Issue 2

• Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) Update

  Recently, a wave of new projects under the umbrella of the Electronic Libraries Programme was announced. A consequence of this is that a large majority of the HE institutions in the UK are involved in at least one eLib project (is yours?), as well as many non HE organisations and institutions. Here, we give brief details of some of these new projects.

• A MAN for All Reasons?

  Derek Law, the Director of Information Services and Systems at Kings College and chair of JISC's ISSC, details his vision of the cooperation between the library sectors blossoming through the use of Metropolitan Area Networks.

• Alta Vista Vs. Lycos

  Tracey Stanley presents the results of a detailed comparison of the two main search engines of today, Lycos and Alta Vista.

• E-print Archives: Key to Paperless Journals

  John MacColl on why electronic print archives are the key to paperless journals.

• Spotlight on BIDS

  BIDS is put under the spotlight by Isobel Stark, a BIDS trainer amongst other things, who gives us her thoughts on one of the UK's most well-known networking services. Linked from this article are responses from BIDS people.

• SEREN: Sharing of Educational Resources in an Electronic Network

  Ian Lovecy from Bangor University describes SEREN, a project from the Electronic Document Delivery section of the eLib programme. SEREN aims to provide the software to enable the Welsh HE community to maximise use of the library resource-base in Wales before turning to BLDSC and other suppliers.

• SOSIG: Social Science Information Gateway

  SOSIG was established with funding from the Economics and Social Research Council (ESRC). The Electronic Libraries' Programme (eLib) funds a Documentation and Training Officer, Lesly Huxley, under the Access to Networked Resources umbrella to raise awareness of - and train people to use - SOSIG. Here Lesly provides background to the service and describes the Internet for Social Scientists workshops she is running at Universities around the country.

• Netskills: A Major Training Programme

  The Netskills Team explain how the need for training has never been greater.

• Interface

  Interview with Jill Foster, director of Mailbase and Netskills.

• Down Your Way

  Alison Kilgour takes a look at the networking facilities inside Glasgow University Library.

• Down Your Very Long Way Away

  We take a look at the library and networking facilities in more remote places around the world; in this issue, we feature the Faroe Islands.

• View from the Hill

  Matthew Evans, Chairman of Faber and Faber and of the recently formed Library and Information Commission, in discussion with Lorcan Dempsey.

• Minotaur

  In our regular sceptic's column, information nirvana in the form of the Net has not yet reached Ruth Jenkins.

• Wire: Email Interview with Chris Lilley

  Chris Lilley submits to an interview by email.

• Sideline

  Chris Bailey goes to Heathrow, not to watch the planes but to attend a networking conference.

• Copyright Corner

  Charles Oppenheim details some of the legal issues associated with electronic copyright management systems.

• Burnside Writes

  John Burnside confesses that the electronic page does not provide the experience he wants as a writer or for his readers.

• Netskills eLib Project Launch

  John Kirriemuir on the Netskills eLib project launch.

• Report on the 'Networked Information in an International Context' Conference

  Chris Bailey at the "Networked Information in an International Context" conference.

• From the Trenches: Network Services on a Shoestring

  Jon Knight describes how Linux is a cheap and useful operating system for library systems units and the like.

• Netskills Corner: NCSA Mosaic Web Browser

  In this Netskills Corner, Brian Kelly describes a UK-Wide collaborative (combined directional Web and IRC chat-like system) meeting.

• Poem and Cartoon

• A Thread of Ariadnes

  One of my previous lecturers jokingly said that once you had a title, logo and an acronym for your project, 80% of the work was done. Except I'm not so sure she was joking, now. Ariadne took (relatively) little time to be decided on as a title, but as it turned out, many other projects around the world, and one in particular in the UK, shared this greek mythological name. This has caused problems; for example, lists of digital libraries/training projects occasionally get us mixed up with the Ariadne project at Lancaster. Dr. David Nichols from this Lancaster project gives a brief run-down of other projects that have taken the name Ariadne.