Initiatives
Current Initiatives
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Electric Connections
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The annual Electric Connections conference takes place during the last week of August each year. Funded by the Scottish Library & Information Council (SLIC), and backed and organised by COSMIC, EC provides an insight to digital developments in the library, archives and museums sectors and is a must for anyone who needs to stay in touch with the developments and initiatives that will influence the development of 'Virtual Scotland'.
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SPEIR
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The SPEIR project conducts basic research into distributed information infrastructure requirements for the two year Scottish Cultural Portal Pilot, and the one year Public Library CAIRNS Integration proposal, and, where appropriate, develop associated pilot facilities.
SPEIR aims to ensure that the infrastructure proposals are sufficiently generic to be applicable to other Scottish information portals that might be considered in future. A key element of the work will be compliance with accepted and developing standards in the area in order to ensure Scotland-wide, UK-wide, and world-wide inter-operability in respect of distributed infrastructure elements.
The project is closely associated with COSMIC and will be developed in the context of the work of the COSMIC Task Group. The project builds on previous CDLR work in the CAIRNS project and the SCONE project, and ongoing work in the CC-interop project and HILT phase II project.
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SDDL
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SPEIR encompasses the idea of the ‘Scottish Distributed Digital Library’ (SDDL). This entails the creation of a 'coherent digital learning, information and research landscape for all Scots, collaboratively built and maintained via an agreed nation-wide, standards based, globally interoperable, cooperative infrastructure’.
Some components of the SDDL are already available for end users
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OCLC Connexion
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CORC has recently been revised and is now part of Connexion. OCLC Connexion provides a one-stop access to integrated cataloguing tools and the world's largest online catalogue and bibliograpghic database, WorldCat.
OCLC Connexion is currently being used by a number of projects, including some based at the Centre for Digital Library Research based in the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Subscription to Connexion is paid for by SLIC and Scottish initiatives outwith the CDLR may be offered free access also.
For more information on this please contact George Macgregor.
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COSMIC Cataloguers
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The COSMIC cataloguers group was preceded by the CAIRNS cataloguers group. The COSMIC cataloguers group will look at issues relating to catataloguing for Scottish libraries, museums and archives.
If you are interested in becoming actively involved or would like to know more about the initiative please contact Gordon Dunsire for further information.
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WIDWISAWN
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WIDWISAWN is a COSMIC publication available via the SAPIENS framework, providing an open forum for discussions on research and development initiatives relevant to the development of a coherent electronic information environment to support 'Virtual Scotland'.
Focusing in particular at those with interests in this area in the libraries, archives and museums sectors, it aims to provide practical information on sources of expertise in Scotland and to identify areas where expertise needs to be discovered or developed. Particular communities or initiatives or projects are invited to send us information about their activities or, better still, to take over a particular issue and tell their own story.
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Past Issues
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Scottish Portals Initiative
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The Scottish Portals Intitiative was a SLIC funded and COSMIC coordinated project and implemented mechanisms to co-ordinate a co-operative standards-based approach to building and maintaining a coherent virtual landscape for learning, information, and research in Scotland encompassing participating web-based services in the archives, libraries, museums, and public service domains.
For further information visit,
http://cosmic.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/old/spi.htm
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