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Technologies For Hybrid Libraries:
Implementation Issues
Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath, BA2 7AY
UKOLN is funded by the Library and Information Commission, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher 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.
This talk looks at what the HE community is doing and raises some implementation issues:
• What's happening with searching?• Deployment models• Cultural Issues
This talk looks at what the HE community is doing and raises some implementation issues:
• What's happening with searching?• Deployment models• Cultural Issues
2
Where Are We Now?• Analysis of institutional web search
engines carried out in summer 1999• Report published in
Ariadne web magazine
• See <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue21/webwatch/>
3
Access to institutional search engines is available at: <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue21/webwatch/survey.html>
Information is being maintained and a follow-up article will be published
Accessing The Search EnginesAccessing The Search Engines
Could be used as basis for a metasearch service of UK Universities
Could be used as basis for a metasearch service of UK Universities
4
What Are The Trends?
Institutions seem to be:• Moving away from aging research-like tools
(Harvest, wwwwais, …)• Moving towards popular, out-of-a-box solutions
(ht://Dig, Webinator, etc)• Interested in commercial products, especially for
distributed sites (e.g. Ultraseek)• Smaller sites are experimenting with third-party
indexes (e.g. using AltaVista)• Little interest in re-use of search results
5
Areas Of Interest
Postings on mailing lists indicate interest in:• Indexing binary formats (esp. MS Word, PDF, etc.• Indexing multiple servers• Managing preferred hits (e.g. PDF over HTML)
Appears to be little interest in:• Hybrid libraries (apart from usual suspects)• Cross-searching• Subject-specific searching• Moving remote search interface to local server
6
Some ExceptionsThe Universities for the North East web site provides a search interface for searching across several web sites – see <http://www.unis4ne.ac.uk/webadmin/search.htm>
The Universities for the North East web site provides a search interface for searching across several web sites – see <http://www.unis4ne.ac.uk/webadmin/search.htm>
OMNI host search interfaces to remote medical services – see <http://www.omni.ac.uk/other-search/>
OMNI host search interfaces to remote medical services – see <http://www.omni.ac.uk/other-search/>
7
Some Exceptions (2)• UCISA TLIG have a pilot
index of computing service documentation
• See <http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/TLIG/docs/docshare.htm>
8
Web Gateways
Workshop session on "Managing Your Institutional Web Gateway":
• Held at JUSW in Sept 1999 – see <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/jusw-sep1999/workshop/>
• Many gateways have been forgotten about• Many don't appear to have quality assurance or
scoping procedures• Unclear management responsibilities• Little evidence of use of "portal management"
software (with some exceptions such as Leeds, Cranfield, etc.)
• Report to be published in Ariadne shortly
9
Case StudyKingston public library has a well-designed gateway which uses a backend database.The top 10 links is an example of a value-added service
http://www.kingston.gov.uk/libs/ref/http://www.kingston.gov.uk/libs/ref/
10
Approaches to Deployment
A question for University web teams:
"How can the new technologies and standards be deployed in our environment?"
Should we:• Ignore them? (Browser x doesn’t do CSS,
authoring tools don’t do RDF, etc.)• Accept them fully?• Accept them partly?• Other alternatives
11
DeploymentDo Nothing
Cheap – no new software, additional training, …SafeFails to address performance or accessibility issuesDifficult to do new stuff
Addresses performance & accessibility issues
Can deploy new types of applications
ExpensiveTesting neededBackwards
compatibility issues
Use New Developments
Compromise approachMight be expensive in
identifying safe features
Use "Safe" Developments
Use of intelligent servers and proxies
Might be expensiveComplicated?
A Fourth Way
12
Cultural IssuesShould we do it ourselves, do it within the open source, research community, or make use of commercial software? Should we do it ourselves, do it within the open source, research community, or make use of commercial software?
Do It OurselvesExploit enthusiasmNo expensive reporting
mechanismsHow the web first
developed in the UK
Do It OurselvesExploit enthusiasmNo expensive reporting
mechanismsHow the web first
developed in the UK
Open Source / CommunityUse of LinuxCommunity software such as IMESH
Toolkit <http://www.imesh.org/toolkit/>
Collaboration with initiatives such as RDN <http://www.rdn.ac.uk/>
Open Source / CommunityUse of LinuxCommunity software such as IMESH
Toolkit <http://www.imesh.org/toolkit/>
Collaboration with initiatives such as RDN <http://www.rdn.ac.uk/>
Use of Commercial ProductsUse MS products such as SiteServer
(cf BUILDER)Use other licensed software (portal
management systems)
Use of Commercial ProductsUse MS products such as SiteServer
(cf BUILDER)Use other licensed software (portal
management systems)
13
Questions
Some questions for general discussion:• Do we need to develop a hybrid libraries or can we
rely on interfaces to general search engines (such as AltaVista or a UK-only search engine)?
Many indexing products (Ultraseek, ht://Dig, MS SiteServer, etc.) can index remote sites.
• Why isn't more of this being done?• Is it a scalable solution?
Robot Indexers vs. Other Solutions• What is the preferred solution for the future:
Robot indexers indexing lots of sites Sites providing access using Z39.50 (or an alternative)
14
Conclusions
To conclude:• eLib phase 3 projects seem to be ahead of the
community• There are various deployment models for new
standards:Don't implement Implement fullyImplement via proxy Other solutions
• There are a number of approaches to use of applications to implement new standards