Surveying the Landscape: Collection-Level Description & Resource Discovery

1. Surveying the landscape:collection-level description & resource discoveryJISC/NSF DLI Projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002 Pete Johnston UKOLN, University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY cd-focus@ukoln.ac.uk http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ UKOLN is supported by:

2. Surveying the landscape • The resource discovery context • Collections and collection description • Collections & services • CLD in practice • Conclusions: navigating the landscape JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

3. The resource discovery context • User • wants information relevant to task • not interested in functional/structural organisation of content provider • doesn’t want to negotiate multiple interfaces • access across content provider boundaries • Service providers • constructing various task/user-centred portals • surfacing content from multiple content providers • how to find/identify relevant content? • Content providers • exposing content through multiple services • how to disclose content effectively? JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

4. What is a collection? • Collection • “an aggregation of physical or digital items” • Aggregates of, e.g. • natural objects: fossils, mineral samples… • created objects: artefacts, documents, records… • digital resources: documents, images, multimedia objects, data, software… • digital surrogates of physical objects: documents, images… • metadata: catalogue records, item descriptions, collection-level descriptions (!)… JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

5. What is a collection? • Various criteria for aggregation, e.g. • By location • By type/form of item • By provenance of item • By source/ownership of item • By nature of item content • …. • Permanent, temporary • Discrete, distributed JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

6. Why collection description? • Enable content provider to • manage collections • disclose information about collections • overview of otherwise uncatalogued items • summary where item-level detail inappropriate • Enable user to • discover/locate (physical/digital) collections • select (physical/digital) collections to explore/search on basis of summary description • Enable software agents to • select digital collections to search on behalf of user • perform searches across multiple digital collections JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

7. A Model for Collections • Research Support Libraries Programme • Support for academic researchers • discovery of/access to collections • collaborative management of collections • Primarily physical (library/archive) collections • Michael Heaney, An Analytical Model of Collections and their Catalogues • Based primarily on a library and archival view of ‘collection’... • … but intended to be applicable across wide range of collection types • Functionally concerned with finding, identifying JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

8. A Schema for Collection Description • RSLP Collection Description Schema • structured set of metadata attributes • simple description of subset of entities in Heaney model • Collection • Location • Agents • Based on Dublin Core where possible • RSLP CD instance • set of linked descriptions of multiple entities • can be expressed in RDF • RDF/XML syntax for serialising descriptions JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

9. A Schema for Collection Description • RSLP CD schema supports creation of “unitary” collection description • Not a substitute for existing richer schemas for CLD • a means of creating simple, high-level descriptions for wide range of collections • Cross-domain • Different ideas of “collections” • Different criteria for defining “collections” • Different ways of describing “collections” • But useful/possible to agree on broadly common view…? JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

10. Physicalservice Collection of physicalitems Physicallocation Physical collections JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

11. Webinterface Collection of digitalitems Digitallocation Digitalservice Digital collections JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

12. OPAC Webinterface Collection of digitalmetadata records Digitallocation Digitalservice Physical collections (2) JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

13. Collection of digitalitems Webinterface Digitalservice Collection of digitalmetadata records Digitallocation Digital collections (2) JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

14. Webinterface OAI repository harvest Collection of digitalmetadata records Z39.50 target search/retrieve Multiple digital services Digital collections & digital services JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

15. CLD in RSLP • Library collections • collections defined by • location • subject of content • source/owner • collections of physical items • made available by a physical service • Library collection-level description • in past, informal, unstructured • use of RSLP CD schema by RSLP projects • CLDs • used in project-specific services • programme-wide service? JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

16. CLD in the JISC Information Environment • Content made available as collections • Physical collections • of physical items (e.g. books) • Digital collections • of digital items (text, image, audio-video, software, datasets etc) • of digital metadata records • describing physical items (e.g. MARC records in OPAC) • describing digital items (e.g. DC records in subject gateway database) • describing physical collections (e.g. EAD CLDs in Archives Hub database) JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

17. Content Web Web Web Web Authorisation Authentication End-user needs to join services together manually - as well as learning multiple user interfaces End-user CLD in the JISC Information Environment Currently…. JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

18. CLD in the JISC Information Environment • IE service “registry” • which digital collections are available (CLDs) • what digital services available to access collections (service descriptions) • via provider Web site (HTML only), as OAI repository, as Z39.50 target • Portal • can present dynamically-updated view of the JISC “information landscape” • view may be tailored to user preferences • Content provider • can “surface” content through multiple services/channels JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

19. Content Web Web Web Web Authentication Authorisation Broker or Aggregator Collection Description End-user is “automatically” presented with relevant resources through relevant channels Portal Service Desc. Thesauri User Profiles End-user CLD in the JISC Information Environment The vision…. JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

20. Conclusion: navigating the landscape • CLDs as resource discovery metadata • Rich, complex information landscape • CLDs support “survey of landscape” • “to identify areas rather than specific features - to identify rainforest rather than to retrieve an analysis of the canopy fauna of the Amazon basin” (Heaney, 2000) • The “navigator” of the landscape may be a human researcher or a software tool JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002

21. 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/ JISC/NSF DLI projects meeting, Edinburgh, 24 June 2002