1 Interoperability: What, Why, and some How Dr. Paul Miller Interoperability Focus UK Office for Library & Information Networking (U KOLN ) U KOLN is funded by Resource: the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (J ISC ) of the Further and Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from J ISC and the EU. U KOLN also receives support from the Universities of Bath and Hull where staff are based.

2 What is interoperability? “to be interoperable, one should actively be engaged in the ongoing process of ensuring that the systems, procedures and culture of an organisation are managed in such a way as to maximise opportunities for exchange and re-use of information, whether internally or externally.” See

3 Why interoperate? because, at the end of the day, the user really doesn’t care which high quality data repository gives them the stuff they want… …so long as they can get it!.

4 Why interoperate? The cultural heritage need not respect organisational views we impose upon it A virtual museum of all Da Vinci’s work? All of the Parthenon stonework in one place, virtually if not in reality? The content of the British Museum available to people in a language other than English? The paintings of the Louvre, explained to a seven year–old? Books, archival folios, and physical objects relating to a topic available together?.

5 Why interoperate? Internally… to manage our information better Externally… to be more visible to meet the needs of our (often remote) users to align with ‘portal’, etc., developments To minimise manual repackaging of information in response to every request, exhiblet, etc.. See

6 How to interoperate… Depends upon the situation, of course, but… standards standards! de facto de jure national international community initiative

7 The nice thing about standards… …is that there are so many to choose from!

8 Some examples…

9 JISC Joint Information Systems Committee –“…to stimulate and enable the cost–effective exploitation of information systems and to provide a high quality national network infrastructure…” –‘development’ not ‘research’ –Funded by ‘top–slice’ from the Further and Higher Education Funding Councils for England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland –Funds eLib, the JISC Data Centres, UKOLN, the Focus posts, DNER Programme, etc.. See

10 eLib Electronic Libraries Programme Over £15,000,000 of funding for a large number of small/medium–size projects in three Phases –Plus supporting work such as the MODELS workshops Phases 1 & 2 (now complete) explored –Electronic Publishing –e.g. intarch.ac.uk/ –Access to Network Resources (the Subject Gateways) –e.g. –Training services (e.g. Netskills), Pre–print services, etc.. See See

11 eLib Phase 3 Building upon success Hybrid Libraries Large scale resource discovery (Clumps) Preservation Turning successful Phase 1 & 2 projects into sustainable Services. See

12 The D… N… what? Distributed National Electronic Resource Policy aspiration of the Joint Information Systems Committee Intended to provide greater access to JISC’s Current Content Collection –RDN –AHDS –MIMAS/ EDINA/ Data Archive –EDUSERVE –COPAC –eLib projects etc. See

13 Building the DNER Construction of various Portals to facilitate user–centric access ‘JISC Portal’ ? Data Centre Portals (EDINA, MIMAS…) Subject Portals (the RDN, etc.) Data Type Portals (images, movies, sound…) Institutional Portals (a Hybrid Library?) Personal Portals (Paul’s web!) Also providing other access to discrete resources. See

14 Building the DNER See Z39.50 as the ‘glue’ Thus, JISC funding of Bath Profile development, working closely with NLC and others around the world Also looking at Open Archives model Technical Standards document in preparation by UKOLN and JISC will apply immediately to the projects started by a £10,000,000 funding allocation this summer; intended to make the DNER useful for learning and teaching Technical requirements for contributors already written What does an A&I service need if it wants JISC to subscribe, etc…

15 nof–digi New Opportunities Fund receives money from the UK’s National Lottery nof–digi programme committing £50,000,000 over 2–3 years to digitisation of learning materials for use in lifelong learning. UKOLN providing coordinated (and partially mandatory) technical guidelines across the programme, and a support service. See See

16 UK Online All government services available online by 2005 UK Online ‘brand’ launched last month. Portal etc. to follow. Office of the e–Envoy oversees strategy across public sector –(with a big stick when needed) Government Interoperability Framework available –(XML, XML, XML) Draft Government Metadata Framework due October –(Dublin Core) Culture OnLine –£5,000,000 announced last week to scope –Obvious overlap with what’s happening here in Canada See See

17 Common themes… …whether actual or desirable… A vision –Access, Access, Access Effective scoping –Nothing can be all things to all people User rather than institutional focus –Are historical organisational structures really relevant? A managed programme –Requires funding, staff, and the power to mandate/ co–ordinate for the common good

18 Common themes… Considered deployment of standards –Bath Profile, Dublin Core, terminological controls, procedural controls, etc. –Don’t just adopt; help to shape –NLC is now Maintenance Agency for the Bath Profile –DC8 is here in Ottawa –CHIN is actively involved in the work of CIMI –etc.