• EEVL: Subject-based portal

• Internet Librarian 2002• Monday 18 March 2002

• Roddy MacLeod• EEVL Manager

• r.a.macleod@hw.ac.uk• www.eevl.ac.uk

EEVL: Subject-based portal

• Development of EEVL– Subject gateway – Growth in subject coverage– Part of the RDN– EEVL’s purpose

• Define Subject Gateway• EEVL’s activities and latest promotion• Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER)

– Complex information landscape• EEVL and Subject Portals Project• Define Subject Portal• ‘EEVL-ution’ from gateway to a portal

EEVL: Background

• EEVL launched in 1996 as an Engineering gateway– Internet Resources Catalogue to quality Web sites

• Additional services added: – e-journal search engine– Recent Advances in Manufacturing database– Offshore Engineering Information Service

• Free service - www.eevl.ac.uk• Originally funded for UK Higher Education by

Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) through eLib Programme

EEVL: Background

• EEVL relaunched in autumn 2001 – “Internet guide to Engineering, Mathematics and

Computing”– Now covers Mathematics and Computing, as well

as Engineering• Funded by JISC, as part of the Resource

Discovery Network (RDN)• Free service - www.eevl.ac.uk • Lead partner - Heriot Watt University

– Cranfield University– University of Birmingham– University of Ulster– Several other contributing institutions

EEVL: Background

• Resource Discovery Network– Co-operative network– Central organisation (RDNC)– Hubs– Free Internet service dedicated to providing

effective access to high quality Internet resources for the learning, teaching and research community

– Eventually cover all subjects– http://www.rdn.ac.uk

EEVL: Background

• Resource Discovery Network– BIOME biome.ac.uk

– EEVL www.eevl.ac.uk

– HUMBUL www.humbul.ac.uk

– SOSIG www.sosig.ac.uk

– PSIgate www.psigate.ac.uk

– Altis (forthcoming)

– Gesource (forthcoming)

– Artifact (forthcoming)

EEVL: Background

• EEVL the Internet guide for Engineering, Mathematics and Computing

• Free• www.eevl.ac.uk

EEVL: Purpose

• Aims to enable academics, researchers, students and others to make better use of available Internet resources by improving accessibility to them

• Arthur C Clark “trying to get information from the internet is like standing under a waterfall to get a drink”

• Problems:– Too much information– Often US biased– Unfocused and unselective search tools

Subject Gateway

• Subject Gateway: An online database of subject-specific links to resources which have been reviewed, usually subject-specific

• Subject Gateway: Primarily a searchable and browsable database of Internet resources, selected according to strict guidelines, in order to meet user’s requirements. User explores the gateway and identifies likely resources of interest from descriptions. Mouse click takes him/her out of gateway and into external resource. Further interaction takes place outwith gateway. A gateway, therefore ‘shallow mines’ resources.

EEVL: Gateway

• Internet Resource Catalogue: 8,500 + records• Also additional services:

– Full text search engine– e-journal search engine– Recent Advances in Manufacturing– Bibliography of engineering Internet resources– USTLG database– Web tutorials (VTS)– Offshore Engineering Information Service– Maths Secondary Home Pages– Hot Links (Learning & Teaching Resources, Jobs

& Recruitment, Events, News)

EEVL: Latest promotion

• £7,500 new engineering, maths & computing books free: www.eevl.ac.uk/freebooks

• Engineering magazine, E2, Mathematics Today, Computer Bulletin, Kluwer, Springer, Pearson, Wiley, Taylor & Francis and Butterworth-Heinemann

The need for subject portals• JISC 5 Year Strategy- Key aspect

– “To build an on-line information environment providing secure and convenient access to a comprehensive collection of scholarly and educational material”

• The Information Environment

– “…the set of network services that support publishing and use of information resources”

• Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER)

– Distributed learning and research resources

• Purpose of the environment

– Enable students and staff to access and use those resources in ways meaningful to them and to take away barriers

The need for subject portals

• Subject portals - One method of simplifying the information landscape

• Subject portals - Provide seemless access for users to DNER Collections:– 1) JISC funded or joint-funded, JISC purchased, or

