Mr. Joe Chow & Mr. Cyrus Fong 8th Annual HKIUG Meeting 4 Dec 2007

1. New continent or Bermuda? The consolidation of e-resources in Hong Kong Shue Yan University Library. Mr. Joe Chow & Mr. Cyrus Fong 8th Annual HKIUG Meeting 4 Dec 2007

2. Agenda • Background • Challenges • Solution • Snapshots • Demo • Summary & Review

3. Background • Shue Yan develop the e-resource from 1999 • The first two online databases are • China Infobank • Financial Times • 2001 – ProQuest, CAJ • 2003 – ebrary, LION • 2004 – Ebscohost • 2006 – LexisNexis

4. Resources in Shue Yan • Library Catalogue • INNOPAC • Over 32,000 E-Book titles • ebrary, GVRL … • Over 28,000 full-text E-Journal titles • CAJ, Ebscohost, ProQuest, Lexis-Nexis … • Other Internet resources

5. Old Style Access Client Many Search Interfaces Server Server Server Server Server Server DB DB DB DB DB DB

6. Challenges • Many searching performs • Users have difficulty identifying appropriate databases • Information literary level of users • Users often don’t distinguish between the library website and library resources

7. Many Searching Platforms

8. New continent or Bermuda? • Library: Waste the precious resource in the University • Users: Waste the time • New continent or Bermuda for the users?

9. Solution • How about integrated all of them in a single platform? Benefit: • Fast, easy to use • Integrated results • Provides a successful experience

10. Federated Search - 1 Client One Web-based Search Interface Server DB DB DB DB DB DB

11. Federated Search - 2 • Federated search is “the simultaneous search of multiple online databases and is an emerging feature of automated, Web-based library and information retrieval systems.” - Wikipedia.org

12. Consideration in Shue Yan Functions Implementation Cost User Education Maintenance Resources Integration

13. Open Source • Cost consideration • Support by the developer and community • Flexible for customization

14. Functional Requirement • Authentication • Result merging • De-duplication • Relevance ranking

15. Technical Requirement • Support major e-resources in the Library • ProQuest • Ebrary • Ebscohost • Integration with Library Home page • Support OpenURL, Z39.50, Web • We have adopted the project in Canada

16. Implementation • Prepare the hardware • Start the service with 3 simple steps • Download a CDROM ISO file • Burn a CDROM • Boot-up with the CDROM • The software supports major databases in our e-resources, like ProQuest, ebrary, Ebscohost etc…

17. Server Configuration • OS : Linux Ubuntu • CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU6300 @ 1.86GHz • Memory : 2GB • Apache : 1.3.34 • MySQL : 5.0.21 • Perl : 5.8.7

18. Snapshot - 1 Simple Search Screen

19. Snapshot - 2 Advanced Search Screen

20. Snapshot - 3 Search Result

21. Demo Search Result

22. Summary & Experiences • Chinese does not support • Emerald does not support • Developed the parser and contribute to the community • XML does not support

23. Dilemma • Other products in the market • No free lunch in the world • Not the best solution but a suitable solution

24. Future • Enhance user interface • Further integrate with library catalogue and online databases • Try to develop parser add Chinese databases

25. Thank you!