Sakaibrary Project Update:Subject Research Guides

and Next Steps

Jon Dunn

Indiana University

July 2, 2008

Background

• Collaborative project:– Indiana University Libraries– University of Michigan Library

• Funding from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation– January 2006 – June 2008

• Project partners – Northwestern, University of California Berkeley,

Johns Hopkins, Yale, Stanford

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Sakaibrary Project Goals

• Build tools to provide seamless integration of content from licensed library databases within Sakai for instructors

• Leverage existing library technology infrastructure • Prototype functionality for librarians to present

content in Sakai and students to discover licensed content within Sakai

• Engage librarians, students, and faculty in the design and testing

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Sakaibrary Project Products

• Citations Helper– Create and manage citation lists in Resources Tool– Search, import, and export– Part of core Sakai 2.4 and 2.5 distributions

• Research Guides tool– Librarian and/or instructor can provide access to a

variety of course- or subject-specific library resources

– Prototype under development

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Citations Helper in 2.4.x

• Create and edit citation lists in Resources Tool• Enter citations via:

– Form entry– Search of library resources via metasearch– Google Scholar search

• Export to RIS format• Link to full text content and other services using

OpenURL• Read-only view for students

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Citations Helper in 2.5:New Features

• Import citations in RIS format– From EndNote, RefWorks, Zotero, others

• Sort citation lists– By author, title, date

• Rich text editor integration– Search library resources from within FCKEditor

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Citations Helper Supporting Technologies

• OpenURL resolvers– ExLibris SFX– Serials Solutions 360 Link– Others should work

• Metasearch tools– ExLibris MetaLib– Sirsi SingleSearch / MuseGlobal– Working on Serials Solutions 360 Search

• Based on SRU

– Others by writing OKI Repository OSID implementations

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Metasearch Components

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Use of Citations Helper(Pilot and Production)

• Indiana University• University of Michigan• Johns Hopkins University• Stanford University• University of California Berkeley• University of Virginia• University of Cape Town• Universidade Fernando Pessoa• Universidad Politécnica de Valencia

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Subject Research Guides: Motivation

• Extend traditional instructional support role of libraries/librarians into the online setting

• Librarians regularly teach sessions on information research within a course

• Faculty develop course assignments that require research

• Librarians provide reference services and support for the process

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Example Usage Scenario

Summary:

Dr. Smith teaches an introductory course in the History department. For the course research paper, he wants to point his students to scholarly resources available via the library, rather than have them only use Google. Dr. Smith also wants his students to have easy access to reference librarians for research help, as well as understand the basics of plagiarism.

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Subject Research Guides

• Lead a new researcher to the best sources and research tools for a discipline or topic

• Teach the process of information discovery and selection

• Vary greatly in level of depth and specificity– Subject, topic, course, assignment

• Often delivered via library web sites

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Example Course Page at IU

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Example Subject Page at IU

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Subject Research Guide Data Elements

• Title and other metadata• Citations and citation lists• Links to library databases• Canned search link for Web, database, or library catalog• Constrained search box for Web, databases, or library

catalog• RSS feeds• Links to arbitrary web sites• Links to people (e.g. subject librarian)• Freeform rich text• Comments and annotations

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Subject Research Guides: Activities

• Creating– Librarians, instructors (and students?)

• Editing• Sharing• Finding• Using existing guides as templates

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Research Guide Authoring

• Authoring interface should be flexible and interactive– Use of AJAX/DHTML– RSF, JQuery, Fluid

• Learn from other similar UIs:– Springshare LibGuides– Google Notebook

• Prototype implemented as new Sakai tool

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Subject Research Guides Timeline

• Mellon grant ended June 30, 2008• Commitment from IU/UM through end of 2008• Develop more complete authoring interface

by October 2008• Need additional work on

finding/sharing/access control• Additional funding to complete development?

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Other Future Work

• Usability evaluation and improvements to Citations Helper

• Support for Serials Solutions 360 Search• Explore other means of getting citations into and

out of Sakai: Zotero 1.5/2.0, one-click RefWorks import, COinS/unAPI

• Access to digital library collections– Digitized primary source materials

• What else does the community want?

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Also at this conference…

• Sakaibrary tech demo– Wednesday evening reception @ Marriott

• Sakaibrary Subject Research Guides Technical Overview– Gaurav Bhatnagar, Jim Eng, Steve Smail– Thursday 10:00-10:30 Amphi 55A

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More Information

• Project web site:– www.sakaibrary.org

• Sakaibrary Confluence site:– http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/displ

ay/SLIB/

• Citations Helper demo site:– sakaibrary.umdl.umich.edu

• Contact us:– sakaibrary@umich.edu

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