JISC sponsored datasets and content collections.– 2) Available as a national service, hosted by one

of the JISC's data centres or information services.• Subject portals - Access to other information as

well• Other types of portals - e.g. Institutional, will do

similar, from another perspective

Information Landscape: now

Web Web Web Web

Content, e.g. Datasets, etc

End-user

End-user needs to join services together manually - as well as learning multiple user interfaces

Authorisation

Authentication

Information landscape: now

• Web of Science• Ei Compendex• Emerald• CSA Databases• ZETOC• ScienceDirect• Ingenta• Digital Dissertations• Index to Theses

• ASTI• Construction & Building

Abstracts (CBA)• ICONDA• RICS Library Direct• Thomas Telford Publishing• Wiley Interscience• BRE Bookshop• ASCE Civile Engineering

Database

“Information frustration” Information World Review, March 2002, p. 28

Different usernames, different interfaces, different locations

Information Landscape: future

Web Web Web Web

Content, e.g.Datasets

End-user

Subject Portal

Broker or Aggregator

Access to content is simplified from user perspective

Authorisation

User Profiles

Thesauri

Authentication

Collection Description

Service Desc.

Functions

• Authentication• User profiles• Cross-searching

– Discover relevant target databases– Search targets– Locate appropriate copy– Deliver full text

• “Deep mine” resources

SPP Project

• Subject Portal Project (SPP)– Biome - Health & Life Sciences– EEVL - Engineering– Humbul - Humanities– SOSIG - Social Sciences

• www.portal.ac.uk/spp/• Maths Portal Project

– Integrated into EEVL– www.eevl.ac.uk/mathematics/portal/

• Computing - not funded to portalise

SPP Project

SOSIG EEVL BIOME HUMBUL PSI-Gate Maths

Authorisation

The Participants

Cross-SearchNews FeedsUser Profiling

Subject Portals ‘Tool Kit’

Other community tools

SPP DNER Portals

Portal Architecture

SPP Project

• Prototype Engineering Portal

SPP Project

• Prototype Engineering Portal

SPP Project

• SPP aims:– Allow searching seamlessly from the RDN Hubs

across a wider range of resources.– Develop community-building services

• Survey www.mathgate.bham.ac.uk/mathsportal/sppsurvey.asp

• Focus Groups• Feedback and involvement

SPP Portal survey

• Conference/Events lists• Aggregated news service• Sources of research

funding• Press release submission

service• Register of research• Reviews - software, books• Subject software tools• Professional society news

• Job announcement service• Short course

announcement service• Personalised I-journal• Aggregated product

directory• Web-basede learning

resources catalogue

www.mathgate.bham.ac.uk/mathsportal/sppsurvey.asp

Portal products

• Not competing with commercial publishers • Cross search service encourages use of the data

within the databases. • Native interfaces still important for full searches• Community services aimed at the academic

community, but open to all• Promote external sources of information• Work together with commercially available

information services.• Simpler information landscape, better

exploitation of information• Portals for Engineering and Mathematics

Subject Portals

• "Portal", a web site which offers a range of services as well as the traditional searchable records directory.

• “Subject Portal”, a service which accepts requests from users and interrogates services held elsewhere. It accepts results and presents tyem to the user from within the service. Where applicable the full text is presented from within the portal. A subject portal thus ‘deep mines’ resources. It allows customisation, and in addition, provides various community services.

EEVL Engineering Portal

• Work in progress• RAM database• Search Engines• Jobs.ac.uk RSS feed• News feeds from Learning & Teaching Subject

Networks (LTSN)• SearchLT - learning & teaching resources

– searchlt.engineering.ac.uk/

EEVL Engineering Portal

• SearchLT searchlt.engineering.ac.uk/

EEVL Engineering Portal

• SearchLT Record

EEVL Engineering Portal

EEVL SearchLT

Records linked together

Engineering Cross-search

EEVL Engineering Portal

• SearchLT cross-searched by EEVL Engineering

EEVL Engineering Portal

• Cross search results

EEVL-ution to a portal

www.eevl.ac.uk