Bridget Robinson - lisbrr@ukoln.ac.uk
Welcome to the Agora news bulletin for June.
As the project enters it's final six months we are looking forward to the start of the case studies. They will provide an invaluable contribution to the project.
Library Associates (contribution by David Palmer - UEA)
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Installation
Progress continues to be made on the installation of Agora Release 1 in the Library Associate sites with installations now complete in Hull, Heriot-Watt and, of course, UEA. There have been some delays in relation to Bath Spa and UKOLN but it is expected that installation will occur within the next 2 weeks
Case studies/training
With the approval of the case studies by the Agora Board in early May, work has now started on planning individual case studies in each institution Meetings have been set between Agora Project staff and Hull and Heriot-Watt for later in June to provide updated training on the Agora Admin Client and to agree the timeframes for completion of the case studies in each of those locations.
A meeting occurred between Project staff, the Senior User, and SELLIC in which it was agreed that SELLIC will commence it's case study in the fall with Release 2. It will be joined by MMU in basing the case study on Release 2. This timeframe will allow for undergraduates to be represented within the case studies.
As agreed at the Board meeting in May, David Palmer is taking primary responsibility within the Project for support of the case studies at Hull, Heriot-Watt and SELLIC, whilst Bridget Robinson will be providing support for Bath Spa.
The next month should see the start of all the case studies, preceded, of course, by any training that the Library Associates deem necessary.
Release 2
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The release 2 interface has been made available to the Agora team, the Agora board and the Library associates for initial comment. The feedback has been passed to FDI who will be considering the comments in consultation with Agora Team members and will implement suggestions where appropriate and possible within the time and cost framework of the Project.
The overall impression is that Release 2 represents a major improvement in many areas and shows a great evolution of the Agora system. It is currently on schedule for release in September.
Dissemination
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An article covering the progress of Agora and achievements to date will be appearing in the June issue of Ariadne. A report on Agora will also be included in the July issue of the UKOLN newsletter.
David Palmer participated in a focus group run by the British Library on 17th May.
The purpose of the focus group was to provide input into the new ETOC product that the BL is debuting in September and to provide more general comment on the future of electronic document delivery. There was a broad selection of institutions and work represented, ranging from the Chief Librarian of Southampton, Bernard Naylor, to interlending clerks from the University of Hull and the University of Birmingham. The focus group provided an opportunity to present the Agora 'view' of the HLMS to a group not normally assembled together. It was interesting to note that the consensus of the group was that it was desirable that electronic document delivery move in the same direction as envisaged by Agora; namely, integrating with discovery and searching of resources, and becoming more highly automated. The issues of authorization and control over the process already identified within Agora were also identified by the focus group
David Palmer will be attending Interlend 2000 - Forum for Interlending in Dublin 4th July.
A range of key dissemination events are now being planned for the autumn to coincide with release 2 and the end of the release 1 case studies. Discussions about the possibility of a hybrid library event are in progress and it is also hoped that Agora will be represented in some form at DRH 2000(Digital Resources for the Humanities) in September.