digital library and mle integration - where are we now and where do we want to be?

UKOLN is supported by:

Digital library and MLE integrationwhere are we now and where do we want to be?

Andy Powell, UKOLN, University of Bath

[email protected]

UCISA TLIG-SDGUser Support Conference 2004, Exeter

www.bath.ac.uk

a centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk

UCISA TLIG-SDG, 2004, Exeter 2

Contents

• current developments in five institutional ‘service areas’– external information services– library– computing services / Web support– e-Learning– MIS, registry, student records, finance, etc.

• standards bodies/activities• technical options for joining stuff together• broad and shallow!

– but highlighting RSS and OpenURL


Institutional service areas…

e-Learning

Library

ComputingServices/

Web support team

MIS/Registry/

Finance/Etc.

Externalcontent


External content

• wide range of information and other content coming into the institution from outside– made available thru JISC ‘site licensing’ deals,

national data centres, elsewhere

• primary focus of the JISC’s ‘information environment’ activity

Externalcontent


The ‘problem’…

• end-user often has access to large number of heterogeneous collections - full-text, A&I, images, video, data, etc.

• however, experience of these collections is less than optimal:– end-users not aware of available content– end-user has to interact with (search or

browse) multiple different Web sites to work across range of content

– content ‘discovery’ services not joined-up with ‘delivery’ services


Simple scenario

• consider a researcher searching for material to inform a research paper on HIV and/or AIDS

• he or she searches for ‘hiv aids’ using:– the RDN, to discover Internet resources – ZETOC, to discover recent journal articles

• (and, of course, he or she may use a whole range of other search strategies using other services as well)


Issues

• different user interfaces– look-and-feel– subject classification, metadata usage

• everything is HTML – human-oriented– difficult to merge results, e.g. combine into a

list of references– difficult to build a reading list to pass on to

students– need to manually copy-and-paste search

results into HTML page or MS-Word document or desktop reference manager or …


The problem space…

• from perspective of ‘data consumer’– need to interact with multiple collections of stuff

- bibliographic, full-text, data, image, video, etc.– delivered thru multiple Web sites– few good cross-collection discovery services

(apart from Google, but much of the licensed content is part of the invisible Web and therefore not available to Google)

• from perspective of ‘data provider’– few agreed mechanisms for disclosing

availability of content


UK JISC IE context…

• 206 collections and counting…(Hazel Woodward, e-ICOLC, Helsinki, Nov 2001)– Books: 10,000 +– Journals: 5,000 +– Images: 250,000 +– Discovery tools: 50 +

• A & I databases, COPAC, RDN, …

– National mapping data & satellite imagery

• plus institutional content (e-prints, research data, library content, learning resources, etc.)

• plus content made available thru projects – 5/99, FAIR, X4L, …

• plus …


A solution… the JISC IE

• an ‘information environment’• framework of machine-oriented services

allowing the end-user to– discover, access, use, publish resources across a range

of content providers– move away from lots of stand-alone Web sites...

• content providers expose metadata for– searching, harvesting, alerting

• develop end-user services and tools that bring stuff together…

• …based on open ‘standards’


End-user services and tools• generally means ‘portals’…

– ‘library’ portals or metasearch tools (e.g. Encompass, MetaLib or ZPortal)

– ‘subject’ portals developed within academia– ‘institutional’ portals (uPortal)

• …but also other stuff– reading list and other tools in VLE (possibly

externally hosted, e.g. Sentient Discover)– commercial/publisher services (ISI Web of

Knowledge, ingenta, Bb Resource Center, etc.)– OpenURL resolvers (e.g. SFX)– personal desktop reference manager (e.g.

Endnote)


Link resolvers

• ‘discovery’ is only part of the problem…• in the case of books, journals, journal articles,

end-user wants access to the most appropriate copy

• need to join up discovery services with access/delivery services (local library OPAC, ingentaJournals, Amazon, etc.)

• need localised view of available services• linking services that provide access to the

most appropriate copy– user and institutional preferences, cost, access

rights, location, etc.


