UKOLN and the Interoperability Focus Paul Miller Interoperability Focus

23 April Synopsis UKOLN –the United Kingdom Office for Library & Information Networking Setting the Scene –problems, potentials, and a glance over the horizon Building Solutions –Interoperability Focus Close–up on one solution –The Dublin Core

23 April UKOLN The UK Office for Library & Information Networking –funded by Library & Information Commission (LIC) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding Councils –receives additional project–based funding from the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib), the European Commission and others –advocates UK interests in a wide range of contexts, and involved at the local level in New Library, NGfL, UfI, etc.

23 April UKOLN Staff interests include; –distributed library issues –cataloguing –public libraries –standardisation –the World Wide Web –UK Web Focus –convergence between libraries and related information sources –electronic publication –Ariadne –Exploit Interactive –‘metadata’.

23 April UKOLN For more information on UKOLN, visit

23 April Defining some problems Resource description communities the Web explosion the emancipation of resource But why can’t I find what I’m looking for?

23 April Resource Description Communities A resource description community is characterized by agreement on common semantic, structural, and syntactic conventions for exchange of resource description information. Libraries MARCAACR2 But what if I want to search across more than one community?

23 April A little language... Semantics Structure Syntax “Let’s talk English” Standardisation of content Standardisation of form “Here’s how to make a sentence” Standardisation of expression “These are the rules of grammar” “cat milk sat drank mat ” “Cat sat on mat. Drank milk.” “The cat sat on the mat. It drank some milk.”

23 April The Web Explosion Two million web sites Half a billion addressable pages High consumer expectations, versus primitive tools and infrastructure Uncertainty over quality, trust and integrity. But why can’t I find what I want?

23 April Emancipation of resource Corporate data are being released Museum catalogues are going online Library OPACs are available over the Web A wealth of surrogates are becoming available to all Governments are unlocking doors. But Alta Vista only sees a query screen...

23 April But I don’t want just a library book, or a web page, or a museum object. I want information about Hull, or the World Cup, or Post–Impressionist Art, or whether it will rain today.

23 April The road to solutions Distributed searching ‘Metadata’ Consensus and co–operation Standards, standards everywhere.

23 April What is ‘Metadata’? –meaningless jargon –or a fashionable term for what we’ve always done –or “a means of turning data into information” –and “data about data” –and the name of a film director (‘Luc Besson’) –and the title of a book (‘The Lord of the Flies’).

23 April What is ‘Metadata’? Metadata exists for almost anything; People Places Objects Concepts Web pages Databases.

23 April What is ‘Metadata’? Metadata fulfils three main functions; Description of resource content –“What is it?” Description of resource form –“How is it constructed?” Description of resource use –“Can I afford it?”.

23 April Standards abound MICI

23 April Challenges  Many flavours of metadata  which one do I use?  Managing change  new varieties, and evolution of existing forms  Tension between functionality and simplicity, extensibility and interoperability Functions, features, and cool stuff Simplicity and interoperability Opportunities

23 April Introducing Interoperability Focus Focus upon enabling interoperability between resources in: libraries archives the cultural heritage sector etc.

23 April Introducing Interoperability Focus By: disseminating best practice participating in relevant global standards development initiatives encouraging/ facilitating cross–walks and cross–project communication representing UK interests internationally raising awareness of interoperability’s benefits to users, creators & holders.

23 April Interoperability What…? Not the most transparent job title in the world, now is it…? Searching for a ‘strap line’ to explain it. JISC suggestion… “Interoperability Focus: making sure the drains run downhill”

23 April Introducing the Dublin Core An attempt to improve resource discovery on the Web –now adopted more broadly Building an interdisciplinary consensus about a core element set for resource discovery –simple and intuitive –cross–disciplinary –international –flexible.

23 April elements of descriptive metadata All elements optional All elements repeatable The whole is extensible –offers a starting point for semantically richer descriptions Interdisciplinary –libraries, museums, archives… International –available in 20 languages, with more on the way... Introducing the Dublin Core

23 April Title Creator Subject Description Publisher Contributor Date Type Format Identifier Source Language Relation Coverage Rights Introducing the Dublin Core

23 April Modular extensibility… –additional elements to support local needs –complementary packages of metadata …but only if we get the building blocks right Extending the Dublin Core Description Archival Management Terms & Conditions Based on a slide by Stu Weibel

23 April Implemented by the Australian and assorted Nordic governments Used or mentioned by the majority of new projects Rapidly approaching CEN and NISO accreditation Expressable in HTML, RDF, local databases… A powerful ‘switching mechanism’ for diverse resources. Dublin Core today

23 April The end…? Increasing quantities of data are becoming available Structures need to evolve to turn them into information in a form that users actually want Interoperability Focus is part of the (slow!) process whereby old standards can converge and new standards can emerge to enable user interaction with data in as seamless and friendly a fashion as possible.