New & Noteworthy

Citation

(2005), "New & Noteworthy", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 22 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2005.23922iab.001

New & Noteworthy

MyLibrary@Ockham

MyLibrary@Ockham is a set of searchable databases (indexes) created from the content of the "hidden web" for the purposes of facilitating teaching, learning, and research. The purpose of MyLibrary@Ockham is to demonstrate ways a "Find more like this one" service can be implemented through the use of "light-weight" protocols and open source software. In other words, using sets of well-established computing techniques and freely available software, this system strives to enable people to get more out of scholarly research by proactively offering "intelligent" suggestions to improving their searches and identifying similar items. MyLibrary@Ockham is a product of Eric Lease Morgan and staff at the University Libraries at Notre Dame.

MyLibrary@Ockham uses MyLibrary to collect, organize, and cache more than 430,000 records harvested from various scholarly OAI archives. The system then uses reports written against the database to find things like all the items classified as articles or all the items classified as medicine. These reports are sent to an indexer (Plucene), and finally an SRU interface was created allowing people to search the index.

The SRU interface sports a number of cool features including:

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  lists of suggested alternative spellings with ASPELL;

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  lists of possible synonyms using WordNet; and

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  lists of statistically created keywords.

The point of all this work is three-fold:

1. 1.

   To demonstrate how digital library collections and services can be easily implemented using standard protocols and open source software.

2. 2.

   To address the perennial problem of "finding more like this one".

3. 3.

   To demonstrate how the library profession can collect, organize, archive, and disseminate scholarly content if it is published using open access publishing techniques.

MyLibrary@Ockham web site: mylibrary.ockham.org/

About MyLibrary@Ockham: mylibrary.ockham.org/?cmd=about

Open Access WebliographyNow Available

The Open Access Webliography, by Adrian K. Ho and Charles W. Bailey, Jr., presents a wide range of electronic resources related to the open access movement that are freely available on the internet as of April 2005. The electronic resources included in this webliography were identified during the course of one of the authors writing the Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals (Association of Research Libraries, 2005). This open access webliography complements the bibliography on the same topic. By consulting both, the reader has access to the literature about the open access movement as well as the primary electronic resources on the Web that relate to it.

Given the extraordinary profusion of information about open access, this webliography is, by necessity, selective. The authors have attempted to identify key finding tools (e.g. directories and search engines), information sources, mailing lists, organizations, publishers, and e-publications that will allow the reader to easily explore the topic further. They have also tried to give the reader a sense of open access in action by including examples of representative disciplinary archives, software tools, projects, and statements (which might also be viewed as manifestos). These examples are just that; these webliography sections are not as comprehensive as other sections.

Topics covered in the webliography are:

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  Starting points.

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  Bibliographies.

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  Debates.

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  Directories – e-prints, institutional repositories and technical reports.

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  Directories – open access and free journals.

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  Directories and guides – copyright and licensing.

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  Directories and guides – open access publishing.

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  Directories and guides – software.

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  Disciplinary archives.

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  E-serials about open access.

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  Free e-serials that frequently publish open access articles.

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  General information.

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  Mailing lists.

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  Organizations.

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  Projects.

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  Publishers and distributors.

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  Search engines.

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  Special programs for developing countries.

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  Statements.

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  Weblogs.

www.escholarlypub.com/cwb/oaw.htm

Introducing Academic Commons

Academic Commons (www.academiccommons.org) offers a forum for investigating and defining the role that technology can play in liberal arts education. Sponsored by the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College (http://liberalarts.wabash.edu), Academic Commons publishes essays, reviews, interviews, showcases of innovative uses of technology, and vignettes that critically examine technology uses in the classroom. Academic Commons aims to share knowledge, develop collaborations, and evaluate and disseminate digital tools and innovative practices for teaching and learning with technology. The site intends to advance opportunities for collaborative design, open development, and rigorous peer critique of such resources.

Academic Commons also provides a forum for academic technology projects and groups (the Developer's Kit) and a link to a new learning object referatory (LoLa). The Academic Commons library archives all materials published and also provides links to allied organizations, mailing lists, blogs, and journals through a Professional Development Center.

