Interoperability: recombinant potential Lorcan Dempsey ‘opportunities for applied research on the creation, management, preservation, and use of digital content’ IMLS workshop 17/18 March 2003

Overview MARC MARC-XML, MODS, Dublin Core, Onix, LOM EAD, TEI, DC, MARC METS, SCORM DDI, FGDC,.. MARC AMC, EAD, DC, RSLP OAIS, METS, OCLC/RLG, … Z39.50, SRU/W, Xquery, … SOAP, WSDL, UDDI, … GIF, TIFF, PNG, JPEG, … XML, RDF,.. DDC, LCSH, LCC, TGN, AAT, … PURL, DOI, ISTC, URN, … XRML,ODRL,..

Overview Remarks on interoperability Institutional perspective Interoperability frameworks Concluding remarks Inconclusive!!! – Different mental models – The words of things entangle and confuse document, repository, archive, digital library, registry, …

“Creative knowledge you can put in your pocket”

Interoperability as recombinant potential Can I … – … add a document to a repository? – … add a repository to a distributed query? – … fuse metadata from one repository with another? – … assemble these resources into a learning package? – … embed an interactive service in my exhibition, my reading list, my campus portal? – … ingest a content package into an archive? – … take a content package out of an archive in 10 years time? – … navigate several databases by subject, by name, by place, by resource type, by educational level? – … cite a document in a repository? – … bring resources into my own workspace? With … – … as little custom work as possible – … as little precoordinated agreement as possible

Licensed collections Aggregations Virtual reference user environments resource environment Library service environment Institutional repository Digital collections E-reserve Catalog lab books exhibitions PDAs learning management systems campus portal course material text book new scholarly resources reading lists

Different perspectives Disaggregating scholarly publishing – Linking, Identifiers Libraries, archives and museums digitizing unique collections – Content and metadata models Research and learning materials – Eprints – Research data – Learning materials – E-portfolios Service model: multiple environments of use – Exhibition, workbench/lab book, learning management system, portal, interpretive essay, … Metadata models – Syntax – Semantics – Values Content packaging models – METS, SCORM Collection model – Heirarchical, multiple items – Provenance, context – Interpretive, organized knowledge, evidential Use model – Tools required, …

Resources (Objects and collections) – “content” – “metadata” – Rights – People – Institutions – Concepts – Places – Resource levels – Educational standards – … Services – Query – Disclose – Get/put – Validate – Ingest – Annotate – Request – Register – Migrate –…–… Interoperability Infrastructure – Registry Publish structures/schema – Directory Services, collections – Resolution Relate other resources

A changed world A pervasive network environment requires a more light- weight, fine-grained approach to combining and recombining resources and services. “Web services” See pre-workshop comments. We have done most work at metadata level (and access to metadata), but even there …

Some metadata examples Equivalence? – Network digital library of theses and dissertations Management of identity and difference – E-prints UK Consistency – Schema transformation – Harvesting LOM Knowledge organization – Articulate resources and users by subject, place, Major issues – Different communities of practice (case law) – Leverage accumulated investment in knowledge organization technologies or see them wither – Harvesting nascent – need agreements – What can be automated – Precoordinated vs dynamic recombination

An institutional perspective High acronymic density a source of bewilderment Makers and takers State of the art keeps receding over the horizon Balkanization leads to sub-optimal approaches

Rich Description Simple Description ItemCollections Dublin Core RSLP OAI set record TEI VRA Core ONIX MARC 8 CSDGM

Institutional issues Organizational domains – Library – Archive – Press – Learning management – Departments – Computing Interest domains – Grid/Internet2 – Digital library – Learning management – Disciplinary focuses Shared services – A variety of repositories – Identity management Institutional investment – What confidence? – Vertical silo within institution -- wheels within wheels – How do you manage investment across silos – Current metadata creation and content management practices unsustainable.

Interoperability frameworks Reference model Functional architecture

Directories Vocabulary Competency Metadata Repositories OrganizationsTraders Access Management MANAGE RIGHTS OBLIGATIONS CONTROL ACCESS AUTHENTICAT E AUTHORIS E AUDIT Procurement NEGOTIATE TRADE MAKE PAYMENT SEARCH Learner CreatorInfoseeker Repositories Assets Metadata Resource Utilizers DISCOVER REQUEST US E Presentation Mediation Provision People Agent RESOLVE Registries STORE EXPOSE MANAGE STOREEXPOSE MANAGE DELIVE R (Query, Browse, Follow Path) ACCESS GATHER PUBLISH MANAGE ALERT EXPOS E IMS digital repository interoperability specification

JISC Information Environment architecture

Interoperability frameworks – the big IF Positive – Hedging our bets – Common frame of reference – Articulate business, technical and service discussion – Orient and motivate development – Suggest roles and responsibilities – Examples OAIS OKI IMS JISC IE Portal envy Questions – At what level of granularity – Cross-domain? – Unhelpful circumscription? – Stifles thought

Some concluding thoughts Institutions and incentives !!!!! – Our apparatus for managing standards is dysfunctional. – What incentives and support for creating recombinant schema, resources (metadata and content), and services would be useful? Interoperability plus time = preservation. Service architecture – We need a greater focus on exposing and combining services in user or system environments. – What level of explicit “interoperability framework” is useful? – What interoperability infrastructure is useful and how is it sustained (registry and directory)? Make data work – We need better approaches for managing resource identity and difference. – Mining – needs data – Can we make knowledge organization technologies more effective in a network environment? Why has digital library research had so little impact in operational environments?

Thank you! Lorcan Dempsey