Ariadne Issue 69 Now Available

Ariadne Issue 69 has been published recently with its usual mix of features both technical and more wide-ranging together with event reports and a raft of reviews on recent publications. This issue includes a technical feature from Thom Bunting of the Innovation Support Centre who has described in some detail the requirements, choices and decisions before the ISC team responsible for the re-development of Ariadne Web Magazine. In Moving Ariadne: Migrating and Enriching Content with Drupal  Thom recounts the recent migration to a database-driven CMS, Thom reminds us of a key challenge: the migration of so much and not entirely homogenous content.   He describes the post-migration review of the articles on the new platform, and the measures adopted to ensure a higher degree of consistency which would then make it possible to expose the publication’s depth of content far more effectively. Thom then proceeds to an examination of the ‘contrib’ and other Drupal modules and the effect their deployment has on the new functionality that Ariadne now offers. His conclusions offer other developers a view of how the technology has responded to the challenges posed by the re-development of a publication the size of Ariadne.

At the same time, Rosemary Russell of the ISC has contributed a report on the recent JISC Research Information Management: CERIF Workshop in which she provides readers with a firm grounding in the current activity of the CERIF Support Project at the Innovation Support Centre as well as an introduction, if one is still necessary, to Brigitte Jörg, the new National Coordinator for the Project. Rosemary provides an overview of the current CERIF landscape in the UK, reporting on the state of RIM-related activity in the UK currently as well as the rate of CRIS (Current Research Information System) procurement since the first Pure system in the UK was procured jointly by the Universities of Aberdeen and St Andrews in May 2009. She also covers UK involvement with euroCRIS and other international initiatives, the outcomes of the HE Data and Information Landscape report, the launch of a test version of the ‘CERIFied’ Research Outputs System (ROS), and the effect of the Gateway to Research (GtR) over this year. Rosemary supplies details of other developments as well as discussions and issues that arose during what was clearly a successful workshop organised by UKOLN.

Further information on Issue 69 is available in a news feature on the UKOLN Web site.