The first edition of Academic Commons (August 2005) features essays by Richard Lanham ("Copyright 101"), Michael Joyce ("Interspace: our commonly valued unknowing"), Patricia O'Neill and Janet Simons ("Using technology in learning to speak the language of film"), and Michelle Glaros ("The dangers of just-in-time education"), and an interview with Gerald Graff. The issue also includes two teaching and learning "vignettes," reviews (web sites, hardware, and software) and showcases (exemplary academic web projects), and links to a variety of interesting teaching, learning, and technology projects. The complete table of contents is at http://academiccommons.org/august2005/

www.academiccommons.org

CiteSeerResearchers Receive NSF Grant to Improve CiteSeer Search Engine

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $1.2 million grant to researchers in the Penn State School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) and the University of Kansas to enhance and improve the CiteSeer academic search engine which receives more than one million hits a day and is heavily indexed by Google and Yahoo!. Since its launch in 1997, CiteSeer has provided the public with access to more than 700,000 documents in computer and information sciences. The Next Generation CiteSeer will archive more documents, allow new types of searching, offer CiteSeer as a web service, include personalized recommendations and searches, and permit synchronous live-object collaboration.

Lee Giles, the David Reese Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, is the principal investigator for the NSF Computing Research Infrastructure Collaborative Grant. Jack Carroll, the Edward M. Frymoyer Professor of Information Sciences and Technology; Jim Jansen, assistant professor of information sciences and technology; and Susan Gauch, University of Kansas, are co-investigators.

Funded for four years, the Next Generation CiteSeer project will expand CiteSeer's database and add and improve services. Among the new features will be a parsing service, which allows extraction of acknowledgments and header analysis, and an enhanced indexing service for documents and their citations. Besides the new services, the Next Generation CiteSeer architecture will be open source, making it easier to use and more reliable, Giles said. The new architecture also will be a collection of web services, which will enable greater access to CiteSeer metadata.

Since CiteSeer's inception, the web has grown in size, necessitating new crawler strategies. The growth of the computer and information sciences communities sparked interest in making CiteSeer a collaborative resource. In addition to online discussion forums, Next Generation CiteSeer will provide opportunities for joint authoring in an environment streamlined for efficiency and ease of participation. For improved access, mirror sites for CiteSeer will be located throughout the world with ones already at MIT and the University of Zurich.

While CiteSeer currently focuses on computer and information sciences, Giles has developed a business version, SMEALSearch. The Next Generation CiteSeer project will enable the search engine to be easily adapted to other academic areas as well, Giles said.

http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/

OPACWinner of OCLC Research Software Contest Announced

Dazhi (David) Jiao has won the OCLC Research Software Contest with a submission consisting of an OPAC that includes a ranked list of harvested citations when a detailed bibliographic record is displayed. The contest judges considered that David's submittal demonstrated an innovative way of integrating OPACS with harvested metadata and made good use of open source software from OCLC. As the contest winner, Mr Jiao will receive a check for $2,500 and a visit with OCLC researchers and others in Dublin, Ohio, USA.

Ross Singer of Georgia Tech is the runner-up, with a WAG the Dog implementation featuring Open WorldCat and xISBN functionality.

OCLC Research sponsored the contest, which ran from late January through mid-May 2005, to encourage innovation in the use of web-based services for libraries. It is expected that this will become an annual event.

Entries were judged by a panel of expert practitioners and academicians from OCLC and the library/information community: Thom Hickey (Chief Scientist, OCLC), Tip House (Chief Systems Analyst, OCLC), Elizabeth Lane Lawley (Associate Professor and Director, Lab for Social Computing, Rochester Institute of Technology; blogger), Mike Teets (Executive Director, Product Architecture and Development, OCLC), Roy Tennant (User Services Architect, California Digital Library; Owner, Web4Lib and XML4Lib electronic discussions; author), and Jon Udell (Lead Analyst, InfoWorld; author; blogger).

Dazhi Jiao's CAT OAI; an OPAC System with OAI Integration (http://129.79.32.196:8080/catoai/index.jsp).

OCLC Research Software Contest: www.oclc.org/research/researchworks/contest/

DeweyBrowserProvides Visual Interface to Dewey-Organized Collections

The OCLC Research DeweyBrowser prototype allows users to search and browse collections of library resources organized by the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC).

