Stephen Rhind-Tutt, President, E-Everything: Putting It All Together November 2010

1. Stephen Rhind-Tutt, President, E-Everything: Putting It All Together November 2010

2. Overview • About ASP • The information archipelago • Perspectives on discovery • Some examples

3. Alexander Street Press, LLC Sociology World Literature Performing Arts, Drama, and Film Religion Social and Cultural History American Civil War Black Studies Women’s History Music Counseling

4. The environment

5. OCLC, Environmental Scan, 2003

6. Textbooks Monographs Journals Lay Tools Academic Tools Newsletters A&I Dbs Free Websites External Publishers Video

7. Discovery

8. Integration is unavoidable Loosely integrated Free Websites Refuse to License $ $ Loosely Held Tightly Held License widely and be a Licensor License widely $ $ Tightly integrated

9. Search for ‘myocardial infarct” • 1,445 results • Most limiters don’t help

10. Discovery • A cataloging problem • No common agreement as to terms • No common agreement as to level of granularity • A linking problem • Some successes in journals • A financial problem • Few models to monetize links • It’s expensive to do this properly • Discovery of the best, rarest, the most unique items remains elusive

11. A closer look…

12. Granularity of tagging Hi Narrowest e.g. Cirrus in AZ Search Precision Narrower e.g. Cirrus Less Broad e.g. Clouds Broad e.g. Weather Hi Lo Ease of Integration

13. Granularity of results Hi Sub-Chapter Track, Poem, Article, Chapter, Track Search Precision Book, Journal, Series Database Hi Lo Ease of Integration

14. Discovery Hard Semantic tags Semantic tags Smaller units Smaller units Media Descriptors Albums, DVDs Media Descriptors Albums, DVDs Journal Descriptors Article Citations, DOI Journal Descriptors Article Citations, DOI Book descriptors, ISBNs, ONYX Book descriptors, ISBNs, ONYX Easy Target Search Tool

15. ‘Semantic’ Indexing Word Page Chapter Book or Volume Traditional indexing > ‘Semantic’ indexing > Series Who ? What ? Collection When ? Where ?

16. Traditional vs. Semantic Indexing • Give me articles from journal xxx prior to 1990 • Give me documents that discuss battles where more than 100 people were killed? • Give me all scenes set before 1850 that portray lynching? • Which authors cite Genesis most frequently?

17. The ‘real’ world Venue Director Production Author Theater Dramatis Personae Producer Location Performance Play Lighting Set Designers Production Company Performers Texts Ephemera Production Stills Criticism Scenes Characters Playbills Cast List Acts Posters

18. The virtual world… Resources Play Director Theater Production Co. Character Scene Etc… (45 fields) Company Name Productions Performers Etc… (14 fields) Production Director Theater Cast # of Perfs.LightingCostumes Etc… (47 fields) Author Birth date Death date Birth Place Death Place Nationality Occupation Awards (38 fields) Theater District Location Capacity Style Etc… (18 fields) Texts KeywordAuthor Date WrittenDate Published Production (67 fields) Characters Plays Age Author Performer Etc… (30 fields) Scenes Where When Setting Subject Etc… (41 fields) Give me scenes about AIDS written by South African authors in the past 5 years….

19. Tables of Contents

20. Semantic Indexing… • More than a way to answer questions • A framework by which users can be guided to understand, explore, discover and learn. • A route-map to guide users through data - saving time and effort. • Delivers answers that cannot be asked elsewhere • Facilitates discovery within the discipline

21. Discovery Hard Semantic tags Semantic tags Smaller units Smaller units Media Descriptors Albums, DVDs Media Descriptors Albums, DVDs Journal Descriptors Article Citations, DOI Journal Descriptors Article Citations, DOI Book descriptors, ISBNs, ONYX Book descriptors, ISBNs, ONYX Easy Target Search Tool

22. Links as the defining value added • Links document intellectual pathways through data • Basic traffic enhancer • Allow independent annotation of scholarship • Facilitate discovery • Confer authority • Prevent duplication of indexing, content and commentary • ‘Links are intrinsically bidirectional’ (Ted Nelson)

23. Some examples from ASP

24. Building discovery… • Unhelpful • Legal warnings not to link • Changing links constantly • Disabling links • No permanent URLs • No crawling • Randomly changing URLs • Insisting on one interface and one access point • Unattached pages • Helpful • Citations visible to the outside world • Permanent URLs • RSS feeds • OpenURL • Design for multiple interfaces • Open to crawling • Published APIs • Welcome linking • Ask others to do the same

25. No silos! OpenURL links directly to Alexander Street content Search via Alexander Street interface Search via library catalog (direct or federated) e.g. RILM, Grove Music Online OpenURL links directly to other databases Search the library catalog Search the web

26. Next phase - video

27. Discovery tools • MARC records, • Discovery Services • Text search • Search Engines

28. Social Tools

29. Textbooks Monographs Journals Lay Tools Academic Tools Newsletters Free Websites External Publishers

30. www.alexanderstreet.com

31. Search functionality