UKOLN is supported by: Digital Library developments supporting eResearch Dr Liz Lyon, Director UKOLN, University of Bath, UK British Library, November

UKOLN is supported by:

Digital Library developments supporting eResearch

Dr Liz Lyon, Director

UKOLN, University of Bath, UK

British Library, November 2004

www.bath.ac.uk

a centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk

British Library, November 2004 2

Overview

1. Background and context

2. Digital curation

3. Scholarly communications

4. eBank UK Project

5. Linking research data and learning

1. Background and context



About UKOLN • “a centre of expertise in digital information management”• Funding

– Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) + Museums, Libraries & Archives Council (MLA)

– Portfolio of R&D projects

• 27 staff• Inform the library, information, education and cultural heritage

communities– Policy and advisory role at national level– Build innovative Web-based systems & services– Research and development– Dissemination: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/– e-journal Ariadne – Events: ECDL 2004


Infrastructure + IIE• Supporting cross-sectoral engagement

– Common Information Environment Group (CIE)

• Building shared services for the IIE– Informing strategic development– Demonstrators and prototypes– IE Service Registry– IE Metadata Schemas Registry– A common framework?

• Embedding open standards– Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) UK Affiliate Managing Agent– W3C representative – OAI Technical Committee– NISO MetaSearch

• Reviewing approaches to Resource Discovery• Digital repositories study


eLearning activities• Collaborating with CETIS

– Technical Framework to support e-Learning (ELF) – Contributing to UK LOM Core profile – Shaping an approach to Persistent Identifiers– Distributed eLearning Advisory Board

• Partnership with RDN / LTSN – Enable greater records sharing– RDN / LTSN LOM application profile– Shared vocabularies

• Advising Jorum+ learning object repository team• Facilitating interoperability with digital libraries (IMS)• Developing eLearning tools (GroupLog Project)• Supporting the FE community

– Regional Support Centres workshops: RSC Wales, RSC SE events in November


eResearch activities

• Facilitating knowledge transfer– Digital library, computer science and disciplinary communities– NeSC / UKOLN workshops

• Developing Virtual Research Environment (VRE) concepts• Supporting the arts & humanities

– AHRB expert group

• Digital Curation Centre partner • Changing nature of scholarly communications• Research and development projects

– ePrints UK– eBank UK

2. Digital Curation


Obsolete media

Images by Philip Hunter, UKOLN


DCC Web site

www.dcc.ac.uk


Consortium partners

• Management & Co-ordination– Director Designate Chris Rusbridge (University of Glasgow)

– Director (Phase One): Peter Burnhill with Phase One Project Co-ordinator: Robin Rice

(both from EDINA & Data Library, University of Edinburgh)

• Community Support & Outreach– Led by Dr Liz Lyon (UKOLN, University of Bath)

• Service Definition & Delivery– Led by Professor Seamus Ross (HATII [ERPANET], University of Glasgow)

• Development– Led by Dr David Giaretta (Astronomical Software & Services, CCLRC)

• Research– Led by Professor Peter Buneman (Informatics, University of Edinburgh)

Organisation to Engage & Collaborate

Industry

research collaborators

standards bodies

testbeds& tools

communities of practice: users

community support & outreach

research

development co-ordination

service definition & delivery

management & admin support

curation organisations eg DPC

Collaborative Associates Network of DataOrganisations


Draft Home page of new DCC eJournal

Launch January 2005


1st DCC International Conference

Planning so far:

•Location - Bath UK

•September 2005 (tbc)

•2-day event

•Invited speakers

•Peer-reviewed research papers


User requirements analysis

Commissioned study by Leona Carpenter

Desk-based research, focus groups, interviews. Taxonomy of “Users”

R&D issues: Annotation services, Ontology development, Automating metadata creation, Tools and toolkits, Data Format Description Language, Identifiers, Registries, Economic and cost-benefits studies

