October 2000
The Department of Information and Library Studies (DILS)
of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and Information
Automation Limited's Centre for Information Quality
Management (CIQM) have extended their research work for
the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the
Higher Education Funding Councils. The previously
announced HEINUS (Higher Education Institutions Network
Usage Study) project now has two distinct strands, while
the 1999-2000 JUSTEIS (JISC Usage Surveys: Trends in
Electronic Information Services) project is entering its
second cycle.
HEINUS aims to determine whether there are any generic
patterns, issues or infrastructures that affect network
efficiency. HEINUS-net will talk to Network Service
Managers at a selection of Higher and Further Education
institutions and explore in some depth the issues that
affect the management of their networks. Interviews and a
subsequent e-mail discussion will survey such issues as
non-academic use of the network, traffic issues
surrounding external resources, new technologies such as
video conferencing, and the use of network statistics.
At the same time, HEINUS-web will examine a small number
of HEI/FEI Web sites to explore the management models
that lie behind them. Institutional visits will enable
researchers to talk to management, Web masters and
information providers (departments, information services,
registry, etc) and to assess how the site is managed and
what makes some sites more successful than others.
HEINUS-web will feed results into the more general
HEINUS-net thus providing a comprehensive analysis of HEI
and FEI network management. More information can be found
on the project Web site at:
<http://www.dil.aber.ac.uk/dils/Research/HEINUS/JISCTop.h
tm>.
The award for both projects totals £57,150 and the
projects run from September 2000 to March 2001.
The second cycle of the earlier JUSTEIS (JISC Usage
Surveys: Trends in Electronic Information Services)
project continues to examine the use made by students and
academics of the electronic information resources
available to them. Cycle 1 highlighted considerable
under-use of some important electronic information
resources and obvious needs for marketing of, and
training in, resource use. JUSTEIS-2 runs from October
2000 until March 2001. JUSTEIS-2 brings a further £45,600
to the Department. A third cycle is expected to run in
2001-2002.
The report from the first Cycle can be found on the
project Web site at:
<http://www.dil.aber.ac.uk/dils/Research/JUSTEIS/cyc1rep0
.htm>
Contact can be made with the Aberystwyth team through the
projects' administrator, Sian Spink. Telephone: 01970
622151; e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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