CASLIN Uniform Information Gateway

Martin LedínskýJan PokornýJiří Pavlík

Charles UniversityPrague, Czech Republic

SMUG meeting in Paris, October 3rd 2002

CASLIN Uniform Information Gateway

Martin LedínskýCharles UniversityPrague, Czech Republic

About the project

Content

• Goals of UIG• Project history• Present situation

– Resources– Tools– Traffic– Promotion– Staff– HW

• Plans for future

Goals

• Integration of heterogeneous information resources and offering new, uniform and user-friendly access to them

• Creating a comprehensive and easy-to-understand map of collections available in Czech libraries; closer coordination in the development and utilization of collections – by Conspectus

Project History:

• Uniform Information Gateway for hybrid libraries (pilot project of the National Library of the Czech Republic and Charles University in Prague; 2001)

• STM Portal – joining of the project – State technical library + 11 other institutions

• UIG – VISK 8 – other institutions and resources will be connected; becoming national/international project

Tools:

• MetaLib• SFX• Conspectus

http://www.jib.cz

Resources:

• 15 Czech major searchable catalogues – connected via Z39.50 and HTTP

• EBSCO, Proquest, SilverPlatter, OCLC databases

• Together more than 50 of searchable dbs• More than 100 non-searchable,

linked resources

UIG traffic:

• Approximately 3000 sessions/month• June 2002 – the highest traffic• July-August – decrease caused by

summer holidays and floods in August• Now – increasing again...

Monthly traffic20th September 2002

UIG promotion:

• Presentations on Czech librarian conferences

• Trainings for users – librarians• Brochures• Information pages

– Help– documentation– photos...

http://jib-info.cuni.cz

Staff:

• 3 full-time jobs divided among 9 people– 2 managers– 2 librarians– 2 technicians for MetaLib– 1 technician for SFX– 2 server administrators– 1 external consultant

HW for UIG

• Present server• Compaq DL380• CPU: 2 x Pentium III 930 MHz• 4 GB RAM• HDD: 9 GB + 2 x mirrored 18 GB• OS: Red Hat Linux 7.1

• New server – change is not necessary now but for future development of the project will be more suitable

• IBM xSeries 440• CPU: 4x Intel Xeon MP 1.4 GHz• 8 GB PC133 SDRAM RDIMM• HDD: 2 x mirrored 36,4 GB• OS: the latest version of Red Hat Linux

Plans for future:

• Most of Czech and Slovak main libraries will be connected - it is planned that by the end of 2002 most of the "major" Czech libraries (regional libraries, central specialized libraries, Library of the Academy of Sciences, Library of the National Museum plus union catalogues of universities), a number of Slovak libraries, and a number of other foreign libraries and resources will be actively participating in the project.

• Full English version of UIG• The "copy cataloguing" functionality will be

made operational not only for ALEPH, but also for other library systems used by Czech libraries (this function will be explained in next part of presentation.

The Prize from Inforum conference

• Granted on Inforum conference held in Prague in May 2002

http://www.jib.cz

CASLIN Uniform Information Gateway

Jan PokornýCharles UniversityPrague, Czech Republic

@ CASLIN UIG

Czech localisation / changes in interface

◊ What had been translated in ML

◊ Problems with Czech special characters

◊ Changes in the interface

◊ Problems with layout limitations in ML

What had been translated in ML …

◊ all text strings in HTML and JS codes

◊ related strings in configuration files

◊ graphic objects (buttons etc.)

◊ helps

we have translated the END USER part only (/V)

◊ some parts of MetaLib does not work with Unicode correctly>>> wrongly displayed Czech characters

Example:Records sent by e-mail contain wrongly displayed characters in tag names:

Zdroj ANL_ALEPH500Název Farmář Raąín ľije v maringotce/ Frasntiąek Raąín/ Autor Raąín FrantiąekDalšà autoĹ™i Frantálová DanaPĹ™edmÄ›t Raąín FrantiąekPĹ™edmÄ›t Jiřetín pod JedlovouPĹ™edmÄ›t rozhovoryPĹ™edmÄ›t podnikání

… problems

Changes in the interface …

◊ changed log in page

◊ IG categories

◊ colours, graphics

◊ links to JIB information pages

◊ MetaLib uses frames>>> subpages cannot be linked directly>>> page layout cannot be changed

◊ Limitations in IG categories>>> subcategories cannot be embedded>>> a category can include only 40 IR

… problems

Navigation in JIB- special needs

◊ JIB is national-wide with hundreds of IR – navigation must be easy and precise

◊ IR should be devided into categories by more than one aspects (by subjects of IR, by type of IR etc.)

