Transcript presentation source

Collections and services in
the information environment
JISC Collection/Service Description Workshop,
London, 11 July 2002
Pete Johnston
UKOLN, University of Bath
Bath, BA2 7AY
UKOLN is supported by:
[email protected]
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Collections and services in the
Information Environment
• Collections & services
• Portals, content providers & the
service registry
• Describing collections & services
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Collections in the JISC Information
Environment
• Content made available as collections
• Collection
– “an aggregation of one or more items”
• Aggregation by
– e.g. location, type/form of item, provenance of item,
source/ownership of item, nature of item content
• Made available by
– individual HE/FE institution
– JISC content provider
– external source
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Collections in the JISC Information
Environment
• Physical collections
– of physical items (e.g. books, journals)
• Digital collections
– of digital items (texts, images, multimedia objects,
software, datasets, “learning objects” etc)
– of digital metadata records
– describing physical items (e.g. MARC records in
OPAC)
– describing digital items (e.g. Dublin Core records in
subject gateway database)
– describing physical collections (e.g. EAD CLDs in
Archives Hub database)
– metadata record contains identifier/locator of
resource
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Services
• Service
– “the provision of, or system of supplying, one or
more functions of interest to an end user or
software application”
• Informational services
– provide access to items and/or collections
– e.g. a library, a Web site, a catalogue
• Transactional services
– not primarily concerned with supply of information
– e.g. photocopy service, authentication service
• Users access content through informational
services
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Services
• Physical service
– provided physically
• Network service
– provided digitally
• Structured network service
– network service that provides structured access to
structured resources
– user is software application
• Unstructured network service
– presenting resources to human user
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Physical collections & physical services
Physical services make physical collections available at
physical locations
Collection of
physical
items
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Physical
location
Physical
service
JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Digital collections & network services
Network services make digital collections available at
digital locations
Web
site
Collection of
digital
items
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Digital
location
Network
service
(unstructured)
JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Physical collections & metadata records
OPAC
Web
interface
Collection of
digital
metadata
records
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Digital
location
Network
service
(unstructured)
JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Digital collections & metadata records
Collection of
digital
items
Collection of
digital
metadata
records
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Web
site
Digital
location
Network
service
(unstructured)
JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Collections, metadata records & network
services
Collection available via
multiple network services
Web
site
OAI
repository
Collection of
digital or
physical
items
Collection of
digital
metadata
records
unstructured network service
structured network service
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Z39.50
target
RSS
channel
SOAP
receiver
Harvest
via OAIPMH
Search/retrieve
via Z39.50
Alert via
RSS/HTTP
operations
via SOAP
JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Using Collections in the JISC
Information Environment
Content
Currently….
Web
Web
Web
Web
Authorisation
Authentication
End-user
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End-user needs to
join services
together manually as well as learning
multiple user
interfaces
JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Using Collections in the JISC
Information Environment
• HTML Web sites
– Unstructured network services
– Aimed at human reader
• Different user interfaces
• Different metadata schemas
• Researcher “joins up” services manually
– Merging results requires manual copy/paste/edit
• “The portal problem”
– How to provide seamless discovery across the
services offered by multiple content providers?
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Portals
• Portal
– network service providing single point of access to
range of heterogeneous network services
– may support range of functionality
– focus here on resource discovery
– aim to be task/user-centred
– thin portals
– “shallow linking”: pointers to unstructured network
services
– thick portals
– “deep linking”: richer discovery/access functionality
based on use of structured network services
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Content providers
• Content providers
– make content available as collections
– may disclose collections of metadata records
about content through structured network services
• Three disclosure mechanisms (currently)
– searching via Z39.50/Bath Profile
– harvesting via OAI Protocol for Metadata
Harvesting
– alerting via RSS/HTTP
– (operations via SOAP in future?)
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
The portal problem
• Portal constructs a “landscape” of resources
• Needs
– to find/identify relevant content collections
– What digital collections are available?
