Powerful Forces: Information Movers and Shakers

Citation

Flaherty, B. (2001), "Powerful Forces: Information Movers and Shakers", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 18 No. 10. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2001.23918jac.004

Powerful Forces: Information Movers and Shakers

Powerful Forces: Information Movers and Shakers

LIANZA Conference, Rotorua, New Zealand 19-21 September 2001

Brian Flaherty

The Library and Information Association of New Zealand – Aotearoa's 2001 Conference (http://www.powerfulforces.org.nz/program.htm) was a little disappointing in terms of information technology (IT) content. None of the three plenary-session speakers had any library background or knowledge, the one major speaker with IT credentials had to cancel due to the situation in the USA, and of the remaining IT-related sessions, most were scheduled at the same time. For all this there were two papers in particular that stimulated discussion and provided useful models for delivering "hybrid" information resources.

Libraries are increasingly grappling with the issue of integrating access to their resources, both print and electronic. For the last several years most have developed collections of Web pages, while at the same time enhancing their catalogues to include bibliographic records for e-journals, databases and Internet resources. Some of this work has been duplicated on their Web sites, and as the number and length of these pages has increased, so has the awareness of the need for more efficient resource discovery and management.

In a paper entitled "Bricks and clicks: creating a dot.com library to support flexible learning", Edward Lim, the university librarian at Monash University, described the changing higher education library environment – the decline of walk-in traffic, competition from new information providers and online reference services, and the move towards flexible learning. Lim argued for the portal as the key technology to integrate analogue and digital resources. Personalisation, one of the key ingredients, can be achieved by:

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  "provider (library) control" based on predefined criteria such as a user profile;

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  "end-user control" based on criteria set by the content consumer; and

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  "data control" where content is filtered on the basis of affinities or similarities that can be measured by available data (e.g. books on the same subject).

In a broader context it is essential that a library portal be integrated with that of the university, where course information, lecture materials, financial and e-mail alert services may be "pushed" out to staff and students.

Another key driver is the need for a single search engine to undertake distributed searching of information resources using a variety of protocols, Z39.50, HTTP, ODBC, etc. Features of this search engine should include ranking and elimination of duplicate records, a document request function and OpenURL linking. While I am not convinced of the value of combining peer-reviewed content and Internet sites in a single results set, I do acknowledge student demand for a simple, Google-like interface. Lim describes the new generation of library users – the e-generation – as being highly computer literate, "time poor" and constantly looking for convenience. A further complication is the need to integrate the library's portal with that of the university, which will inlcude course information, lecture material, financial services and an e-mail service.

A number of commercial products were mentioned, including Ex-Libris' MetaLib (http://www.exlibris-usa.com/metalib), Fretwell Downing's ZPortal (http://www.fdgroup.com/fdi/zportal/about.html) and Endeavor's ENCompass (http://www.endinfosys.com/encompass.htm). It should be noted that the market for library-specific applications is volatile after library systems vendors were initially slow to develop products for non-LMS Web content management, and portal/digital library development is still very much in its infancy. At least three vendors have released products in the past few months. Monash University Library expects to have Stage 1 of its library portal ready for semester 1, 2002, although a decision on the successful software vendor has yet to be released.

Another important piece in the hybrid library jigsaw is the management of locally created digital collections. David Bainbridge, from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Waikato, gave a description of the New Zealand Digital Library (NZDL) project (http://www.nzdl.org) which has been involved in the field for several years. The NZDL's digital collections include Niupepa: Newspapers in Maori; the Hamilton Public Library Youth Oral History Project; and digital libraries of humanitarian information for developing nations.

Greenstone, the digital library software developed to manage these resources, is an open source and available in Unix and Windows. It also includes complete source code for the system (which can be compiled using Microsoft C++ or gcc) and works with associated freely available software – Apache Webserver and PERL. Resource discovery is facilitated by a combination of full-text searching and browsing indexes based on metadata types. Recognising the importance of interoperability standards, Greenstone supports XML, the Open Archives Initiative framework and Dublin Core metadata formats. A Z39.50 service is under development. This is essential if digital collections are to be integrated with the other electronic resources managed through library portals. The NZDL collections themselves showcase a range of languages – English, Maori, German, Arabic, Russian and Chinese – and media – text, images, music, audio, and video. Bainbridge gave an interesting demonstration of searching the midi music collection by humming a few notes (from Stairway to Heaven) into his laptop and using this melody "search" to retrieve the correct midi file. Although the NZDL hosts some valuable collections, Bainbridge acknowledged that collection building is not their core activity. Rather it is the outcome of research into the digital libraries. The task of developing and managing content is a role for librarians. He is hopeful that libraries will trial the software and use the Web interface to create their own collections.

Brian Flaherty (b.flaherty@auckland.ac.nz) is Networked Information Librarian, University of Auckland Library, New Zealand.