The ETS Brigham Library: From Content Management to … · 2008. 10. 15. · – News aggregators (Bloglines, NewsGator, GoogleReader) – Alerts (searches keywords, company names,

®

The ETS Brigham Library:

From Content Management

to Knowledge Management

Karen McQuillen

Manager, Library and

Information Services

Educational Testing Service

October 3, 2008

2®

Copyright © 2008 by Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.

Background on ETS

• Our activities and products fall into five broad

areas of expertise

– Research

– Assessment development

– Test administration

– Test scoring

– Instructional products and services

3®


Background on ETS

• 2700 staff members / 500 – 700 in decision-making roles

• Serves

– Individuals

– Educational institutions

– Government bodies

• Global presence

– Offices in 24 countries

4®


Background on ETS

• What products you MIGHT know– The SAT® Test (under contract with The College Board)

– GRE® (Graduate Record Examinations®) Tests

– The Praxis Series™ Assessments

– The TOEFL® Test (Test of English as a Foreign Language)

• What products you MIGHT NOT know– K-12 tests in eight states

– iSkills™ Assessment (ICT Literacy Examination)

– The NAEP Program (National Assessment of Educational Progress) – “Nation’s Report Card”

– The Keeping Learning on Track® Program

– The e-rater® Engine

5®


Background on ETS

• Produce close to 30 research reports / year

• Produce 2 to 4 policy information reports / year

– America's Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation's Future

– The Family: America’s Smallest School

– Teacher Quality in a Changing Policy Landscape

6®


The ETS Brigham Library:

Ch-ch-ch changes…

• Librarians did searching for people – Cost effective (Dialog, etc. hard to learn)

• Advent of Internet – people want to do own searches

• Databases searched by staff

– Librarians consult before getting started• Help with strategy, databases to use

– Give one-on-one and group learning sessions on Library Resources and Internet Technology Tools

– People learning about social bookmarking software – saving paper and server space (Furl.net, e.g.)

7®


Improving Findability:

Journals• Journals (15,000 full text including full text by way of

database subscriptions)

• Difficult to know “what was where?” – had to search independently or use Full Text Sources Online

• e-Journal Portal

– Fewer requests for interlibrary loans for articles available internally

8®



The Search• Many sources of information available to staff

– Databases licensed by library

– Web-based portals (Librarians’ Internet Index, Google Scholar)

– Dictionaries and encyclopedias (open web and subscription based)

• Search independently to find information

– Unless used before, not sure where information would be

9®



The Search• Federated searching

– Search all databases at once, or by subject grouping

– Good launching point for search

• Results clustered

– Database

– Topic

– Journal

– Author

– Date

– Can then conduct more targeted searching within single database

– VP loves it!

10®


Federated Search by

database

11®


Federated Search by

subject

12®


Federated

Search

clustering

13®



The SearchOutcomes

– Number of citations accessed in full-text databases almost doubled between 2006 and 2007 (Federated search launched May 2007)

– Hit rate projected to increase even more between 2007 and 2008

Comments:

– “This is an incredibly helpful shortcut! I tested it out and it worked really well. This feature plus the article linker are a huge help to us research assistants!”

14®


SharePoint® Portal

• Launched May 2008

• Previously used FrontPage

15®


Old library web site using FrontPage html editor

16®


New library portal uses collaborative SharePoint®software

(Microsoft

product

screen shot

reprinted with

permission

from

Microsoft

Corporation.)

17®


SharePoint®

• More control over the categorization of content

– Changes easy to make

• Better functionality

– Can search portal to locate database/person

• Does not search database content

18®


SharePoint® Search Results

(Microsoft

product

screen shot

reprinted

with

permission

from

Microsoft

Corporation.)

19®


ETS Brigham Library gets

the right information to the

right people via its

Daily News and Reports

Distribution Process

20®


How do we do it?• Designed a process for scanning and distributing daily news and

reports

– RSS feeds

– News aggregators (Bloglines, NewsGator, GoogleReader)

– Alerts (searches keywords, company names, competitive products, etc.)

– Good, old-fashioned manual scanning when technology not available

• Sources scanned include

– Newspapers

– Trade and industry journals

– Websites

– Newsletters

– Reports

– Wire Services

– Blogs

21®


Info Flow at ETS

RSS feeds

Bloglines

Web alerts

E-mail

News Digest Database

E-mailing list dissemination

Posting to SharePoint Archive

Manual scanning

Posting to SharePoint Blog

RSS generator to OPAC

22®


That’s a lot of work!

• Approximately two hours a day to:– Scan

– Select

– Categorize

– Compile

– Distribute

– Archive

• Time investment is worth the return in terms of informed ETSers– Centralized service saves in terms of duplicative efforts by

other business units

23®


Why not use third party

alert service?• Search strategies returned either too much or too

little information

• Costly – paid for information that wasn’t relevant

• Difficult to adapt to dynamic information needs of the company

• Could not replace the intuitive and informed vetting of a human scanner

Key is librarians’ knowledge of information needs of the whole company – positioned

to see “big picture”

24®


What do we look for?• Each working day, feeds are scanned for information

about

– ETS (the company, products, and key personnel)

– ETS’s vertical markets (testing, teaching, English Language Learning)

– ETS’s geographic markets (key states, global priorities)

– ETS’s competitors

– Government education policies

– Industry reports

– News related to current projects, trends

25®


What do subscribers get?

• News digest compiled in Excel (or Access)

• Exported to Word document or other text options, as required

• Distributed to subscribers via email and portal links

• Subscribers can sign up for one or more information topics

26®


Daily News Digest• Articles and reports are indexed

by subject and hyperlinked to

full text

27®


What do subscribers get?

• Main database and daily digests are stored in SharePoint® for easy access by all ETSers

• Database can be sorted, searched, and abstracted to meet specific information needs (i.e. all stories on English Language Learning in Asia)

28®


Database & Portal Access

(Microsoft

product

screen shots

reprinted with

permission

from Microsoft

Corporation.)

29®


New OPAC

• Upgrade to SydneyPlus (using since 1987)

• Merging library and test collection databases

• ETS Directory of Products, Programs and Services

– The resource for definitive information thereof

• Archives database

• Worked with office outside HQ (San Antonio) to catalog their office’s resource and add to OPAC

• All major search fields searched together – “Google-like” look and feel – minimum training required!

30®


New OPAC

• Can create new acquisitions list on the fly

• Quick links

• Preset searches

• RSS feeds

– Announcements

– Daily News Digests

• User can set up “My Library” space

• Library staff can receive and file reference questions and create reports

• Will become part of federated search

31®


Blogging

• VP of Strategic Workforce Solutions maintains Knowledge Workings Blog

• Library staff big contributors

– Share news and opinions

– Looking for a book? We have it (or we’ll get it)

– Improves visibility

32®


Next Steps

• Semantic searching

• Communities of practice based on like requests

– Finding each other

Questions?

ETS, the ETS logo, E-RATER, GRADUATE RECORD EXAMINATIONS, GRE, LISTENING. LEARNING. LEADING.,

KEEPING LEARNING ON TRACK and TOEFL are registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service (ETS).

ISKILLS and THE PRAXIS SERIES are trademarks of ETS. SAT is a registered trademark of the College Board.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Documents

The ETS Brigham Library: From Content Management to … · 2008. 10. 15. · – News aggregators (Bloglines, NewsGator, GoogleReader) – Alerts (searches keywords, company names,