Please accept our apologies if you receive this message
more than once: it is being sent to a number of lists
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EDINA Digimap is a new JISC-funded service to be launched
in January 2000. It will deliver on-line Ordnance Survey
mapping and digital map data to all subscribing Higher
Education Institutions. Further details of the service and
relevant URLs are given below.
For an annual institutional subscription, all academic
staff and students can have desktop access to maps and
digital map data, which are free at the point of use.
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 and sponsorship.
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.
If you are the collections/information resources librarian,
please take some time to look at the information and URLs
given below. EDINA Digimap is likely to be a very popular
service and we would like you to be involved from the
outset in the consultation processes described below.
Please read on for further information.
With thanks for your interest,
EDINA
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Further information
Information about the EDINA Digimap service is available at
http://edina.ed.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 and Supporting EDINA
Digimap.
Both documents can be found at
http://edina.ed.ac.uk/digimap/why.html
Background to the JISC/OS deal
EDINA Digimap builds upon the highly successful JISC
Electronic Libraries (eLib) Digimap project, based at the
University of Edinburgh Data Library.
The Digimap Demonstrator service, developed under the
project and delivered to six trial sites, has attracted
over 1,000 enthusiastic users among lecturers, researchers
and students in the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh,
Glasgow, Oxford, Newcastle and Reading. Since 1997,
students and staff have viewed over 23,000 maps and
downloaded large quantities of data for use in application
software.
OS datasets included in the deal
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 Rationing of Land-Line tiles below); · Meridian™:
comprehensive road and 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 is now being established by the
JISC and CHEST. It is likely that the final model will
follow that of the JISC/MIDAS JSTOR service.
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. Subscriptions will range
from £1,750 plus VAT for small institutions to £4,750 plus
VAT for large institutions. A list of institutions in each
category is available
at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/pub98/c12_98.html
Until the subscription process is in place, we are inviting
institutions to register an interest/intention to subscribe
by sending an email message to [log in to unmask]
All HEIs that do so by July 1999 will be invited to take
part in the consultation process for the rationing of
Land-Line.Plus® tiles (see below).
Rationing of Land-Line tiles
A rationing mechanism is required to allocate the 30% of
Land-Line tiles available under the JISC/OS deal. A fair
system for rationing the tiles will be devised in
collaboration with those HEIs that have expressed
an interest in subscribing to EDINA Digimap by July 1999
(see above). We are intending to hold seminars in London
and Edinburgh in mid-July for this purpose and will send
details to any institution declaring an interest by July.
Case Studies
The Digimap Demonstrator service in the trial site HEIs has
been used for a fascinating variety of teaching and
research purposes. You can see some examples at:
http://edina.ed.ac.uk/digimap/datause.html
More detailed case studies can be found at
http://edina.ed.ac.uk/digimap/docs/casestudies.html
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Moira Massey
Teaching Support Officer
Data Library
University of Edinburgh
Main Library Building
George Square
Edinburgh EH8 9LJ
Tel: +44 (0)131 650 4616
Fax: +44 (0)131 650 3308
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