Introduction to the Information Environment Service Registry Amanda Hill MIMAS, The University of Manchester, UK

CNI Spring Context Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) provides ICT infrastructure and advice for United Kingdom universities and colleges –Funds a large number of projects, as well as electronic collections for the research, learning and teaching communities

CNI Spring Current digital landscape …a vast and sometimes bewildering range of potential sources of electronic information. Little wonder, then, that many users remain unaware of their existence or fail to discover their value for their own learning, teaching or research. Investing in the Future: Developing an Online Information Environment

CNI Spring JISC Information Environment aims to make it easier for the user to find relevant information and learning resources will enable presentation, delivery and use of online resources in ways tailored to support individual and institutional requirements in learning, teaching and research

CNI Spring IE Technical Model

CNI Spring Shared Services To enable portals and other services to deliver diverse digital resources, machine- readable information about services, content, rights and users is required to act as the “glue” between portals and the content itself. Investing in the Future: Developing an Online Information Environment

CNI Spring Shared Services To enable portals and other services to deliver diverse digital resources, machine- readable information about services, content, rights and users is required to act as the “glue” between portals and the content itself.

CNI Spring IESR A registry of the electronic resources available within the JISC’s Information Environment Contains information about: –the resources themselves –how to access the resources –the resource provider(s) Is accessible by other applications via machine-to-machine interfaces

CNI Spring Project history Partners –MIMAS, University of Manchester –UKOLN, University of Bath –Cheshire Development Team, University of Liverpool Funded by JISC in three phases since November 2002 Current phase started 1 March 2005

CNI Spring Collections 259 resources currently described, submitted by: –AHDS –Edina –MIMAS –Resource Discovery Network –UK Data Archive –UK Mirror Service (now the JISC National Mirror Service) In current phase, we will be expanding our content to encompass non-JISC service providers: e.g. –institutional resources (digital repositories, OPACs) –resources of other UK Common Information Environment partners (National Archives, British Library, National Health Service, BBC)

IESR Metadata and Services Ann Apps MIMAS, The University of Manchester, UK

CNI Spring Outline IESR content description IESR services Using IESR

CNI Spring IESR Content Descriptions of: –Collections of resources –Informational Services that provide access –Agents: Owners / Administrators –Transactional Services Supplied by resource providers Check by IESR content manager

CNI Spring IESR Entities Collection ServiceAgent administers owns provides access

CNI Spring IESR Entity Description Entities identified with URI Described by metadata Based on open standards IESR terms defined in IESR namespace Metadata defined by Application Profile –Semantics –Occurrence –Searchable

CNI Spring IESR Collection Metadata Based on RSLP Collection Description Simplification for electronic resources Consistent with DCMI Collection Description Application Profile Links to other entities: –hasService: Service –Owner: Agent

CNI Spring Vocabulary Encoding Schemes Defined in Application Profile Single backbone subject scheme –Dewey Other common vocabularies supported iesr:usesControlledList –IESR defined list (extensible) –terminology service; item level search

CNI Spring

CNI Spring IESR Service Metadata More than RSLP CD ‘locator’ Bespoke IESR scheme, uses open standards Single access method: –Z39.50, SOAP, OAI-PMH, Web/CGI Location URL Interface property for some service types Links to other entities –serves: Collection –Administrator: Agent

CNI Spring

CNI Spring

CNI Spring Other Service types SOAP: –Locator: access URL –Interface: WSDL OAI-PMH: –Locator: BaseURL –Interrogate service (Identify) for details Web CGI: Interface: IESR Keys Web page: Locator: URL

CNI Spring IESR Agent Metadata Agent name Agent description Contact details and URL Links to other entities –owns: Collection –administers: Service

CNI Spring IESR Administrative Metadata Included with every entity Data suppliers can include: –creator / contributor, creation dates, source IESR includes: –creating organisation, publisher: IESR –latest modification date –rights to reuse descriptions

CNI Spring IESR Creative Commons Licence All IESR records licensed under a Creative Commons licence: –Non-commercial (freely available) –Share-alike (maintain same licence) –Attribution-required (attribute provenance) Suppliers agree to this licence

CNI Spring IESR Services Z39.50 –Bib-1 –SUTRS; XML OAI-PMH (soon) Web Services SOAP (planned) –SRW; NISO VIEWS RSS (later) UDDI (under investigation) Web Search and Browse

CNI Spring Z39.50: IESR XML Composite Collection record: –Collection –All services that provide access –All agents: Owners of collection Administrators of services Composite Transactional Service record: –Service and all administrator agents

CNI Spring Using IESR Portal (amalgamated set of resources) –Metasearch on behalf of user Portal builder doesn’t need to know about resources Users discover collections unaware of –Harvest IESR records Local service registry Knowledgebase (convert to appropriate format) Local configuration file –Link to Web Search - general resource discovery RSS Aggregator: news feeds; new data alerts Reuse collection description

CNI Spring IESR Details Specifications: Application Profile: XML Schema: Web Search IESR: IESR Z39.50 service: IESR Helpline service: Ann Apps: