Time is right for major investment in repositories infrastructure

From Philip Pothen, JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee):

“The research community should be engaged at the highest level to encourage the establishment of repositories in UK education and research, says a report published today. While one third of UK universities have an Open Access repository to house digital content such as research papers, pre-prints, theses, working papers, conference proceedings, teaching materials, etc., most have very little content in them, the report continues.

Acknowledging that an important foundation has already been laid in the establishment of a repository infrastructure for the UK, the report – commissioned by JISC – says, however, that the time is right for the development of the shared, national services upon which a step-change in the adoption, development and use of institutional repositories now depends.

Beginning with an examination of user requirements, the report sets out which national services will be needed to support such an infrastructure, suggesting that support will be needed by the community particularly in the areas of metadata provision (to support cross-searching and resource discovery), IPR and copyright, and preservation. In addition, says the report, ‘advocacy work to the author community is critically important in raising the levels of deposition of research postprints.’ (…)

With JISC investing £3.5m in its digital repositories programme and an additional £13.5m over the next two years through its capital programme, the report provides both an evidence base on which JISC can provide the ‘strong management role’ called for by the report, as well as a set of recommendations upon which to focus its activities in this area. (…)”

The report was written by Alma Swan of Key Perspectives and Chris Awre of the University of Hull and it is available from the Digital Repositories page.

FAQ personalizzate e sempre aggiornate

Fondato da un ventenne dell’UCLA, FAQQLY è un sito di social software per la creazione di FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) personali. FAQQLY permette di creare la propria pagina di risposte, sulla quale altri utenti possono soffermarsi per sottoporre ulteriori interrogativi.

Il sito ha all’incirca  2.500 membri, e viene definito come un incrocio tra un blog, Yahoo Answers e MySpace. Un estratto dall’About us:

FAQQLY is a website that brings you and your friends and groups closer together.
Social life is more fun, meaningful, and convenient with features like:

• Personal FAQ™ Trade questions & answers of any kind with your friends.
• Helps Give & get help, advice, ideas to/from your friends.
• Share Friends post what they own and are willing to lend to their friends.

Le richieste (sia quelle soddisfatte, cioè cui l’autore della pagina FAQ abbia dato risposta, che quelle ancora inevase) possono essere visualizzate tramite feed RSS.

LANL launches aDORe: repository and link resolver

The aDORe Archive is a write-once/read-many storage approach for Digital Objects and their constituent datastreams. The approach combines two interconnected file-based storage mechanisms that are made accessible in a protocol-based manner.

First, XML-based representations of multiple Digital Objects are concatenated into a single, valid XML file named an XMLtape. The creation of indexes for both the identifier and the creation datetime of the XML-based representation of the Digital Objects, facilitates OAI-PMH-based access.

Second, ARC files, as introduced by the Internet Archive, are used to contain the constituent datastreams of the Digital Objects in a concatenated manner. An index for the identifier of the datastream facilitates OpenURL-based access.

The interconnection between an XMLtape and its associated ARC file(s) is provided by conveying the identifiers of these ARC files as administrative information in the XMLtape, and by including OpenURL references to constituent datastreams of a Digital Object in the XML-based representation of that Digital Object stored in the XMLtape.

The aDORe Archive Solution provides:

• Storage of compound objects (independent of the choice of complex object format, i.e. MPEG-21 DIDL, METS, …)
• Two interconnected file-based storage mechanisms:
  • XMLtapes: File storage of XML-based representations of Digital Objects
  • ARC files: File storage of constituent datastreams of Digital Objects
  • An XMLtape is interconnected with one or more ARC files during the ingestion process
• Protocol-based access mechanisms:
  • Each XMLTape is exposed as an autonomous OAI-PMH repository
  • Each ARC file is exposed as an OpenURL Resolver
• Long-term stability:
  • Write once – Read many approach
  • XMLtapes and ARC files remain stable over time, while indexing mechanisms can change as technologies evolve
  • Protocol access remains stable over time as indexing technologies evolve
• Capability to store multiple XMLtapes and ARCfiles.

aDORe is licensed under GPL and it’s distributed by Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library.

TechXtra and OAI searching protocol

From Roddy MacLeod, Senior Subject Librarian, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh:

“As part of some co-operative work between the Heriot-Watt University and the University of Strathclyde, TechXtra  now cross-searches four static repositories which have been developed through the STARGATE Project.

This is a temporary demonstration of how static repositories can be incorporated into a subject-based service. The four are:

1. Journal of Digital Information
2. Information Research
3. Library and Information Research
4. Information Scotland 

To cross-search these sources, enter a term and select ‘All’ from the search box drop-down on the TechXtra site, or use the Advanced Search options. Remember that these are relatively small databases, covering information topics.  A sample search for the term ‘resources’ for example, will return hits from each repository, and the full text of items should be available from the sources.
 
For more information about Static OAI Repositories see the STARGATE website and also Marketing with Metadata: a document produced by the JISC-funded PerX Project.
 
TechXtra currently cross-searches a total of 32 digital repositories – covering over 4 million items in engineering, mathematics and technology. TechXtra can be used to find articles, key websites, theses and dissertations, books, industry news, new job announcements, technical reports, eprints, learning & teaching resources and the latest research.
 
Three other new sources have also recently been added to the TechXtra cross-search:  Caltech EERL; DSpace at MIT; Energy Citations Database. A TechXtra latest news RSS feed is available.”

Microsoft to collaborate with University of California and University of Toronto Libraries

“Microsoft Corp. today [June 8, 2006] announced two key advances in Windows Live™ Book Search, a service that will enable Web searchers to find answers from authoritative, trusted book content. The addition of two new participants, the University of California and the University of Toronto libraries, will result in an addition of digitized material, primarily out-of-copyright books, from these two institutions to the Windows Live Book Search service. Also, the recently debuted Windows Live Books Publisher Program enables publishers to submit in-copyright material to become part of Windows Live Book Search.

With collections totaling more than 34 million volumes in the more than 100 libraries on its 10 campuses, the University of California library is the largest research and academic library in the world. In addition, the University of Toronto’s library network, the largest in Canada, has more than 15 million holdings and is one of the top-four research libraries in North America. These important collections will greatly expand the depth and breadth of content available through Windows Live Book Search.

Authors and publishers can now add their content to Windows Live Book Search through the Windows Live Books Publisher Program. Books sent to Microsoft by participants are scanned and indexed free of charge. Participation in the program is open to all rights holders — publishers and authors — worldwide. Links are provided to participating online resellers, enabling authors and publishers to promote sales of their books. This service also offers an enhanced search experience to our customers by providing wide-ranging access to the world’s offline content.”

Full article here.

Yahoo Answers: domande e risposte online

“CHIEDI – Invia una domanda su un argomento qualsiasi e ricevi risposte dagli altri utenti.
RISPONDI – Condividi ciò che conosci e potresti risolvere il problema di qualcun altro!
SCOPRI – Moltissime risposte disponibili online. Puoi imparare qualcosa di nuovo ogni giorno!”

E’ Yahoo Answers, il nuovo servizio di domande e risposte online di Yahoo, da qualche giorno anche in lingua italiana. Le risposte vengono fornite ‘on the fly’ da altri utenti non necessariamente esperti dell’argomento richiesto, perciò è ovvio aspettarsi imprecisioni e approssimazione. E’, come dire, un Virtual Reference Desk per utenti senza pretese e soprattutto non avvezzi al rigore e alla profondità dei servizi forniti dai bibliotecari :)

A parte le curiosità più banali e gli scontati problemi di cuore, in categorie come Arte e Cultura – Libri ed Autori si può trovare anche qualche rara perla di interesse. A difesa degli spammer o degli incauti rispondenti privi di cognizione di causa, gli utenti di Answers possono attribuire un punteggio alle risposte e contribuire ad arginare la proliferazione di notizie false o tendenziose…

Ormai il mercato delle ricerche veloci online ha acquisito dimensioni anche economiche notevoli – e i grandi motori di ricerca non stanno a guardare: sempre per restare in casa Yahoo, Ask the Planet è un esempio di commercializzazione e pubblicizzazione del classico servizio ASK A che le biblioteche offrono in genere gratuitamente e con ben altra qualità delle informazione proposte…