**Apologies for cross-posting**
     
     DCMS/Wolfson Public Libraries Challenge Fund 1999-2000 
     ------------------------------------------------------ 
     The list of successful applicants for the 1999-2000 Challenge Fund was 
     announced by the DCMS on 3 August and made available via a DCMS press 
     release and the LIC website.
     
     The LIC website has now been updated to include project descriptions 
     for 17 of the 18 projects that will receive funding (the final one 
     will be added as soon as possible). The direct URL is:
     
     http://www.lic.gov.uk/research/dcms/dcms99.html
     
     New grants awarded (1)
     ----------------------
     The Department for Culture, Media and Sport made available to the 
     Library and Information Commission a £200,000 grant for the year 
     1999/2000. The grant is to be used "to ensure that blind and visually 
     impaired people benefit in a much wider way from access to library and 
     reading services".  Working in partnership, the Commission and Share 
     the Vision have determined how to make best use of the grant by 
     identifying several essential building blocks for the improvement of 
     services. Further details are available from the LIC website at:
     
     http://www.lic.gov.uk/research/visualaccess/index.html
     
     The Commission has already awarded a number of grants in this area and 
     descriptions of the projects are available on a separate awards page:
     
     http://www.lic.gov.uk/awards/visualaccess.html
     
     New grants awarded (2)
     ----------------------
     Details are now available of one more project that was successful 
     under the recent Information Retrieval call for research proposals. 
     The project, entitled "Effects of spatial-semantic interfaces in 
     visual information retrieval: three experimental studies" is listed 
     along with all other current IR projects on the LIC website at:
     
     http://www.lic.gov.uk/awards/ir-curpj.html 
     
     Research bulletin
     -----------------
     The first issue of the Commission's Research Bulletin is now available. 
     Paper copies can be obtained from the Commission (contact Henry Girling: 
     tel 0171 273 8746; fax: 0171 273 8701; email [log in to unmask]). 
     Two versions of the Research Bulletin are also available from the LIC 
     website: a PDF file of the full issue and a link to HTML versions of the 
     substantive articles. The direct URL is:
     
     http://www.lic.gov.uk/publications/bulletin/index.html
     
     
     **********************************
     Simon Matty
     Information Officer
     Library and Information Commission
     19-29 Woburn Place
     London WC1H 0LU
     
     tel: 0171 273 8733
     fax: 0171 273 8701
     
     email: [log in to unmask]
     **********************************
     



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