2009 Annual ASERL Membership Meeting Marshall Breeding Director for Innovative Technology and Research Vanderbilt University Library

2009 Annual ASERL Membership Meeting

Marshall BreedingDirector for Innovative Technology and ResearchVanderbilt University Libraryhttp://www.librarytechnology.org/

Highly abstracted model of computing Displaces the need for local hardware and

software Provisioned on demand Metered use of storage and computing cycles Platform-as-a-service Storage-as-a-service

Emerging model for library discovery and automation

Increasingly dubbed “Web-scale”

Lots of non-library Web destinations deliver content to library patrons ◦ Google Scholar◦ Amazon.com◦ Wikipedia◦ Ask.com

Do Library Web sites and catalogs meet the information needs of our users?

Do they attract their interest?

Print > Electronic Increasing emphasis on subscribed content,

especially articles and databases Strong emphasis on digitizing local

collections New generations of library users:

◦ Millennial generation ◦ Web savvy◦ Pervasive Web 2.0 concepts

Silos Prevail◦Books: Library OPAC (ILS module)◦Articles: Aggregated content products, e-

journal collections◦OpenURL linking services◦E-journal finding aids (Often managed by link

resolver)◦Local digital collections

ETDs, photos, rich media collections◦Metasearch engines

All searched separately

More comprehensive information discovery environments

Primary search tool that extends beyond print resources

Digital resources cannot be an afterthought Systems designed for e-content only are also

problematic Forcing users to use different interfaces

depending on type of content becoming less tenable

Libraries working toward consolidated user environments that give equal footing to digital and print resources

Bound handwritten catalogs Card Catalogs Library online catalogs – OPACs Discovery interfaces Web-scale discovery services

A single point of entry to all the content and services offered by the library

Search:

Single search box Query tools

◦ Did you mean◦ Type-ahead

Relevance ranked results Faceted navigation Enhanced visual displays

◦ Cover art◦ Summaries, reviews,

Recommendation services

Online Catalog◦ Interface

conventions from an earlier Web era

◦ Scope: Tied to the ILS and its content domain

Discovery Layer◦ Modern interface

elements◦ Scope: aims to

address broad range of components that constitute library collections

AquaBrowser Ex Libris Primo Innovative Interfaces: Encore Serials Solutions: Summon (under

development) SirsiDynix Enterprise The Library Corporation: LS2 PAC VUFind (open source) BiblioCommons eXtensible Catalog (under development)

◦ Tags, user-supplied ratings and reviews◦ Leverage social networking interactions to assist

readers in identifying interesting materials: BiblioCommons

◦ Leverage use data for a recommendation service of scholarly content based on link resolver data: Ex Libris bX service

Initial products focused on technology◦ AquaBrowser, Endeca, Primo, Encore, VUfind◦ Mostly locally-installed software

Current phase focused on pre-populated indexes that aim to deliver Web-scale discovery◦ Summon (Serials Solutions)◦ WorldCat Local (OCLC)◦ EBSCO Discovery Service (EBSCO)◦ Primo Central

Federated Search / Metasearch use real-time queries against multiple information targets

No centralized index – presentation of dynamic results

Shallow results -- only a few results initially fetched from each target

Difficult to calculate relevancy Performance challenges

Search: Digital Collections

Digital Collections

ProQuestProQuest

EBSCOhost

EBSCOhost

…MLA

Bibliography

MLA Bibliograph

y

ABC-CLIOABC-CLIO

Search Results

Real-time query and responses

ILS DataILS Data

Search: Digital Collections

Digital Collections

ProQuestProQuest

EBSCOhost

EBSCOhost

…MLA

Bibliography

MLA Bibliograph

y

ABC-CLIOABC-CLIO

Search Results

Real-time query and responses

ILS DataILS Data

Local Index

Meta

Searc

h E

ng

ine

Search: Digital Collections

Digital Collections

ProQuestProQuest

EBSCOhost

EBSCOhost

…MLA

Bibliography

MLA Bibliograph

y

ABC-CLIOABC-CLIO

Search Results

Pre-built harvesting and indexing

Con

solid

ate

d In

dex

ILS DataILS Data

Pre-populated indexes Web-scale

◦ Exploits the full depth and breadth of library collections

◦ Beyond the bounds of the local library’s collection◦ Targets the universe of objective, vetted library

content Includes full-text indexing to the fullest

extent possible

Indexing the full corpus of information available globally Or at least major portions

Google aims to address all the world’s information Not quite comprehensive – partial harvesting of any given

resource Discovery Layer Products for libraries aim to

address all content collected by libraries: Print Remotely access electronic content: e-journals, e-books,

databases, licensed and open access. Local special collections: digital and print.

Addresses the comprehensive body of content held within library collections

Comprehensive, unified

New-generation interface Harvested local content

◦ ILS metadata◦ Institutional repositories, ETDs, Digital Collection

platforms Vendor-supplied indexes of library content

◦ E-journals, databases, e-books Full-text and metadata corresponding to e-content

subscriptions◦ Book collections beyond local library collections

Entering post-metadata search era Increasing opportunities to search the full

contents◦Google Library Print, Google Publisher, Open

Content Alliance, government publications, etc.

◦High-quality metadata will improve search precision

Commercial search providers already offer “search inside the book” and searching across the full text of large book collections

Not currently available through most library search environments◦ Will be an important feature of projects such as

HathiTrust Deep search highly improved by high-quality

metadata

Now viewed as separate problem Many interdependencies Current model of feeding discovery systems

from many underlying repositories◦ ILS / e-journal collections / collections of digital

objects Will models of resource management

change to consolidate the repositories? Realign Discovery and management?

Traditional Proprietary Commercial ILS◦ Millennium, Symphony, Polaris

Traditional Open Source ILS◦ Evergreen, Koha

Clean slate automation framework (SOA, enterprise-ready)◦ Ex Libris URM, OLE Project

Cloud-based automation system◦ WorldCat Local (+circ, acq, license management)

Beyond selecting one brand from an assortment of similar products

Several conceptually diverse options Companies and projects now competing on

innovation