Australian Subject Gateways Forum

Summary of Outcomes of the 31 August 2001 Meeting

Held in Canberra

The fourth meeting of the Australian Subject Gateways Forum was held on 31 August 2001 in Canberra. It was attended by 13 participants, who represented 9 subject gateways. The meeting enabled exchange of information regarding the progress of the individual subject gateways, followed by a discussion on a number of issues of significance to the gateways owners.

Gateways represented

Agrigate, AusStage, AMOL, AustLit, AVEL, EdNA Online, MusicAustralia, PictureAustralia, Weblaw

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Business arising

Report from the Metadata Services Taskforce

Jon Mason reported that engaging the Taskforce as a team did not eventuate. However a number of related initiatives took place, including Jon's work with the IMS Digital Repositories Working Group and with the Standards Sub-Committee of AICTEC.

  • ACTION 1:
    The ASGF to consider organising a workshop, possibly in collaboration with Education.Au, to address the issues of interoperability.

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The ASGF position paper for HE Presentation to DETYA

On behalf of Iain Morrison, Mike Currie informed the meeting that the paper called Role and Contribution of the Australian Subject Gateways Forum was presented to the AICTEC meeting on 23 March 2001. However there was no direct outcome of the presentation, except for raising awareness of the ASGF among the AICTEC members.

  • ACTION 2:
    The ASGF members to continue being active in promulgating the role of the ASGF to their parent organisations.

Collaboration with Renardus regarding metadata sharing between individual ASGF gateways and Renardus

No formal arrangements have taken place as yet. The fact that the Renardus prototype is not publicly available at this stage has made it difficult for a technical assessment of the issues involved in metadata sharing.

ASGF website update

Barbara reported on progress regarding inclusion of the legal documents in the closed area, and providing links to the legislation on accessibility of web documents for people with disabilities.

  • ACTION 3:
    Norbert and Marie-Louise to send to Barbara copies of their respective legal agreements for inclusion in the closed area of the website.
  • ACTION 4:
    Basil to send to a copy of the MOU between AMOL and EdNA Online for inclusion in the closed area of the website.
  • ACTION 5:
    Mike to provide Barbara with the URL of the best practice site on accessibility of web documents for people with disabilities (being now prepared by Liddy Nevile) for inclusion in the ASGF website.
  • ACTION 6:
    Barbara to notify the ASGF members about the details of the forum on accessibility of information services to people with disabilities the NLA will hold next year.
  • ACTION 7:
    Barbara to make sure that the Best Practice Checklist for Australian Subject Gateways includes the web accessibility requirements.
  • ACTION 8:
    Barbara to include links to documents dealing with the privacy issues on the ASGF website.

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Progress reports

The subject gateways owners provided a short overview of their developments in the last 6 months.

  • ACTION 9: Debbie to approach the ADT Program's coordinator Tony Cargnelutti about establishing a test bed for trialling access by the interested gateways.
  • ACTION 10:
    Barbara to include links to FRBR materials on the ASGF website.
  • ACTION 11: The ASGF group to send Marian Bate a card to thank her for her support and championship in the ASGF (Debbie to arrange).
  • ACTION 12: Barbara to include on the agenda of the next meeting the issue of partnerships (especially taking on new partners).

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New business

Report from Debbie Campbell on her work with RDN March-May 2001

Debbie spoke about her work at the DNER office during her recent three-month visit to the UK. She gave some background information about the RDNC projects she was involved in, such as introducing a new look-and-feel interface, development of the Further Education Sector services, SAD I (Subject Access to the DNER) and "Behind the Headlines" service. More details at http://www.nla.gov.au/pub/gateways/archive/52/p19a01.html.

  • ACTION 13: The group to consider inviting Judith Clark, James Cook University Library, as a guest speaker at the next meeting to speak about her involvement with the SAD I project.

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Report on the ASGF poster presentation at the 2001 IFLA Conference in Boston

Barbara reported on the IFLA poster session jointly presented with Renardus. The early feedback from David Toll, who was the presenter on behalf of the ASGF, indicated that the session aroused a lot of interest. The display materials were considered to be professionally prepared. The promotional booklet (in PowerPoint format) and some photos of the poster will be included on the ASGF website soon.

  • ACTION 14:
    The group to consider presenting a paper at the Global Summit of Online Knowledge Networks to be held in Adelaide on 4 and 5 March 2002.
  • ACTION 15:
    Barbara to investigate a possibility of an NLA staff person presenting a paper at the IFLA Conference at Glasgow in 2002 on behalf of the ASGF.

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Report on progress of work with IMS/IEEE LOM and what it means for ASGF

Jon reported on the latest developments in the IMS/IEEE LOM (Learning Object Metadata) area. He referred to the recent DCMI - IMS - IEEE LTSC LOM Working Group Communique written by Neil McLean, and distributed to the group before the meeting.

  • ACTION 16:
    Barbara to include links to LOM resources on the ASGF website.

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Government's new Systemic Infrastructure Initiative

Marie-Louise discussed the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative and funding opportunities it provides.

  • ACTION 17:
    The ASGF members to consider what project/s the group could apply for 2002/03, so a joint application for funding can be decided on at the next meeting.

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Other business

NLA's Electronic Information Resources Strategies and Action Plan 2001-2002

Roxanne discussed the document and its relevance to the ASGF members.

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New additions to the ASGF website

Barbara drew the participants' attention to the recent changes to the look of the ASGF website and the inclusion of the additional content: Selected Papers and Journal Articles in the open area and Register of Queries in the closed area. The group agreed to Barbara's proposal for including information/links relating to usability studies conducted by the ASGF members on the ASGF website.

  • ACTION 18:
    Barbara to include information/links relating to the usability studies conducted by the ASGF members in the closed area of the ASGF website.

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IMesh subject gateways and portals meeting

Barbara reported on the proposal for a meeting of the IMesh community recently discussed on the IMesh discussion list. The group agreed that it is important that the ASGF continues its involvement in the IMesh community and is represented at major IMesh meetings if possible.

  • ACTION 19:
    Barbara to post a message on the IMesh discussion list about this meeting of the ASGF with a link to the meeting outline when it is available on the ASGF website.

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HILT update

Barbara provided the group with an update on the HILT (High Level Thesaurus) developments. The HILT draft interim report recently distributed to the stakeholders recommended setting up a collaboratively funded two-year research project that would develop a pilot terminologies mapping service for users and staff in archives, internet services, libraries, and museums. It was hoped that this can be done with international participation and support.

EdNA Online project proposal

Mike reported that EdNA Higher Education submitted to DETYA a project proposal titled "Enhancing the value in subject gateways". The project aims to improve cross-disciplinary access to Australian resources through working with the ASGF and NLA to address issues of interoperability between Australian subject gateways. The group discussed the proposal and associated issues, such as a need for a national information framework, ownership of subject gateways content by the universities, competition vs collaboration.

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Next meeting

The next meeting is planned for March 2002, after the Global Summit, and will be hosted by the Flinders University in Adelaide. An exact date will be announced later in the year.

Date last verified: 27 Mar 2008

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