Ann Apps BSc MBCS CITP

Position

Retired (2008-10-31)

Previously: Research and Development: Digital Library and JISC Information Environment Services and Standards,
Mimas, The University of Manchester.

Research Interests

• Metadata, including Dublin Core:
  • Member of Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) Advisory Board (2001-)
  • Member of DCMI Conference Programme Committee (2001-2008)
  • Moderator of the DCMI Collection Description Community Group (2006-2008)
  • Chair of DCMI Citation Working Group (now deactivated) (2001-2006)
  • Chair of DCMI Type Working Group (now deactivated) (2001-2004)
  • Member of CEN/ISSS Workshop on Metadata for Multimedia Information - Dublin Core (MMI-DC), a European initiative to ratify Basic Dublin Core (1.1) as a standard for simple interoperable metadata, and to produce guidelines on its use across various sectors (now deactivated) (2000-2006).
• Provision of linking between electronic resources, for example between references and cited articles within academic journals, and the requisite citation identification.
  • Member of OpenURL (Z39.88) Maintenance Agency Advisory Committee and Review Panel (2006-)
  • Member of NISO Committee AX (2001-2005) tasked to develop an American National Standard, Z39.88-2004, endorsed in April 2005, The OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services which provides syntax for creating web-transportable packages of metadata and/or identifiers about an information object.
• Data formats for electronic publishing, in particular SGML/XML. I am:
  • Member of British Computer Society Electronic Publishing Specialist Group committee.
  • Member of ELPUB (Electronic Publishing) Conference Programme Committee 2006-2008

Projects

Projects 2008

• JISC Information Environment Service Registry (IESR). The aim of the Service Registry is to improve resource discovery for users of electronic services in the Information Environment. The project has developed a metadata schema to describe Collections, based on the DCMI Collections Application Profile, Services that provide access to the collections, and Agents that own collections or administer services.
• JISC Information Governance Gateway (JIGG). Development of a repository of Freedom of Information (FOI) Disclosure Log entries, which may be disseminated by OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) conformant with a JIGG FOI Application Profile.
• Zetoc service development of document delivery options including OpenURL support. Timely inclusion of details of Open Access BioMed Central journal articles by OAI-PMH harvesting of the information from UK PubMed Central.

Previous Projects

• Implementing the DNER Technical Architecture at Mimas - ITAM. Implementation and evaluation of the evolving DNER technical architecture at Mimas, including evaluation of an SFX service.
• Zetoc Enhancements, Z39.50-compliant access to the British Library's Electronic Table of Contents.
• Mimas Metadata for the DNER. Development of searchable metadata for Mimas datasets and services.
• CABRef in collaboration with CABI Publishing (the publishing division of CAB International), an applied life science publisher of books, academic journals and electronic products. Investigation into the next generation of Internet linking by looking at new models for linking to CAB Direct, CABI's abstracts database.
• "Linkage" (March 1999-February 2000) in collaboration with CABI Publishing. Investigation into improving interoperability between electronic resources for subscribed users by enabling linking between related items. A parallel thread was to assist in the development of CABI's electronic publishing production process.
• SuperJournal (1996-1998)
  • Data handling, including development of data conversion software
  • Log file processing to provide a foundation for the user evaluation research
• DiDiDep, Digitised Directories Demonstrator Project, in collaboration with the University of Leicester. Design of XML metadata for the prototype digital archive of 18^th and 19^th century trade directories.
• Nature Digital Archive (1998): data handling including article description using Dublin Core metadata with XML syntax
• Data handling for Manchester University Press electronic journals, including development of the data handling process
• SGML/XML consultancy, including DTD development, for publishers of academic journals

Publications

My publications are listed on the epub@mimas publications page.

Other Conference and Workshop Participation

Listed on the epub@mimas presentations page.

Previous Positions

Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester.

Informatics Process Group (IPG), 1991-1995.

• Tools support for Process Modelling, including design and implementation of the Process Modelling Workcentre (PMW) a tool for process model acquisition and design, providing Conceptual Models and Role Activity Diagrams plus the capability of adding knowledge rules. This work supported the IPG's EPSRC funded Process Engineering Framework (PEF) project.
• Author of the successful research proposal to EPSRC, "Assisting Process Performance and Utilisation through Simulation" (APPUS), 1996.

EDS (Esprit), 1989-1991

Design and implementation of a translator from "Base Model" (a formal specification method for concurrent systems) to C⁺⁺.

Flagship (Alvey), 1987-1989

Design and implementation of the Flagship parallel operating system Development Route. This was written in PS-Algol and utilised the PISA persistent object store.

MU5, 1969-1974

Compiler Software.

Hawker Siddely Dynamics, 1968-1969

Aircraft crew training simulators.

Contact

• Email: ann.apps@btinternet.com

30 October 2008