Web Services Today

Miles StaufferJan 29, 2009Sonoma State University

Outline

• A bit about me• Purpose of the presentation• Web services today• Where are they going?

Me

• Consultant Librarian and SydneyPLUS• MLIS – University of British Columbia• BA – University of Washington• Hobbies – climbing and traveling• Favorite book – A Tomb for Boris Davidovich

The Presentation

• Explain holistic nature of library portal• How it accesses user needs and information• Current technologies and trends• What lies ahead?

What is a library portal?

• What is holism?o all the properties of a given system

• What are the elements of a library portal?o Structure – how are we going to organize our content?o Content – what information will we provide to our audience?o Audience – who wants access to our content?o Access – how can we provide relevant information?

• Library is not just a repository, but also a learning centero Why would a portal be any different?o Library portal should bring together the same elements o Provide the same services (or more!) of the library

Structure

• The overall layout and design of the portalo Architect

• How will you virtually house your content?• Things to consider

o Navigation o Colorso Logoso CSS

Structure – Technologies

• Open source• Content Management Systems

o Drupal at Luthero Scriblio at Lamson Libraryo WordPress at Carnegie-Vincent Library

• Wiki's• Blog's

Structure – Technologies - Luther

Structure – Technologies – Lamson

Structure – Technologies – Carnegie

Structure - Trends

• Browser based• Always new content• White space• "User-centered design", ISO 13407

Structure – Trends – NCSU

Structure – Trends – BYU

Structure – Trends – Libris

Audience

• What is a user? o “At its most basic level, the Library 2.0 model

gives library users a participatory role in the services libraries offer and the way they are used. Customers, should they desire, will be able to tailor library services to best meet their own needs.” (LJ 9/1/06)

• Who is this portal for? (demographic)o Students, faculty, public, and librarians

• Are you getting the correct content?o Does you subscriptions meet need of users?

Audience - Technologies

• Course Management Systemso Moodleo Sakai

• Subject Pageso MyLibraryo Research Guide

Audience - Technologies - Moodle

Audience – Technologies – Sakai

Audience – Technologies – Sakai 2

Audience – Technologies - MyLibrary

Audience – Technologies – Research Guide

Audience - Trends

• User generated• Department controlled• Customizable work spaces for students

Audience – Trends - BYU

Content

• What is content?o Books, Journals, Events, News, db's, and Zebras?o Everything you are going to provide access to

Library and non-library created materials• Who is creating the content?

o Library, staff, students

Content - Technologies

• RSS • ‡biblios• Affinity strings• XML• RDA

What is RDA?

• RDA = Resource Description and Access• Why are we moving from AACR2 to RDA?

o AACR2 encodes to a machine language (MARC 21)o RDA will encode to XMLo More international standard (no more Anglo-American)

• Why is it important?o Will be release July 2009

• How is this all connected?

RDA and Portal Design

RDA

FRBR FRAD

Data entry

Display

Encoding

ISBD

XML (Dublin Core)MARC 21 XML (MODS)

“... RDA provides the building blocks for new generation OPAC's, ...” CILIP, 2008

Content – Technologies - RSS

Content – Technologies – Biblios

Content – Trends

• NEW NEW NEW!• Tagging library materials • Subject oriented • Harvesting data

Content – Trends – NEW NEW NEW

Content – Trends – Tagging

Content – Trends – Harvesting

Access

• How are we going to access all this content?• How do we know it will be relevant?

Access - Technologies

• Open URL and LinkResolvero SFXo Umlauto CUFTSo COinS (ContextObjects in Spans - Z39.88)

• Solr• Component-based

o XC (extensible catalog)• API• OAI• LibraryH3lp

Access – Technologies

Access – Technologies

Access – Technologies

Access – Trends

• Seamless integration• Federated searching• Harvesting free/paid databases• Filtering• “Prosumer”

o Active vs. passive interaction with information

What's ahead?

• Not what you own, but what you can access!• Component-based tools to integrate with existing OPAC• Seamless design• Faceted browsing• Active and Passive content generation

o Active = tagging materialso Passive = collecting user information (ex. Affinity Strings)

• Link Resolvers over massive targetso Not 450, but 1,000'so DOI (Document Object Identifier) integration

My Portals - .NET OPAC

My Portals - BBG

My Portals - CLFM

My Portals - Innova

My Portals - JCC

My Portals - Dashboard

My Portals – Legal OPAC