Bridget Robinson - lisbrr@ukoln.ac.uk
Welcome to the Agora news bulletin for September.
Holidays have been a dominant feature of the last 4 weeks. David Palmer is currently away but will be back in early October.
Library Associates - Case Studies
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The case studies have been moving forward and are on schedule. Due to a technical issue with release 1 it has been decided to move UEA's case study to release 2. This should not impact on the overall delivery of the case study reports. All the other Library Associates plus UKOLN, have completed their case studies and are now in the process of writing up and submitting their reports. BSCW will continue to be used as a means of sharing and exchanging case study information.
Release 2
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Release 2 underwent compliance testing during August. Overall it has been very well received incorporating a range of improvements which build on the feedback to Release 1.
Dissemination
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Plans for two dissemination events are well underway.
The first event will be a project briefing for Service Providers to be held on 20th October at the BUFVC - British Universities Film & Video Council.
It will start with a demonstration of Agora Release 2 followed by lunch and then a round-table discussion focussing on the technical issues that have been highlighted during the project thus far,
The second event is for a wider audience. "The future is hybrid: libraries in the 21st century" will be held on 1st November 2000 at The British Library, Euston Road, London.
The aim of this one-day workshop is to disseminate information about the 5 hybrid library projects, Agora, BUILDER, HeadLine, HyLife and MALIBU. Lynne Brindley - Director of the British Library, will introduce the programme. During the morning session each of the projects will be providing an update on the progress and status of their projects to date. The afternoon session will be organized into workshops offering all delegates an opportunity to get first hand experience of the project services and to talk to the project staff. A member of the DNER team will give the closing address.
The day is aimed at Librarians from Higher and Further Education Institutions, Library Users, Researchers in information, library systems and management, other related eLib/JISC projects and Service Providers.
The event is proving to be very popular and is already over subscribed.
The editor of Ariadne will be reporting on the workshop.