Access to distributed resources Lorcan Dempsey VP, Research Research Library Directors Conference OCLC Institute Post-Conference, "Building the Global Digital Library: Access, Transform, Create, Integrate," Wednesday, March 6

From portal to environment Unified discovery experience across heterogeneous resources Focus on access rather than use Overview – Retrospective look at portals (Z) – OAI – Towards an information environment

The portal/gateway/broker – mid 90s Presentation Mediation Resources Individual presentation Independent applications Independent applications Monolithic Aligned presentation Independent applications Monolithic Flexible presentation United service Components/data

Use Request Locate Discover Deliver Vertical and horizontal integration Z39.50 Collection/ item Z39.50 Resolution Z39.50 Resolution Z39.50 ILL Z39.50 ILL

Distributed services access Search Interfaces Request Interfaces Delivery Interfaces Authentication & authorisation User profiles Information landscape User access Collection Description Schema Description Service Description Environment intelligence Broker component examples

Some observations ‘interoperability’ a mantra Scepticism about ‘strong’ interoperability Limited targets Information landscape vs information brandscape Some emerging demand – Reference linking – Metadata sharing (OAI) – Authentication/authorisation

OAI-based mediation OAIHarvesterOAIHarvester WebBrowserWebBrowser UnionCatalogUnionCatalog DC/MARC HTML OAI Server#1 DC & EAD OAI Server#1 DC & EAD OAI Server#2 DC & MARC OAI Server#2 DC & MARC OAI Server#3 DC & VRA OAI Server#3 DC & VRA DC MARC DC

Z and OAI working together

RDN EEVL BIOME HUMBUL PSIgate SOSIG Z39.50 Z39.50 client, e.g. Renardus OAI-PMH Person

Towards an information environment No single resource is the sole focus of a user’s attention In a distributed environment resources can be specialized to provide particular function Leverage communication between resources to add value to user’s experience

shared services portals content brokers and aggregators provision mediation infrastructure presentation

Presentation/Portals Surface resources, pulling together other services available in the environment Learning management, library portal, ‘button’ services Tools for manipulation, analysis, assembly, play, … No prescription

Infrastructure/ Shared services Add value to applications by being provided as part of infrastructure Directory services: environment intelligence – Collection description – Service description – Schema description

Infrastructure/ Shared services Resolution – Resolution service – Institutional profiling – Personal profiling Authorization Knowledge services – Gazetteer – Terminology services

Applications/Mediation Services which mediate access to distributed heterogeneous resources – Search services (z39.50,..) – Gathering services (OAI,..) – Alerting services

Content Metadata and data of interest

A note on metadata Data which supports operations on entities – Life cycle Creation, discovery, assembly, administrative, contextual, preservation, rights, … – Domain Learning, library, archives, etc

A couple of other ‘consensus’ issues Semantic diversity – common sense –subject –audience level (who is this resource aimed at?) –resource type (what kind of resource is this?) –certification (who has created this resource?) Collection description

Some issues Focus on standards and acronyms needs to give way to a focus on architecture – Clarifies roles and relationships – Bridges between business and technical perspectives by identifying specialised functions Our organisational and business models do not well support such an approach – E.g. How do we secure infrastructure

Thank you

Acknowledgments Draws on work done over several years within UKOLN models project and the DNER – – publications.shtm