– to access metadata records through appropriate
structured network service
– What network services available for collection?
– What interface/protocol? What instance-specific
parameters?
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
The IE service registry
• Part of IE framework of machine-oriented
services
• Database of
– Collection-level descriptions
– Service descriptions
– informational
– transactional
• Registry accessible via network services
– unstructured i.e. Web site (HTML)
– structured (probably…)
– search using Z39.50?
– harvest using OAI-PMH?
– search via UDDI/SOAP?
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
The service registry in the Information
Environment
Content
The vision….
Web
Web
Web
Web
Authentication
Authorisation
Service Registry
Collection
Description
Service
Description
Portal
Resolver
User Profiles
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End-user
End-user is
“automatically”
presented with
relevant
resources
through
relevant
channels
JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
The service registry in the Information
Environment
Content
The vision….
Web
Web
Web
Web
Authentication
Authorisation
Broker or Aggregator
Service Registry
Collection
Description
Service
Description
Portal
Resolver
User Profiles
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End-user
May involve
intermediate
“fusion
services”
(aggregators,
brokers)
JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
The service registry & network services
Web
site
Service Registry
Collection
Description
Service
Description
OAI
repository
Z39.50
target
Harvest
via OAIPMH
Search/retrieve
via Z39.50
UDDI
interface Search/retrieve
via SOAP
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Describing collections & services
Web
site
Administrator
OAI
repository
Collection of
digital
items
Owner
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Collection of
digital
metadata
records
Owner
Administrator
Z39.50
target
Administrator
RSS
channel
Administrator
JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Describing a collection
• From RSLP CD Schema
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
identifier
title/name
description
type
access control
legal status?
contents date range?
subject? (spatial/temporal coverage?)
note
owner
• Also
– JISC collecting area
– audience
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Table Collection in
jiscmult.mdb
Collection… fields
in jiscsing.mdb
JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Describing a Web site
• Web site
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
URL
title/name
authentication mechanism
use of OpenURL
use of DOI
access conditions
see also
administrator
Table ServiceHTTP in
jiscmult.mdb
ServiceHTTP… fields
in jiscsing.mdb
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Describing an OAI repository
• OAI repository (based on OAI registry)
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
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OAI repository identifier
OAI repository name
base URL
protocol version (one version only per description)
authentication mechanism
use of DOI
content provider/aggregator
Table ServiceOAI in
access conditions
jiscmult.mdb
see also
administrator
ServiceOAI… fields in
jiscsing.mdb
JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Describing a Z39.50 target
• Z39.50 target (based on Z directory)
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
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target name
host
port
database name
Bath Profile conformance by functional area
authentication mechanism
use of DOI
Table ServiceZ in
content provider/broker
jiscmult.mdb
access conditions
see also
ServiceZ… fields in
administrator
jiscsing.mdb
JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Describing an RSS channel
• RSS channel
– RSS channel name
– RSS channel URL
– RSS Schema version (one version only per
description)
– authentication mechanism
– use of DOI
– content provider/aggregator
Table ServiceRSS in
– access conditions
jiscmult.mdb
– see also
– administrator
ServiceRSS… fields
in jiscsing.mdb
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Issues for discussion
• Collection - serviceXXX relation
– relates to “granularity question”
– many-to-many?
– N.B. software agent accesses service
– one-to-many?
– one-to-one?
• Which collection?
– collection of “primary resources”?
– collection of metadata records?
– “it depends”?
• Informational network services only?
• Structured network services only?
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Issues for discussion
• Purpose/use of descriptions
– benchmarking of services?
– support for discovery of collections and services?
– by human user?
– by network service (e.g. portal, broker, aggregator)?
– access points, terminology control
• Existing sources?
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002
Acknowledgements
UKOLN is funded by Resource: the Council for
Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information
Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK higher and further
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.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
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JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002