collaborative systems and tools: renardus case study lesly huxley, leona carpenter, marianne...

enardus

www.renardus.org

Collaborative Systems and Tools: Renardus case study

Lesly Huxley, Leona Carpenter, Marianne Peereboom

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Renardus: a case study

Project aims, concepts and rationale

Collaborative systems and tools to support: Data modelling, cross-mapping, metadata sharing

System architecture and technical infrastructure

Organisation and collaboration: now and in future

Implementation examples

enardus

www.renardus.org

Aims, concepts and rationale


What is Renardus?

An EU-funded project (1 Jan 2000 - 30 June 2002) under the Information Society Technologies programme (5th framework)

Collaboration between 7 European countries, representatives of 11 existing subject gateways


Principle aim

To build the “Renardus Broker Service” to support European academic and

research communities

… an academic subject gateway in Europe


Principle concepts

Collaboration (not limited to national organisations)

Integrated views of metadata for heterogeneous Internet-accessible resources

Cross-search and cross-browse functionality

A single interface but no central data repository

Interaction with existing distributed subject gateways and other Internet-accessible collections across Europe


Rationale

There are already many useful quality-controlled gateways across Europe BUT …

Sustainability of projects (now services) is an issue

No one country or service can identify, describe and organise all available Internet resources to support the academic and research communities of Europe

Collaboration is needed to maintain quality, improve users’ access and develop sustainable services


Benefits for users/intermediaries

One interface to use/learn

Access to broader collections covering more subjects, countries, languages

Discover resources not necessarily available through local services

European perspective on global resources


Benefits for participating gateways

Shared costs of development and best practice could potentially accelerate development of new services and avoids duplication of effort

Easier to achieve ‘critical mass’ in gateways’ size and number / range of users

Collaboration demands consistent application of agreed technical standards, in turn leading to improved interoperability for gateways

enardus

www.renardus.org

Implementation

Timescales, participants, coverage


Implementation timescales

January-May 2001: Alpha and beta systems developed

June-November 2001:Pilot service released for evaluation

March 2002: Showcase preview of operational service

June 2002:Move from project status to service


Partners from 7 EU countries Netherlands: Koninklijke Bibliotheek

National Library (KB)

Denmark: Technical Knowledge Center and Library of Denmark (DTV)

Finland: Center for Scientific Computing

(CSC); Jyväskylä University Library,

Finland (JyU): Viiki Science Library (ALUH)

France: Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF)

Germany: Die Deutsche Bibliothek (DDB) Niedersächsische Staats- und

Universitätsbibliothek, Göttingen (SUB)

Zentralstelle für Agrardokumentation Und -information (ZADI);

Sweden: NetLab (University of Lund)

United Kingdom: Institute for Learning & Research

Technology (ILRT); UK Office for Library and

Information Networking (UKOLN)


Renardus gateways (pilot)

DutchESS - Dutch Electronic Subject Service (KB-NL) SSG-FI - Special Subject Guides (Geoguide, Mathguide, History

Guide, Anglistik Guide (SUB, Göttingen) DAInet - Deutsches Agrarinformationsnetz (ZADI) DEPOSIT.DDB.DE Document server (DDB) Resource Discovery Network (UKOLN) Finnish Virtual Library (Jyväskylä University Library, Finland) EELS - Engineering Electronic Library, Sweden NOVAgate - Nordic Gateway to information in Forestry,

Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences (Viikki Science Library, Finland)


Coverage (pilot)

11 subject-specific services covering engineering, maths, social sciences, literature, life sciences, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, geography, history

2 services covering all subjects, 1 electronic theses

All gateways provide English-language metadata

Some gateways focus on native resources but the majority have worldwide coverage


Language coverage

Limited scope in project timescales/resources Pilot interface and help texts all translated

into Dutch, Finnish, French and German Translation toolkit developed based on

‘tagged’ templates Each tagged element of English content

replaced with translated words and phrases Easily updated across all languages

Renardus pilot service home page

enardus

www.renardus.org

Metadata modelling, mapping and sharing

Issues and collaborative systems and tools


A common metadata model

To support consistent retrieval and presentation of integrated data from heterogeneous services