The DeweyBrowser presents search results at three levels, corresponding to the main structure of the DDC. Users may browse for a term or drill down through the summaries by clicking on a category. Color-coding indicates the number of related records under each category. Record lists display items in the lowest category, with links to online resources. The interface provides the option of displaying the summaries in several languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, and Swedish.

The DDC is the most widely used classification system in the world, built on sound principles that make it ideal as a general knowledge organization tool. Libraries have a substantial investment in Dewey, using it to organize a large number of collections. The DeweyBrowser can help users access these collections.

DeweyBrowser prototype: deweyresearch.oclc.org/ddcbrowser/ebooks

More about the DeweyBrowser: www.oclc.org/research/researchworks/ddc/browser.htm

Metasearching Report from California Digital LibraryAvailable

In partial fulfillment of a grant received from the National Science Foundation to build on and enhance the National Science Digital Library (NSDL), the California Digital Library (CDL) has produced a report which reviews products, technologies, and approaches available to CDL to build a prototype service integrated search service. The August 2005 report entitled Integrating Information Resources: Principles, Technologies, and Approaches is authored by Heather Christenson and Roy Tennant and takes a high-level view of integration techniques, with a particular focus on metasearching.

The web site for the work on the NSDL related grant contains other reports in support of the key goals of the grant, which include advising the NSDL on sustainability options and to demonstrate how NSDL collections can be integrated with other academic library collections and services (e.g. commercial journal article databases).

Report (pdf): www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/metasearch/nsdl/nsdl_report2.pdf

NSDL Grant web site: www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/metasearch/nsdl/

Expectations and Experiences of MetasearchReport of an RLG Survey

In May and June 2005, the Research Libraries Group (RLG) conducted an informal survey in order to learn more about members' expectations and experiences of metasearch. RLG staff conducted guided discussions with ten institutions drawn from RLG's members. The selected respondents represented a mix of institutional types, metasearch tools, and services targeted. This survey had three goals: To determine how RLG members are using metasearching; to learn more about their expectations for these searches; to use this information to help make RLG databases good metasearch targets.

Most respondents were enthusiastic about metasearch. Although their definitions of it varied, most tended to focus on undergraduate students, use of a simple search box, and full-text resources in the results. (Metasearches allow users to search across multiple catalogs, search engines, and commercial databases. Frequently, these searches merge and de-duplicate results and unify access to a variety of information resources.)

The survey report includes:

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  What do institutions and users expect from metasearch?

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  How are these members implementing metasearch now?

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  Do current implementations meet expectations?

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  Can we quantify the likely spread of various tools for types of information?

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  What might make existing metasearch implementations moot?

RLG Metasearch Survey Report: www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=20750

RLGReleases Checklist for the Certification of Trusted Digital Repositories

RLG has announced that it has completed a draft report for the certification of digital repositories. The draft, titled "An audit checklist for the certification of trusted digital repositories," is available at RLG's web site. The checklist is the product of a task force working on a joint project between RLG and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

The goal of the RLG-NARA Digital Repository Certification project has been to identify the criteria repositories must meet for reliably storing, migrating, and providing access to digital collections. The "Audit checklist" identifies procedures for certifying digital repositories.

Leveraging the RLG-NARA checklist, a separate project launched by the Center for Research Libraries, with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will test audit the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of The Netherlands), which maintains the digital archive for Elsevier Science Direct Journals, the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), and Portico, an archive for electronic journals incubated within Ithaka Harbors, Inc. Stanford's LOCKSS system will also participate in this effort.

Says Robin Dale, manager of both the RLG and CRL projects, "We look forward to receiving comments on the draft and to hearing the response from the community."

Auditing and certification of digital repository systems and organizations are necessary to guarantee that digital resources remain accessible. Reliable certification methods will allow universities, libraries, publishers, and other groups to protect their investments in access to knowledge and heritage resources.

Comments on the draft are due before mid-January 2006.

