Fig.3 Results page, with a filter to show only UA Libraries’ resources.

Fig.4 Results page: when searching for a subject or author, suggestions of related searches are given.

Fig.5 Author’s Module shows his/her records and a list of related subjects from his/her resources provided by the System.

Fig.2 Initial page (cropped capture): an unique search box, possibility of browsing by area or source and multi-language User Interface (UI) support.

From the conceptual model to a fully functional implementation

Scientific Information Integration & Discovery Service: Getting the most relevant resources and their network, powered socially by its users and metadata crosswalkFilipe M. dos Santos Bento, Lídia J. Oliveira L. SilvaDepartment of Communication and Art, CETAC.MEDIA, University of Aveiro

Introduction

Tired of looking for relevant Scientific Information you really need, access different sources and interfaces to get it? Stop searching, start finding; the proposed Service allows Discovery, get Recommendations of relevant resources and Access their full text, anytime, anywhere. Found them useful? Store, Export, Comment, Tag or Share them! And all it takes’ a couple of clicks within a single site: (code name) iia.

Fig.1 Initial mind-map (2009) of the desired interactions and fluxes that conceptual model should bear at its roots.

Abstract

The scientific community is undergoing one of the most dynamic and demanding times of its existence. Never in its history, the community was so extensive, never published as much as today, never the knowledge life cycle was so short. New data, new interpretations, new theories and new members emerge every day: the number of publications is immense and it is not always clear how to construct a search strategy that proves to be effective and efficient, so to obtain relevant and significant information.

It is in this context that a new service is being developed aiming to aggregate significant sets of resources and services that until now were dispersed, powering them with innovative features, some of them a mashup made of data obtained in real time from external services, but more than that, to promote the logic cooperation of users of such resources, whom can take advantage of comments from those have used then before, but also can add value and see the local indexed resources’ social network.

Thus, it advanced the term "Search 4.0" for this new paradigm of search, discovery, access, recommendation and sharing of resources, resulting from a natural social dynamic amongst the four key elements – user, resources, semantic mapping of metadata (several million records indexed locally) and user’s communities (their peers, users with common interests). In full interaction enhanced by the system, these four elements generate a dynamic social network, self-sustainable and with guarantee of future preservation, a social network not only of human actors as of resources themselves taking the role of actors.

This poster exposes some core concepts and solutions adopted for this innovative bibliographic information search system model, where not only the document is the point of reference, but to a new extent, the user himself and all his surroundings.

Keywords: Information, integration, search, discovery, participatory media, collective intelligence, social networks, user communities.

Fig.8 Relevance given to Information contents aggregation to records (contents).

All of these results and feedback given were taken into account in re-shaping the initial conceptual model and its implementation.

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Fig.9 Implemented Service: full record view with information gathered in real-time from external sources.

Fig.10 Information Literacy includes evermore a technological component and computer mediated communication; so to fully achieve Declaration of Bologna’s advocated learning model, characterized in its essence by promoting greater flexibility in training, being the student their selves in lead of their learning path, this was highly taken into account.picture source: http://otterbein.libguides.com/content.php?pid=127135

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Subscription of updates (RSS feed of new records)

Interface for mobile phones / PDAs

Receive notifications / SMS alerts (reserves, end of loan, etc.).

Other features, including possible new ones

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Fig.7 Relevance given to features in the Results List.

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Summary

Table of Contents

Expert reviews

Cover (books)

Rating (stars)

Classification (keywords assigned to the document, tagging)

Comments (from users)

Export to other systems such as blogs, facebook, twitter,…

Other features, including possible new ones

Very Important Important No opinion Not selected Little relevance Irrelevant

Fig.11 Standing on the shoulders of giants… and riding for free: the supporting Open Source solutions.

Initial survey (by questionnaire)

The main key points advanced for this innovative service were evaluated in an initial survey on the habits of search and information sharing within the academic activities / resources or services valued, within UA’s users community (Teachers, Researchers Students and Staff - about 15,000), in February 2010. From the 4.228 full responses (máx/ 26 questions), it was possible to withdraw some solid conclusions and consequent implications in the reformulation of the first draft of the conceptual model for the Discovery Portal.

Sources and Social Networking features to promote Discovery and Sharing

From the initial survey responses and several comments and the perceived value to each community, the most relevant sources were selected to achieve an above average information “diet” coverage of UA’s overall community, most common areas of study and research.

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Conclusion

In the proposed and being implemented Service, resources do resemble other objects in the “Internet of Things” and the main feature of “Web 4.0”, an increased real-time integration between individuals and objects, with each they interact through virtual worlds or Services as the proposed in this project. The final intended result: a social network with superior cultural and social capital, with mutual benefits for the human actors but also for the resources themselves. All of this in a "one stop search" point, rich in content, for being not only an aggregator of multiple sources, but also for its participatory / collaborative component, with possible gains in communities of users with common study or research interests’ creation and identification.

Fig.13 The importance of being facebookTM

[insert: the Community tab allows, above all, discussion around resources].

Fig.6 Expand: reaching for universal access (time & space: external platforms, etc.).

PhD Research grant by

For its Open Graphs protocol’s features to store & retrieve information, embedded features from facebookTM were the elected ones for the the Community tab within records, not only, but also, because of facebook’s universality, resources, ease of integration and the perceived high social capital level that it holds and enables users to have themselves. Sharing is also native to Google+TM, PinterestTM and others. Please refer to Fig. 9 for the full list.

Note: References, documentation and features’ previews are publically available at http://cc.doc.ua.pt/iia/

Fig.12 Integration: some of the relevant sources, with the focus in UA Libraries' resources integration.