UKOLN and the Institutional Web Service

1. UKOLN and the Institutional Web Service • UKOLN (UK Office for Library and Information Networking) is a research and dissemination unit based at the University of Bath. • It provides advice and support related to a variety of Higher Education, Library, Museums, Archives and other related communities. • Much of the advice it provides and demonstrators will be of interest to managers of institutional web services. Advice UKOLN hosts the UK Web Focus and Interoperability Focus posts. Demonstrators UKOLN provides a number of demonstrator systems. UKOLN Events UKOLN organises the annual Institutional Web Management workshop, together with a number of other seminars and workshops. Dissemination UKOLN hosts the Ariadne and Exploit Interactive web magazines. These provide regular columns covering topics of interest to University web managers.

2. UKOLN’s WebWatch Services • Services Developed By The WebWatch Project • UKOLN’s WebWatch project provided robot software to analyse technologies used on the web. • A number of the analysis tools developed were released with a web interface. • The doc-info Service • The doc-info service provides details about a web resource, such as file sizes, link validity, etc. • The related http-info service provides information on HTTP headers. • Browser Extensions • In order to make these services easier to use they have been made available as browser extension aids. • A link can be copied from a web page to Netscape’s personal tool bar. For further information see <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue19/web-focus/>

3. Metadata Management Tools • Metadata Tools • UKOLN have much expertise in the area of metadata. • Involvement in UK and European projects has contributed to the development of metadata standards and to a variety of metadata services. • DC-dot • DC-dot is a metadata creation and management tool. • DC-dot has a web interface. No software installation is required - any browser which supports JavaScript can be used • Browser Extension • DC-dot can be used as a browser extension. • This makes it easier to use. For further information see <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/dcdot/>

4. Web-Enabled Email • Web-Enabled Email • In addition to use of standard email programs (e.g. Pine and Outlook Express) UKOLN staff can access their email using a Web-enabled email interface when away from their office. Functionality The IMP software provides much of the functionality provided in desktop email clients including managing mail messages and folders, sending messages, attachments, etc. Specification IMP is freely available. It runs in conjunction with Apache servers with the PHP/FE extension. In order to use IMP your email server must support IMAP. UKOLN are happy to recommend IMP for use in an Intranet environment. For further information see <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue19/unix/>

5. Ariadne and Exploit Interactive • Dissemination • An important aspect of UKOLN’s role is dissemination of its findings, and supporting dissemination by other groups. • Ariadne • Ariadne is a web magazine which was initially funded by the eLib programme. • Regular columns include the Web Editor, WebWatch and Web Focus, columns, and articles about JISC services and eLib projects. See <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/> • Exploit Interactive • Exploit Interactive, Ariadne’s sister web magazine, is funded by the EU Telematics For Libraries programme. • It also provides a forum for information professionals, with an emphasis on EU projects. See <http://www.exploit-lib.org/>