Information gateways: collaboration on content
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520010320077 |
| Published date | 01 February 2000 |
| Date | 01 February 2000 |
| Pages | 40-45 |
| Author | Rachel Heery |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Information gateways:
collaboration on
content
Rachel Heery
Content is key for information gateways; the
effective selection of high quality content
forms the chief rationale for the gateway
approach. It is therefore no surprise that
discussion of content issues formed a central
theme for participants at the first IMesh
Workshop reported in this issue. In the
workshop considerations of content ranged
over a broad spectrum of topics including
selection criteria, technical and policy issues,
guidelines for managing the gateway as well as
recommended standards and conventions.
Indeed discussion of content quickly merges
into consideration of business and service
issues, the close relationship between the
content of the gateway and the business
model, delivery of service, and marketing
direction cannot be ignored.
Within this report we will consider some of
the issues raised at the IMesh Workshop, and
in particular look at the implications of
collaboration for the way content is created
and managed. This piece is informed by
discussions at the workshop but is not
intended as an exact report which can be
found elsewhere (Dempsey et al., 2000). As
regards terminology, we use the term ``subject
gateway'' to indicate search services to high
quality Web resources focusing on a
particular discipline, and ``information
gateway'' for gateways that select material
according to other criteria, often a national or
regional approach, and that also offer subject
access.
1. Gateways in context
Subject gateways do not exist in isolation. For
the user they form part of the wider
experience of resource discovery. On the one
hand, the searcher, whether child or
professor, is faced with the compelling option
of using the global services, such as Yahoo!
and Google, as a first step. The
undifferentiated experience offered by such
services can be compared with the specialist
view offered by information gateways.
Gateways offer the user an alternative to the
generalist approach of the commercial global
search engines, but in order to optimise the
gateway service we need to gain a better
understanding of users' requirements for
particular types of search during the research
and learning process. It would be instructive
to compare information seeking behaviour
The author
Rachel Heery is Assistant Director of the UK Office for
Library and Information Networking (UKOLN), University
of Bath, Bath, UK. E-mail: r.heery@ukoln.ac.uk
Keywords
Information services, Internet, Information retrieval
Abstract
Information gateways provide targeted discovery services
for their users, giving access to Web resources selected
according to quality and subject coverage criteria.
Information gateways recognise that they must
collaborate on a wide range of issues relating to content
to ensure continued success. This report is informed by
discussion of content activities at the 1999 Imesh
Workshop. The author considers the implications for
subject based gateways of co-operation regarding
coverage policy, creation of metadata, and provision of
searching and browsing across services. Other
possibilities for co-operation include working more closely
with information providers, and disclosure of information
in joint metadata registries.
Electronic access
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emerald-library.com
Issues
40
Online Information Review
Volume 24 .Number 1 .2000 .pp. 40±45
#MCB University Press .ISSN 1468-4527
To continue reading
Request your trial