Update on Xgrain Links with JOIN-UP Programme Peter Burnhill, Director, EDINA 31st January 2002

Context: JOIN-UP within DNER Distributed National Electronic Resource –Building the Information Architecture Infrastructure –Meeting user requirements to: discover -> locate -> request -> access (deliver) services on ‘information objects’ –DNER: Portals, Brokers, Service providers & Content –JISC 5/99 call for proposals JOIN-UP –cluster of JISC-funded development projects –building infrastructure for services relating to serials –‘joining-up’ to meet user requirements to: discover -> locate -> request -> access (deliver) serial services, eg journal articles and similar information objects

Context: Xgrain within JOIN-UP JOIN-UP: four projects in 3-year programmatic activity –two initially envisaged as end-to-end solutions: Docusend: one-stop document delivery service zetoc: alerting service on BL’s Electronic Table of Contents –two as functional components Xgrain: cross-searching A&I and TOC databases ZBLSA: services on serials and articles Xgrain puts focus on the ‘discover’ function –discovering references to journal articles and the like by ‘shallow’ cross-searching –providing both direct end-user service, and for ‘presentation’ by DNER Portals

ZBLSA broker for locating services on journal articles –for DNER portals and their users –allows portals to focus on presentation & user interface issues offers linkage between references found in discovery databases –such as Abstracting and Indexing (A & I) databases and Table of Contents databases and services on full-text material –in printed or electronic form –for ‘prior rights’ and ‘pay as you go’

Essentials of ZBLSA Locate Broker = functional (b2b) + technical (m2m) b2b: business to business –supports DNER Portals & serial service providers –key is business-neutral ‘rights evaluation scheme’ m2m: machine to machine –messaging by agreed protocols –broker with client-side & server-side interface business-neutral & ‘lightweight’ –rights evaluation, not authentication/authorisation –messaging, not transaction management

ZBLSA design / architecture Client-side: DNER Portal –ZBLSA receives two-part message from Portal + –uses profiling mechanism to identify institution’s preferred suppliers (and OPAC etc.) –ZBLSA returns ‘link-to’ offers to Portal Server-side: Provider(s) of Serial Services –ZBLSA issues enquiry (ZBLSA rights evaluation) to determine which service would supply a specific article if requested by member of given institution

Project ZBLSA lightweight broker for services on articles ZBLSA Phase I (January December 2001) –one-year scoping study & prototyping phase ZBLSA Phase II 1. Development & Set-up (Jan. to May 2002) 2. Field test (April to July 2002) 3. Evaluation of Service (August 2002 to July 2003) 4. Service monitoring AY 2002/2003: the ‘evaluation test service’ year EDINA with RDNC & UKOLN as Associates

Joined-Up Scenarios: m2m Portals Locate broker Targets (Text Sources) Xgrain Local Inst. Subject RDN ZBLSA OPAC Aggregator/ Publisher Union List Document Delivery Service Reference to Journal Article Data Centre A&I SUNCAT

Discover - Locate - Request - Access: The Joined-Up View Portals: Projects: Rights: Medium: Geography: Text Sources: Desk top Local Inst. Subject RDN L&T Print Electronic Local Remote X-Grain ZBLSA DOCUSEND OPAC Aggregator/ Publisher Union List Document Delivery Service Subscriber Non-Subscriber Z.ETOC A&I Print

Xgrain One of four projects in JOIN-UP –‘discovery’ of references to journal articles, & like –supported by ZBLSA ‘locate’ broker –links to ZETOC & to Docusend & to SUNCAT Producing an easy-access, ‘must-use’ bibliographic tool for students and researchers Producing a tool to promote inclusion of ‘reference- searching’ in the curriculum

Xgrain ‘products’ 1. A simple, cross-search interface for end-users –cross-search of basic fields title, author, keywords, abstract –a ‘bear-trap’ to good behaviour (use of A&I) –‘google-like’, but with access to good range of features –easy transition to native increase A&I interface 2. A facility for ‘presentation’ by ‘portals’ 3. A prototype ‘Journals Portal’ for JOIN-UP

Xgrain Project combine ‘biblio’ JOIN-UP with L&T activities opportunity for ‘blue sky’ ‘what if’ thinking –what do you want? commitment to deliver a real set of services requires your help to realise all three