Advisory services :“Ask-a-Curator”,FAQs, reports, briefings, awareness-raising materials, best practice guidance, Storage media, “Like Erpanet”, advise Government, Research Councils, funding bodies

Professional development: Short courses, conferences, seminars, workshops, secondments to DCC and to working repository services

Outreach: Leadership for the future, case studies, sharing solutions, collaboration with other partners, international peers, industry links


Associates NetworkGoals

Develop understanding, share best practice, advance research, promote recognition, develop consensus

Membership

HEIs, FEIs, national bodies, industry partners, funders, research groups, individuals……

Benefits

Early access to R&D outputs, advisory services, training, input to definition and design, community participation

Discussion Forum www.dcc.ac.uk Please join us!


Service definition & delivery• Advisory services• Provide on-demand responses to queries—from legal to technical

guidance HELPDESK• Information Services

– Senior Scientist and Administrator Briefing Documents– Community developed DIGITAL CURATION MANUAL– Database of FAQs– Checklist for Compliance with best practices and standards

• Training services– Residential skills development courses for practitioners and

researchers

• Repository services– Build catalogue of tools

• Audit & Certification services– Development of Certification Procedures– Develop self-certification mechanisms


Development – initial plans

• Approach to Digital Curation “White Paper”– OAIS reference model

• Registries/Repositories– offering a repository of tools and technical information,

a focal point for digital curators– metadata standards

• Testbeds– for testing and evaluating tools, methods, standards

and policies in realistic settings

• Certification– standards– work with hardware and software manufacturers to

certify hardware and software components


The Research Agenda

• Data integration and publishing– Slowly coming to market. Publishing in community formats is a

new twist• Annotation

– Everybody agrees this is important. No-one understands it.• Metadata extraction

– Semantic or otherwise, it’s a key part of annotation• Archiving and Appraisal

– What do we do about databases – they change!• Legal issues

– Can we at least help to clarify what is going on?• Provenance and data quality

– Again, we don’t fully understand it.• Organisational dynamics of repositories• Economic analyses of curation• Ontologies, performance, registries, structure evolution…


Working with Others• Digital Preservation Coalition • Digital Library Federation• The National Archives• Global Grid Forum• NARA• Library of Congress• Research Library Group• JISC community• E-Science Community• Associates Network• …and many more

Leadership for the Future

3. Scholarly communications




“It is envisaged that the sharing of primary data would prevent unnecessary repetition of experiments and enable scientists to build directly on each others’ work, creating greater efficiencies and productivity in the research process.”


“The Government believes that the data underpinning the results of publicly-funded research should be made available as widely and as rapidly as possible, along with the results themselves”.


Research & e-Science workflows

Aggregator services: national, commercial

Repositories : institutional, e-prints, subject, data, learning objects

Data curation: databases & databanks

Validation

Harvestingmetadata

Data creation / capture / gathering: laboratory experiments, Grids, fieldwork, surveys, media

Deposit / self-archiving

Peer-reviewed publications: journals, conference proceedings

Publication

Validation

Data analysis, transformation, mining, modelling

Searching , harvesting, embedding

Presentation services: subject, media-specific, data, commercial portals

Resource discovery, linking, embedding

Linking

The scholarly knowledge cycle.

Liz Lyon, eBankUK article. Ariadne, July 2003.






Validation

Harvestingmetadata




Publication

Validation





Linking




Learning & Teaching workflows



Institutional presentation services: portals, Learning Management Systems, u/g, p/g courses, modules

Harvestingmetadata



Validation



Learning object creation, re-use


Quality assurance bodies

Validation









Validation

Harvestingmetadata





Publication

Validation







Validation



Linking




Aggregator services:

eBank UK




Validation

Harvestingmetadata





Publication

Validation







Validation



Linking

4. The eBank UK Project


eBank UK: linking research data to learning

• JISC-funded for 1 year from September 2003 (Phase 1)• Phase 2 funding secured• UKOLN at the University of Bath (lead), University of

