Network resources and access tools

Abstract

e again there are several very relevant articles in the NRAAT section of the New Review of Information Networking, with items covering topics of interest in the UK and elsewhere. The Bodleian Library in Oxford is well known for many things, and one of its most recent developments is a gateway to the Internet (BARD) which is described by Richard Gartner. How an organisation copes with computer support is the subject of an article by Dawn Hewitt, who explains how the UCS Knowledge Base at Indiana University has developed a large question and answer database. Two items about Asian resources complement each other -firstly T. Matthew Ciolek explains how a WWW Virtual Library operates, and then Maureen H. Donovan discusses the work of the East Asian Libraries Cooperative World Wide Web. NRAAT aims to cover resources in at least one subject area in each volume, but as the number of Internet resources grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to analyse them in a meaningful way. Lauri Saarinen describes how she has developed a subject gateway for economics information, but suggests that maintaining such a service on a voluntary basis may not be viable in the long term. Many articles appear in the scholarly press concerning networking in the UK and the USA, but not a lot is known about the situation in other locations. Pavol Horvath outlines the development of the Slovak Academic Network (SANET), whilst Rupert Brown and Cesare Dieni write about a service for networking in developing countries. An analysis of document formats is covered by Maria Heijne, who describes the work of the Premium Project, and the quality of information on networks and the work of the Centre for Information Quality Management (CIQM) is discussed by Chris Armstrong. Finally Annette Kelly provides a report on the work of the Europagate Project to provide a gateway between ANSI 739.50 and ISO SR. NRAAT aims to provide critical and informative perspectives on network resources and access tools. It deals with network resources and services of all kinds, including network-based aids for identifying, accessing, and exploiting such resources and service. It covers all areas and levels of academic activity, including teaching, training, learning, research and development, information provision, resource sharing,