Programme Purpose & scope Abstracts, biographies and speakers slides
MMIT CONFERENCE: PORTALS PORTALS EVERYWHERE 1 JULY 2004 THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, LONDON ABSTRACTS, BIOGRAPHIES & SPEAKERS SLIDES

1. Introduction [Slides-html, Slides-PowerPoint]

A short introduction to the structure of the event and some of the issues for libraries raised by portals.

Biography:
Andrew Cox is the student representative on the MMIT committee and has written several articles about library portals.

2. Building Knowledge4health [Slides-html, Slides-PowerPoint]

Presentation title:
Knowledge4health: a grand entrance

Abstract:
Knowledge4health is a new knowledge portal for North Bristol NHS Trust, providing integrated web-based access to a range of selected quality information collections. A joint initiative between the Trust's Library and Information Service and Patient Information Department, Knowledge4health enables cross-searching of national and local knowledge and of different collection types, including Trust and external patient information, library information resources, national NHS guidelines and NHS core content journals. Additional collections soon to be included are Trust Clinical Guidelines and summaries of Trust Clinical Audit reports.

In this presentation we outline the vision behind Knowledge4health, share our experience of procuring and implementing Fretwell-Downing Informatics' ZPORTAL to power the system and explore technical, scalability, interoperability and development issues. We discuss practical matters relating to selection and integration of searchable collections, cross-searching of different types of resources and integration with existing authentication systems. We also look at interoperability with the forthcoming new NHS Portal (also from FDI), National Library for Health developments, NHS Direct Patient Information Content Bank, the Trust's new intranet and the Map of Medicine project. Finally, we introduce phase II of the project which will provide access to selected collections for patients and the public.

Biographies:
Hilary Ollerenshaw began her working career in the Industrial Development Organisation of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, where she held an executive post after graduating from Queen's University, Belfast, with a BA Honours degree in Social Anthropology. Through part-time study, she then gained a postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies. She took up a higher executive officer post as Senior Caseworker for the Northern Ireland Police Complaints Board. After a career break to have her family, Hilary worked in the South Gloucestershire public library service and in February 2001 graduated with an MSc in Information and Library Management, with Commendation, from the University of Bristol. Since March 2001, Hilary has held the post of Patient Information Manager at North Bristol NHS Trust, with the remit to develop, implement, manage and review a patient information strategy for the Trust. Hilary has a particular interest in the development and application of information and communications technology solutions to the provision of information services.

Caroline Plaice began her interest in health libraries through a module on 'medical librarianship' as part of her degree in Aberystwyth. Since then she has worked as a library assistant at the University of Wales Combined Training Institute in Cardiff, a large nursing and allied health professions resource centre, moving to Plymouth as Nursing Librarian two years later. Following posts as Medical Librarian and Library Services Manager in Bristol, during which time she completed a postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies, she was appointed to her current post of Knowledge Services Manager with North Bristol NHS Trust in 2000. North Bristol were the first Trust in the South and West to implement FDI's OLIB 7 Library Management system and the only Trust to purchase a portal product, ZPORTAL, also from FDI. Caroline and her co-project manager Hilary Ollerenshaw launched their system, Knowledge4Health in April 2004. Her professional interests include project management, marketing of services and establishing service level agreements.

3. ENCompassing Edinburgh's digital collections: the Collections Gateway at the University of Edinburgh

Presentation title:
ENCompassing Edinburgh's digital collections: the Collections Gateway at the University of Edinburgh

Abstract:
Edinburgh University Library purchased Endeavor's ENCompass digital object management system in 2003, in a joint procurement with the National Library of Scotland. A new service for the University has now been launched, the Collections Gateway, on a pilot basis, with a full launch planned for September of this year. EUL staff expect that the Collections Gateway will in time become their primary collections portal, embracing digital collections for learning and research, and subsuming the library catalogue - which runs on Endeavor's Voyager software. This presentation will demonstrate the existing system, and look ahead to the next release which will bring a number of important new features. It will also examine the impact which the Collections Gateway is beginning to have on workflow within the Library and beyond, and on the changing skills required of staff as we move the Library's operations increasingly into the business of organising digital objects for access and permanence.

Biography:
John A MacColl is Sub-Librarian (Digital Library) at the University of Edinburgh. He has worked in various roles in academic libraries, computing services and converged information services in the Universities of Glasgow, Aberdeen, Abertay Dundee and Edinburgh. From 1995-1997 he was Project Director and Managing Editor of the eLib ARIADNE Project and publication. He was Co-Director of the JISC-funded ANGEL Project from 2000-2003, and was Director of the JISC-funded DEVIL Project from 2003-2004, which examined technical solutions and cultural implications in integrating library functionality into virtual learning environments. He is currently Director of Theses Alive!, also funded by JISC, to develop a UK-wide support service for electronic theses and dissertations, and of the Discovery Plus project to build elearning middleware for libraries and VLEs. He is a member of the Advisory Board of JISC's SHERPA Project, which is creating eprint archives in a number of libraries in the Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL) and beyond. His work at Edinburgh involves the strategic management of library systems, e-resources and e-services. He currently serves on the CURL Task Forces on Scholarly Publishing and on Digital Content Creation and Curation, and chairs a sub-group of the latter which is developing CURL's agenda in digital preservation. His areas of professional interest are in library and information service management in the digital environment, learning technologies, digital preservation and new forms of scholarly publication. He is also currently seconded 50% for a 9-month period to the EDINA Data Centre at the University of Edinburgh.

