Last revised: 11 February Ki-Tat LAM Head of Library Systems The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library

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1 Last revised: 11 February 2009 Ki-Tat LAM Head of Library Systems The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library

2 HKUST Library s openness initiatives Open Door Open Technology Open Source Open Access SmartCAT Open Catalog Semantic SmartCAT Project Towards Open Metadata (Linked Data) HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 2

3 Part I Openness initiatives at HKUST Library Open Door Open Technology Open Source Open Access HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 3

HKUST Library advocates openness. Established Open Door Policy since the Library opened in 1991.

4 HKUST Library advocates openness. Established Open Door Policy since the Library opened in Allowing anyone in the community who has information needs to freely enter the Library and use the materials and resources within the building. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 4

5 Landmark event of openness The emerge of the Internet in early 1990s is the landmark event for opening up closed systems and platforms. Technologies and standards contributed to these openness: The Internet World Wide Web XML standard and its related technologies Web services and APIs (application programming interfaces) The consequences: Applications can be run seamlessly across networks. Digital contents are widely accessible on the networks. Drastically improves the ways by which computers communicate and interchange information. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 5

6 HKUST Library initiatives: The Internet and World Wide Web When the web technology was first unveiled, the Library responded enthusiastically by developing its website immediately Began creating web-based digital libraries databases, including the Digital Archives and Electronic Theses. XML and web services Began experimenting the XML technologies when the XML standard was first released. For example, studied how well XML could be used to encode MARC21 bibliographic and authority records. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 6

7 2000 Tested INNOPAC s xrecord command, to automate the real time exporting and conversion of MARC records. For example: < This approach has been extensively adopted for use in the later digital libraries projects Introduced native XML database system, Tamino, to form the core information infrastructure for a number of digital library applications Developed XML-based Name Access Control Repository to support the virtual international authority file concept, with non-latin scripts for Chinese names Put up the first RSS Feeds for the newly acquired books and media resources Conducted a workshop on XML to share our experience to Hong Kong colleagues. Beyond 2003 these open technologies and standards have become the nuts and bolts of our systems. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 7

Open source is an approach to design, develop and distribute software with full access to the source codes and knowledge behind it. Open source is NOT equivalent to Free-of-Charge.

8 Open source is an approach to design, develop and distribute software with full access to the source codes and knowledge behind it. Open source is NOT equivalent to Free-of-Charge. For example, Linux is an open source software, but you need to pay annual license fee to use the Red Hat Linux. This company sells maintenance services to help out the tedious works of software patching and security updating. Another example is Koha, an open source integrated library system that you can freely download from its official site. But, if you wish, you can pay a commercial company for additional services, such as installation, hosting, training and technical support. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 8

9 What can you do to the Open Source software: Use it Customize it Create it Examples of open source software we use: pwebstats and AWstats (1995 and 2001 respectively, for web server access log analysis); DSpace (2003, for institutional repository and digital archives); MRBS (2005, for library rooms booking); CLEO (2006, for library classes registration); LibStats (2006, for counters and help desk statistics; and questions and answers logging); Scriblio (2007, for next generation library catalog). Other systems tools, such as LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP). HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 9

10 Examples of open source software customization: DSpace (2003, to handle CJK searching and HKUST LDAP authentication); MRBS (2005, adapting this room booking system to our environment); Scriblio (2007, to support CJK importing and searching; and automatic batch update). We also create open source software Available for download from the Shared Software Pool < For examples: JURO (2005, for journal usages reporting); Print2Mail (2005, for redirecting INNOPAC print jobs to third party applications, such as spine label printing); EAD2III (2006, for loading bibliographic data in an EAD XML file to INNOPAC); AuthFix (2008, for fixing authority records with established CJK names that were improperly encoded in tag 4XX). HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 10

11 Open access refers to the movements that promote free and unrestricted access to scholarly output and research literature. The Open Archives Initiative (OAI) created the Protocol of Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Greatly enhanced open access by providing a standard mechanism to harvest metadata of scholarly output. HKUST Library was the early adopter of the Open Access concepts. Decided to build the Institutional Repository (IR) in late Adopted and enhanced open source software DSpace and launched its IR in Feb < HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 11

12 Features of HKUST IR: 100% open access to full-text documents. OpenURL linking to the published version of articles. Full-text searching via Elseviers Scirus. Compliant to OAI-PMH and SRW/U (Search ad Retrieval for the Web or by URL). Created HKIR (Hong Kong Institutional Repositories) in 2006, to enable cross searching of the IRs from the Hong Kong UGC funded institutions. < Held an International Conference (2004) and a Workshop (2006) on IR. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 12

13 Part II SmartCAT - the Open Catalog HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 13

14 Evolution of Library Catalogs OPAC Terminal Card Catalog Web OPAC Next-Generation Library Catalog 14

15 Traditional catalog It is silo-like: An inventory list of items held in the library. An alphabetical list of headings. Fails as an information discovery tool (no way out). Dissatisfaction of Web-savvy users Accustom to Web 2.0 interfaces with dynamic content and social networking. Expect more than just metadata. Want information and participation. Prefer simple search to begin with, plus incremental refinement of search results. It is time to open up your catalog. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 15

16 < HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 16

17 SmartCAT < HKUST Library s next-generation catalog. Released November Based on the open source software called Scriblio. It is a plugin of WordPress, the popular open source blogging software. We have done substantial customization to Scriblio. Comments about Scriblio by its developer: it also offers something we ve never seen in a library application before: access to a community of knowledge, programmers, and designers outside libraries. Because the core of WPopac is WordPress, and because it preserves WordPress s rich plugin API and themes structure, it already has more users, designers, developers, and administrators than all the ILS vendors combined. Casey Bisson < HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 17

