The NISO NETREF Protocol

Mark H NeedlemanProduct Manager- Standards

Sirsi Corporation

LITA National Conference 2004

Agenda

The Reference Environment & Network Models

The NISO Committee Protocol Design Criteria Envisioned Usage Scenarios Protocol Messages Protocol Technologies Metadata Design Criteria Status and Implementations

Background

1999: Lankes & Sutton’s Question Interchange Profile (QuIP)

December 2000: Proposal to NISO April 2001: NISO-sponsored workshop to

explore areas for standardization December 2001: NISO AZ Committee on

Networked Reference Services February 2002 – present: Real work!

The Environment

Libraries using digital reference to extend services and reach more users

Reference services evolving, moving from art to science

Cooperation and collaborative services growing: Ask Eric, Virtual Reference Canada,

QuestionPoint, 24/7 Reference, Internet Public Library, others

Committee Charge Develop question processing transaction protocol to support:

Processing and routing of questions and responses Packaging of other information to be exchanged Cross domain exchange

Develop metadata element sets to identify and describe key components of: Question and answer metadata Profiling metadata (institutional and personal data)

Conduct experimentation and/or research in both areas to test the proposed standard

Develop implementation guidelines & recommended best practices Research & experiment to test

the proposed standard- implement the standard

Involved Parties

Libraries and librarians Reference service providers Reference software and management

providers Integrated library system providers Database and information systems Other providers of community services

Tutoring programs Research services

Protocol Design Criteria Client/Server Design Transaction based - transaction consists of one

or more messages Interaction is between 2 independent systems

(although nothing precludes use inside a single system)

Must support a wide range of application areas Protocol does not speak to interactions with end

user Automate the question/answer process but

recognize actual answers will be provided by people

Usage Scenarios

Subset of actual use cases being presented

Various scenarios are presented as being logically separate - in reality, they could be combined in multiple ways

Simplest Scenario

Client asks question

Server provides answer

Scenarios (2)

Multipart question Multipart answer Clarifications Constraints Status reporting Suspend/Resume Cancellation

Scenarios (3)

Failures Timeouts Status reports Forwarding Conversations Patron Redirect Reference to archived transactions

Current Protocol Messages Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Request Clarification . . . . Clarification . . . . . . . . . . . Constraint . . . . . . . . . . . . . Constraint Reply . . . . . . . Action Request Status Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Memo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Other . . . . .

client initiated server initiated server initiated client initiated client or server initiated client or server initiated Client initiated Server initiated client or server initiated client or server initiated client or server initiated

Metadata Design Criteria

May be used independent of Protocol Extensible where appropriate

(we don’t know what we don’t know) Flexible: provides facilities or services to

carry service-specific information Simple core data

Netref Metadata (1)

Abstract Protocol package contains bundles for: Protocol metadata Content metadata Profiling metadata

Categories of elements: Defined elements such as protocol-specific

data, question ID, etc. Variable elements such as utility elements,

domain-specific elements, etc.

Netref Metadata (2)

Information about: the question and the context in which it was

asked the levels and types of resources desired in

the answer the user the user’s agent/library services desired constraints

Other Considerations

Interaction with other protocols and standards NCIP, OpenURL, Z39.50, ILL, others?

Additional models Fee-based services / e-commerce Local systems Knowledge bases

Measuring user satisfaction Legal: privacy, copyright, jurisdictional law Global: cultural/national relevancy, language

Protocol Technology

Encoding XML- defined using an XML Schema

Transports SOAP over HTTP/HTTPS SOAP over SMTP

Other technologies may be defined in future

More Information/Documentation

http://www.loc.gov/standards/netref/