A centre of expertise in digital information management UKOLN is supported by: What's Wrong With Today's Web? Emma Tonkin, Rosemary Russell Interoperability Focus, UKOLN

A centre of expertise in digital information management Contents About UKOLN What's Wrong with the Web? Reusability and standards Some handy technologies Solutions and best practices Questions and discussion

A centre of expertise in digital information management About UKOLN Core funding from MLA and JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) Cross-sectoral remit Our audiences include: –HE/FE (L&T, research, admin) –Cultural heritage (museums, public libraries, archives) –National libraries (British library) –e-government –NHS/Health sector –International digital library research community About 30 staff Mix of technical support and development, advisory and research capabilities Based at University of Bath

A centre of expertise in digital information management About Interoperability Focus Funded by MLA & JISC Since 1999 Cross-sectoral remit 4 staff Activities include Standards work Brokerage Support & advice Dissemination About UKOLN

A centre of expertise in digital information management What's wrong with the Web? Depends on your perspective, but... Finding what you want –Overload – Google –Relevance –Provenance –Quality-Assurance Accessing resources –Accessibility –Usability –Legislation IP issues: licensing Lost resources, broken links Support Reusability –Learning objects, data, articles, images, programs –Interoperability using common standards and protocols

A centre of expertise in digital information management Reusability Change in attitudes Focus on creating static product –Maintenance problems: Broken links, changing technologies High costs New focus: reusable products 'Replacable' technologies Interoperability becomes vital

A centre of expertise in digital information management Masterpiece...

A centre of expertise in digital information management Reuse... Misguided Masterpieces: Mona Lisa Design by George Castaldo “Smile” and “teeth” by Guido Poggi

A centre of expertise in digital information management Difficulties of reuse, maintenance Required: standards for –Storing information –Accessing information –Accessing functionality......maintaining order! Good standards often deceptively simple

A centre of expertise in digital information management XML and Web services Based on HTTP (Web) and XML, the eXtensible Markup Language – a flexible basis for standard information formats Web services: “A standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using open standards over an Internet protocol backbone”

A centre of expertise in digital information management XML, data, information Humans are good at interpretation, inference –eg. +44 (0) Computers need more help Data with XML is self-describing –Data plus surrounding structure You may also hear of XSD –XML Schema Definition: describes XML structures (so you don't have to guess).

A centre of expertise in digital information management XML example: RSS Uses XML to define a list of items: University of Bath Noticeboard A Web notice board for staff and students at the University. Book(s) for sale: 'Intermediate Microeconomics For sale: R reg 1.9 TD Volvo V40 estate

A centre of expertise in digital information management Web page displaying RSS

A centre of expertise in digital information management Creative uses of RSS feeds News feeds from web sites, blogs, content providers Publish your bookmark list Alternative interfaces: Bookmarks

A centre of expertise in digital information management Data and presentation XML/XSL vs (X)HTML Example: OSS Watch –Page content in XML, rendered with XSLT stylesheets to: Standard HTML layout Single page HTML for printing Simple text PDF

A centre of expertise in digital information management

A centre of expertise in digital information management Web Services Suite of standards + best practices Machine (m2m/b2b) interfaces between functional components on the Web Can be used for informational and transactional services Communicate using XML (and a protocol such as SOAP) Interface/functionality described,(WSDL), and published

A centre of expertise in digital information management Example: The Google API Able to: –Perform searches and return results in XML –Get cached copy of page –Spell-check (“did you mean?”)

A centre of expertise in digital information management RDN/Google spellchecker

A centre of expertise in digital information management How does it work?

A centre of expertise in digital information management Not just for Web pages Integration with –desktop software Research pane in MS Word –Client-side Web applications Flash, Java/.Net applets –Internet applications: Weather forecast, phonebook, TV guide...

A centre of expertise in digital information management Office 2003 Research Library service (MSDN) /library/en-us/dnofftalk/Html/office asp Query Google web API from Research pane –Search from within Office –Written in C# or VB.net

A centre of expertise in digital information management Searching Google in Flash eg.

A centre of expertise in digital information management Aside: metadata, Dublin Core Metadata: data about data; information for cataloguing (for the Web…) Simple Dublin Core –15 elements –e.g. Title, publisher, creator, description, identifier

A centre of expertise in digital information management Lost files, broken links Using a library... –Physical addresses 2 nd book, 5 th shelf, 1 st floor, Bath –Representative addresses ('in section') –Redirects ('look up ISBN in catalogue') –Books available from several locations...as with the Web –URLs, redirects, mirrors

A centre of expertise in digital information management Traditional linking Link source Link destination hardwired link

A centre of expertise in digital information management OpenURL style linking Link source One of many possible destinations Metadata and identifiers OpenURL resolver Chooses document delivery service (based on contextual information)

A centre of expertise in digital information management PURLs Persistent Uniform Resource Locator Traditional URLs point to location: – PURLS point to an intermediate resolution service protocol server filename

A centre of expertise in digital information management OpenURL “Providing access to an appropriate copy of a full-text article” Defines article by means of metadata: –issn=, date=, volume=, issue=, spage= URL sent to link resolver –Resolver uses metadata to identify article –Chooses appropriate target

A centre of expertise in digital information management DOI: Digital Object Identifier “A system for identifying and exchanging intellectual property in the digital environment” A DOI is a unique ID controlled by a DOI registration agency, referring to a digital object Each DOI may be resolved to data associated with that digital object, eg. summary, article text...

A centre of expertise in digital information management Improved resource discovery Two approaches to searching multiple databases: –Cross-searching (Z39.50, SRW) Inefficient on a large scale –Harvesting metadata centrally Efficient but requires agreed transport protocols, metadata formats, quality control and intellectual property/usage rights Result: OAI-PMH (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting)

A centre of expertise in digital information management OAI-PMH in a nutshell Data providers' records harvested by central service provider Records may be articles, images, learning objects, descriptions of museum artifacts... OAI is based around standards: –HTTP, XML, Dublin Core metadata Once metadata centrally available, search efficiency improves

A centre of expertise in digital information management Z39.50 made easy: SRW! –Z39.50 – still not adopted on large scale –SRW - ‘low-barrier-to-entry solution’ more easily implemented retains many important aspects of Z39.50 (eg rich semantics developed over many years XML based carried via SOAP or in a URL (SRU)

A centre of expertise in digital information management Exposing information Data providers can use both OAI and Z39.50/SRW OAI is used for metasearch engines to harvest records (to avoid slow cross- searching) SRW provides Web-based search capability for individual or metasearch hubs

A centre of expertise in digital information management Exposing information: portals Study at Loughborough University: use of library databases rose by 609% after implementation of cross-search tool But don’t want to cross-search everything Subject portals ‘Portlets’ – functional modules (reuse within other portals)

A centre of expertise in digital information management

A centre of expertise in digital information management Best practices – what you can do tomorrow Publish content as RSS/XML eg. news Make data accessible via OAI-PMH, Z39.50/SRW Encourage community participation, publicise resources Provide and use web services Consider robust linking solutions Stick to standards!

A centre of expertise in digital information management Questions... Any questions?