Technologies

• global, standards-based, cross-domain solutions – Web services…

• cross-searching– Z39.50 – Bath Profile, a profile of Z39.50– SRW (Search and Retrieve Web-service)

(SOAP implementation of Z39.50)

• harvesting– OAI-PMH - Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata

Harvesting

• alerting– RSS - RDF/Rich Site Summary

• linking– OpenURL



e-Learning

Library

ComputingServices/

Web support team

MIS/Registry/

Finance/Etc.

Externalcontent


Library• management of collection

– migration from hardcopy journals to externally held e- collection

• management of institutional assets - eprint archives, edata archives– role in cataloguing assets

• catalogue - gateway/portal to external (and internal) content

• ‘managing agent’ for ATHENS• preservation• link resolvers

Library


Linking within the ‘collection’

• the context– distributed information environment (e.g. the JISC IE)

– multiple A&I and other discovery services

– rapidly growing e-journal collection

– need to interlink available resources

• the problem– links controlled by external info services

– links not sensitive to user’s context (appropriate copy problem)

– links dependent on vendor agreements

– links don’t cover complete collection


The problem

• the context– distributed information environment (e.g. the JISC IE)

– multiple A&I and other discovery services

– rapidly growing e-journal collection

– need to interlink available resources

• the REAL problem– libraries have no say in linking

– libraries losing core part of ‘organising information’ task

– expensive collection not used optimally

– users not well served

a libraryperspective

!


The solution…

• do NOT hardwire a link to a single service on the referenced item (e.g. a link from an A&I service to the corresponding full-text)

• BUT rather– provide a link that transports metadata

about the referenced item– to another service that is better placed

to provide appropriate links

OpenURL

OpenURLresolver

(link server)


Non-OpenURL linking

link destination

resolution of metadata into a link(typically a URL)

A&I servicedocument delivery

service

link source

link to referenced work .reference


OpenURL linking

link source.

user-specific

(institution)

resolution of metadata &identifiers into services

reference OpenURLOpenURL

resolver

provision of OpenURL

linklink

destination

linklink

destinationlink

linkdestination

linklink

destination

transportation of metadata & identifiers

context-sensitive

A&I servicedocument delivery

service


Example 1

• journal article• from Web of Science to ingenta Journals


button indicatingOpenURL ‘link’

is available


OpenURL resolver offeringcontext-sensitive links,including link to ingenta


also links to other servicessuch as Google search for

related information


Example 2

• book• from University of Bath OPAC to Amazon


button indicatingOpenURL ‘link’

is available


OpenURL resolver offeringcontext-sensitive links,

including link to Amazon


also links to other servicessuch as Google search for

related information


Summary…ISI Web of Science

University of Bath OPAC

OpenURL resolver

ingenta

Google

Amazon

OpenURL SourceOpenURLResolver

OpenURL Target


OpenURL summary

• standard for linking ‘discovery’ services to ‘delivery’ services

• supports linking from OpenURL ‘source’ to OpenURL ‘target’ via OpenURL ‘resolver’

End-user

source resolver target

e.g. Web of Science e.g. ingenta

http://www.bath.ac.uk/openurl?genre=article&atitle=Information%20gateways:%20collaboration%20on%20content &title=Online%20Information%20Review &issn=1468-4527&volume=24&spage=40&epage=45 &artnum=1&aulast=Heery&aufirst=Rachel

BASEURL

http://www.niso.org/committees/committee_ax.htmlhttp://www.niso.org/committees/committee_ax.html



e-Learning

Library

ComputingServices/

Web support team

MIS/Registry/

Finance/Etc.

Externalcontent


ComputingServices/

Web support team

Comp. Serv. / Web support

• Content Management System(CMS) – use of XML– blogs, wikis, …

• development/delivery ofportal - uPortal

• campus infrastructure– search engine, but often with fairly narrow coverage

(home grown (Ht:/Dig) vs. commercial vs. externally hosted (Google))

– internal AAA (authentication, authorisation and accounting) infrastructure

– network, shared filestore, groupware, etc.


uPortal

• framework for buildinginstitutional portal– single sign-on– integrated and

personalised access to multiple ‘channels’

– portlet model– multiple standards for

‘portlets’ but some trend towards use of WSRP (Web Services for Remote Portlets)

– RSS often used to carry portlet content

portlet

http://www.uportal.org/http://www.uportal.org/


What is RSS?

• simple XML application for sharing (syndicating) ‘news’ feeds on the Web

• RDF Site Summary or Rich Site Summary (depending on who you ask)

• ‘news’ can be interpreted quite loosely, e.g. new items added to database, ‘to do’ lists, timetable/lists of meetings, etc.

• uses ‘channel’ and ‘item’ terminology• a ‘channel’ is an XML document that is

made available on a Web-site – to update the channel, simply update the XML

http://www.eevl.ac.uk/rss_primer/http://www.eevl.ac.uk/rss_primer/


What is RSS? (2)

• each ‘item’ has simple metadata (title, description) and URL link to resource (news story or whatever)

• RSS also provides channel branding (logo, etc.)

• fairly widespread usage• easy to use within ‘portals’ (e.g. uPortal)• lots of software and toolkits available• some experimental use as encoding format

for ‘reading/resource lists’ in e-Learning



e-Learning

Library

ComputingServices/

Web support team

MIS/Registry/

Finance/Etc.

Externalcontent


e-Learning

e-Learning

• delivery of VLE• development of ‘managed learning

environment’ MLE (integration with MIS/registry, etc.)

• separation of content into backend learning object repositories

• development of whole range of supporting standards, primarily thru IMS


IMS

• global consortium defining open standards for delivery of online distributed learning activities: – Accessibility

– Competency Definitions

– Content Packaging

– Digital Repositories

– Enterprise

– Learner Information Package

– Meta-data

– Question & Test

– Simple Sequencing

http://www.imsglobal.org/http://www.imsglobal.org/


IMS DRI Specifications

• IMS Digital Repositories Interoperability specifications

• define protocols for interoperability between systems

• machine2machine (i.e. how software components talk to each other over the network)

• how data (and metadata) is transferred• between VLE and back-end repositories

– learning object repositories and other services that make content available


Why is IMS DRI important?

• VLE (in some shape or form) likely to become one of key ‘presentation’ services in institutional context

• IMS DRI spec’s fill space between ‘information providers’ and VLEs

• same/similar set of ‘digital library’ standards as endorsed by the JISC IE architecture

• VLE-vendors relatively mainstream• pushes digital library technologies to new

and wider audience


e-Learning

• recognition that e-Learningsystems are complexobjects– trend towards ‘service oriented architectures’– breaking the VLE into lots of smaller

functional components• JISC Learning

Framework (CETIS),MIT’s OKI, Sakai (alignment ofOKI and uPortal)


Service oriented architecture

• analysis of functional components within large-scale institutional services (library, VLE, student records, etc.)– delivery of separate, small-scale functional

‘services’– rationalisation of ‘shared’ common services

(middleware)

Portal

VLE Library mgt system

Student record / MIS




Content Management

DiscoverDiscover

DiscoverCollaboration

Course management

Authentication

Authorisation

Packaging

Assessment

Content Management

DiscoverDiscover

DiscoverCataloguing

Course management

Authentication

Authorisation

Packaging

Grading

Course management

Authentication

Authorisation


DiscoverCollaboration

Assessment

DiscoverCataloguing Grading

Content Management

DiscoverDiscover

Packaging

Authentication

Authorisation Course management




Implementation of SOA

• implementation choices– J2EE (JavaBeans, etc.)

– JINI (Java APIs)

– .Net

– Web Services (SOAP)

• I think(!)…– OKI, uPortal, Sakai tend to lean towards Java-

based solutions – J2EE

– whereas SOAP perhaps provides a more open, robust and language independent solution?


