Terms and conditions

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Terms and conditions libraries, subject
terminologies and the web

• Lorcan DempseyVP Research OCLC
• Opening keynote, Dewey EPC meeting,March 16,
  2004

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My qualifications to speak on this topic
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Overview
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Overview

• Focus on the environmental conditions in which
  terms are used
• Prelude
• Collections and
• Digital libraries and
• Finally

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Prelude
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Burn the catalog
Electronic catalogs, wherever you go in the
academic world, have become a horrible
crazy-quilt assemblage of incompatible interfaces
and vendor-constrained listings. Working through
a relatively small collection, you still have
to navigate at least five completely different
interfaces for searching. Historical epochs of
data collection and cataloguing lie indigestibly
atop one another. Tim Burke, Swarthmore
Im to the point where I think wed be better
off to just utterly erase our existing academic
catalogs and forget about backwards-compatibility,
lock all the vendors and librarians and scholars
together in a room, and make them hammer out
electronic research tools that are Amazon-plus,
Amazon without the intent to sell books but with
the intent of guiding users of all kinds to the
books and articles and materials that they ought
to find, a catalog that is a partner rather than
an obstacle in the making and tracking of
knowledge. Tim Burke, Swarthmore
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So

• We need to find better ways
• of leveraging the accumulated library investment
  in knowledge organization systems
• of demonstrating their value
• and of releasing their value in a web
  environment.
• (OCLC Research activities)

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Collections
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Collections grid
stewardship
high
low
low
uniqueness
high
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learning materials, courseware

• Digital assets
• Learning objects
• Content packages
• E-portfolio
• Courses

i Information Technology and Libraries, June
2003 (p. 80). personal communication, Scott
Siddal
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oclc taskforce on elearning

• Diffusion of information skills and use through
  the learning process
• Life cycle management of learning materials
• Systems interaction between library and
  learning management systems

Picture courtesy Dan Rehak, Carnegie Mellon
University
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What is going on?
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Collection directions
stewardship
high
low
Books Journals
Freely-accessible web resources
?
?
low
uniqueness
?
?
Special collections
high
Research and learning materials
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So ..

• Questions
• Warrant
• Functional requirements of a general
  classification system in new environment?

• Becoming more important
• Mappings
• Local control of display and hierarchy for
  particular user communities
• Data distribution
• Machine-processable

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Digital libraries and the web
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Interconnected library environment

• More complex library systems environment
• ILS, portal, resource sharing, resolver, digital
  asset management,
• More complex institutional systems environment
• Learning management system, university portal,
  local government portal,
• Growing use of shared services
• Directory, identity management, trust management,
  

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A library portal example
Common services
Im looking for something through my librarys
portal.
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Common services
authentication
Im looking for something through my librarys
portal.
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Directory user profile
Common services
Im looking for something through my librarys
portal.
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Common services
Query broker
Im looking for something through my librarys
portal.
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Directory service description
Common services
Im looking for something through my librarys
portal.
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Common services
Content results list
Im looking for something through my librarys
portal.
Wow! I should be able to find what I need in this
results list.
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Common services
Id like to get this book.
Request broker
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Common services
Directory ILL policy
Id like to get this book.
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Directory service description
Common services
Id like to get this book.
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Common services
Id like to get this book.
Content circ/ILL system
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Common services
I need this article too.
Request broker
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Common services
openURL resolver
I need this article too.
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Common services
Directory local knowledge base
I need this article too.
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Common services
Directory service description
I need this article too.
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Common services
I need this article too.
Content article
Content services
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Subject attributes
Directory user profile
Terminology service
Directory service description
Directory ILL policy
Authentication
Common services
Directory local knowledge base
Digital assets
Catalog
OpenURL resolver
Circ/ILL system
Article db
Request broker
Content services
Query broker
Application services
The User
Presentation services
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Some other examples

• Query routing (e.g. QuestionPoint)
• Document routing (e.g e-prints UK)

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So

• Libraries need to manage many types of objects
  some of which have subject attributes
• We will increasingly treat vocabularies and terms
  as resources in their own right
• Workflow integration becomes more important
  services need to be available where they are
  needed
• Metadata creation
• Searching
• Data exchange and terminology services

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Manage many objects

• Then
• information assets were primary objects of
  interest.
• Subjects, etc, were seen as attributes of assets.
• Systems built to reflect this.

• Now
• We manage multiple objects, their representations
  and relationships
• Assets
• Works manifestations copies
• Rights
• Collections
• Services
• Terms
• Concepts
• Names
• Places
• Users

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Digital library objects!
Web services
Place, person, subject, genre,

1. Objects
2. Collections
3. Services
4. Terms
5. Users
6. Institutions
7. Rights
8. Schemes
9. Rules
10. Version Control
11. Queries

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Terms are resources

• Webulated
• URI for concepts,
• Concepts are citable
• Build services on top of this
• Vocabulary may be manifest through several
  services

• E.g. URI for a Dewey numberInfoddc/22/eng//004.6
  78
• Example services
• Mappings
• Caption, etc
• Navigatehierarchy
• Validation
• Given a concept, return
• Authors
• ISBNs

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Integrate with workflow

• Multiple editing environments
• Multiple searching environments
• Growing interest in distribution of data
• Protocol access
• Data exchange

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Web services
Dataassets
data services
Object metadatarepository
Application services
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The past is another country ..

• Need to think differently using terminologies
  as resources in a distributed network environment
  calls forward different way of thinking
• Making functionality available within multiple
  workflows
• Available through human and machine interfaces

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So ..

• Questions
• Warrant
• Functional requirements of a general
  classification system in new environment?

• Becoming more important
• Mappings
• Local control of display and hierarchy for
  particular user communities
• Machine-processable
• Data distribution
• Webulated
• A suite of terminology services

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Thank you, http//www.oclc.org/research/