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Linked Open Bibliographic Data: Creating an Open, Linked and Interactive Educational Resource for Bibliographic Data

By Anne Welsh, on 25 July 2014

ELDG Grant

A team from DIS has been awarded an Elearning Development Grant (ELDG) from UCL ELE (E-Learning Environments) to develop a linked open data bibliographic dataset based on BIBFRAME, the new standard for bibliographic records. Being based on RDF – the standard metadata language for the Web – BIBFRAME enables semantically interlinking bibliographic datasets on the Web, and improves the interaction with web users by enabling them to access, retrieve and update bibliographic records online. The aim of this project is to develop a BIBFRAME dataset as an Open Educational Resource, which will help students learn the new standard in an interactive way, and in the same time become familiar with state-of-the art web technologies.

A key component of ELDG projects is student involvement, and we are currently recruiting a student systems developer to work alongside Dr Antonis Bikakis and Anne Welsh to carry out programming work and develop content. Later in the project, they will receive guidance from Simon Mahony on the creation of Open Education Resources. Dr Charlie Inskip will work with a group of students to devise and implement iterative evaluation strategies for the project.

There has been a great deal of interest in BIBFRAME within the UK cataloguing community. We will be looking for experienced practitioners to test the resource in 2015. If you are a cataloguer who is interested in testing, you can let yourself be known to Anne Welsh at the Cataloguing and Indexing Group conference in Canterbury in September, or watch LIS-UKBIBS for invitations to focus groups and to the dissemination activities at the end of the project.

The Linked Open Bibliographic Data team are: Dr Antonis Bikakis (Project Lead), Anne Welsh (Project Coordinator), Simon Mahony and Dr Charlie Inskip.

We would like to thank Dr Rob Miller (DIS Head of Department) and Dr Mira Vogel (Faculty Elearning Facilitator) for their encouragement.

Image: E-Learning Development Grants page, UCL ELE.

Crucible studentship

By Oliver W Duke-Williams, on 22 December 2011

I am pleased to report that the department has been successful in bidding for an inter-disciplinary Crucible studentship, to start September/October 2012. These studentships focus on research into lifelong health and well-being.

This studentship will be supervised by Nicola Shelton (Epidemiology and Public Health), Emmanuel Stamatakis (Epidemiology and Public Health), Oliver Duke-Williams (Information Studies) and Sandra Dunsmuir (Clinical, Educational & Health Psychology), and was one of four projects to be funded from 25 applications.

The project will look at the potential for using web technology to engage primary school pupils in physically active virtual fieldtrips: they will move through a virtual on-screen landscape as they walk on the spot in the classroom. Does physically active learning in the classroom setting improve learning outcomes and increase overall physical activity? The interdisciplinary project will involve designing a virtual fieldtrip linked to elements of the Primary Curriculum for use on school classroom white boards. This will be piloted in primary schools in London and the learning outcomes (comprehension, recall of facts, engagement) and physical activity of pupils measured compared to a control group who participate in a sedentary fieldtrip online. Physical activity would be measured at baseline, during the fieldtrip period and post the intervention using accelerometers and self report.

 

London’s Global University

By Anne Welsh, on 10 June 2011

I am really delighted to have received Pioneer Award funding to work with Dr Caroline Bressey (Human Geography and Equiano Centre) on a project entitled The World of UCL 1828-1948: London’s Global University.

We aim to answer two related questions:

  1. To what extent can we establish the Asian and Black presence at UCL in the early years, 1828-1948?
  2. How can historical material about Asian and Black students be used in research, teaching and community engagement?

Between November 2011 and November 2012, we will be conducting research in the College Archives and establishing

  • an exhibition
  • an interdisciplinary symposium for UCL staff discussing how these materials might be used in research and teaching
  • an interdisciplinary student conference
  • creative workshops, creating art and writing from the sources

We are particularly looking forward to working with Dr Andrew Flinn (Information Studies) and College Archivist Gillian Furlong and to forming links with other researchers in the UCL community.

Watch this space for more news about the project.

Image: UCL Library Services Special Collections. Used with permission.