Moving to Web 2.0 The Implementation of PRIMO at the British Library Mandy Stewart Resource Discovery Projects Manager British Library

Agenda for Today British Library Strategic Priorities Why the British Library chose Primo Some Background information Primo Planning What do we mean by Web 2.0? What are we doing to deliver Web 2.0?

British Library Strategic Priorities

British Library Strategic Priorities STRATEGIC PRIORITY 2 Connect our users with content “We need to look beyond the traditional library catalogue, exposing our collection to wider audiences, taking account of the interests of rights holders, and allowing users to shape and personalise their research, connecting users with content, content with content and, ultimately, users with other users.”

British Library Strategic Priorities Developing strategy for next generation of discovery and access services to library collections and research information What do users want? Larger aggregations of data Single point of discovery Integration with delivery and access services Interaction with our content

British Library Strategic Priorities What is our focus? Integrate all baseline discovery services Develop digital discovery and access services Explore and implement new technologies Integrate Web 2.0 services – inwards and outwards!

Why the British Library chose Primo PRIMO is a 1st step in implementing new search and navigation technologies Offers functionality we need for new core services Promise of scalability Community dialogue on development path – Product Working Group To try out new models of digital discovery and access services

Some background information Current numbers of records in main databases: Main BL Catalogue 14,586,000 English Short Title Catalogue 500,000 Register of Preservation Microforms 215,000 Web Archive Records Research Datasets Integrated Archives and Manuscripts 2,500,000 Sound Archive 3,107,000 TOTAL 20,800,000

Some background information Getting User Feedback: Sessions arranged to ask for feedback from groups of users: Post graduate students – would they use it? Reading Room Focus Groups – reaction to the change Specialist testing laboratory – how do they use it?

Primo Planning Initial Implementation work: April 2008 to October 2008 Set up a “Sandpit” – to allow us to find out how PRIMO works Loaded test data – half a million records Completed the initial configuration Organised testing with end users Upgraded to PRIMO Version 2.0 Loaded the full database from Aleph – 15 million records

Primo Planning Further Implementation work April 2009 release Linking to requesting in place June 2009 release Newspaper title data loaded October 2009 release Sound Archive data loaded; Web Archive data loaded April 2010 release SFX KB data loaded; Datasets loaded

Primo Planning Project plan phased to account for: New releases of software – more frequent than usual Addition of new data sets Development of new functionality Improvements to Web 2.0 capabilities These changes will be continuous leading to a situation of “permanent beta” for the project

Primo Planning Configuration Panel set up to: Manage configuration work in a co-ordinated manner Review configuration on a regular basis as new data streams come online Talk to stakeholders outside the group as required Act as a discussion group for issues and concerns regarding configuration Manage communications with readers and staff

Primo Planning Project plan set up with iterations of five stages taking around three weeks each to: Identify requirements Complete development work Implement changes Review changes Agree carry over of any requirements not completed

PRIMO Project Planning Plans also include: Upgrades to new versions of Primo Harvesting of additional data Harvesting of full text data from the Digital Library Storage System Adding new features e.g. Syndetics ICE

Primo Implementation What went well: The user experience!  Generally good feedback on better search experience. Configuration flexibility Data loading – Particularly the second set when we had learned from the first load experience My folder - especially users like this compared to the current OPAC arrangements Training as done by Lee Smith

Primo Implementation What caused us problems: Single sign on – Aleph and Primo Pipes stopping unexpectedly with errors that have to be investigated by Ex Libris User interface for Back Office is poorly designed for supporting workflows, e.g. interface for normalisation rules Build times are unsustainably long if you have a large amount of data Documentation – difficult to find information needed Default normalisation rules as supplied by Ex Libris had errors in them

British Library Search Our Catalogue Demonstration British Library Search Our Catalogue http://searchbeta.bl.uk

What do we mean by Web 2.0? Interaction with our users Help with providing metadata: Addition of descriptions of images Correction of OCR data Additional subject information: Customers tag records Import tags from other sources e.g. Librarything Reviews or Notes added to book records

What do we mean by Web 2.0? Adaptation of Jaokar’s meme map by Alexandra D Matthews

Tagging holds potential for more intuitive search and navigation, but needs more research to understand benefit to researchers Feedback suggests star rated reviews may be more useful than tagging to researchers

Facet analysis supports more flexible searching across larger datasets, but review of our data structures is needed to give more meaningful mapping of data for network users. Cultural change of staff

What are we doing to deliver Web 2.0? User-generated content • User tagging and reviews included in 'Search our Catalogue' - the Library's beta Primo implementation • User tagging and notes features live on Archival Sound Recordings website as of 10 March 2009. • Tagging and notes features to be added to Online Gallery later this month • Similar features to be incorporated in future digitisation projects • User transcription and user-amendment of OCR under investigation • Turning the Pages 2.0 allows users to contribute private and public notes on the volumes available

What are we doing to deliver Web 2.0? Podcasting, video, and rich media • Podcasting now routine aspect of web delivery for the Library - around 80 now available • Up to 112,000 podcast downloads in the first nine months of 2008-09 • Pod casts expand audience for events by up to 20 times the attendance at St Pancras • Business and IP Centre has this week begun a live webcasting programme • Library web Annual Reports making effective use of video of users, Chairman, Chief Executive • Video now also included as a matter of course in the Library's virtual exhibitions • Rich media now being used to integrate the gallery and web experience - eg Taking Liberties interactive

In Conclusion Planning next steps: Web 3.0? Harvest the BL website to Primo Move from beta to make Primo the main search tool for all catalogues Web 3.0? How will Primo help us to work with the Semantic Web and linked data?

Thank you Questions?