UK’s Resource Discovery Network Now Known as Intute

Those of you who read ResourceShelf regularly know that the RDN (Resource Discovery Network) was one of our favorite resources and like other non-commercial web directories, an excellent illustration of the work librarians and other info pros, in this case from the UK, are doing to organize the web, focusing on quality of quantity. I’ll post a few of our most recent news items at the bottom. Wait, we used “was one.” Is the RDN gone? The good, no GREAT news is NO. So, what’s the story.

Earlier this year, March to be precise, we posted that RDN would get a name change. Well, today was the day.

RDN is now officially known as Intute (the RDN site remains live).

Next week, Shirl will take a closer look at the new site but the good news is that after a quick review all of the GREAT content and organization is still available and ready for use.

From the news release,

Caroline Williams, Executive Director of Intute said, “the environment in which we operate is rapidly changing. Issues of trust and quality are real concerns for our users, and we have responded to this by creating a new service which takes the best of the RDN and streamlines it into one easy to use interface.” She explains, “the Intute database makes it possible to discover the best and most relevant resources on the Internet. You can explore and discover trusted information, assured that it has been evaluated by subject specialists.”

A few things we noticed in our quick look. Again, just scratching the surface here.

+ More color and much cleaner look. Well done. One stop shopping of the various subject hubs exists from a search box in the middle of the home page.

+ Advanced Search, A-Z index and a wonderful color coded “new resources” page that compiles resources from all of the subject gateways.

+ Site is organized into four main subject areas: Science and Technology, Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, and Health and Life Sciences. Browse or search each area.

For example:

Intute: Science, Engineering and Technology has been created by bringing together three of the Hubs of the Resource Discovery Network (RDN): EEVL (Engineering, Mathematics and Computing), GEsource (Geography and Environment), and PSIgate (Physical Sciences). The same team of experts, based at The University of Manchester and Heriot-Watt University, will maintain and develop the service.

+ Personalization with MyIntute

+ Easy access to the wonderful Virtual Training Suite

Again, much more next week. Congrats to the entire Intute team. Learn more about the organization on this excellent page. The only thing not listed is what and where the name Intute comes from.