Navigation in JIB- problems

◊ 1 IG category can include only 40 IR>>> category cannot hold all IRof a subject

◊ IG categories cannot be devided into subcategories>>> categories are too general and match too many IR

◊ IG categories are divided by subject, another aspects of dividing are available with another function (Locate esources)>>> users are confused

Using as a virtualunion catalogue …

◊ MetaLib with parallel search and merge/deduplication functions is ideal for building a VUC

◊ JIB will connect catalogues of all important Czech libraries (national, county and special libraries)

◊ A number of parallel searches is limited>>> impossible to search all libraries at once>>> users are confused when too many result tabs are returned

◊ JIB doesn’t solve away problems with different ways of justification / substitution>>> many DBs don’t support L/R justification>>> they use various wild charactersWe need to define minimal requirements

◊ Many DBs do not support searches by all fields

… problems

Browser problems

◊ MetaLib does not work correctly in all common web browsers>>> problems with JavaScript>>> problems with Unicode

Users are confused and think JIB is badly prepared to serve on internet

Copy Cataloguing

◊ MetaLib as Z39.50 server can be used for copy cataloguing

◊ can be used with any Z39.50 client supporting search and retrieve

◊ sequential search by a profile – a sequential list of resources which defines order of resource searching on the server

◊ each user can have a different profile

Copy Cataloguing- future

◊ also for other library systems used by Czech libraries

◊ functionality will be extended to include the format selection option for records copied (UNIMARC, MARC 21)

Example of use

Requestfrom client

PROFILE:

1. NK ČR2. MZK3. SVK Olom.

NK ČR

MZK

SVK Olomouc

CASLIN Uniform Information Gateway

Jiří PavlíkCharles UniversityPrague, Czech Republic

@ CASLIN UIG

Content

• Services• Customizations, specialties • Actual problems• A look to future

Services @ UIG

• getHoldings - nation wide• getDocDel – nation wide• getFulltext - international • getSubject - international• getReview – international• getSubject - international • getAuthor – international• getAuthorEmail – international• getWebService - international

Sources

• MetaLib UIG• WWW OPACs

– Tinlib/TinWeb (Charles university, Palacky University,…)

– Aleph (coming soon hopefully)

• DocDel service - State technical library

Targets

• WWW OPACs– Tinlib/TinWeb (Charles university,

Palacky University,…)– Aleph

• DocDel service - State technical library

• Proquest, EBSCO, Elsevier SD (using CrossRef), Springer

• Britannica, Amazon, Google …,

• … 24 targets in total in the moment

Customizations, specialities @ UIG

• Target configuration using generic parser for Tinlib OPAC, State technical library DocDel

• Nation-wide services/licences• UIG design• International / Latin1 not only

environment• Cooperation with STM project

SFX

Challanges

• Character set encoding• Implementing services

for other institutions• Menu optimalization,

tuning for users from different institutions

• English version

A look to future

• Employing national services for – getFulltext– getBookReview

• More national options for– getDocDel– getHoldings

• Solving technical problems– Character set encoding– Enhance DL – accurate getHoldings utilizing

Z39.50 query, employing ip ranges rules– Interlinking Czech SFXs

• Detailed statistics – using log data in SFX MySQL tables

• Public OpenURL generator

You are welcomed to…

http://www.jib.cz

Starring:in alphabetical order

http://jib-info.cuni.czjib-support@cuni.cz

Martin Ledínský, martin.ledinsky@ruk.cuni.cz

Jiří Pavlík, jiri.pavlik@ruk.cuni.cz

Jan Pokorný, jan.pokorny@ruk.cuni.cz