This announcements should be of interest to some readers.

Clifford Lynch


The Resource Discovery Network (RDN) http://www.rdn.ac.uk/

A major new network of discipline-based gateways or "hubs" has been
set up to provide students, lecturers and researchers with better
access to high quality resources on the Internet. The Resource
Discovery Network (RDN) catalogues and provides links to web sites
containing a wide range of educational materials, whether they are
electronic journals, database records, bibliographies or teaching
resources. All the resources in the network have been selected by
subject experts, who provide in-depth descriptions of their quality,
utility and reliability. Users can either access these resources via
the individual hubs or, by taking advantage of the RDN's
sophisticated cross-searching software, run interdisciplinary
searches across the entire network. The RDN also offers academics and
lecturers the opportunity to forward their own resources (including
articles, databases and newsletters) to the relevant hubs, allowing
them to reach a wider audience.

Funded by the UK's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), the
RDN is organised into five hubs, some of which already existed as
subject-based gateways. The RDN covers Medicine and the Life
Sciences; Engineering, Computing and Mathematics; the Humanities; the
Physical Sciences; and the Social Sciences, Business and Law. A hub
for the Creative Arts and Industries will be added at a later date.

Because of the variety of resources it catalogues, the RDN will be
relevant to non-academics working in related professional fields,
such as medicine or engineering. The RDN is expected to develop
significant links beyond academia. Many of the hubs have been
developed in partnership with learned societies and related
professional and cultural institutions. The RDN will continue to
establish partnerships in both the public and private sectors in
order to expand, creating opportunities for content provision and
funding.

The RDN hubs are based at various universities around the United Kingdom:

   o  BIOME (Medicine and Life Sciences) is led by the University of Nottingham
   o  Humbul (Humanities) is led by the University of Oxford
   o  EMC (Engineering, Mathematics and Computers) is led by Heriot-Watt University
   o  PSIgate (Physical Sciences) is led by CALIM, the Consortium of
Academic Libraries In Manchester
   o  SOSIG (Social Sciences, Business and Law) is led by the University of Bristol


The RDN is presently funded by the JISC, the Arts and Humanities
Research Board (AHRB) and the Economic and Social Research Council
(ESRC).

The RDN is managed by the RDN Centre, based at King's College, London
and The University of Bath. For more information please contact

Justine Kitchen
Information and Training Officer
Resource Discovery Network Centre
King's College London
Strand
London WC2R 2LS
Tel:    +44 (0)171 848 2935
Fax:    +44 (0)171 848 2939
Email: justine.kitchen@rdn.ac.uk

Or visit our website at http://www.rdn.ac.uk/