Southampton, University of Manchester• e-Science testbed Combechem

– Grid-enabled combinatorial chemistry– Crystallography, laser and surface chemistry– Development of an e-Lab using pervasive computing technology– National Crystallography Service

• Resource Discovery Network PSIgate physical sciences portal

• http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/projects/ebank-uk/

Comb-e-Chem Project

X-Raye-Lab

Analysis

Properties

Propertiese-Lab

SimulationVideo

Diff

ract

omet

er

Grid Middleware

StructuresDatabase



First steps: establishing common ground…

• Understand the data creation process • Terminology and definitions

– Data– Metadata– Datafile– Dataset– Data holding

• Different views– Digital library researchers, computer scientists, chemists– Generic vs specific– Modeller vs practitioner

• Aim for a common ontology• Modelling the domain• Creating a metadata schema


Some metadata issues

• Using simple and qualified Dublin Core • Additional chemical information in schema for

harvesting e.g. empirical formula• Schema contains International Chemical

Identifier (InChI)• Links to all datasets associated with an

experiment• Links to individual datasets within an experiment• Links to eprints (and other published literature)

derived from the data• Using vocabularies specific to crystallography• Will substitute when standards emerge


Project results so far…..

• Version 2.0 eBank metadata schema• Pilot institutional e-data repository for harvesting raw,

derived, results data (enhanced ePrints.org software) • Exports records as ebank_dc and oai_dc• Pilot eBank UK aggregator service• Demonstrator with PSIgate physical sciences portal –

embedding eBank UK• Consultation Workshop outcomes

– Cost-benefit issues for researchers?– RAE impact?– Disciplinary differences (A&H, social sciences)?

• Supporting studies on (1) Provenance (2) Data models and schema


The digital repository

ecrystals.chem.soton.ac.uk

Acknowledgement: Simon Coles


Linking to publications



eBank embedded in a science portal


5. Linking research data and learning


eBank Phase 2: linking to learning

• Embedding in e-Learning processes• Evaluating the pedagogical benefits

– MChem course

– Chemical informatics course


Future planning….generic models & metadata schema

• Phase 2 starts 1st February 2005• Validation against other schema

– CLRC Scientific Metadata Model Vs 2

• Complex digital objects• Investigate packaging options

– METS– MPEG 21 DIDL – ??

• Metadata enhancement - subject keyword additions to datasets based on knowledge of keywords in related publications


….Identifiers and linking

• Investigate identifiers e.g. International Chemical Identifier (InChI code)– Access to scientific (climate) data using DOIs (German

National Library of Science & Technology)

• Explore context sensitive linking: find me– Datasets by this person– Journal articles by this person– Datasets related to this subject– Journal articles on this subject– Learning objects by this person– Learning objects on this subject


Embedding• Into the crystallographic research and publishing communities • Into the Chemistry workflow

– SMART TEA Digital Lab Book e synthesis Lab– Other analytical techniques in chemistry

• Into e-Learning workflows– MChem course – Undergraduate Chemical Informatics courses

• Pedagogic evaluation


Service expansion into other chemistry areas: new datasets &

new processes

Feasibility study of other physical sciences




Aggregator services: eBank UK




Validation

Harvestingmetadata





Publication

Validation







Validation



Linking


Potential longer term impact

1. Track data and information flows in e-research and scholarly communications – knowledge audit??

2. Validate the accuracy and authenticity of derived works – ideas audit??

3. Facilitate explicit referencing and acknowledgment of original contributors – intellectual integrity??

4. Raise standards associated with publication of research outputs – academic publishing rigour??

5. Implement open access to and dissemination of data and information – enhance the research process??

6. Give students links to original data underpinning published works – enrich the learning process??


Thank you.

UKOLN receives funding from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Museums, Libraries & Archives Council

(MLA) and is based at the University of Bath.