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Alberta Library Interface. OCLC SiteSearch Users Group Meeting 3 May 2000. Agenda. Consortium context: The Alberta Library Role of SiteSearch Virtual union catalogue Portal management system MyLibrary. Consortium Context. The Alberta Library (TAL) province-wide library consortium - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Alberta Library Interface
OCLC SiteSearch Users Group Meeting
3 May 2000
Agenda
• Consortium context: The Alberta Library
• Role of SiteSearch– Virtual union catalogue– Portal management system– MyLibrary
• The Alberta Library (TAL)– province-wide library consortium– umbrella organization for …
• Knowledge Network (KN)– provincial organization of post-secondary
libraries
• APLEN (Alberta Public Library Electronic Network)– represents the public libraries in the province
Consortium Context
• Membership in TAL– 4 universities– two dozen colleges and university colleges– almost 300 public libraries (with seven regional
systems)– a handful of government and special libraries
• … serving a population of 2.9 million
Consortium Context
• "Campus Alberta"– initiative of the provincial government– unification of post-secondary system– libraries were the first to claim the money
Consortium Context
• Campus Alberta Funding for KN– one-time funding: $20 million
• $16 million distributed to the institutions
• $4 million reserved for collaborative projects
• Other Campus Alberta Projects– online course registry
• interesting metadata problems
Consortium Context
• "Alberta Library Interface" (ALI)– project: develop a common interface to online
resources– started as KN (post-secondary) response to
Campus Alberta: CALI– APLEN (public library) involvement planned
for later phase, but moved up: ALI
Consortium Context
• ALI Pilot Projects– virtual union catalogue– integrated database searching– portal management system
Consortium Context
• Consultation– the Downey report– five "road shows"– online forum
• Response– "at last!" …– … but give us local branding
Consortium Context
• So … ALI's mandate:– create a common interface …
• but make it look different in every library
– strike a balance between centralization and distribution
– make sustainable change with one-time funding– make it good enough that libraries will adopt it
voluntarily– make a level playing field for big and small,
public and post-secondary libraries
Consortium Context
ALI Pilot Projects
• Virtual Union Catalogue
• Portal Management System
• MyLibrary
• Virtual Union Catalogue– using WebZ– to be administered centrally– to include integrated database searching– therefore will require sophisticated
authentication/authorization
Pilot Projects
• Z39.50 Environment– servers:
• the four universities
• two colleges (out of two dozen)
• two urban public libraries (out of a dozen)
• three regional public library systems (out of seven)
– systems• all major vendors
• Dynix dominates in numbers; large institutions use DRA, Sirsi, III
Pilot Projects
• Licensed Databases– searching integrated with virtual union
catalogue– access control issues
Pilot Projects
• Advantages of WebZ– flexible interface design– sophistication of Z39.50 engine
• cross-database capabilities
• deduping
– scalability
Pilot Projects
• Desiderata– web-form management of the interface– distributed authentication (cross-vendor)– distributed ILL– draw database vendors into Z39.50
interoperability debate
Pilot Projects
• Portal Management System– management of online resources using backend
databases– separation of content and presentation– flexible enough to allow easy development of
new systems– supports collaborative development
Pilot Projects
• Prototype: XML/XSLT– pathfinder system– using Apache's Cocoon– using Dublin Core– looking at integration with SiteSearch
Pilot Projects
• But… what about CORC?– commercial version for release in July– let OCLC implement DC, bibliographic
database– interface management à la WebZ– integration with Database Builder
Pilot Projects
• MyLibrary– two levels:
• customization of WebZ environment
• full MyLibrary toolkit for library websites
– not there yet– persistent User State Object?
Pilot Projects
• Conclusions– extending SiteSearch from resource discovery
to resource development and management– collaboration is the key– using the web to lower the technical barriers