EDINA

EDINA, based at Edinburgh University Data Library, is a JISC-funded national datacentre. It offers the UK tertiary education and research community networked access to a library of data, information and research resources. All EDINA services are available free of charge to members of UK tertiary education institutions for academic use, although institutional subscription and end-user registration are required for most services.

EDINA web site

A brief history of EDINA and the Edinburgh University Data Library

(This article was originally written by Gavin Inglis of EDINA on the occasion of EDINA's 7th birthday in 2003. Updates are invited.)

1983 was a significant year in the history of computing. A full switchover to TCP/IP saw the Internet enter its modern age. Lotus 1-2-3 introduced pie charts and bar graphs to the IBM PC, newly launched in Europe. And MS-DOS version 2.0 "also supported hard disks and subdirectories".

At that time the University of Edinburgh had a Program Library Unit (PLU), based in 18 Buccleuch Place. Its function was to convert software for various computing platforms and distribute it to UK universities on magnetic tapes. Disk storage on the machines of the period was a very expensive commodity. Central computing facilities were provided by the Edinburgh Regional Computing Centre (ERCC), later to become the Edinburgh University Computing Service (EUCS), and file space was strictly rationed.

A group of researchers interested in working with data such as census figures and government surveys came together to petition the PLU and the University Library. They wanted a university-wide provision for files which were too large to be stored on individual computing accounts.

In response, the Data Library was set up as a small group within the PLU with manager Trevor Jones plus 1.5 staff, one programmer and one computing assistant. Current director Peter Burnhill took over in 1984, and deputy director Alison Bayley began in 1985 as a part-time programmer. The program SASPAC, written at Edinburgh, allowed the extraction of census data using a mainframe computer. Early holdings were the 1981 UK population census, and research data from the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Strathclyde.

At this time, long before the World Wide Web, "Datalib" was a custom-written hypertext system hosted on the ERCC mainframe. Geographic information was a focus from the beginning, as the Data Library worked with researcher Jack Hotson to convert parish-based agricultural census data to grid square estimates. This allowed detailed visualisation of land use across the UK.

A collaboration with the Department of Geography saw the establishment of the Regional Research Laboratory for Scotland, focusing on quantitative techniques in the Social Sciences. Soon afterwards followed SALSER, a serials index bringing together libraries from the thirteen Scottish universities, the National Library of Scotland and the two major civic libraries of Edinburgh and Glasgow. An early application of WWW and Z39.50 technology, SALSER remains heavily used to this day, providing public access to important specialist serials collections.

Links to the research community were cemented by the RAPID project, which linked research activity to the output of other work funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. Uniquely, RAPID included not only conventional monograph and journal publications, but also new types of research output such as software, datasets and learning materials. Reusable components for self-paced learning were to become an integral part of the department's role a few years later.

Such projects built up a wealth of knowledge within the Data Library, and a breadth of subject which was to serve it well for the most important event in its history - the launch of the EDINA national data centre in 1995/96. Along with BIDS at Bath and MIDAS (now MIMAS) at Manchester, Edinburgh was chosen as a JISC-funded centre for the provision of data services to the entire UK academic community, expanding its horizons far beyond its initial remit.

EDINA's new services to the UK had consequent benefits for higher education users. Bibliographic indexes such as BIOSIS and Ei Compendex helped with literature searches, and UKBORDERS filled a gap in political and postal boundary data. The Digimap service provided free and flexible access to Ordnance Survey mapping data, and the online creation of custom-drawn maps.

With the launch of EDINA, the Data Library had to be redefined to continue its local remit, distinct from the national services. Donald Morse took on the role of manager of the new Local Services team, and Joan Fairgrieve became the University's first Data Librarian.

Cooperation with Edinburgh University Library has remained a constant throughout the years, and seen the Data Library bridge the conceptual gap between the Computing Service and the Library. Relations with the Special Collections department have been particularly close, from the 1995 SCIMSS manuscript indexing project to the NAHSTE project in 2002, which provided a comprehensive index to Edinburgh and Glasgow archives on the history of science, technology and the environment.

Peter Burnhill continues to this day as head of the Data Library Services Division of EUCS. Robin Rice serves as Data Librarian and Stuart MacDonald as Assistant Data Librarian. The team is proud to retain its role directly serving University of Edinburgh staff and students. However it is not above seeking expert assistance and advice from its conveniently close colleagues in EDINA - approximately forty of them.