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:

cd-focus@ukoln.ac.ukhttp://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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Collections and services in the Information Environment

• Collections & services• Portals, content providers & the

service registry• Describing collections & services

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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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

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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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

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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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

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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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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Physical collections & physical services

Collection of physical

items

Physicallocation

Physicalservice

Physical services make physical collections available at physical locations

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Digital collections & network services

Collection of digitalitems

Digitallocation

Website

Networkservice

(unstructured)

Network services make digital collections available at digital locations

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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Physical collections & metadata records

OPACWeb

interface

Digitallocation Network

service(unstructured)

Collection of digital

metadata records

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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Digital collections & metadata records

Collection of digitalitems

Website

Networkservice

(unstructured)Digital

location

Collection of digital

metadata records

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Collections, metadata records & network services

OAIrepository

Harvestvia OAI-

PMH

Z39.50target Search/retrieve

via Z39.50

Website

Collection of digital

metadata records

Collection of digital orphysical

items

SOAPreceiver

operationsvia SOAP

Collection available viamultiple network services

unstructured network service

structured network service

RSSchannel Alert via

RSS/HTTP

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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Using Collections in the JISC Information Environment

Web Web Web Web

Content

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

Authentication

Authorisation

Currently….

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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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?

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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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

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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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?)

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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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?

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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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?

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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End-user is “automatically” presented with relevant resources through relevant channels

User Profiles

Resolver

The service registry in the Information Environment

The vision….

Collection DescriptionService Description

Service Registry

Web Web Web Web

Content

End-user

Authentication

Authorisation

Portal

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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May involve intermediate “fusion services” (aggregators, brokers)User Profiles

Resolver

The service registry in the Information Environment

The vision….

Collection DescriptionService Description

Service Registry

Web Web Web Web

Content

End-user

Authentication

Authorisation

Portal

Broker or Aggregator

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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The service registry & network services

OAIrepository

Harvestvia OAI-

PMH

Z39.50target Search/retrieve

via Z39.50

Website

Search/retrievevia SOAP

UDDIinterface

Collection DescriptionService Description

Service Registry

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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Describing collections & services

OAIrepository

Z39.50target

Website

Collection of digital

metadata records

Collection of digitalitems

RSSchannel

Owner Owner

Administrator

Administrator

Administrator

Administrator

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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

Table Collection in jiscmult.mdb

Table Collection in jiscmult.mdb

Collection… fieldsin jiscsing.mdb

Collection… fieldsin jiscsing.mdb

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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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

Table ServiceHTTP in

jiscmult.mdb

ServiceHTTP… fields in jiscsing.mdb

ServiceHTTP… fields in jiscsing.mdb

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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Describing an OAI repository

• OAI repository (based on OAI registry)– OAI repository identifier– OAI repository name– base URL– protocol version (one version only per description)– authentication mechanism– use of DOI– content provider/aggregator– access conditions– see also– administrator

Table ServiceOAI in jiscmult.mdb

Table ServiceOAI in jiscmult.mdb

ServiceOAI… fields in jiscsing.mdb

ServiceOAI… fields in jiscsing.mdb

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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Describing a Z39.50 target

• Z39.50 target (based on Z directory)– target name– host– port– database name– Bath Profile conformance by functional area– authentication mechanism– use of DOI– content provider/broker– access conditions– see also– administrator

Table ServiceZ in jiscmult.mdb

Table ServiceZ in jiscmult.mdb

ServiceZ… fields in jiscsing.mdb

ServiceZ… fields in jiscsing.mdb

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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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– access conditions– see also– administrator

Table ServiceRSS in jiscmult.mdb

Table ServiceRSS in jiscmult.mdb

ServiceRSS… fields in jiscsing.mdb

ServiceRSS… fields in jiscsing.mdb

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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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?

JISC Collection/Service Description workshop, London, 11 July 2002

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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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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/