April 2005 Resource Discovery tools for VLEs 1 Presenter: Eddie Clarke, Learning Development, Staffordshire University DICE projectDICE project Presentation attempts to address the following questions: 1. What are resource discovery tools and why are they useful? 2. What kind of resources are available / can be discovered? 3. What resource discovery tools? (Google Scholar, Other commercial and Open. Source solutions and services)? 4. How is this relevant for WebCT (or any VLE) users / practitioners? 5. Are such tools useful beyond simple resource discovery (e.g. in saving and. searching of results)? 6. Why am I telling you all this? (bigger picture / evaluation)

April 2005 Resource Discovery tools for VLEs 2 1. What are resource discovery tools and why are they useful? ‘What are..’ - electronic, often web based, means to identify (poss. acquire). resources relevant to learning. maybe best illustrated / answered by next.. question Any project / study requires some appreciation of the existing knowledge base There are advantages and disadvantages in using the web compared with. traditional means (pressures on libraries / budgets with expansion of. knowledge base). And how are they different They might be different in lots of ways, but one consideration relates to open. source or freely available services v commercial systems ( and e.g. how OS.. tools can be adapted to provide bespoke features)

April 2005 Resource Discovery tools for VLEs 3 2. What kind of resources are available / can be discovered? Tools can be configured to search different targets or multiple targets or even the whole web. Note: not all resources (‘results’) can be accessed via the web ** - Physical resources (Books, CDs, Journal ) Title / Author / Journal (and other limited metadata / descriptors. Shelf n. number? Depending on system and protocol used in sending search query) Abstracts // Full Text // E-resources // multimedia But with standard protocols ( e.g. z39.50) searches can be conducted across a wide range of targets c.f. OPAC Most tools are easy to use, or at least have a simple interface ** But useful to know they exist nevertheless, even if one doesn’t order via inter-library loan

April 2005 Resource Discovery tools for VLEs 4 3. What resource discovery tools? (Google Scholar, Other commercial and open. source solutions)? Commercial solutions (may include link resolvers) are expensive (Staffs Uni are investing in a solution from Metalib / SFX ). You can test / access (affordable solutions) through our uPortal installation or separately via and if you are really keen. you need an Athens account to use the GetRef service. Note: There are access and authentication issues for some resources.

April 2005 Resource Discovery tools for VLEs 5 4. How is this relevant for WebCT (or any VLE) users / practitioners? Adds value to the system. Discovery tools can be embedded as other tools or accessed simply via a hyperlink.. but be concious of what embedded might mean ( ? the saving and searching of results) Work on embedding resource discovery tools in WebCT Credit: Phil Barker, Santiago ICBL, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh See link Bolton’s WebCT (my account)WebCT and Boon Low’s discovery includes ref to webCT widget

April 2005 Resource Discovery tools for VLEs 6 5. Are such tools useful beyond simple resource discovery (e.g. in saving and. searching of results)? Results can be saved in different formats. Sent by or saved to local drive. Standards may apply to these formats. Results may be in XML (for data independence, first step toward interoperability*) Metadata is a big turn off for most people – need to shield users from complexity by using simple free text search, but also to educate users in appropriate use of metadata – because it is the only (systematic) means to differentiate quality of information (results) Searching for results saved to a system is a big job (!) – we are looking into using Google mini search engine * Metadata standards may apply and there are new specifications for Reading Lists. Also relevant here is work from another recent JISC project we have been engaged in SURF X4L, looking at content exchange and how content interoperability may be achieved or not !

April 2005 Resource Discovery tools for VLEs 7 6. Why am I telling you all this? (bigger picture / evaluation) Web Services - Resource discovery tools are just one of a host of web services* which could be plugged into your VLE (or other VLEs **) Service oriented architectures – the next generation Web (Berners-Lee) ** available soon ** we have a particuilar interest in plugging into COSE VLE, another aspect of DICE project Evaluation of D+ toolkit – why we are interested in views from the FE sector (Our experience working with Shrewsbury College and Stoke College within SURF. Universities likely to opt for more spohistcated commercial solutions Funding available: £3000 ~ £50 per tutor / learning technologist ~ 2 hours work. For students ~ £30.

April 2005 Resource Discovery tools for VLEs 9 Presenter: Eddie Clarke, Learning Development, Staffordshire University DICE project Specific evaluation questions / use cases identified HW) Please focus replies on the d plus toolkit and scholar but look at the getref service if only for 20 – 30 minutes (say so if you cannot access). 1. are resource discovery tools useful esp. embedded in VLE ? 2. are such tools useful in saving / searching for saved results ? 3. what are the best / worst features of those you have seen / have. experience of ? 4. issues relating to metadata / descriptors can mostly be made transparent. to the user. would this be nevertheless be a problem for you ?

April 2005 Resource Discovery tools for VLEs 8 Presenter: Eddie Clarke, Learning Development, Staffordshire University DICE project We aaddressed the following questions: 1. What are resource discovery tools and why are they useful? 2. What kind of resources are available / can be discovered?RATIONALE 3. What resource discovery tools? (Google Scholar, Other commercial and open. source solutions)? DEMOS 4. How is this relevant for WebCT (or any VLE) users / practitioners? EXEMPLAR 5. Are such tools useful beyond simple resource discovery (e.g. in saving and. searching of results)?TOOLS PLUS 6. Why am I telling you all this? (bigger picture / evaluation) HOW YOU CAN HELP / FOLLOW UP