Checklist: www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=20769

How Libraries, Archives, and Museums Are Working TogetherRLG Members Forum

In July 2005, RLG held its yearly members forum on a subject closely linked to its diverse membership. Representatives from the three major constituencies of RLG-libraries, archives, and museums-met to discuss why and how they should work together. Over 150 individuals attended the one-day forum, held in two locations: the Minnesota Historical Society in St Paul, on July 12; and the Center for Jewish History in New York City, on July 14.

Evolving from separate organizations with particular content and services, libraries, archives, and museums are developing into partners in providing access to research resources. In the age of the internet, users are more interested in searching a comprehensive body of cultural resources, rather than digging through separate "silos" of information. By collaborating, libraries, museums, and archives can deliver the one-stop-shopping for content their users have come to expect. While this development promises great benefits for users, individual organizations face the challenge of making it a reality.

The forum highlighted real-world examples of the benefits of collaboration. Presenters also emphasized the external pressures that institutions face: competition from search engines such as Google, combined with budget shortages, may make cooperation not simply a nice idea, but a necessity.

Papers and presentations from the forum: www.rlg.org/en/page.php?Page_ID=20521

Internet2 Applications CouncilSurvey on Lecture Objects Summary Results

In April 2005 the Internet2 Applications Council conducted a survey of its members on the capture, storage, and interchange of what they are calling "lecture objects" – various kinds of composites of audio or video of lectures, slides or other visuals, and notes or other supplementary materials and metadata about the contents. George Brett at Internet2 compiled a summary of the results of the survey and they are now freely available on the web.

Survey summary: www.internet2.edu/presentations/spring05/20050504-Lecture-Brett.htm

NetLibrary and Recorded Books LLCAccessibility and Digital Audio Books

A report of a field test studying the accessibility and general usability of downloadable digital audio books from NetLibrary and Recorded Books LLC is now available. The report, prepared for the Mid-Illinois Talking Book Center and the Alliance Library System by Thomas A. Peters, is entitled "Accessibility Trial of the Downloadable Digital Audio Book Service from netLibrary and Recorded Books LLC – Final Report".

During June and July 2005 184 print-impaired library and talking book center patrons and staff in at least 15 states had trial access to the new downloadable digital audio book service from netLibrary, a division of OCLC, and Recorded Books LLC. The goal of the trial was to enable talking books centers, libraries for the blind and physically handicapped, other libraries who serve primarily persons who are print-impaired, and individuals who are print-impaired to test and evaluate the accessibility and general usability of this digital audio book system. The report is freely available in both HTML and Microsoft Word versions.

HTML version: www.tapinformation.com/netLibraryfinalreport.htm

MS Word version: www.tapinformation.com/netLibraryfinalreportdoc

Both versions and supporting material: www.tapinformation.com/netlibrary.htm

Newspaper Digitization Conference PresentationsAvailable

The Digitizing Historic Newspapers: A Practical Approach conference was held July 18, 2005 in Denver, Colorado. The intent of the conference was to provide participants with an in-depth look at newspaper digitization projects. Speakers took a practical approach to the topic, sharing their experiences and insights and discussing the issues that impact historic newspaper digitization. Presentations and a summary report from the conference are now freely available online.

Web site: digitalcooperative.oclc.org/presentations/default.htm

ASISTTwo New Information Technology Association Blogs

American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIST) has created a inaugural blog for their Annual Meeting being held October 28-November 2, 2005 which is available at: asist2005.neasist.org Blog entries will be available on Annual Meeting activities, including highlights of sessions and impressions of the meeting.

Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) also has a blog available at http://litablog.com to keep members up to date on conference sessions and other information related to the association, including the popular Top Technology Trends panel. Planning is complete for blogging the 2005 National Forum in San Jose September 29-October 2, 2005: litablog.org/?cat=13

GreyNetIncreases Open Access to Its Archive

GreyNet has announced that they have increased open access to their in-house archive of documents on grey literature greytext. greytext is a bibliographic archive of e-documents with a topic in the field of information known as Grey Literature. All documents are indexed in alphabetical order by name of (first) author followed by the title, source, date of publication and length in printed pages. Free Access to the first page of each document is readily available for browsing. Also when available, the corresponding PowerPoint is free to browse.

The full-text of all documents listed in GreyText are accessible via email. A document delivery form can be found on the initial web page.

Archive web site: www.greynet.org/pages/4/