The NISO Question/Answer Transaction Protocol (QATP) AVIAC January 2004 Donna Dinberg Library and Archives Canada Mark Needleman Sirsi Corporation

Agenda The Reference Environment & Network Models The NISO Committee Protocol Design Criteria Envisioned Usage Scenarios Protocol Messages Protocol Technologies Metadata Design Criteria Possible Metadata, Other Considerations Upcoming Activities

The Environment Libraries using digital reference to extend services and reach more users Reference services evolving, moving from art to science Cooperation and collaborative services growing: Ask Eric, Virtual Reference Canada, QuestionPoint, 24/7 Reference, Internet Public Library, others

Patron Reference Professional Regional Networks (state, National) Commercial services (Ask-A Services) Subject Based Networks (law, medical) Your group reference Networks (branches, consortial) Global A Cooperative Model Your library reference staff

Regional Networks (state, National) Commercial services (Ask-A Services) Subject Based Networks (law, medical) Your group reference Networks (branches, consortial) Global A Networked Reference Model

Background Question Interchange Profile (QuIP) Proposal to NISO NISO-sponsored meeting April 2001 to explore areas for standardization NISO AZ Committee on Networked Reference Services established December 2001

Committee Charge Develop question processing transaction protocol to support: Processing and routing of questions and responses Packaging of other information to be exchanged Cross domain exchange Develop metadata element sets to identify and describe key components of: Question and answer metadata Profiling metadata (institutional and personal data) Conduct experimentation and/or research in both areas to test the proposed standard Develop implementation guidelines & recommended best practices

Involved Parties Libraries and librarians Reference service providers Reference software and management providers Integrated library system providers Database and information systems Other providers of community services Tutoring programs Research services

Protocol Design Criteria Client/Server Design Transaction based - transaction consists of one or more messages Interaction is between 2 independent systems (although nothing precludes use inside a single system) Must support a wide range of application areas Protocol does not speak to interactions with end user Automate the question/answer process but recognize actual answers will be provided by people

Usage Scenarios Subset of actual use cases being presented Various scenarios are presented as being logically separate - in reality, they could be combined in multiple ways

Scenarios Simple Question/Answer Multipart Question Multipart Answer Clarifications Constraints Status reporting Suspend Resume Cancellation

Scenarios (2) Failures Timeouts Forwarding Conversations Patron Redirect References to Archived Transactions

Current Protocol Messages Question Answer Request Clarification.... Clarification Constraint Constraint Reply Request Progress Progress Reply Report Status Error Memo Other client initiated server initiated client initiated client or server initiated client initiated server initiated client or server initiated

Protocol Technology Encoding XML Transports SOAP over HTTP/HTTPS SOAP over SMTP Other technologies may be defined in the future

Metadata Design Criteria Able to be used independent of Protocol Extensible where appropriate -- We don’t know what we don’t know Flexible -- Provide facilities or services to carry service-specific information Simple core data

Metadata Bundles Protocol Metadata Content Metadata Profile Metadata

Possible Metadata Demographic information about the user Information about the user’s library Information about the question and the context in which it was asked Information about the types of resources desired in the answer Information about services desired Metadata for describing various constraints

Other Considerations Needs in the community, e.g., directory services Interaction with other protocols and standards NCIP, OpenURL, Z39.50, ILL, others? Additional models Fee-based services (e-commerce) Local systems Knowledge bases Measuring user satisfaction Legal considerations: privacy, copyright, jurisdictional law Global considerations: language, cultural and national relevancy

Upcoming Activities Public review of Committee Documents Publicity and Community Feedback Initial Experiments Among Existing Systems NISO Draft Standard for Trial Use Final Standardization

Committee Documents Overview Use Cases Functional Model Protocol Specification Metadata Specification Available at: