To: NelH (National Electronic Library for Health) mailing list
lis-elib-tech: eLib programme technical issues mailing list
lis-elib: more general eLib mailing list
> On Wed, 19 May 1999, Leicestershire Health Promotion Centre wrote:
>
> I have followed nelh debate with interest. Intrigued to see Technical Spec
> document recently. Two thoughts inspired by reading this:
>
> 1. Are we certain there is no proprietary software already available which
> will provide required functions? I would be concerned if NHS re-invented
> work done elsewhere plus massive resource needed to develop.
>
> 2. Perhaps a more theoretical/operational point for the time being but
> whilst we are talking about Library Management Systems - has any thought
> been given to the question of NELH metadata or ready made catalogue records
> available for use in databases/catalogues other than NELH?
> ...
Okay; time for an (overdue) bit of introducing one community to another,
for those folks not aware of the other:
1) The National Electronic Library for Health is a big initiative, which
will result in a "virtual information centre" (in a wide, holistic sense)
for the various stakeholders in health and medical information. That
includes clinicians, the public, patients, medical researchers and so
forth.
It has a Web Site at: http://www.nelh.nhs.uk/
...at which news of forthcoming developments, how stuff will be built, and
so forth are being mounted.
The NelH is going to be big. It is built around the principles of:
- information for all
- accessible through the Internet
- quality and accuracy of information e.g. making sure that medical info
is accurate and not life-threatening, and that information for patients
and the public is in a non-jargon form
- use of standards (XML has been mentioned a lot of late)
- answering queries quickly (e.g. doctors need their queries answered in
15 seconds)
"Meanwhile, back at the ranch"...
2) Over in UK academia, a programme known as eLib (Electronic
Libraries Programme) has been underway for four years now. This started of
as a small collection of projects, aiming to assist in "cultural change"
in the information sector ie get people to use electronic information
systems.
Over time, and several more phases, it has grown into a multi-strand
collection of projects, some of which are spinning off into services.
These include the subject gateways, which are just on the cusp of being
reformed into the Resource Discovery Network, for example. There are many
other projects, and areas, though. Projects, and other information, can be
found from the eLib site at:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/services/elib/
There are also two mailing lists (indicated above) for eLib.
3) The important bit. MANY OF THE ISSUES THAT THE NELH IS FACING, HAVE
BEEN FACED OR ARE BEING TACKLED BY ELIB (either as a whole or groups of
projects, or by individual projects becoming services). These include (but
are certainly not limited to):
- metadata (a topic that eLib has been beating to death for several
years); standards, dublin core, XML, RDF etc.
- dealing with publishers and other content providers
- distributed vs centralised architectures
- training people in using Internet/electronic information services
- developing software for electronic information services
- information quality standards
- hybrid libraries; accessing heterogenous information through one
interface
Several phases of eLib are still very active, especially the Hybrid
Library, Clumps and Digital Preservations projects in phase 3, and the
subject gateways.
John Kirriemuir,
OMNI
=====================================================
OMNI: Organising (Bio)medical Networked Information
Covering the Health, Medical, Pharmaceutical and Bio-
research subjects for four years: http://omni.ac.uk/
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|