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Accessing a national digital library: an architecture for the UK DNER

Accessing a national digital library: an architecture for the UK DNER. Andy Powell ELAG 2001, Prague 7 June 2001 UKOLN, University of Bath a.powell@ukoln.ac.uk.

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Accessing a national digital library: an architecture for the UK DNER

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  1. Accessing a national digital library: an architecture for the UK DNER Andy Powell ELAG 2001, Prague 7 June 2001 UKOLN, University of Bath a.powell@ukoln.ac.uk UKOLN is funded by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher and Further Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.

  2. Contents • what is the DNER • vision • content • functionality • network systems architecture • discover • access • <www.dner.ac.uk/architecture> ELAG 2001, Prague

  3. What is the DNER? • Distributed National Electronic Resource • …but the name may change! • An initiative of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) • Not new… in that JISC has been funding provision of collections of information for a long time • …but • DNER more coordinated • provided within shared architectural framework ELAG 2001, Prague

  4. The vision... • a national digital library... for higher and further education • a distributed resource supporting learning and research in the UK • a managed collection of resources • heterogeneous… bibliographic, images, data, video, geospatial, etc. • an information environment that enables people to discover, access and use a wide variety of quality assured resources • heterogeneous, services / content, local / remote, digital / physical, JISC funded / not JISC funded ELAG 2001, Prague

  5. DNER scope by content External Public libraries Institutional Web pages home pages Funded Museums theses research papers Map data courseware Full-text images Primary Content statistics Northern Light Secondary Content RDN A&I COPAC OPACs Institutional gateways Amazon Yahoo Google ELAG 2001, Prague

  6. DNER collections • content typically in the form of ‘collections’ • where collection is one or more items • collections of stuff (text, images, data, ...) • collections of metadata about stuff (e.g subject gateway’s, library catalogues) • local collections, ‘JISC’ collections, other collections • network services make digital collections available at digital ‘locations’ • real services make physical collections available at physical ‘locations’ • people access content through services ELAG 2001, Prague

  7. DNER services • a variety of ‘content provision’ services make current digital collections available • most are Web-based (some use of Z39.50) • in some cases ‘we’ (the education community) develop and control the services that make collections available • in some cases collections are tightly bound to their user-interfaces - i.e. collection owners control form of access ELAG 2001, Prague

  8. DNER scope by function • simple underlying functional model • discover, access, use • characterised in the solution to two problems • portal problem - how to provide seamless discovery across multiple content providers • appropriate-copy problem - how to provide access to the most appropriate copy of a resource (given access rights, preferences, cost, speed of delivery, etc.) • also needs to support collaboration and creation but not considered here ELAG 2001, Prague

  9. Current service architecture Content (local and remote) Web Web Web Web Authentication Authorisation End-user needs to join services together manually - as well as learning multiple user interfaces Current services offer mix of discover, access and use functionality End-user ELAG 2001, Prague

  10. Information environment • current services are human-oriented • DNER architecture provides framework for shared machine-oriented services • DNER as coherent whole rather than lots of stand-alone services • two areas in particular... • discover • finding stuff across multiple content providers • access • streamlining access to appropriate copy ELAG 2001, Prague

  11. Discover • want to allow end-user to discover across several network services... • to support this, services need to expose content for machine to machine (m2m) use • expose metadata about their content for • searching • harvesting • alerting • develop services that bring stuff together • portals ELAG 2001, Prague

  12. Portals • portals provide access to multiple network services • there will be many kinds of portals... • subject portals • data centre portals • institutional portals • personal portals (agents) • virtual learning environments • thin portals (shallow linking) • thick portals (deep linking, richer discovery and use functionality) ELAG 2001, Prague

  13. Searching Content Web Web Web Web Authentication Z39.50 Bath Profile Authorisation Broker Collect’n Desc Portal Service Desc HTTP End-user ELAG 2001, Prague

  14. Z39.50 - Bath Profile • search and retrieve • support portal and broker cross-searching • Bath Profile based on existing profiles • cross-domain focus (in part) • unqualified Dublin Core • DC XML records • DTD-based rather than XML Schema ELAG 2001, Prague

  15. Sharing Content Open Archives Initiative Web Web Web Web Authentication Authorisation Aggregator Collect’n Desc Portal Service Desc HTTP End-user ELAG 2001, Prague

  16. Open Archives Initiative • OAI Metadata Harvesting Framework • simple mechanism for sharing metadata records • records shared over HTTP... • ... as XML (using XML Schema) • unqualified Dublin Core • client can ask metadata server for • all records • all records modified in last ‘n’ days • See <http://www.openarchives.org/> ELAG 2001, Prague

  17. Alerting Content Web Web Web Web RSS Authentication Authorisation Aggregator Collect’n Desc Portal Service Desc Email HTTP End-user ELAG 2001, Prague

  18. RSS • RDF Site Summary • RDF/XML application for syndicated news feeds (RSS 1.0) • pointers and simple descriptions of news items (not the items themselves) • makes use of DC elements • previous versions based on XML (RSS 0.9) • no querying - just regular ‘gathering’ of RSS file <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rssxpress/> ELAG 2001, Prague

  19. Common sense • need shared understanding and metadata practice across whole range of services • need to agree ‘cataloguing guidelines’ and terminology in 4 key areas • subject classification • audience level (who is this resource aimed at?) • resource type (what kind of resource is this?) • certification (who has created this resource?) ELAG 2001, Prague

  20. Access • discovery phase results in metadata about a resource • metadata will include its identifier or a locator • for Web resources a URL is common • identifier/locator needs to be persistent • enable lecturers to embed it into learning resources • enable students to embed it into multimedia essays • enable people to cite it ELAG 2001, Prague

  21. Identifiers/locators • also need to think about what is identified...? • the resource (e.g. an image) • the resource in context (e.g. image embedded into Web page) • metadata about the resource (e.g. description of image) • probably need to identify all of these • need guidelines on good practice for use of URLs • investigate use of DOIs ELAG 2001, Prague

  22. Resolving identifiers • may need to resolve the metadata, identifier or locator into information about how to request a particular instance of the resource • this is done using resolvers • resolvers find appropriate copy • location is context sensitive - need to know who end-user is, where they are and what they have access to • may be best carried out locally to end-user? ELAG 2001, Prague

  23. OpenURL • metadata, identifier or locator forms a ‘citation’ for the resource • OpenURL - way to encode citation for a resource • http://sfx.bath.ac.uk/sfxmenu?genre=book&isbn=1234-5678 • OpenURL resolves differently for different people • my OPAC, my online bookstore vs. your OPAC, your online bookstore • bibliographic focus currently... ELAG 2001, Prague

  24. OpenURL resolver Content Delivery service Authentication Authorisation Collect’n Desc Portal OpenURL Service Desc Resolver HTTP Inst’n Profile End-user ELAG 2001, Prague

  25. Information environment provision content shared services m2m interfaces brokers and aggregators infrastructure fusion portals presentation ELAG 2001, Prague

  26. Summary • people, institutions, content, services • discover, access, use • discover - search (Z39.50/Bath Profile), share (OAI), alert (RSS) - Dublin Core metadata • access - OpenURL and resolvers • services • presentation, fusion, provision, infrastructure • portals, brokers and aggregators, content providers, shared services • cataloguing rules • subject, type, audience, certification ELAG 2001, Prague

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