Eight elements derived from gateways’ existing data models (survey)

All but one are Dublin Core elements No Renardus-specific refinements


Renardus data model (pilot)

Mandatory elements:

DC.Title DC.Description DC.Identifier DC.Subject

Recommended or optional elements:

DC.Creator DC.Language DC.Type DC.Country

Two administrative elements: SBIG ID, Full Record URL


Classification cross-mapping

Cross-browsing: pinpointed as key functionality

Achieved by mapping local classification systems to common universal classification scheme: Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)

OCLC research license allows mapping of top levels of DDC

License also obtained for other language versions of DDC top levels to support multilinguality


Classification cross-mapping

Five levels of relevance mapped: fully equivalent narrower equivalent broader equivalent major overlap minor overlap

Mapping tool (CarmenX) adapted from CARMEN project to assist mapping

CarmenX mapping tool


Experiments in metadata sharing

Not intended to support planned functionality for pilot BUT ...

Explore potential for future exploitation of collaborative framework

Using geographical subject headings as testbed


Renardus Metadata Sharing Tool

Developed from work in the SSG-FI project

Comprises database, import/export routines, replication module for exchanging data between partners

Still determining type/extent of collaboration Enriching existing metadata Developing workflow routines Implementing tailored search profiles for partners

enardus

www.renardus.org

System architecture and technical infrastructure

Issues and collaborative systems and tools


A distributed broker system

Renardus is based on a distributed, decentralised architectural model

Requires participating gateways to implement a local Renardus server using Z39.50 (server kit available)

Interoperability achieved through normalization to a common metadata model

Renardus architectural model


Normalization Toolkit

Imports metadata from originating gateways including cross-mapping relationships

Adds acronym and logo (and full record URL) based on administrative data

Exports records in format compliant with Renardus application profile including DDC subject entries added automatically

on basis of CarmenX cross-mapping tables

Example of cross-browsing functionality

Example of graphical navigation overview

Example of integrated browse results


Monitoring and maintenance

Gateways required to monitor quality of records and performance of servers

Z-server status tool forwards standard simple/advanced queries daily to participants’ Z-servers and presents response time and number of records retrieved for each query

Spong tool is a simple systems monitoring package presenting basic server status information

enardus

www.renardus.org

Organisation and sustainabilityIssues and outcomes


Organisational infrastructure

Shift of focus from coordinating role of national libraries and other national initiatives towards other forms of collaboration

If the service is to survive post-project, need to identify: Tasks and costs of service provision if

fully-funded Subset of tasks to enable continued

service provision on a “lightweight model”


(Potential) players

Renardus Consortium (existing partner organisations)

National and international funding bodies, advertisers, sponsors

Intermediaries offering Renardus services to their customers and users


Central organisation

Management group to support Consortium administration, policy making / business strategies, service provision, financial management; legal and rights management

Formed before the end of the project to facilitate transition from project to service, even if under lightweight model

Currently exploring options with various potential partners for pilot service maintenance and/or further development


Central organisation

Service Provision and Maintenance Group Maintenance of technical infrastructure; technical

support; addition of new gateways, innovation/development; gathering of statistical data; maintenance of datamodel and Mappings

PR Group Web site, promotion/marketing, user support,

support for (potential) service providers; gathering user feedback and statistics; facilitate communication


Dissemination and Support

User Guidelines for potential participants

Workshop for potential participants

(all materials available online)

News Digest email newsletters

Web site project archive

All available from www.renardus.org in the

About us … section

enardus

www.renardus.org

Follow the fox!

collaborative systems and tools: renardus case study lesly huxley, leona carpenter, marianne...

Documents

n access

functionality n

evaluation n

usersintermediaries

framework n collaboration

implementation timescales

n data modelling

n system architecture