ROADS is a two year collaborative development project to design and implement a user-oriented resource discovery system.
ROADS will allow users to find and use networked resources of interest to them (both interactive services and documents) without leaving their routine work environments. This system will be piloted on the following services:
Other subject based services within the Electronic Libraries Programme will be supported, and the ROADS system made available to them in due course. These include:
The ROADS project will investigate the creation, collection and distribution of resource descriptions, to provide a transparent means of locating (with browsing and searching techniques) and using networked resources. Furthermore, ROADS aims to provide a common platform to allow searching across multiple subject-based services. The ROADS system will be easy to use, to enable the process of creating resource descriptions to be kept with the appropriate subject specialists. The object is not to create an individual and idiosyncratic system, but to draw on, and help create, standards of good practice which can be widely adopted by subject communities to aid and automate the process of resource organisation, description and discovery.
ROADS has four main objectives:
The ROADS partners are:
Many of the recommendations of the Follett Report related to ways in which the use of information technology in the electronic library can help to alleviate some of the problems of university libraries today. The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) established the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) as a direct response to the Follett Report. The programme has a budget of about £15 million over 3 years, and its objectives include the use of IT to improve delivery of information through increased use of electronic library services, to allow academic libraries to cope better with growth, to explore different models of intellectual property management, and to encourage new methods of scholarly publishing.
This is one of the successful projects resulting from that call, in the Access to Network Resources Programme Area. It is funded by the JISC Information Services Sub- Committee (ISSC).
| Contact person | Role | Contact details |
|---|---|---|
| Nicky Ferguson | Director, SOSIG Centre for Computing in the Social Sciences University of Bristol 8 Woodland Road Bristol BS8 1TN |
phone: 0117 928 8471 Fax: 0117 928 8473 email: nicky.ferguson@bristol.ac.uk |
| Chris Osborne | ROADS Liaison Officer Centre for Computing in the Social Sciences University of Bristol 8 Woodland Road Bristol BS8 1TN |
phone: 0117 928 8472 Fax: 0117 928 8473 email: c.j.osborne@bristol.ac.uk |
| Lorcan Dempsy | Director, UKOLN University of Bath Bath BA2 7AY |
phone: 01225 826254 fax: 01225 826838 email: lisld@ukoln.bath.ac.uk |
| Chris Rusbridge | eLib Programme Director University of Warwick |
phone: 01203 524979 fax: 01203 524981 email: c.a.rusbridge@warwick.ac.uk |
| David Cook | FIGIT Secretary JISC Secretariat |
phone: 0117 931 7250 fax: 0117 931 7255 email: d.cook@jisc.ac.uk |
A set of WWW pages describing ROADS can be found at: http://ukoln.bath.ac.uk/roads/
A set of WWW pages describing the eLib Programme can be found at: http://ukoln.bath.ac.uk/elib/