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The GDL is a digital library that is based in Glasgow and exists for the benefit of Glasgow people and institutions. It is not restricted to content about Glasgow, although this is an important aspect of the library. The GDL will therefore seek to create, collect or provide access to digital content that is:
The GDL will also aim to create, maintain and organise links to such material that exists elsewhere on the Internet.
GDL content may include teaching and research materials, public information, other resources created by staff in the GDL institutions, collections of digitised materials, subscription services, and freely-available Internet resources. Within this overall scope, the GDL will identify short, medium and long-term priorities for collection development.
The GDL will aim to avoid duplication of activities by working with other organisations and projects in a standards-based distributed information environment. It will seek to provide infrastructure and guidance so that GDL collections may be accessed as a coherent whole, even though content may be created and maintained by different projects and individuals working with different priorities for a range of target audiences.
The GDL will create and maintain its own collection of digital resources and will make them available for the widest possible audience. Each of these collections will be browsable and searchable individually and as a whole collection. Wherever possible, digitised resources will be described with relevant captions and catalogue records. Current content creation projects being carried out within CDLR include:
The GDL will seek to manage a broader collection of digital content by working with other local projects and organisations to provide a coherent service which is greater than the sum of it parts. Rather than simply offering links to websites of related collections, the aim is to enable multiple collections of local relevance to be searchable as a single collection. This can only be achieved by creating the necessary technical infrastructure and co-operating with other projects on standards for resource description and database organisation. Currently the GDL is co-operating with the following projects:
As well as allowing local users to locate known resources relatively easily by cross-searching the disparate collections, the aim is to assist resource discovery on a national and international scale by describing the resources to established standards, so that individual components of a collection can be located and re-used by those who were previously unaware of their existence. To help achieve this the GDL will work with national and international standards-based projects such as SCONE and CORC.
As well as offering integrated access to multiple collections of digitised resources, a potentially useful function for the GDL would be to offer an integrated catalogue of educational courses available in the Glasgow area. However, such catalogues have been developed (at a national level) over several years and are already available via the PlanIt database (http://www.ceg.org.uk/) and the Scottish University for Industry (http://www.scottishufi.co.uk/). The GDL will therefore offer links to these services but will not seek to develop similar databases.
Another rich educational resource is represented by the catalogues of local educational institutions such as libraries, museums, colleges and universities. Here there is no established service already available, and so the GDL will seek to build on the work already done by projects such as CAIRNS and SCONE by offering searchable access to catalogues of local organisations. This will not be limited to large libraries and institutions, but will also seek to incorporate catalogues of smaller local organisations, such as those of the Glasgow Women's Library, Scottish Institute for Residential Child Care and Scottish Mountaineering Club.
The GDL will seek to maintain an organised set of links to information that is for, in or about Glasgow and is freely accessible via the Internet. As this is potentially an open-ended activity, this document specifies certain types of content that will, or will not, be included in the GDL. It is accepted that the policy will be kept under review and is likely to evolve as the GDL develops.
All items listed below are considered to be suitable for inclusion unless stated otherwise. The current prototype GlasgowInfo service includes many of these items as individual links from static web pages, but the aim is to generate browsable pages of links from a searchable database.
Where well-maintained current listings already exist elsewhere, the GDL will normally link to them rather than duplicate them.
Links will be created and maintained to websites of numerous significant institutions and organisations which are located within the boundaries of the City of Glasgow, irrespective of the currency or value of the content of those websites. This will in effect be a local directory service.
The following will not be routinely included, although content from them may be included if it is of value and relevance:
As people in Glasgow may be interested in any subject, then in theory there are no boundaries on the content that may be considered 'for Glasgow'. However, in practice there are limits on the practicality and desirability of holding or linking to content on any subject. The focus of the GDL will therefore be on content that is likely to be of educational value, i.e. for learning, teaching or research. It will not collect content that is solely or primarily designed for personal, commercial or entertainment purposes.
Online courses (on any topic) offered by educational institutions in Glasgow will be included in the GDL, as well as online courses on topics of Glasgow relevance held elsewhere.
Content produced and published locally may be included, but will usually be made available to GDL users via another source, such as the Digital Information Office (DIO) and Sapiens projects.
Educational content from any source published on the Internet may be included in the GDL, but will usually be made available to GDL users via another source, which has its own procedures for resource selection, evaluation and description. Examples of other sources of links and resource descriptions are the BUBL LINK service, the National Grid for Learning Scotland (NGfL) and SCRAN. The GDL has already demonstrated cross-searching of GDL collections with those of BUBL LINK and NGfL, using technology established by the CAIRNS service.
One of the original aims of the GDL was to investigate the possibilities for establishing joint subscriptions to publications of common interest to more than one of the partner organisations. Although it was not feasible to achieve this aim within the timescale of the initial project, the GDL remains interested in the possibilities for establishing joint subscriptions and other collaborative services betwwn partner institutions.
All content of the GDL must comply with Scottish law and with the terms of the JANET acceptable use policy.
Policy on access control is likely to develop in accordance with the priorities of the GDL and its partner institutions. As an interim policy it is proposed that resources to be included in the GDL should normally be freely available. If authorisation is required to access content then:
This policy will be reviewed in consultation with GDL partners.
If additional software (e.g. Acrobat, Flash, MP3 player) is required to access content, then:
Where software is available to users in some GDL institutions but not others, the GDL will include a suitable indication of the software requirements as part of the resource description.
Content of educational value must meet certain criteria for inclusion in the GDL. It should be normally accredited, maintained, up-to-date, and in a widely accessible format. Where resources are available to GDL users via another source (e.g. DIO, BUBL LINK, NGfL) then the GDL will accept the evaluation procedures of those sources without additional evaluation.
Access to catalogue records of books or other printed materials about Glasgow will be via other services such as CAIRNS and SCONE, which the GDL will not seek to duplicate. However, the GDL may offer tailored links or pointers to such services as part of an integrated user service.
The GDL will take into account the historical development of Glasgow and the broad understanding of what is meant by the Glasgow area. Although much of the focus will be on the City of Glasgow as currently defined, the GDL will not automatically exclude material that relates to the surrounding areas, such as Bearsden, Rutherglen, Clydebank, and parts of North Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire.
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