4. MetaLib & SFX at Loughborough University [Slides-html, Slides-PowerPoint]

Presentation title:
MetaLib & SFX at Loughborough University

Abstract:
Loughborough University Library implemented MetaLib in 2002. This presentation will briefly outline the implementation procedure and then discuss how MetaLib has impacted on both staff and student searching behaviour.

Biography:
Ruth Stubbings has worked in special, commercial and academic libraries. She is currently Academic Services Manager at Loughborough University Library and leads a team of eleven that support the learning, teaching & research needs of the Social Science & Humanities Faculty.

Ruth is particularly interested in the development of students study skills, the exploitation and marketing of library services and managing users expectations. To this end she has been involved in several projects that ensure greater access to resources and the development of teaching material that helps develop students information searching skills.

5. Mapping the future? Millennium Access Plus at Exeter [Slides-html, Slides-PowerPoint]

Presentation title:
Mapping the future? Millennium Access Plus at Exeter

Abstract:
The presentation will describe at the core elements of MAP, major aspects of implementation, community-wide, provider and vendor support issues and, finally, consideration of the current user response at Exeter and elsewhere

Biography:
Martin Myhill (http://www.ex.ac.uk/~MRMyhill/lib/mm.html) is the Deputy University Librarian at the University of Exeter and has written widely on library system issues in the professional press. He coordinates the day-to-day operation of the Innovative Interfaces Inc Millennium product at Exeter and combines that task with a number of other duties including service evaluation. He is responsible for the implementation and development of the Millennium Access Plus (MAP) suite of programs at the University of Exeter which have already been in operation for a year.

6. What's in London's Libraries - the London public library experience [Slides-html, Slides-PowerPoint]

Presentation title:
What's in London's Libraries - the London public library experience

Biography:
Fiona O'Brien is the Development Manager at the London Libraries Development Agency. Prior to this she worked for a number of years within BBC Factual and Learning as Libraries and Literature Project Manager and in the Digital Curriculum pilot project team as metadata specialist. Before joining the BBC she worked for five years as a library manager in a large further education college in London, spent two years as subject librarian for Languages and Linguistics at the University of Hertfordshire and six years as a cataloguer for the National Film and Television Archive. Her first job was as a cataloguer at the British Library. Currently Fiona is responsible for the London Libraries website www.londonlibraries.org.uk which includes the What's in London's Libraries service, a virtual union catalogue and gateway to the 395 public libraries in the capital.

7. The Subject Approach to Portals [Slides-html, Slides-PowerPoint]

Presentation title:
The Subject Approach to Portals

Abstract:
This session will look at the development of the RDN Subject Portals project in the context of library portal developments. The RDN Subject Portals Project (SPP) is a JISC funded initiative to investigate enhancing the functionality of existing RDN services, as well as exploring the potential for reusing this software within standards-compliant institutional, library or other community portals. In particular the presentation will look at the subject approach to providing portal services, present the main outcomes of the SPP project and highlight the potential use of the software and services within a library or institutional environment.

Biography:
Debra Hiom works in the Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT) at the University of Bristol. Debra has been involved in Internet research and training since 1992, with special interests in the area of networked resource discovery. She is the Director for the Social Science Information Gateway (http://www.sosig.ac.uk) - a nationally funded Internet service for social science research. Debra also teaches on the MSc in Information and Library Management course at the University of Bristol. She has written extensively about the Internet and is co-author of the Information Professionals Guide to the Internet and the Web-based tutorial Internet Detective.

8. The Mother of All Portals

Presentation title:
The Mother of All Portals

Abstract:
Q: What do a library portal, a subject portal, a VLE, an MLE and a VRE have in common?
A1: Alot
A2: They should be all be seamlessly accessible via the Mother of All Portals (a.k.a. the institutional portal).

This presentation will reflect on the need for holistic thinking and clear leadership during institutional portal implementations.

Biography:
Paul Browning is Assistant Director, Information Strategy at the University of Bristol (but was an earth scientist who ran a departmental network in a former life). Paul wrote the JISC TechWatch Reports on Content Management Systems and Through The Web (TTW) Authoring Tools, and the Technical Review of the systems developed by the JISC "Building MLEs in HE" (7/99) programme. He is Chair of the Advisory Committee for OSS Watch - the JISC-funded Open Source advisory service. Currently he heads up Bristol's Pilot Portal Project.

9. Taking portals to the users: delivering content where it is needed [Slides-html, Slides-PowerPoint]

Presentation title:
Taking portals to the users: delivering content where it is needed

Biography:
Chris Awre has worked as Programme Manager for Portals within the Development Team at JISC for the last two years. This work has encompassed the development of portal software through a range of projects as well as the funding of a series of studies into the use of portals, including library portals, within the HE and FE communities. Chris's other responsibilities at JISC covered the FAIR Programme (involving work in disclosing resources using the Open Archives Initiative for surfacing through portals) and Digital Library Infrastructure projects. Chris previously worked as a systems librarian at Imperial College London and has recently moved from JISC to take a new post of Integration Architect at the University of Hull.