Collection-level description: from theory to practice Minerva project meeting Paris, 24 January 2003

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Collection-level description from theory to
practiceMinerva project meeting Paris, 24
January 2003

• Pete Johnston
• UKOLN, University of Bath
• Bath, BA2 7AY

Email p.johnston_at_ukoln.ac.uk URL http//www.ukoln.
ac.uk/
UKOLN is supported by
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CLD from theory to practice

• Collection Description Focus
• Why collection-level description?
• resource discovery
• resource management
• Some recent CLD initiatives

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Collection Description Focus

• Improve consistency, compatibility of approaches
  to collection-level description
• Funded by
• British Library
• Research Libraries Programme (RSLP)
• enhanced access to/improved management of
  (library/archive) collections for academic
  researchers
• Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
• integrated access to distributed digital
  resources for Higher/Further Education community
• Resource libraries/museums/archives
• disclosure, access and management
• cross-domain collaboration

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Collection Description Focus

• Based at UKOLN, University of Bath
• Experience of RSLP Collection Description project
  (1999-2000)
• model (Michael Heaney) and schema (Andy Powell)
• Benefit from collaboration with
• Interoperability Focus
• JISC Information Environment architecture team
• NOF-Digitise Technical Advisory Service

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Collection Description Focus

• Developing consensus
• Gathering information
• Building a community
• Facilitating dialogue
• Disseminating good practice
• Organising events
• workshops, briefing days
• Giving presentations
• Publishing articles and papers
• Developing training resources
• recommendations, guidelines

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Collection Description Focus

• Supporting implementers
• point of contact, advice
• support for CLD in programmes
• Providing tools
• mappings
• Maintaining links with related activity
• funders have (primarily) UK focus
• CIMI (museums), DCMI, Minerva etc

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Why collection-level description?

• Enable collection provider to
• disclose information about collections to users
• Enable user to
• discover/locate collections
• select collections to explore/search on basis of
  summary description
• compare collections as broadly similar objects
  (even where items heterogeneous)
• understand conditions of access use
• interpret collections
• Enable software agents to
• select collections to search on behalf of user
• control searches across multiple collections

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CLDs provide high-level map of landscape for
user, researcher, visitor.
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Why collection-level description?

• Enable collection provider to
• manage own collections
• control/audit/review holdings internally
• identify collections at risk
• assess priorities for item-level cataloguing
• manage in collaboration with other providers
• identify, record, share information on strengths
  and weaknesses
• suggest areas where co-ordination possible
• inform strategic planning
• institutional, cross-institutional, regional,
  sectoral, national, .

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NOF-digtise programme

• NOF-Digitise
• making heritage (more) accessible
• 50m content creation programme
• supporting strategy for social inclusion,
  lifelong learning
• digitised objects, learning materials
• Portal
• CLD as overview, entry point
• subset of RSLP CD schema
• controlled vocabularies
• CLD reusable in other services

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The JISC Information Environment

• JISC seeking to provide more seamless discovery /
  access
• Distributed resources, heterogeneous items
• The portal problem
• Portal constructs a landscape of resources for
  user
• Needs to find/identify relevant content
  collections
• What digital collections are available?
• Needs to access metadata records through
  appropriate structured network service
• What network services available for collection?
• What interface/protocol used by service?
• What instance-specific parameters?

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The JISC IE service registry

• Service registry as part of framework of
  machine-oriented services
• Database of
• Collection-level descriptions
• Service descriptions
• informational services access to collections
• transactional services e.g.authentication,
  resolution services, terminology mapping, schema
  mapping etc
• Primarily for use by software tools (e.g.
  portals, aggregators, brokers)

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The JISC IE service registry
The vision.
Authentication
Authorisation
End-user is automatically presented with
relevant resources through relevant channels)
Portal
End-user
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The JISC IE service registry

• Pilot project established at MIMAS, University of
  Manchester
• Fits with Web services paradigm, but (for pilot)
• informational services, but not transactional
  services
• probably no generic SOAP-based services
  described (will include SRW services)
• probably no UDDI interface
• Concerns about complexity

http//www.mimas.ac.uk/iesr/
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From theory to practice

• Emergence of useful services built on CLD
• Surveying the landscape
• CLD not a substitute for item-level description
• but a complement to item-level description
• RSLP model/schema proving useful basis
• Granularity issues
• What is (and is not) a collection?
• Collection/catalogue/service relationships
• Terminologies/vocabularies
• CLD and (re)use purpose, audience

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Acknowledgements

• UKOLN is funded by Resource the Council for
  Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint
  Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the UK
  higher and further education funding councils, as
  well as by project funding from the JISC and the
  European Union. UKOLN also receives support from
  the University of Bath where it is based.
• http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/

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COMING SOON!!!!

• Collection Description Focus
• 5th Regional Workshop
• 30th January 2003 at Hughes Hall, Cambridge
• Theme - User Requirements