UK Archives Discovery Network is born!

The National Archives Network of the UK (NAN) has been around for some time. It had a reasonably high profile around the turn of the century (that sounds weird!) when the cross-searching networks were being set up, but then in the following years its remit and purpose became less clear.

However, a great deal has been achieved over the past 10 years. The NAN projects and hubs have involved literally hundreds of archive repositories across the UK, ranging from public authorities through to the archives of small charities, and the result is that archives have had some resources to enable them to convert existing descriptions for contribution to the national projects, and that users have a number of very valuable cross-searching sites to use in order to facilitate discovery.

The vision was always to provide one gateway to search archives across the UK. Whilst this may still be a desirable vision, it may not be a realistic one, given the resources that it would involve and the issues of effective cross-searching of disparate descriptions. However, what we can do is to move towards opening up our data in ways that encourage cross-searching, sharing and working together to learn about how we can benefit users.

Over the past year, the NAN has been thinking about where it should be heading. At a recent meeting (August 2009), it was decided to change the name to the UK Archives Discovery Network, to reflect the UK-wide status of the network and to emphasise that we are about facilitating discovery for users.

The aims of the UKAD Network include working together in the best interests of archive users, surfacing descriptions, opening up data, sharing experiences and increasing links between repositories and networks. Whilst it may take some time for the Network to realise its remit, there are already benefits happening as a result of coming together, talking and sharing ideas and experiences.

I hope that the community continues down this path, because I think that it has become more important than ever to work together and really consider interoperability. Creating closed systems, however impressive they are in themselves, means continuing in a silo-based mentality, which is not truly responding to users' expectations.

We have a social network site, which provides a fairly informal way of communicating:

http://archivesnetwork.ning.com/

There is also a JISC listserv: archives-discovery-network@jiscmail.ac.uk. We encourage archivists to use this to raise any issues associated with cross-searching, data standards, use of technology and archive networks.

We hope that archivists will be keen to use the UKAD network as a means to foster connections and collaborate on projects. Here's to the next 10 years - goodness only knows where we will have reached by then!

Image: Flickr cc. Jan Leenders

Good teaching wins over technology!

A news entry on Inside Higher Ed this week refers to students' use of technology. The fact that they are using 'more technology than ever' will come as no surprise, but a report by the Educause Center for Applied Research looks more closely at how students use information technology in college and how it can be harnessed to improve the learning experience. I was particularly interested in the conclusion that 'students appear to segment different modes of communication for different purposes.' The report suggests that e-mail, Web sites, message boards and Blackboard are viable ways of connecting with professors and peers, but this is not so for chat, instant messaging, Facebook and text messages, because students 'want to protect these tools’ personal nature '. So whilst social networking sites are increasingly popular, students may feel that their experience is spoilt by teaching staff trying to get in on the act! The findings of the report suggest that the utility of technology in a teaching environment depends upon how it it used, not whether it is used - students prefer good teachers who do not use technology rather than poor teachers who do. The suggestion is that 'as new methods of interacting with information become more ubiquitous...students will grow up with different expectations and preferences for acquiring knowledge and skills' and there will be a focus on 'active learning' that that 'comes from synthesizing information from multiple types of media.' The report does seem to conclude that technology is no substitute for well designed and executed, but at the same time proposes that teachers need to start thinking from different perspectives and not necessarily assume that technology will fit into their current ways of teaching.

The long arm of the pen

I've just been reading about a technology that was apparently conceptualised by the author Margaret Atwood. It allows authors to sign copies of their books remotely...and the signature is legally valid. LongPen, operated by the company Unotchit (you no touch it) is a pen that operates over the Internet. The book is be placed down on the machine and the author, sitting in the comfort of their own home, can sign the book from where they are. The LongPen moves over the book as if by magic. In addition, there is a video link so that they can talk to their fans. The advantages are clear, not least the reduction in travel. This is certainly the greener way to enjoy book signings, and of course it has many other applications. What I find particularly interesting is that this kind of traditional, but actually truly digital signature, is legally valid. I wonder if LongPen signatures will fetch the same price in the decades to come that the signatures on old documents fetch now? And does a LongPen signature on a digital document make the document unique?