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Scottish Poetry Library and epixtech launch Scots Verse into Cyberspace using ADSL
Coinciding with National Poetry Day on October 5th, the Scottish Poetry Library (www.spl.org.uk launched access to its unique www.slainte.org.uk/spl.html on the Internet, using epixtech’s WebPAC software. Running from a facilities-managed server hosted by
for the Scottish Library and Information Council, as part of their Scottish Libraries Across the Internet (SLAINTE) initiative (www.slainte.org.uk). The launch was held at the Library’s new purpose-built premises, set against the dramatic backdrop of the Salisbury Crags in the heart of historic Edinburgh
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Dr Robyn Marsack (Director) or Mrs Penny Duce (Librarian)
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton’s Close
Canongate
Edinburgh
EH8 8DT
Tel : 0131 557 2876
Fax: 0131 557 8393
E: inquiries@spl.org.uk |
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A unique technological aspect underpinning the launch is the innovative first use of ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line)
technology to support library operations. ADSL, the internet connectivity solution designed to deliver 24-hour, unmetered, high speed / bandwidth access to the Internet is being used to give Library
staff continuous access via the internet to a facilities-managed (FM) Dynix Library Management system on their remotely hosted server. This server, based at epixtech’s UK HQ in Chesham, Bucks, England,
is tended and maintained by epixtech’s expert staff. The high bandwidth and speed and availability of ADSL allows the Library to carry out its day-to-day catalogue housekeeping, communicating with
the remote server as if it were housed in the library building itself. This allows the librarians to enjoy instant and ‘always up’ access, as well as the benefits of facilities management as
provided by epixtech. Facilities Management removes the burden of technical systems administration from the librarians, allowing them to concentrate on expanding and enriching this
unique collection, and addressing the needs of the Library’s users.
In addition to its role as a major cultural resource and promoter of Scotland’s living and historical
poetic heritage, the Library offers several unique services, and has attracted interest from a variety of quarters in Scotland and abroad.
- The Library offers free public access, and postal borrowing facilities. This open access to
a valuable national resource will of course be greatly enhanced by the launch of the electronic catalogue, giving public access across the Internet, opening the Library and its
collections to a much wider audience, including poetry aficionados worldwide, expatriate and ancestral Scots, and the global scholarly community.
- The Library offers excellent poem / poet finding facilities for the general public, identifying
poems from fragments, and identifying poems appropriate to special occasions, for example weddings, local events. Using detailed keyword and subject indexes against the
Dynix Catalogue, searches for specific poems and poets become easy and rewarding.
- The Library has paired members of the Scottish Parliament with local poets to
commission work for special events and on specific themes, and has just published an anthology of twenty such links, Variations on a New Song..
- The integration of sound files and other multimedia into the database is planned in the future development for delivery via internet.
Robyn Marsack, Director of the Library, had these words to say regarding the launch, “Our
specially designed automated catalogue is called INSPIRE will live up to its name and enable the searches and findings that will bring an ever-growing number of readers into inspirational contact
with the riches of Scottish and other poetry.”
The Scottish Poetry Library is a leading repository of 20th Century Scottish poetry and of
worldwide contemporary poetry, putting Scottish poetry in a European context.
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