Metadata and Scotland’s Information Environment: potential benefits of Web 2.0

Metadata issues and Web 2.0 services. CIGS Seminar January 30th 2009

Kathleen Menzies with Dennis Nicholson

Centre for Digital Library Research

OverviewOverview

SLIC and CDLR (often with external funding): working to pioneer the development of a ‘Scottish Information Landscape’ (SIL) encompassing services like: CAIRNS, SCONE, RCO, SDDL

One focus of CDLR work for SLIC has been investigating the potential/implications of using Web 2.0 to enhance SIL services

I will mainly look at two examples relating to metadata Work-sharing and discussion/collaboration, in cataloguing

BUBL using the proposed new BUBL Community forum Getting closer to user needs, looking at the possible use

of ‘folksonomies’ in the HILT project

Web 2.0 and Scotland's Information Landscape

An overview of definitions An overview of definitions and trendsand trends

What is SIL?“Scotland's Information Landscape is a distributed information infrastructure for Scotland, designed to be sufficiently generic to support the specific activities of archives, libraries, museums, and other cultural information organizations through the sharing of common data and services” - http://scone.strath.ac.uk/scie/index.cfm

• Co-operative catalogues

• Directories

• Contact details, locations and opening hours

• Links to online resources

• News and updates

• Subject strengths

Web 2 Primarily about the internet as a ‘platform’ Technologies and web design that aim to “enhance

creativity, communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web”- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

Web 2 depends on ‘mass collaboration’ This means chiefly, peer production, Open Source,

collaboration, syndication of site content Web 2 services include tagging, reviews, user

comments, image sharing, social book-marking

Becomes Web 3... Transformation from a network of separately siloed applications

and content repositories to a more seamless and interoperable whole

The Semantic Web, the ‘Intelligent Web’; linking to the ‘real world’

Open technologies, open APIs and protocols, open data formats, open-source software platforms and open data (e.g. Creative Commons, Open Data License)

Open identity, OpenID, open reputation, roaming portable identity and personal data

The ‘intelligent’ web; Semantic Web technologies such as RDF, OWL – definitions from Nova Spivack at readwriteweb.com (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/on_web_30.php)

Information Environment

To quote JISC:

“An Information Environment can be characterised as the set of network or online services that support publishing and use of information and learning resources…

The Information Environment as it is proposed here aims to offer the user a more seamless and less complex journey to relevant information and learning resources.

It is important that this activity is aligned where possible with other developments, nationally and internationally, and that it makes a leading contribution to the enhanced information use and a true democracy of learning opportunity…”

- Information Environment Development Strategy (2001-2005)

A Scottish approach

“The common information environment must encompass resources and services from all domains and for physical and digital formats if it is to appeal to the widest range of users. It is likely to be developed faster for digital formats…”

– Dunsire, 2005, The Centre for Digital Library Research and the Common Information Environment

How could Web 2/3 help?User contributions influencing development

Open Source

Interesting, visual presentations of content (e.g. tag clouds)

Mapping and matching of similar resources and subjects

Matching ‘organic’ search terms to controlled vocabularies

Encoding concepts, terms, relationships through consistent, interoperable metadata notations (e.g. RDF/XML)

Dynamic environments and first-class, well organised information

A focussed approach

1. Distributing the work-load2. Sharing knowledge and experience3. Interacting directly with the user

community4. Improving and updating services

What are other folk doing?

New browsers and OPACs

Open Source

Visual information

Tagging

Different ways to search

New technologies

Interoperability

What does it look like?

OCLC Dewey Browser, http://deweybrowser.oclc.org/ddcbrowser2/

An implementation of the OS OPAC ‘Blacklight’, which uses Ruby On Rails and Solr

http://blacklight.betech.virginia.edu/

BUBL - a Directory of internet resourcesMaintained jointly by the CDLR and SLIC

BUBL and BUBL Community

Web 2

Developing BUBL1990

BUBL begins life as Bulletin Board for Libraries

1991-4

BUBL run by UK-wide volunteers co-ordinated by Strathclyde University, first at Glasgow, then at UKOLN

1994

JISC begins funding it to provide a selective all-subjects directory of quality internet resources

2007-

It is now developed jointly by SLIC, CILIPS and CDLR

2009

We need to explore new ways of making BUBL into an up-to-date resource for

librarians to point their users towards, and kick-start community involvement again

2009: A BUBL Community

We’re looking for your help to make BUBL into a resource relevant to the needs of your library and users

BUBL Community can help us work together to achieve the key aims of the service:

1) Discovery and selection of resources

2) Maintenance (e.g. broken links)

3) Development and discussion – what is popular, what might be improved?

4) Increased usage and popularity

What it looks like - phpBB

Up to community how deep we delve into the hierarchy...

First post

Some other SIL possibilities

Research Collections Online

Could adapt the CONSPECTUS collection level/depth indicator system to map high/low points of an 'information landscape' linked to a researcher's profile, which the system could remember when they visit the site.

Scotland's Culture website/OPAC

This could be improved on by adding some Web 2 OPAC functionalities to move from a static list to comments, tags, Amazon front-cover image retrieval etc. A variety of ‘next generation’ OPACS/Webpacs are out there already (e.g. Keystone, Arena, WebPAC Pro, Koha, NewGenLib, Blacklight).

Scottish Distributed Digital Library

Open onto listed sites within SDDL navigation pane, so that users are not forced to leave site. Enable comments, ratings/reviews and tagging of resources.

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HILT and Folksonomies

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About HILT Based at CDLR; also involves Edina Funded by JISC as I.E. Shared Infrastructure Service Support from OCLC (DDC22 and LCSH to DDC mappings) Offers a range of terminology services, including delivery of

data on individual subjects (preferred terms, non-preferred terms, related terms) ...

....from a range of subject schemes: DDC, IPSV, AAT, CAB, GCMD, HASSET, LCSH, MeSH, NMR, SCAS, UNESCO

High level mappings between some schemes and a DDC spine and some deeper mappings to assist in cross-searching services using different schemes

For example: a spade, a shovel, a digging implement?

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HILT and Web 2/3

At demonstrator/pilot stage Allows information services to enhance subject search and

browse Offers ‘web services’ Machine to Machine (M2M) access to

database of terminologies and mappings Is already a recognised part of the IE landscape, with a lot of

potential to become a part of the Web 2/3 environment Could be used to help control users’ social tagging efforts Services could use it to create drop down lists of terms from a

standard scheme to force taggers to use standard terms to tag resources

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Currently HILT ‘recognises’ a user’s search term if it’s in one of the HILT schemes as a preferred, non-preferred, or related term

Ideally, HILT would also ‘recognise’ free-form user terms not in standard schemes and also be able to identify their likely subject

It could do this if it could capture user tags applied to catalogue records for resources already classified by DDC

This would improve HILT (and hence local service) recognition of user terms, their subjects, and retrieval

Think of a user typing ‘fitba’ and finding information on football/soccer due to automatic M2M interaction with HILT

Innovations Improve Service

Further Information

CDLR: http://cdlr.strath.ac.uk/

HILT phases:

http://hilt.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/

BUBL community:

http://forums.bubl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/

E-mails: klmenzies@cis.strath.ac.uk

d.m.nicholson@strath.ac.uk