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n-1-2-020.20.3a
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N-1-2-020.20.3 Library Science by Michael Breaks*,
<LIBMLB@vaxb.heriot-watt.ac.uk>
The UK library community has recently established the UK Office for
Library Networking (UKOLN), funded by a grant from the British
Library. The aim of the Office is to develop a common networking
strategy for the library community through a series of Workshops and
conferences. Work is going on in the area of standards and in early
April a Workshop organised by the UKOLN is being held to discuss the
SR and Z39.50 standards with library system suppliers and is being
attended by a number of US librarians. Close links are being
established with the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) and at
the same time, the European Community is encouraging the spread to
networking technology and expertise into all twelve countries of the
EC through the European Libraries Plan. This is a programme which has
a number of Action Lines, one of which is the development of networked
library services and systems throughout Europe.
The higher education community are about to celebrate the first
anniversary of the BIDS Service. This is a project which allows all
sites paying the annual subscription of UK Stg 6000, to access the ISI
citation databases which are mounted at Bath University. They are
available to all staff and students from the 60 subscribing
institutions over the JANET network from any networked terminal. This
has been an extremely successful development and has had the effect of
encouraging many newcomers to networks to explore further the range of
networked information resources available over JANET and the Internet.
The BIDS service is to be the model for further databases that will be
available over the network and fits into the UK model of a centrally
funded and managed network available to the academic and research
community.
This community, of which the library community is an integral and
central part, is beginning to develop projects for the SuperJANET
gigabit network, the first phase of the funding has been approved by
the Government at the end of 1991. The first phase is likely to be
installed early in 1993 and funding has been provided to develop pilot
projects in the area of library and information services. The RFIs
for the SuperJANET network have been issued to over 15 companies in
the UK, following the abolition of the telecommunications duopoly
(British Telecomm and Mercury) and the freeing of the market.
The Joint Network Team who manage the UK's JANET network have recently
provided an IP service running over the UK's X.25 network, so allowing
the community with direct access to the networked information
resources available in the States and the easy participation of the UK
in the global network.
* Librarian, Heriot-Watt University Library, Edinburgh, Scotland