Hi Martin
We here at The Open University Library also had a ROADS based resources
database (ROUTES) to hold relevant web resources for our courses.
A couple of years ago we made the decision to move away from ROADS for
similar reasons.
We took the decision to buy in a commercial product (Index+ from a
company called System Simulation) which was tailored to our needs.
Although I am no longer involved with this service (ROUTES) on a day to
day I would be happy to answer any questions/queries you may have
regarding our move away from ROADS.
Hope this helps.
David
David Turpie
Information Management Officer
Information and Knowledge Management Group The Open University Library
-----Original Message-----
From: A general Library and Information Science list for news and
discussion. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Martin Gill
Sent: 14 June 2005 17:51
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: To RDN or not?
At the University of Leeds we are reviewing how we guide students to
relevant websites for their studies. At the moment we use a ROADS
database (an eLib project), which allows us to build browsable subject
hierarchies of relevant websites, and also provide a search interface to
the websites we've indexed, currently in the region of 3000 sites.
The software we use is no longer supported and the server we use is
reaching the end of its life, so we are looking for alternatives. One
option is for us to abandon a locally managed service and move to using
the RDN. However we do link to a number of sites, eg sites of local
interest , that wouldn't make it into the RDN, so we are also interested
in any alternatives that may exist.
We suspect this issue probably crops up in many other institutions. Do
you have, or do you know of, a solution to this problem? Are there any
software products out there that would replace the functions of our
ROADS database, or has everyone switched to using the RDN? How do you
cope with sites that would only interest your own user population?
I'll try and produce a summary of responses for the list
Thanks
Martin Gill
Faculty Team Leader (Social Sciences)
Leeds University Library
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