*Please accept our apologies if you receive this message
more than once: it is being sent to a number of lists*
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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Moira Massey Teaching Support Officer/Training Administrator
EDINA Data Library
University of Edinburgh Main Library Building, George
Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LJ
Tel: 0131 650 4616
Fax: 0131 650 3308
Email: [log in to unmask]
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