Transcript JISC ASSIST

Joint Information Systems Committee
Development of an Information
Environment for UK Learning and
Teaching
NOF-Digitise GIS workshop, 3 September 2001
Dr Caroline Ingram
JISC/DNER Learning and Teaching Programme Manager
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
What is the Information Environment?
•
A key aspect of the JISC 5 Year Strategy
...to build an on-line information environment providing secure and
convenient access to a comprehensive collection of scholarly and
educational material...
•
How does it relate to the DNER?
We can characterise an Information Environment as the set of network
services that support publishing and use of information resources...
– DNER refers to distributed learning and research resources
– The Information Environment is needed to enable students
and staff to access and use those resources in ways
meaningful to them
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
Current searching architecture
Content
(local and
remote)
Web
Web
Web
Web
Authentication
Authorisation
End-user
End-user needs to
join services
together manually as well as learning
multiple user
interfaces
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
Searching in the Future
Content
Web
Web
Web
Web
Authentication
Authorisation
Broker
Collect’n Desc.
Service Desc.
Portal
Thesauri
User Profiles
End-user
End-user is
“automatically”
presented with
relevant
resources
through relevant
channels
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
GIS - definitions and relationship to
JISC/DNER
•
Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
– information linked to a particular geographical location
– allows
•
•
•
mapping, management and analysis of spatial data
effective presentation for the user
Although not directly developing GIS software and
applications, a number of current projects and services use
GIS...
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
Current JISC/DNER programmes
•
•
Infrastructure programme
– enhancements to architecture enabling cross searching
– portal development projects
– development of article infrastructure services
Learning and Teaching Programme
– enhancements to JISC services
– development of new collections
– learning and teaching packages
•
•
•
routes into databases
ways of incorporating electronic resources into teaching
interactive content (learning objects)
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
JISC/DNER and geospatial data
•
•
Guidelines
– GIS Guide to Good Practice
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/goodguides/gis/
JISC/DNER Projects and Services
– UK BordersTM
– Demonstrator services for geospatial data
•
•
Geospatial Gazetteer Service
Geospatial Portal Service
– CHCC - Census project
– Digimap and the eMapScholar project
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
GIS Guide to Good Practice
•
•
provides a source of useful generic information on the creation,
maintenance, use and long-term preservation of GIS-based
digital resources.
Emphasises:
– the processes of long-term preservation, archiving and
effective data re-use
– the importance of adhering to recognised standards and
the recording of essential pieces of information about a
given resource
•
Designed:
– to smooth the transition of the digital resource into an
archive environment
– to ensure that it can be re-located and re-used in the
future.
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
UK BordersTM Service
•
•
•
Access to digitised boundary datasets of the UK
Used
– to map Census and other datasets
– to aggregate records into conventional areas (counties,
districts, wards etc)
Available in many GIS formats for users to download
•
•
Web access
Institutional and individual registration available
•
•
Maps are based on data provided with the support of the ESRC and
JISC and use boundary material which is copyright of the Crown, Post
Office and the EDLINE consortium.
http://edina.ac.uk/ukborders/
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
Development of a Geospatial Gazetteer
•
A gazetteer is a list of place names together with their associated
geographic location (e.g. latitude and longitude co-ordinates,
geographical place name)

The demonstrator gazetteer service will illustrate:



the use of a gazetteer to enhance the geographic searching of one or
more existing DNER services
the use of a gazetteer to assist in the semi-automatic geographic
indexing of descriptions of DNER resources.
reference use through the provision of a command driven web-based
interface, to show the types of queries that could be answered by a
well-populated service.
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
Development of a Geospatial Portal
•
•

A Geo-data Portal provides the user with the means to find
related resources of use, adding functions that add value to the
data identified and retrieved.
These resources can be either local to the portal or found by
searching the DNER and other on-line information services.
The Portal would provide a number of simple query
interfaces
 also map based search facility
 possible to search for geo-spatial data and resources by
subject (topic), date, resource type and, most importantly, by
geographic location
 would also help users make effective use of data and
resources that have already been collected/produced
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
Position of Portal for users
Content
Web
Web
Web
Web
Authentication
Authorisation
Broker
Collect’n Desc.
Service Desc.
Portal
Thesauri
User Profiles
End-user
End-user is
“automatically”
presented with
relevant
resources
through relevant
channels
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
Developing the Collection of Historical and
Contemporary Census Data (CHCC) and
Related Materials
• The project aims to develop
- Learning and teaching resources for teachers and students
(e.g. tutorials, exercises, exemplar based case studies)
- A Census Gateway with cross-searchable metadata to
facilitate discovery of census data and associated materials
- Improved interfaces to and enhancement of the CHCC
suitable for student use
• Oct 2000 - Sep 2003
• http://www.chcc.ac.uk/
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
Digimap Service
•
•
Delivers Ordnance Survey digital map data to UK HE
•
Users can
– view and print maps of any location in Great Britain at
predefined scales
– download data for use with GIS or CAD software
Digimap also allows advanced cartographic tasks
– user specified scale
– combining datasets on a map
– large format printing
•
•
Only institutional registration, UK HE only, current pilot in FE
http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
•
•
•
•
•
Adding learning and teaching materials and extra
functionality to the
Digimap service
Digimap provides access to online Ordnance Survey
digital map data and high quality mapping products
e-MapScholar will provide teaching case studies;
tools and learning materials in working with digital
map data, data integration, and 2D & 3D visualisation;
and virtual placement
Jan 2001 - Feb 2003
http://edina.ac.uk/projects/mapscholar/index.shtml
Supporting Higher and Further Education
Joint Information Systems Committee
More information...
•
•
•
http://jisc.ac.uk/dner
– for more information on JISC services and projects, including
links to project webpages and e-mail addresses for project
staff
Caroline Ingram
– [email protected]
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/project/goodguides/gis/
– for guidelines on GIS resources
Supporting Higher and Further Education