Hybrid Libraries projects and the Subject Portals Development Project

A particular set of JISC-funded projects have already modelled aspects of the functionality required of the Subject Portals, but at the level of the institution rather than at the national level. These are the Hybrid Library projects. A good overview of the 5 projects was given in a D-Lib  article in 1998.

For background as how the concept of the hybrid library relates to the DNER in general and why these projects are so important for the Subject Portals Project, refer to the Ariadne Issue 6 2001 article by Stephen Pinfield and Lorcan Dempsey,  'The Distributed National Electronic Resource and the Hybrid Library'.

These projects have produced much that is relevant in the context of the Subject Portals Project.  I'd recommend that the SAD I partners have a closer look at each of the project sites (below) and to save time I have tried to highlight material of special interest.

http://builder.bham.ac.uk/main.asp

BUILDER - Birmingham University Integrated Library Development and Electronic Resource
 

One of Builders outcomes is a cross-search facility that operates across the 5 hybrid library sites ('portal OR portals' retrieved 48 records). Try it!

'AN EVALUATION OF THE VALUE AND IMPACT OF THE HYBRID LIBRARY AS A WORKING DEMONSTRATOR', Clare Nankivell, December 2000, http://builder.bham.ac.uk/reports/html/hld.asp
 
'Building On Builder', Ian Upton, January 2001 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue26/builder/
 

http://hylife.unn.ac.uk/

HYLIFE - Hybrid Libraries of the Future
 

Check out an implementation at one of the partner sites, University of Northumbria, called HyLife for Geographers.

The HYLIFE Library Toolkit offers a practical guide and information resource for those in universities creating, implementing and managing Hybrid Library services in their organisations. The section on Access to Information includes a discussion on portals.

http://builder.bham.ac.uk/main.asp

 http://hosted.ukoln.ac.uk/agora/

AGORA
 

To try the Agora demonstrator http://yaffel.ukoln.ac.uk/phase2/  using the ID agorademo and the password hybrid.  This search was developed using Fretwell's VDX software. Interesting to compare Agora's user interface with that developed by MALIBU. 

Reference:

'Agora: the hybrid library from a users perspective', David Palmer and Briget Robinson, January 2001 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue26/case-studies/

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/malibu/

MALIBU - Managing the Hybrid Library for the Benefit of Users
 

To review the Malibu demonstration search, you may use the guest access provided at King's College London,  http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/malibu/choosite.html  The service retrieves records from library catalogues, union catalogues and archive collections, and Google search results.

'Travelling at the Speed of Discovery: The MALIBU project's Most Valuable Lessons',Valeda Dent, http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue26/malibu/  http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue26/malibu/

http://www.headline.ac.uk

HEADLINE - Hybrid Electronic Access and Delivery in the Library Networked Environment
 

http://www.headline.ac.uk/public/useful/portals.html offers some links to portal sites of the My Yahoo variety.

JISC recently granted a six month extension to HeadLine's implementation and evaluation phase. The project will now end on the 31st July 2001.

Check out the demonstration of a PIE. The PIE (Personal Information Environment) provides the user with a one-stop-shop for both print and electronic resources. It use portal-type technology to present an information environment that is tailored to its users needs and allows user customisation and sharing (description taken from the HeadLine Newsletter, Autumn 2000)