Genevieve Clavel-Merrin Swiss National Library Scenarios for subject and multilingual access : presentation of results TEL-ME-MOR/M-CAST seminar, Prague 24.11.2006 Genevieve Clavel-Merrin Swiss National Library

TEL-ME-MOR ('The European Library: Modular Extensions for Mediating Online Resources‘) Funded by the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme of the Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme started on 1 February 2005 duration 2 years budget 1.4 million Euro

Goal To stimulate and facilitate the participation of organisations from the New Member States (NMS) of the European Union in projects funded within the Information Society Technologies area and integrating the national libraries into The European Library, a portal to access the collections of European national libraries (http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org)

Partners • Die Deutsche Bibliothek (The National Library of Germany) - Coordinator • Koninklijke Bibliotheek (The National Library of the Netherlands) • The British Library • Bibliotheque Nationale Suisse (Swiss National Library) • Stichting Conference of European National Librarians (CENL) • Eremo srl, Italy • Národní knihovna Ceské republiky (National Library of the Czech Republic) • Ministry of Education and Culture, Cyprus (Cyprus Library) • Eesti Rahvusraamatukogu (National Library of Estonia) • Országos Széchényi Könyvtár (National Széchényi Library of Hungary) • Latvijas Nacionala Biblioteka (National Library of Latvia) • Lietuvos Nacionaline Martyno Mažvydo Biblioteka (Martynas Mazvydas National Library of Lithuania) • Bibljoteka Nazzjonali ta Malta (National Library of Malta) • Biblioteka Narodowa (The National Library of Poland) • Slovenská národná knižnica (The Slovak National Library) • Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica (National and University Library of Slovenia)

Workpackages WP1 Analysis of research requirements WP2 Developing the network for access to national resources WP3 Developing the multilingual capacity of the network WP4 Awareness building and electronic information space for research partnerships WP5 Management

Objectives of WP3 To develop the network’s localisation and multilingual capabilities thus making information and knowledge available from the national libraries in the NMS easily accessible to their principal clients (researchers, educational and cultural workers) through multi language interfaces. To advise on future multilingual support requirements for improved access to the collections of Europe’s national libraries.

Why is it important The increase in full-text material and therefore full-text searching does not obviate the need to provide controlled vocabulary access The extension of networked information and the growth in cross-database access has highlighted the need for cross-language access to both bibliographic records and full-text. New online catalogues allow subject headings and other authority data to be displayed in ways that enhance searching and understanding.

Task 1 Conduct a study by means of questionnaire and email discussion and produce a report into the UNICODE capabilities of NMS partners evaluating display options followed by the installation of available conversion modules. Led by SNL (Pierre Clavel), report available

Recommendations The European Library portal Move the entire portal, or at least the navigation frame, to UTF-8. Address the Unicode questionnaire retroactively to current The European Library members, since these character set issues have been overlooked until now. Complement the collections descriptions by information about the use of special characters, where appropriate. Add to the search page 3 displayable soft keyboards, for Latin special characters, Greek and Cyrillic, with information about script prevalence, their characters’ use and usual transliteration Study the feasibility of adding to the results page an automatic transcription option from Greek and Cyrillic to Latin, tailored to the interface language, respectively from Latin and Cyrillic to Greek on the interface in Greek.

Task 3 Produce an overview of existing subject systems and headings in use in the NMS national libraries Led by NUK (Maja Žumer) Deliverable completed and available on the Web

Task 4 Analyse cross-language access options in distributed databases Led by SNL (Patrice Landry), report available

Recommendations for improving subject access interoperability In EDL: Test a selection of cross-language approaches to subject data, including MACS, MSAC and CrissCross Investigate the feasibility of loading into the MACS system the Luxembourg subject headings (Laval English / French) and the Spanish subject headings (Spanish – English), and if feasible, load the data Provide an updated overview of recent European projects and initiatives that may have relevance to cross-language access to various types of collections.

Recommendations for improving subject access interoperability Additionally Test cross-language searching in the European Library using the 70’000 RAMEAU/LCSH links against data from British Library and Bibliothèque nationale de France Test large-scale linking (Sports and Theater – 1000 terms) Load MSAC data in to the European Library portal Incorporate more languages into the EL cross-language interface Use the MACS Link Management system (replicated as required) central source (clearinghouse) of mapping results between subject headings used in European national libraries (classifications and subject headings)

Testing automated mapping Investigate HILT, TermSciences and WebDewey as tools to speed up link creation [In TELplus, plans to test Stitch] Contact OCLC to investigate theirproject exploring new web-based services for dynamic mapping between subject authority lists http://www.oclc.org/research/projects/termservices/ Contact the MULIR project: “Our current Multi-Lingual Information Retrieval (MULIR) entry vocabulary index maps from English Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) to words and phrases in over 100 languages and vice versa. This prototype was created from over ten million records of the University of California MELVYL online library catalog.”

Task 5 Investigate approaches currently available to manage multiple authorities and the feasibility of incorporating one or more systems into The European Library and to produce a report Led by NUK (Maja Žumer), report available

Recommendations for improving interoperability across authorities In EDL: Extending the theoretical analysis of D3.5 of TEL-ME-MOR and building on projects such as LEAF, VIAF and ONESAC, design and test the feasibility of a name authority control tool, implemented by (automatically) clustering existing variant headings, thus enabling searching on any of possible names for a person, persona, corporate body or geographic name. Result: A prototype of common (name) authority tool.

Recommendations for improving interoperability across authorities Additionally: In co-operation with Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (data provider), draft a proposal for extension, cooperation and incorporation of the VIAF data into the European Library service. Send the authority questionnaire and the subject tools questionnaire to all European library partners with the goal to develop and maintain an overview of name authority and subject control across The European Library Contact CERL to enable testing of the applicability of their data - depending on the results, determine how and under what technical and financial conditions this data may be used in the European Library.

Recommendations for improving interoperability across authorities And: Reinforce contacts with search engines The importance of authority control is now being recognised also outside the library community. Developers of search engines have expressed interest in the existing developments in order to improve the quality of searching by names, which, as proven by research, is a widespread query type. So, it is recommended that the European Library office maintains and strengthens the contacts it has already initiated in this area with a view to promoting merged authority to developers and investigating revenue.

Workshop discussion/recommendations Set up a TEL subject access discussion list Continue tests in TEL /active participation of all partners Follow developments (standards, papers) Publicise our efforts Investigate links to MACS SHs Maintain mappings in autonomous files