News
27 September 2012
UKAT LOD
A Linked Data service for UKAT has been launched, maintained by ULCC. The service underpins the new ALiCat cataloguing tool, designed to facilitate the semantic markup of archive catalogues. For more information please contact Geoffrey.browell@kcl.ac.uk
21 March 2007
Voluntary editor
The creation of UKAT was primarily funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), with additional funding and support from the University of London Computer Centre (ULCC) and the National Archives. This supported a full-time editor between June 2003 and August 2004. As the funded phase of the project has now ended, please note that only minor website maintenance is being carried out and editing is now being undertaken on a voluntary basis, so substantial submissions may take some time to be dealt with.
1 September 2004
UKAT data files available
UKAT data files can now be downloaded from the UKAT website in two formats: one intended for import into the Calm collection management package, and the other marked up according to SKOS-Core (a standard for the interchange of thesaurus data). See the Download data page for further details. We hope that a file suitable for import into the Adlib collection management package will follow shortly.
10 August 2004
End of Editor's secondment
Phil Carlisle's secondment to UKAT as the project's Editor ended today, marking the end of the main editing phase of UKAT. Phil will be returning to English Heritage, from which he was seconded in June 2003. We are grateful to Phil for the huge amount of effort which he has put in to the project, and to English Heritage for supporting UKAT by releasing Phil to us. Phil has edited over 13,600 terms submitted by archives and archive projects, and no editing remains outstanding at the end of his secondment.
20 May 2004
Next UKAT workshop - 16 June 2004, ULCC
A second workshop on the UKAT project will be held at the University of London Computer Centre on 16 June 2004. See Events for the programme and details of how to book. All those with an interest in UKAT - both archivists and users of archives - are invited to attend.
29 April 2004
UKAT evaluation questionnaire report
The responses to the UKAT evaluation questionnaire (see entry of 19 March 2004) have now been analysed. A report summarising the results of the questionnaire can be downloaded from the Downloads page. The UKAT project is grateful to all those who gave their time in completing the questionnaire.
The survey found that the majority of respondents who had used UKAT's main searching, browsing and term submission facilities appeared to be broadly satisfied with those facilities. There was also a strong endorsement of the proposed improvements to the interfaces for A-Z browsing and for accessing candidate terms, recent additions and rejected terms. A number of new suggestions about proposed improvements were also received, which will be fed into the next phase of work by UKAT's developers (May 2004). Most of the 58 respondents indicated that they intended to use UKAT for indexing or when searching for resources. For further details, see the questionnaire report.
19 March 2004
UKAT questionnaire available
Are there things which you like about UKAT? Are there things which you don't like? Are there things which you think we could do differently? Now is your chance to tell us, by completing our Evaluation questionnaire. This will be available on the UKAT website until after Easter 2004, and is completely anonymous.
Your responses to the questionnaire will feed into a further period of work by our web developers in April-May 2004, which will aim to add enhancements and additional functionality to the site. We will also use the responses to determine the future direction of UKAT, including bids for funding to sustain UKAT after the grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund ends in July 2004.
11 February 2004
UKAT leaflets produced
Two sets of leaflets have been printed which explain how archivists and users of archives can get involved with UKAT. Copies can be downloaded from the Downloads page. In the coming weeks, these leaflets will be posted to record offices throughout the UK. Please Contact UKAT if you'd like to receive copies. We are grateful to Clinic for their work in designing the leaflets, and to the National Archives for supplying the images.
5 January 2004
UKAT website fully functional
The UKAT website was demonstrated at the workshop on 'Thesauri and Subject Indexing on Archives' which was held at ULCC on 4 December 2003 (see below). This was followed by a period of debugging, during which we invited the project's Advisory Panel and Users Group to try out the website and give us feedback. We are grateful for the number of helpful comments which we received, including the comments from people who attended the workshop. Although further developments and refinements are planned, all of the key components of the website now seem to be functioning as intended. We appreciate the hard work of ULCC's web design team and Studio 24 Ltd in making this possible.
The website will be publicised in coming weeks to archivists and archive users via mailing lists and newsletters. In the meantime, we'd be grateful if you would Contact UKAT if you spot anything which doesn't seem to be working, or if you have any suggestions or comments.
4 December 2003:
Workshop on Thesauri and Subject Indexing in Archives
The first of two workshops about the UKAT project was held at the University of London Computer Centre. Nearly 40 delegates attended, representing a range of archive organisations as well as archive users. The workshop featured presentations about UKAT, a demonstration of the website, and speakers from other archive projects whose experiences in developing subject indexes provide the background to UKAT. See the Events page for further information. A second workshop is planned towards the end of the project, probably in May 2004.