks. Massive quantities of map-able and other data, local community information collected by schools and enthusiasts, news items by video clip, image galleries, etc. featured. The interface was through a zoomable map, hyperlinks, bookmarks, galleries and navigational aids (familiar language today?). EUDL was contracted to provide the agricultural grid square data for Scotland and still owns one of the very few remaining systems. Unfortunately the unique formats used and dedicated software proved a major challenge to unlocking the resource from the hardware - digital curation was not high in the list of priorities. DCC, the Digital Curation Centre, was not yet on the horizon.
Geographic information, including spatially referenced data, has been a focus from the beginning. In the 70s the late Jack Hotson and Professor Terry Coppock worked on algorithms to convert parish based agricultural census data to grid square estimates, with the aim of making the data more representative of agricultural distribution and more easily related to other data sets held at different geographies. Mapping software CAMAP, later reborn as GRIDMAP, gave users the ability to map distributions on line printers, then laser printers. EDINA recently launched the agcensus service nationally, with data from 1969 into the 21st century.
And so the Data Library flourished, engaging in various programmes and initiatives. Jointly with the Geography Department we gained recognition as the ESRC Regional Research Laboratory for Scotland, focusing on quantitative techniques in the Social Science. RAPID: Research Activity and Publications Information Database, was established in 1990 as the first on-line system in the UK linking descriptions of research activity with outputs, from ESRC-funded projects. In 1997 it was succeeded by the REGARD service run by the ILRT at the University of Bristol. We ran the British Survey of Fertiliser Practice for 6 years.
SALSER, a web-based 'virtual' catalogue of serials in Scottish university, national & civic libraries, still an EDINA service, was introduced in the early 90s. Now the SUNCAT Project is developing a Serials UNion CATalogue for the UK. SUNCAT will be both the key tool for locating serials held in UK libraries and a central source of high-quality records that can be used by university and college libraries to upgrade their local catalogues. The pilot service containing records from 22 leading research libraries was launched on 10 January 2005.
EUDL staff have been active members of IASSIST since the early 80s. IASSIST, the International Association of Social Science Information Service & Technology, is the international organisation for professionals working with information technology and data services to support research and teaching, in particular in the social sciences. A particular focus from early days has been the provision and identification of metadata in relation to machine readable data files.
IASSIST conferences have brought together data professionals, data producers and data analysts from around the world for over thirty years. Every four years the conference meets in Europe where it is jointly run by IASSIST and IFDO, the International Federation of Data Archives (formerly Organisations). The last time it met in the UK was in 1993 when we hosted the Conference in Edinburgh. It was gratifying that Edinburgh was chosen again for IASSIST/IFDO 2005 - this time hosted by Edinburgh University Data Library with assistance from EDINA.
In 1995 we achieved JISC designation as national Data Centre and EDINA, Edinburgh Data & Information Access, launched on 25 January 1996. And, as they say, the rest in history - or is it? Initially on offer were bibliographic services, but the remit has expanded in major steps to encompass geographic and spatially referenced data, images and moving pictures. Project work accounts for about half of our activity. A critical mass of expertise is in place. The Data Library still offers direct service to University of Edinburgh staff and students, as team within the whole operation. EDINA services build and benefit from the past. How should we prepare for the next twenty years? Our approach was and is to take the long view. The trick is in choosing what to do next.