Web services

• machine (m2m) interfaces between services on the Web

• underpin many e-commerce activities and the Grid• a whole new set of acronyms – SOAP, WSDL,

UDDI, WSRP• based on HTTP and XML (i.e. mainstream Web

pedigree)• Google and Amazon APIs• support both informational (e.g. search) and

transactional (e.g. billing) types of service


But… 2 notes of caution?

• is all this added complexity worthwhile and/or realistic?– will the market-place support it?

• where does application logic sit in a service oriented architecture?– need ‘open’ role/process layer to coordinate

use of services



e-Learning

Library

ComputingServices/

Web support team

MIS/Registry/

Finance/Etc.

Externalcontent


MIS/Registry/

Finance/Etc.

MIS, registry, finance, etc.

• source of data for other ‘service’ areas• recipient of data from other ‘service’

areas• ‘data glue’ that holds everything else

together• interest in developing a ‘portal’ to MIS-

related functions– this group has driven

uPortal in US– but in UK?


Bringing it all together…

e-Learning

Library

ComputingServices/

Web support team

MIS/Registry/

Finance/Etc.

Externalcontent


Knowledge management?

• end-user is faced with a range of different human-oriented Web interfaces within the institution

• might need to perform same search (e.g. ‘hiv aids’) against– Web site search engine

– library OPAC

– VLE

– institutional eprint archive

– personal email archives

• and manually collate results from each, etc.


HTTP links…

e-Learning

Library

ComputingServices/

Web support team

MIS/Registry/

Finance/Etc.

Externalcontent

http://…URLs


HTTP links

• easy for end-users to create• bit of a mess…• …but deep-links (e.g. direct to book

record in the library catalogue) will reduce need for end-user to repeat searches

• ongoing maintenance problem – checking for dead links

• hard-wired links are same for everyone


Robot/search engine…

e-Learning

Library

ComputingServices/

Web support team

MIS/Registry/

Finance/Etc.

Externalcontent

HTTP/HTMLWeb robot

search engine


Robot/search engine

• easily deployed technology• lots of choice in the market-place (Open

source, commercial, externally hosted, etc.)• not everything is visible to the robot – even

within institution (invisible Web)• can’t easily index some formats (images,

video, data, etc.)• limited search functionality (because of lack

of metadata)• well understood by the end-user


OpenURL links…

e-Learning

Library

ComputingServices/

Web support team

MIS/Registry/

Finance/Etc.

Externalcontent

OpenURLlinks (URLs)


OpenURL links

• context sensitive – OpenURL resolver can offer different set of links to each user

• harder to create links• more persistent – change resolver, rather

than each link• up-front investment in OpenURL resolver

software (but typically from the library budget!)


Portal – Web services…

e-Learning

Library

ComputingServices/

Web support team

MIS/Registry/

Finance/Etc.

Externalcontent

uPortalframework,

aggregated content(distributed search)


Portal – Web services

• aggregate content from multiple sources using distributed search and/or metadata harvesting – SOAP, Z39.50, OAI-PMH

• typically adopted by ‘library’ portals

• likely to be approach adopted by external information suppliers

• likely to be supported by ‘repository’ software within institution

• but may require some in-house development in short term

• learning curve to overcome


Portal – portlets…

e-Learning

Library

ComputingServices/

Web support team

MIS/Registry/

Finance/Etc.

Externalcontent

uPortalframework, aggregateduser-interface (WSRP)


Portal – portlets

• aggregate pieces of user-interface from multiple sources

• Web services for Remote Portlets (WSRP)

• RSS• uPortal appears to be technology leader


Summary

• all approaches listed above likely to be used/adopted in some form

• RSS and OpenURL look to be being widely adopted

• fairly widespread interest in uPortal• standardisation happening in multiple arenas

(W3C, NISO, IMS, IEEE, OASIS) – tracking standards not easy

• deployment happening in multiple places within institutions – so needs strategic overview of joined up service provision


Questions?

digital library and mle integration - where are we now and where do we want to be?

Education

library content

enduser services

oriented services

internal content

licensed content

institutional content

range of content providers

portals library portals