Web Services at Warringah Library

Web ServicesCarol Yuen & Laurence McDonnell

• Introduction• Funding for the project

www.wls.nsw.gov.au

Web Services

Web Services

Databases

• Online Database usage is increasing across NSW. After decreasing across the state between 2007-2010, it went up in 2010-2011. This was driven by about a quarter of NSW Public Libraries. To quote Ross, 25 NSW Libraries drive 68% of NSW.net database traffic.

• A major part of this is in Website Design.

• 4 years ago, Warringah had set up it’s first website, and our aims were to increase online database use and increase membership.

• 3 years ago we purchased the Webfeat federated search

Databases

2010/2011 Database Stats

ANZRC (searches) Master File P Consumer Health Science Reference C Literary Reference Novelist +

1 WARRINGAH @ 41100 WARRINGAH @ 40070 WARRINGAH @ 9066 BANKSTOWN SUTHERLAND PARRAMATTA

2 HORNSBY HORNSBY BANKSTOWN SUTHERLAND HORNSBY BANKSTOWN

3 BAULKHAM HILLS BANKSTOWN HORNSBY HORNSBY BANKSTOWN MOSMAN

4 SUTHERLAND SUTHERLAND WOOLAHRA RANDWICK RANDWICK SUTHERLAND

5 BLACKTOWN WOOLLAHRA BLACKTOWN CITY OF SYDNEY WOOLHARA WOOLAHRA

2009/2010 Database Stats

ANZRC (searches) Master File P Consumer Health Science Reference C Literary Reference Novelist

1 HORNSBY HORNSBY WOLLONGONG WOLLONGONG HORNSBY WOLLONGONG

2 WOLLONGONG WARRINGAH @ 1574 HORNSBY HORNSBY WOLLONGONG HORNSBY

3 LAKE MACQUARIE LAKE MACQUARIE BLACKTOWN MOSMAN WARRINGAH @ 879 WARRINGAH @ 1103

4 CITY OF SYDNEY SUTHERLAND WARRINGAH @ 594 BAULKHAM HILLS SUTHERLAND FAIRFIELD

5 BLACKTOWN COFFS HARBOUR GOSFORD WARRINGAH @1093 LAKE MACQUARIE SUTHERLAND

WARRINGAH 6TH @2279

2008/2009 Database Stats

ANZRC Master File P Consumer Health Science Reference C Literary Reference Novelist

1 WARRINGAH 3,294 WARRINGAH @ 2473 WOLLONGONG HORNSBY HORNSBY WOLLONGONG

2 HORNSBY HORNSBY WARRINGAH @ 686 WARRINGAH @ 2473 WARRINGAH @ 1777 NEWCASTLE

3 CITY SYDNEY LIVERPOOL GOSFORD WOLLONGONG BAULKHAM HILLS WYONG

4 BAULKHAM HILLS SUTHERLAND BLACKTOWN SUTHERLAND SUTHERLAND HORNSBY

5 WOLLONGONG WYONG WYONG BAULKHAM HILLS WOLLONGONG WARRINGAH @ 939

09/10 Why decreasing usage? • Laptops in schools?• Less training by me – more conducted 08/09?• Speed? – Databases / Federated Searching – was slow• Too Hard? (Teachers Federation Library)• Was there decreasing interest in Schools?

• Where has information/Database Literacy come up in NSW High Schools – Not specifically part of NSW curriculum

• Action Research (NSW) – Very Vague• All my own work (NSW) – Fitted in with anti-plagiarism – gave Citation

‘Training as opposed’ to ‘Database Training’.

New Australian Curriculum, years K-12 contain requirements to study Research Skills, including Library and Online Database Use.

2009/2010

Web Services

To simply access Library resources, we felt we needed to push all our resources through one

search box. Warringah attempted this with Web Feat, a federated search engine prior to Ebsco’s

EHIS, but upgraded in May to a web service based catalogue.

• Web services are typically application programming interfaces (API) or Web APIs that are accessed via HTTP and executed on a remote system hosting the requested services.

• Basically – Web Services are publicly available metadata for remote databases.

• All database/LMS providers use different terms – Web Services, Discovery Services, Search and Discovery Layer, Open URL Authentication, Open API.

• With LMS upgrade, will allow integration of databases into the catalogue.

What are Web Services?

WSDL - Web Services Description Language

SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol

Encore – The pitch

• Encore creates an entirely new user experience of your library. It makes finding as easy as searching, leverages Web 2.0 technologies and practices, and delivers a complete discovery-to-delivery solution that is appealing, sophisticated, and just plain fun!

Implementing Encore

• Testing• Frustrations – rankings, tags

• And then…• Encore 4.1• Cobolt skin

See the difference – from this

To this

The Future

All LMS providers are upgrading

(Civica/Spydus – Bliss, Libero – LiberoUno, Millenium – Encore, Amlib–World Cat Local, Sersi Dynix - Enterprise)

WorldCat Local

Summons

Primo

Enterprise

In Conclusion

• To get it all together, you need: 1. The web/discovery service.2. Facets that effectively plug in to your catalogue

(vital!).3. Proxy Server.

• Big questions for LMS providers are:1. Can I check what databases you provide web services

for? 2. Where do facets draw information from? 3. Can I integrate my own databases (images, LINCS, etc)

Thank you