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Any Port(al) in a Storm? Developing a portal for the UK health and life sciences community. |
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Mackay D. M. (BIOME, University of Nottingham)
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The development of institutional portals and virtual learning environments have been a focus of much activity and writing within the UK academic and health environment in recent years. However, less attention has been focused on the development of subject-orientated portals. The BIOME Hub has established an international reputation as a collection of gateways to high quality health and life science information on the Internet including the OMNI and NMAP gateways. Our core database of descriptions of evaluated Internet resources averaged 1.7 million page returns in 2003/2004. Over the last three years BIOME has been an active participant in the JISC funded Subject Portal Project (SPP). The aim of this participation is to transform the BIOME Hub into the "BIOME Environment" - a highly personalised user interface to the wide range of resources available to UK academics, students and practitioners in healthcare and the life sciences. This presentation will present an overview of the SPP and will discuss a number of strands of activity associated with the development of the "BIOME Environment". These include the technical implementation of a JAVA based portal, the development of partnerships and joint working with a wide range of data providers and the development of feedback mechanisms to ensure the development and implementation of portal features of value to our user communities. Some conclusions will also be offered on the need for "Yet Another Portal" and on the ongoing and parallel development of services aimed at the users and developers of institutional and professional portals and online learning environments. |
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