JANET and the Librarian
| Pages | 250-263 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb044817 |
| Published date | 01 April 1988 |
| Date | 01 April 1988 |
| Author | Andrew Buxton |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
JANET and the Librarian
Andrew Buxton
School of Library Archive
and Information Studies,
University College
London,
Gower
Street,
London WC1E6BT
England
Abstract:
JANET(the Joint Academic Network) is a wide-area network
linking together computers and users
in
British universities, polytechnics,
establishments of the research councils, and
the
British Library. It provides
for interactive
working,
file
transfer,
electronic mail and job
transfer.
Online
access is possible to many catalogues of university and polytechnic libraries,
the
British Library's BLAISE-LINE and ARTel services, and various
bibliographic and numeric databases held on university computers. Users
registered for electronic mail
can
use Janet to send
this
kind of mail to other
sites
in
Britain, or overseas through
the
EARN,
BITNET,
and NORTHNET
combined
network.
There are two-way gateways between Janet and British
Telecom network PDN, allowing access to commercial online hosts
in
Great
Britain or overseas. These gateways can provide a faster and cheaper
alternative to dial-up use of PDN.
1.
Introduction
J
anet (the Joint Academic Network) is a wide-
area network serving the British academic com-
munity. It links computers and users in organis-
ations performing or connected with research
funded by the Department of Education and
Science (DES) and thus involves:
— all British universities (except Buckingham),
— most polytechnics,
— all research establishments of the Science and
Engineering Research Council (SERC), and
most of those of the Agricultural and Food
Research Council (AFRC). Natural Environ-
ment Research Council
(NERC).
and Medical
Research Council (MRC). (The Economic
and Social Research Council. ESRC. has no
laboratory which is not on a university
campus).
— other organisations such
as
the British Library,
the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, and the
Royal Institution.
The University Grants Committee has allocated
money for enhancing library automation through
Janet, and a number of projects have been funded,
such as pooling of bibliographic records from re-
search libraries to assist with shared cataloguing.
The JANET User Group for Libraries (JUGL)
exists to promote and improve the facilities offered
by Janet to libraries through meetings with the
Janet Executive, training, documentation, and so
on.
In January
1987,
about 120 sites, 700 computers,
and perhaps 7000 terminals were connected.
1.1
Structure of the network
Janet is a packet-switching network, operating on
the basis of the CCITT (Comité
Consultatif
Inter-
national Télégraphique et Téléphonique) recom-
mendation X25.
The principal nodes of the Janet network are the
eight packet-switching exchanges (JPSEs) located
at the Network Operation Centres, using GEC
4100 series computers and GEC software. The
JPSEs are linked by 48 Kbit/second lines rented
from British Telecom, as illustrated in Figure 1.
The Rutherford-London-Manchester-Daresbury
box has been upgraded to 256 Kbit/ second [
1
].
Each JPSE is connected to a number of campus
packet-switched exchanges (CPSEs) at the differ-
ent universities, polytechnicsand so on, and these
in turn may be connected to local area networks
serving a number of computers and terminals on
the campus. Some case studies of individual in-
stitutions are given by Holligan [2]; Wells [3] in-
cludes a table showing the different types of
computer for which connection protocols are
available.
1.2
Management of the network
The principal management body for Janet is the
Network Advisory Committee, which has mem-
bers from the Computer Board (the body respon-
sible to the DES for coordinating and supporting
university computing services), the JANET User
Group, SERC, NERC and AFRC. Implementation
of the Committee's policies is carried out by the
Joint Network Team (JNT) and the Network Ex-
ecutive, both based at Chilton in Oxfordshire and
under the same head. The JNT is responsible for
campus network facilities in universities and net-
working products on sites funded by the Computer
Board. The Executive is responsible for the oper-
ation of the switching centres and leased circuits.
The total staff of the JNT and Executive is quite
small the operation of
the
switches being sub-con-
tracted to the Network Operation Centres.
1.3 Services provided
by
Janet
Janet provides four main kinds of service:
— interactive working,
— electronic mail,
— file transfer,
— job transfer.
ARTICLES
250
The
Electronic
Library,
August
1988.
Vol.6,
No.4
To continue reading
Request your trial