2001: a digital odyssey

Anne Partridge

Systems Librarian

Cranfield University, UK

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

What I’ll Be Covering

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

• Brief recap on who I am and where I’m from

• Review of enhancements to Hyperion and things we have been doing at Cranfield during the last year

Cranfield University

• Established 1946 as first postgraduate College of Aeronautics in the UK. Granted University status in 1969.

• Now Western Europe’s largest academic centre for strategic and applied research, design and development.

• Principal activities are post-graduate teaching, research and continuing professional development.

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

Cranfield University

• Leading international position in the following sectors: Advanced Engineering & Materials, Aerospace & Avionics, BioScience & Technology, Defence, Energy, Management & Social Policy, Marine Technology & Manufacturing.

• Situated on three campuses: Cranfield, Silsoe and the Royal Military College of Science at Shrivenham.

• Small, ~ 3,100 students (77% postgraduate)

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

Information & Library Services

• Provided by five libraries on three sites

• Went live with Unicorn in December 1998; currently at 99.2.4.2 on live server; 99.4 on test server (WorkFlows and WebCat)

• Cranfield / Silsoe Webcat - http://unicorn.central.cranfield.ac.uk/uhtbin/webcat

• RMCS Webcat - http://unicorn-u.rmcs.cranfield.ac.uk:8080/

• Purchased Hyperion in October 1999, first European implementation in January 2000.

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

Information & Library Services

• Pushing forward the use of digital resources and their integration with print-based information resources to provide simple access for users.

• Firmly at ‘access’ end of holdings - access spectrum.

• access to over 3,000 electronic journals

• ~ 100 databases providing specialised, subject based information (many full text)

• access to several hundred electronic books

• heavy use of inter-library loans (including aerial service)

• development of subject portals, ie AERADE

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

Access level for Hyperion logins

• New with Unicorn 2000 and 2001

Previously in Hyperion the ability to create, modify and delete orgunits was controlled by a single attribute in the Access Level policy of the Archgen utility.

This attribute has now been split into separate attributes, so that there is greater control over the maintenance of orgunits.

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

POLICY/DISPLAY Access Level 20/08/2001

(To return to previous level, press the ESCAPE key <ESC>.)-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Name : SYSTEMADMIN * Description : system administrator access * Navigate : YES * Create : YES * Modify : YES * Delete : YES * Search : YES * Print : YES * Download : NO

Press ENTER or RETURN to continue[]

Making Hyperion invisible

•The facility exists to link to a Hyperion resource using a direct URL

http://server address/uhtbin/hyperion/altid

http://unicorn.central.cranfield.ac.uk/uhtbin/hyperion/NRIN

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

By utilising different cgi script can get resource to display outside of WebCat

e.g. http://unicorn.central.cranfield.ac.uk/uhtbin/hype

rion-image/NRIN

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

By-passing the login screen

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

Created a new cgi script which includes a guest login.

Located in usr/local/apache/share/cgi-bin

Use of web pages

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

By inserting web pages as the primary resource we have been able to display more information and in a more aesthetically pleasing way.

Inclusion into teaching and learning applications

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

• Process Systems Engineering Online Courseware

• Barrington Building

• Water Sciences MSc

Submission of theses in electronic format

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

• Progress so far has centred on how to implement electronic submission (problems of versions, formats, marking)

• Decided at Cranfield that the current position is paper submission will continue, the library will then scan paper copies of these that have been passed

• Looking into how best to break down the thesis to enable easily and timely access (byte serving)

AERADE

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

MAGiC

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

SCKC Slide Collection

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

• Supply Chain Knowledge Centre

•Small library

•Wanted to digitise slide collection

Use of different media

European Unicorn User Group Kattegat - September 2001

The vast majority of items in the archive to date are text and images. However, we have been experimenting with sound and video.