NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS) Project Overview April 2, 2003

1. NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS) Project Overview April 2, 2003 JoAnne Rocker and Michael L. Nelson, PhD

2. Meeting Agenda NTRS History and Challenges New NTRS NTRS and OAI Architecture OAI is Mechanism for Aggregation OAI use across the Agency TRS’s NTRS DLs in the larger STI Realm New NTRS and Buckets New NTRS and Hypertext Linking New NTRS and Search Enhanced Functionality Project Timeline NTRS Demo

3. NTRS History and Challenges • History • Started in 1994 • Built using WAIS • Meta-search engine – no data on NTRS • ~400K hits a month • Hosted by Langley Library • Challenges • No major upgrade or re-design of system • Nodes go down and slow search down • Content mostly citations – users want full-text • Highly visited site but no real understanding of how users interact with system http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/ntrs

4. New NTRS • New system • Belvedere (RM 2061) • Sun Solaris 450 Server • MySQL, Perl, OAI • Server checked and approved by IT Security • Distinguishing features of the new NTRS • OAI • Buckets • Hypertext-linking evaluative service http://ntrs.nasa.gov

5. NTRS OAI Architecture All searching, browsing, etc. performed on the metadata here User Individual nodes can still support direct user interaction search for “cfd applications” NTRS local copy of metadata metadata harvested offline, through OAI interface each node independently maintained . . . LTRS ATRS GTRS CASITRS content (reports) remain archived at the local sites

6. OAI is Mechanism for Aggregation Fundamental difference between current NTRS and new NTRS – It’s an aggregator of STI, ie, it harvests other collections, stores metadata, and maintains a permanent record of relevant aerospace STI

7. OAI use across the Agency TRS’s • OAI and Agency technical report servers • JR & MLN arranged several meetings with centers to discus moving away from WAIS to OAI • JSC, Langley, and Marshall implemented OAI • Ames, KSC, and Stennis quit support for TRS’s • Glenn, GISS and JPL have plans to use OAI • Goddard expressed little interest in OAI • CASI informed about the TRS’s move to OAI but STIPO did not ask them to be OAI-compliant because of re-engineering tasks

8. NASA DLs in the Larger STI Realm NTRS … CASITRS LTRS ATRS DOE Publishers Universities International DOD . . . this could be a fully connected graph NTRS could also harvest metadata from other DLs, and provide access to non-NASA content. We hope to influence the direction of the science.gov effort to use OAI-PMH NTRS could also be a data provider from the point of view of other DLs; allowing the harvesting of NASA report metadata.

9. New NTRS and Buckets • New NTRS, first phase harvests only metadata • New NTRS, second phase will also include harvesting / backup copies of full-text • Full-text records will be stored in buckets, both for internal use and for re-export and preservation • Current bucket research involves automatic preservation: • migration: moving to new formats, standards • refreshing: keeping lots of copies of the bits • Cf. current mirroring arrangement with Cranfield University (UK) • uses OAI-PMH to signal changes in the metadata • heuristics for copying full-text • (not scalable) • possibility of missed updates

10. New NTRS and Hypertext Linking • “Evaluation of Digital Library Impact and User Communities by Analysis of Usage Patterns”, Bollen & Luce, D-Lib Magazine 8(6), 2002 • http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june02/bollen/06bollen.html • Creating the document networks in real-time: • “Adaptive Networks of Smart Objects”, Bollen & Nelson, ICPP 02 • http://www.cs.odu.edu/~mln/pubs/bollenj_adaptive.pdf

11. New NTRS and Enhanced Search Functionality • Upgraded system allows for improved user services • More precise searching of data • Added functionality for manipulating results • Quicker response time • Better security and reliability • Simple search • Google-like feel and look • Performs keyword search • Implicit Boolean “AND” between terms Simple search screen

12. New NTRS and Enhanced Search Functionality Advanced search provides fielded searching, sorting results, and selecting content sources for search retrieval.

13. Project Timeline • Web-enabled search interface for NTRS repository – March 10, 2003 • NTRS and NACA TRS OAI-compliant repositories using the 1.0 and 2.0 versions of the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Harvesting Metadata – March 31, 2003 • Administrative toolset (includes scheduler configuration; harvester configuration; harvester logs; delete operations; update records; duplicate detection; search interface help; usage logs) for NTRS - April 30, 2003 • Adaptive hypertext linking mechanisms incorporated into the NTRS – May 30, 2003 • Conversion of NACA images files for inclusion into NACA TRS – May 31, 2003 • Web-enabled search interface for NACA TRS repository – June 16, 2003 • Adaptive hypertext linking mechanisms incorporated into the NACA TRS – August 31, 2003 • Administrative toolset (includes scheduler configuration; harvester configuration; harvester logs; delete operations; update records; duplicate detection; search interface help; usage logs) for NACA TRS – August 31, 2003 • Proposal and implementation plan optimizing bucket technology in creating autonomous complex objects for large multimedia and multidisciplinary collections – August 31, 2003 • Final Report (complete source code documentation for NTRS and NACA TRS) - September 30, 2003

14. NTRS in Real Time Live Demo!