Portal-to-portal : joining up content to decrease the time spent clicking as distinguished from the time spent working Michael Fraser Research Technologies Service University of Oxford

What is a 'portal'? Provides a framework for –Retrieving, aggregating (and integrating) information From distributed remote services –Presenting information according to user preferences “Building portals is not about creating new content. It is less about developing functionality than it is about building a coherent presentation of existing content and applications tailored to specific users.”

Essentials of a portal Provides an integrated view (“pocket guide”) to the information resources of an institution or community –For students, teachers, researchers, academic- support, alumni… –From information exposed by universities and their parts, academic services, publishers, professional bodies...

And what a portal is not Not –Content creation/management system –Replacement for existing processes A portal is only as good as its content The content is only as good as the processes to create/retrieve/manage it Developing a portal may result in changing processes but it is not an aim

Evolution of Portal Types Web page Portal Gateway Portal Cross- searching Portal Library Portal Institutional Portal Portal-to-Portal Portal ?

Web Page Portal

Gateway Portal

Gateway-to-Digital Library Portal

Cross-searching Portal

Library Portal

Institutional Portal

Summary of functionality Access management News, alerting and updating Cross-searching Linking Personalisation

Access Management Single Web Access Point Common functionality for disparate resources Complexities of user/resource access management –Manage Local and Remote Users –Access Local and Remote Resources

Access Management System Manage the Agreements Previously Established –Institutions & Resource Providers –Ensure Authentication of Users –Grant Authorisation to Protected Resources

Subject Portals Project JISC-funded 2 year project led by UK Resource Discovery Network (Biome, Eevl, Humbul, Sosig and Psigate) with UKOLN (Bath) and ILRT (Bristol) Aims to develop portal functionality to enable RDN hubs to present a subject- based view of national academic collections etc. Phase one ended August 2003 Phase two until Sept 2004

Rationale Multiple distributed digital resources Desire for greater simplicity –PORTAL Project (Hull) survey: “Search across your favourite library resources or websites: Scoring a total of 217 points, the ability to search across your favourite resources was the highest rated feature for survey participants taken as a whole.” (p.16) Convergence of standards and portal types

Subject Portals Architecture

Subject Portals Project Demonstrator

The cross-search screen

The search results screen

Saved records and full record view

Searchable newsfeeds

Choosing portlets and customising the layout

Initial user feedback “Excellent research facility once one has decoded the ways into it. The screen is too cluttered for a computer-illiterate person (like me!) – too much information makes the actual process of searching too complex, although the results are excellent.” “Gives access to a range of resources and spares students the time of searching a range of different portals. Saving of resources and printing very easy and clear.” “I would use it if it was much clearer and obvious where I could find resources relating to my research. Presently I would search under HUMBUL because this is the only resource I know. More has to be done to familiarise students with the other collections so they know where these would be of some use.” “I really wasn’t sure what portal meant before I came but now I think I understand it better. A doorway to other resources? It certainly meets that.”

Standards for interoperability Functionality –Access management Pluggable authentication module LDAP (EduPerson) –Alerting RSS newsfeeds –Cross-searching Dublin Core Metadata Z39.50 (Bath Profile) Open Archives Initiative –Linking OpenURL Framework JSR 168 Portlet Specification Web Services for remote portlets (WSRP) Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) XML/XSLT Avoid locking content into black boxes

Observations More user consultation! Issues with searching disparate resources –Compare and contrast Google – OPAC – texts – images – Humbul... Standards only work if... Open Source licensing Challenge of user interfaces –clarity; subject-based; personal user has a role in a group Content negotiation and management

The joined-up future? The JISC Information Environment Technical Architecture Diagram courtesy of Andy Powell, 2003

Michael Fraser Research Technologies Service University of Oxford