Finding Resources
Locally and Globally
Justine Kitchen Brian Kelly
Information & Training Manager UK Web Focus
RDN UKOLN
Kings College London University of Bath
Email Email
Justine.Kitchen@rdn.ac.uk B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
URL URL
http://www.rdn.ac.uk/ http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
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About Us
Brian Kelly
• UK Web Focus (JISC-funded advisory posted)
• Based at University of Bath
Justine Kitchen
• Information & Training Manager for the RDN
• Based at Kings College London
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Aims Of Session
The aims of the session are:
• To review approaches taken by institutions
in the provision of gateways to resources
• To discuss the pros and cons of different
approaches
• To review national developments, especially
the RDN
• To discuss the relationships between
institutional gateways and national services
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About You
Why are you here?
What are your interests?
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Exercise 1 – Aims
The aims of exercise 1 are to:
• Review how your institution provides links
to resources
• Compare your approach to other UK HEIs
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E
Exercise 1 – Exercise
1-1 Go to your university web site and find your gateway to
external web resources
Q How easy was it to find?
Was there one gateway or several?
What functionality did it provide? Poor Excellent
How would you rate the gateway? 1 - 5
1-2 Go to another university web site and repeat the
exercise.
1-3 Go to
1-4 Read the report at
Are there any key points which are emerging?
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Exercise 2 – Aims
The aims of exercise 2 are to:
• Review how your institution selects,
describes and and maintains links to
Internet resources.
• Identify how you can save time and effort
by making the most of existing national
Internet gateways and emerging portals
such as the Resource Discovery Network.
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E
Exercise 2 – Exercise
2-1 Look at the range of web resources your University
site currently links to.
Q How comprehensive is the subject coverage in
meeting the requirements of your users?
How often are new links added, and existing links
checked? How are the resources selected and
described?
2-2 Visit the Resource Discovery
Network and browse the subjects and services
available.
Q Would any of these services or resources be useful
for your users?
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E
Exercise 2 – Exercise
2-3 Look at an example of how the RDN can be plugged
into your local gateway:
2-4 Now visit and click on
services. Browse the list of available resources.
Q How many of these does your gateway link to?
Are there any others which might be useful to your
users?
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Group Discussion
What general issues have emerged?
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Conclusions
What conclusions can we make from
today's session?
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