Ten years of pathfinding: Ariadne celebrates anniversary with special issue

Among its decennial issue contributors is founding co-director John MacColl, now Head of the Digital Library Division at the University of Edinburgh, who recalls the early days soon after Jisc’s 1994 call for proposals which followed publication of the Follett Report in 1993. He writes:

“I was only a few months into my new post as a Depute Librarian at Britain's newest (and probably smallest) university, the University of Abertay Dundee. We were keen to let people know we existed, and anxious to be associated with e-library developments, and so we formulated a proposal for a parallel print and Web newsletter for the emerging Programme, soon to be called eLib.”

The print newsletter was produced in Scotland; the usually larger web version was developed on a server at UKOLN, based at the University of Bath, under the guidance of John’s fellow co-director Lorcan Dempsey.

What ultimately became the solely online publication Ariadne had received its name, John MacColl recalls, through one of his son’s favourite books, The Orchard Book of Greek Myths. He writes:

“I remember… fetching the book from his bookshelf in order to refresh my memory of the Ariadne story - the unjust reward of abandonment for her cleverness in helping Theseus out of the labyrinth with her thread.... The notion of the Internet as a labyrinth was a common one at that time, and we librarians fretted about how difficult it could be to find exactly what you were looking for on the Internet.”

Since then Ariadne has been guiding an increasing number of readers in all sectors and in many countries through the latest developments in digital library and wider technological fields for ten years. Its current editor, Richard Waller of UKOLN, said that he heartily agreed with John MacColl that Ariadne had done much to conduct readers through the emerging world of digital libraries, information management and networking over the last ten years.

"Given the average life expectancy of sites on the Web, Ariadne has done well, and in my view that is overwhelmingly due to the community of loyal and enthusiastic contributors to the Magazine across its decade of activity," Richard said.

Among the other guest contributors are Professor Derek Law of the Centre for Digital Library Research at the University of Strathclyde, Dr Reg Carr, Director of University Library Services & Bodley's Librarian at the University of Oxford, Lorcan Dempsey, Vice President of Research & Chief Strategist at OCLC, Ohio, USA and Dr Clifford A. Lynch, Executive Director of the US-based Coalition for Networked Information.

To access the decennial issue of Ariadne, please go to: Ariadne