*Please accept our apologies if you receive this message more than once: it
is being sent to a number of lists.*
*Please also note that this message is applicable only within UK Higher
Education and accept our apologies if you are outside this group.*
EDINA Digimap is a JISC-funded service which was launched in January 2000. It
delivers on-line Ordnance Survey mapping and digital map data to all
subscribing Higher Education Institutions. Further details of the service,
forthcoming training courses and relevant URLs are given below.
Through Digimap, in return for an annual institutional subscription, all
academic staff and students have desktop access to maps and digital map
data, which are free at the point of use. In addition, training is
available for local support staff.
EDINA Digimap is for everyone! It is a multi-disciplinary teaching and
research resource, which crosses the boundaries of the subject-based
approach, and so requires institution-wide commitment.
If you are interested in EDINA Digimap, we would ask you to make your
interest known to those who would be likely to make the decision about
subscribing in your institution. This may well be the reference or
collections/information resources librarian(s). You may also receive
support from people interested in learning technology and information
strategy issues in your institution.
PLEASE READ ON FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Information about the EDINA Digimap service is available at
http://edina.ac.uk/digimap
We have prepared two documents to assist institutions in their
consideration of the EDINA Digimap service:
EDINA Digimap: the Case for Subscribing is available at:
http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/subscribe/index.html
Supporting EDINA Digimap is available at:
http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/support/index.html
WHO IS USING DIGIMAP?
EDINA Digimap builds upon the highly successful JISC Electronic Libraries
(eLib) Digimap project, based at the University of Edinburgh Data Library.
EDINA Digimap currently has 43 subscribing institutions, from Aberdeen to
Portsmouth, from Glamorgan to East Anglia, and after four months of
operational service, there are 1300 registered users.
A list of currently subscribing institutions can be found at:
http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/list.html
80% of these users are from non-geography departments, and about 50% are
undergraduate students. In the last three months more than 9000 maps have
been requested on screen!
OS DATASETS AVAILABLE THROUGH DIGIMAP
Digimap provides access to datasets agreed in a deal made during 1999
between JISC and Ordnance Survey.
100% of national coverage is available for all the following products,
except Land-Line.Plus:
· Land-Line.Plus: large scale comprehensive data depicting an extensive
range of both man-made and natural features. 30% of national coverage is
available under the deal (see Selection of Land-Line tiles below);
· Meridian: comprehensive road and passenger railway networks, land use
areas, boundaries and place names;
· Strategi: "road atlas" scale mapping, showing major settlements, roads,
railways and land use;
· Land-Form PANORAMA: contours and digital terrain model (DTM) data at
1:50,000 scale;
· Place-names Gazetteer: containing over 250,000 place-names, derived from
1:50,000 Landranger mapping.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
The subscription process for Digimap is now being established by the JISC
and CHEST.
The deal is available to all HEIs funded by HEFCE, SHEFC, HEFCW and DENI.
HEIs have been divided into three categories, in accordance with the JISC's
agreed policy on banded charging for datasets. The subscription rates are
as follows:
Large insitution: £4750 + VAT
Medium insititution: £3250 + VAT
Small institution: £1750 + VAT
The next subscription year begins in September 2000, although institutions
may subscribe at any time. (Subscriptions for this academic year are
reduced.) A list of institutions in each category is
available at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/pub98/c12_98.html
Since the legal agreements covering the service have not yet been
completed, EDINA is inviting institutions to offer a Commitment to
Subscribe. You can do this by completing the Commitment to Subscribe form,
which can be found on the web at:
http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/subscribe/subscribe.html
DIGIMAP TRAINING DATES
The next set of EDINA Digimap training modules are to be held at the
Universities of Manchester and Portsmouth in June and July 2000. They are
intended for staff in subscribing institutions, or institutions which are
interested in subscribing to the service, who expect to have a role in
supporting the use of Digimap.
Full details of training dates and locations plus content and intended
audience of the modules are available at:
http://edina.ac.uk/docs/events.html
SELECTION OF LAND-LINE TILES
As noted above, only 30% of Land-Line tiles are available through Digimap.
Therefore, a selection mechanism is required to allocate which 30% of
Land-Line tiles are to be made available. A fair system for selecting
tiles has been devised by EDINA in collaboration with HEIs which expressed
an interest in subscribing to Digimap.
The allocation is done in three stages. At the beginning of each stage all
subscribing insitutions are allocated a quota of tiles to select. An
insitution must subscribe before the beginning of a particular stage in
order to take part in that stage of tile selection. EDINA has written a
software application to enable institutions to select tiles. Once tiles
have been selected they are available to all users at all subscribing
institutions.
CASE STUDIES
The Digimap pilot project in six trial site HEIs has been used for a
fascinating variety of teaching and research purposes. You can see some
examples at: http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/using/datause.html
More detailed case studies can be found at
http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/using/casestudies.html
Please contact EDINA ([log in to unmask]) if you have any further questions
about Digimap.
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EDINA URL: http://edina.ac.uk
Edinburgh University Data Library Tel: 0131 650 3302
Main Library Building, George Square Fax: 0131 650 3308
Edinburgh EH8 9LJ Email: [log in to unmask]
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