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NDLTD Union Catalog Panel Session 1C , Auditorium Introduction and Opening Statement ETD 2011: 14 th Int. Symp . on ETDs Cape Town, South Africa Edward A. Fox Executive Director, NDLTD, www.ndltd.org fox@vt.edu http:// fox.cs.vt.edu /talks/ 2011 Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA.
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NDLTD Union Catalog PanelSession 1C, AuditoriumIntroduction and Opening StatementETD 2011: 14thInt. Symp. on ETDsCape Town, South AfricaEdward A. FoxExecutive Director, NDLTD, www.ndltd.orgfox@vt.edu http://fox.cs.vt.edu/talks/2011 Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA
Panelists • Uta Ackermann, German National Library • IrynaKuchma, eIFL.net • Ana Pavani, PUC-Rio, Brazil • Sharon Reeves, Library and Archives, Canada • Peter Schirmbacher, Humboldt-Univ. Berlin • Peter E. Sidorko, University of Hong Kong • Hussein Suleman, University of Cape Town
Parts of the Discussion • Giving background on our Union Catalog, covering history and technology. • Explaining problems with our current situation. • Explaining alternate scenarios to move forward. • Discussing from the perspective of a university library. • Discussing from the perspective of computing organizations. • Discussing from the perspective of national libraries. • Developing list of pros and cons, recommendations, etc. to move forward.
Presenter Perspectives • Ed - Introductions, overview • Peter HK - university view, librarian view • Uta- German National Library view • Sharon - national (Canada) view • Hussein - national (SA) + regional (Africa) views • Ana - regional (Latin America) view + language (Portuguese) view • Iryna- international view, open access • Peter GE - technology and standards views • Hussein - union catalog
History/Background - 1 • Since federated search with a large number of sites leads to all types of problems, we decided that the harvesting of information from repositories would be a better approach, and therefore decided to use the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), repositories at local (and in some cases state, national, or regional levels) sites, and have a Union Catalog.
History/Background - 2 • The Union Catalog was run at Virginia Tech early on, then taken over by OCLC, which still runs it. • But about a year ago, the person handling it for them in their Research Division retired, and since then they have not done additional harvesting. • So, the contents were frozen and have not been updated.
History/Background - 3 • Hussein Suleman offered to take this over and has been working on it. • But it is not an easy chore, and there are many problems. Hussein can comment on all that. • He also can comment on what local sites can do to help make all this better, and what long term prospects might be, if this is our ongoing solution.
History/Background - 4 • VinodChachra, at VTLS, who runs a service that builds on the Union Catalog (supporting metadata based search and browsing), offered to take over the Union Catalog, but there would have to be a sustainable business plan that ensures quality of content, reliable and useful services, and assistance for new members of NDLTD. • He suggested that we get money from member dues, only harvest from members so they are getting a benefit that will be motivational, and launch a distributed effort to improve the quality of the local and central data, as well as of related systems, etc.
History/Background - 5 • The NDLTD Board deferred decision on all this till our panel runs and collects comments from the community. • In addition to all this, it should be noted that many sites don't know how, or don't have interest in, running OAI-PMH. • So we don't have even all the metadata that is online and accessible. • Further, much of what we have has lots of errors, including many records without correct URLs.
Questions - 1 • What is a repository of ETDs? • How can an ETD repository improve its reliability, sustainability, etc.? • What is a union catalog? • Why does NDLTD run a union catalog? • Where does the data come from? • What was the role of OCLC, and how does it still relate to the union catalog? • What happens in Cape Town relative to the union catalog? • How can a university provide data to the union catalog?
Questions - 2 • How does a university get started in providing data to the union catalog? • What standards apply? • How can quality be improved locally? • What services build upon the union catalog? • What can we observe from each of these services? • How can we get more universities to contribute to the union catalog? • What are national and regional activities related to the union catalog? • How can these broader activities add value, enhance quality, increase coverage, etc.?
Charging? • Cost: who pays, when, how much • Support: who provides, when • Should members only get special services? What services? • Should there be, for higher dues, 'member plus' services? What? • Should there be a charge first time to join the Union Catalog, with reductions if quality is higher according to standards? • Should there be enforcement of standards and penalties like temporary removal if content standards are not implemented?
Getting Discussion Started • Background technology: OAI, harvesting, union catalog, services using it • Scale: locally, nationally, regionally • Implementation: systems, standards, procedures • Quality: logging, checking, improving content (data + metadata) and services
Next • Sharon and Hussein to keep you engaged and involved in the discussion • Short Position Statements • Lots of Discussion • Thank you for your time, interest, and comments!