why i hope encompass continues to fail
DESCRIPTION
Presented at the Endeavor Users Group (EndUser) meeting in 2004, this talk advocated for Endeavor to keep pushing their ENCompass product to the limits of functionality. Using for its starting point a tendency of some of the federated searching connectors to fail on a regular basis, it argues that it's important to keep having some level of failures, because otherwise it means the product only incorporates well-tested and proven technology, rather than exploring the edges of what is possible.TRANSCRIPT
WHY I HOPE CONTINUES TO “FAIL”
Alan ManifoldSystems Implementation ManagerPurdue University LibrariesWest Lafayette, [email protected]
Session 82
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThis presentation would not have been possible without the contributions of:
Stolen logos, plus the products we live by.
Especially the ENCompass Gateway Team, which designed the interface I will show you.
I CONTEND
ENCompass is a completely different kind of system than Voyager. The criteria we apply to judging the success of Voyager don’t work with ENCompass. It was created to “push the envelope” of library technology and it’s doing that. One consequence is that parts of it fail.
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A QUICK LOOK AT
Click here for
online
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Click here ifonline demodoesn’t work
Click here tosee if MetaLibworks better
Ha! Ha! That’s a good one!
Like that’s ever going to happen!
GO BACK(to reality)
x
QUICK SEARCH
SEARCHING…
RESULTS SUMMARY
RESULTS DISPLAY
FULL RECORD DISPLAY
VIEW FULL TEXT
SEARCH DATABASE DIRECTLY
MegaSearch Databases by Title
MegaSearch Databases by Subject
All Databases by Subject
All Databases by Title
SEARCH HISTORY
SAVED SEARCHES
SAVED RECORDS
SYSADMIN CLIENT
Z39.50 CONNECTOR
RELATIONSHIP MANAGER
WHAT IS ALL ABOUT
Database organizationFederated searchingDirect database connectionXML mappingResults displayLinking all aroundDigital collectionsLinkFinderPlus
True to its name, ENCompass does lots of things.
ENCompass for Digital Collections has more in common with Voyager than ENCompass for Resource Access does. It is like an online digital library.
Images Print, etc.Storage &Retrieval
Metadata CatalogingCreation &Editing
EDC vs. VOYAGER
ERA vs. VOYAGER
Access Inventory trackingTrolling FindingDiscoverers Investigators
Purpose:Uses:
Users:
ENCompass for Resource Access differs from Voyager in lots of significant ways. It’s not designed for finding known items, but for discovering unknown resources.
CONNECTORSFederated Searching is built on the concept of connectors. ENCompass supports four kinds:
Voyager Z39.50 XML Gateways HSE Connectors
Howstandard?
Howfamiliar toEndeavor?
Howreliable?
MISSION:DIFFICULTExtract Bibliographic Info from:
Books you published
Books others published
Journalarticles in non-Roman scripts
Newspaperarticles
MISSON:IMPOSSIBLEThe further away we get from books and journal articles, the harder it is to extract titles, authors, pagination, etc.
Websites
Dictionaryentries
Maps
Musical scores
Patents
HSE CONNECTORSHSE Connectors have a similar mission: extract specific data fields whether they are there or not.
American National Biography
METADEX
Associations Unlimited
Funding Opportunities
Accunet/AP Photo Archive
AltaVista
HSE CONNECTORS FAILHSE Connectors do their work by emulating a web user. They connect to web pages, read the HTML and try to interpret what they read. And some
programmer has to tell them how.You’d fail, too, if you had to do it.
THEY SHOULDN’T KEEP FAILING!Hopes:Z39.50 connections will get more
standard, broader and more robustXML Gateways will become more
common and more standardMore databases will support Z39.50, XML
Gateways or some future protocol“Backend portals” will become more
common (cleaner access for HSE Connectors)
HSE Connectors will be fixed and improved, and the technology will get better
NEW CHALLENGES AHEAD
VideoPartnering with Virage
ImagesPartnering with Luna
Course Management Systems integrationPartnering with Blackboard and WebCT
MORE CHALLENGES COMING
AudioRecommender SystemsReputation ManagementAuthorization IssuesPersonally Contoured SearchingNumerical DataNon-textual Data (e.g. maps, genomes,
chemical compounds)Digital Rights ManagementInstitutional Repositories
AND THE HORIZON IS ENDLESS
Aromatherapy SystemsDirect Image Searching (pattern recognition)Interfaces with tools and appliancesHolographic Image SearchingMedical Device InterfacesData MiningWebcam image scanning
South Australia’s Nullarbor Plains
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