18 Features of SmartCAT: Faceted browsing The must-have search feature Web Mashup Bring external content into your catalog Dynamically constructed links Discover related information outside of the catalog Search redirection links Redirect your search to the external sources User Comments For social networking and knowledge sharing RSS feeds Keep you informed HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 18

Faceted Browsing Step 1: Keyword search on the word MYSQL brings up a results set of 110 titles Step 2: Narrow the result set by specifying Subject

19 Faceted Browsing Step 1: Keyword search on the word MYSQL brings up a results set of 110 titles Step 2: Narrow the result set by specifying Subject Design. Result sets reduced to 28 titles Step 3: Further filter the result set by specifying Format E-Resource. Result sets reduced to 15 titles 19

20 Mashups of web content from various websites Cover image from Amazon Summary from Amazon Holdings information from Millennium WebPAC Pro 20

21 Mashup of covers images Locally scanned book covers from the Special Collections Multiple Sources of Cover Images Screen shots of locally held streaming videos 21

22 Availability information ERM holdings Check-in record Item records On-order information Dynamically constructed links to external sources 22

23 Search Redirection and Suggestion Search suggestion, based on INNOPAC s name and subject authority databases Redirecting search to external sources 23

24 User Comments A comment on the book White lotus Recent comments and the RSS Feed in the Sidebar

25 SmartCAT is an open catalog, because: It brings in external content: Real-time holdings, book cover images, book reviews, name/subject authority suggestions, etc. It directs users to external sources and applications: Request items, RefWorks export, HKALL borrowing, WebBridge, Google Book Search, WorldCat, Google Scholar, etc. It provides a discussion platform for users to share opinions and talk to each other: User comments, RSS Feed And more importantly, its bibliographic metadata and search results are openly available as Linked Data, for discovery by external semantic web software agents An exciting project that we are currently working on (See Part III for details). HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 25

26 Part III Semantic SmartCAT Project towards Open Metadata Semantic Web Linked Data RDF RDA, the new cataloging rules HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 26

27 The traditional web represents information in natural language (written text), together with images and multimedia content. Designed to be read, processed and acted on by human beings and not by machines. Why involving machines? Software agents can act as human being, helping users to locate, combine and act on the information. For examples: They can act as librarians helping users finding information; Classic scenario: < Websites can easily mashup content from multiple sites if the content is semantically represented on the Web. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 27

28 The Web evolution: Web 1.0 = World Wide Web of HTML documents Web 2.0 = Web Users participation Web 3.0 = Web Semantic Web + others Adding meaning to the traditional web! Comparison: Traditional web focuses on linked documents encoded in HTML. Semantic web is about creating a web of linked data encoded in RDF. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 28

29 Traditional Web versus Semantic Web Read by human beings A web of linked documents in HTML Read by computer program A web of linked data in RDF 29

30 Linked Data is a term used to describe the best practice for exposing, sharing and connecting pieces of data, information and knowledge on the Semantic Web using URI and RDF. [extracted from: < The Linked Data Principles Use URIs as names for things Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names When someone looks up a URI, provide useful RDF information Include RDF statements that link to other URIs so that they can discover related things < HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 30

31 RDF (Resource Definition Framework) A language for representing information about Web resources. Particularly for representing metadata about Web resources. A W3C standard introduced since HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 31

A Simple RDF Example Statement: Sun, Zehua is the creator of the resource http://ihome.ust.hk/~lbsun/hkloan.html Structure: Resource (Subject): http://ihome.ust.hk/~lbsun/hkloan.html Property (Predicate): http://purl.

32 A Simple RDF Example Statement: Sun, Zehua is the creator of the resource Structure: Resource (Subject): Property (Predicate): Value (Object): Sun, Zehua Directed graph: Subject Predicate dc:creator Object Sun, Zehua RDF encoded in XML: 32

33 Why bother? As a publisher of linked data not only are you enabling others to build cool things with your data - helping you right now - you are also helping to insulate yourself against atrophy. If your data is as open and accessible as possible - then it is relatively straight forward for your future colleagues, working on a as yet unimagined product, to use the data you are publishing right now. < HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 33

34 RDA (Resource Description and Access) is the upcoming standard of cataloging rules supposed to replace AACR2. AACR2, released 1978, was developed before the computer era, when the time library catalog was meant to be the card catalog. Demands to revise AACR2 conceived in envisioned as the AACR3, the third edition of AACR. Changed name to RDA in 2005, to allow for drastic changes and a break from the legacy past. Full draft released November 2008, for constituency review. To be finalized in [Note: the standard itself will not be free-of-charge; pricing scheme may involve online subscription!] HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 34

35 RDA is having hard time to get the support from library community Compliant about its complexity. Query about the FRBR model. Doubt about cost-effectiveness. Uncertainty of future of MARC. OCLC is very quite. A LC working group even suggested suspending its development. [ On the Record < Come to the rescue: JSC (Joint Steering Committee) of RDA did a smart move in mid 2007 to open up RDA to the non-library communities, by working with DCMI (Dublic Core Metadata Initiative), with an attempt to fit RDA in models used by other metadata communities. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 35

DCMI/RDA Task Group <http://dublincore.org/dcmirdataskgroup/> Established mid 2007, work-in-progress.

36 DCMI/RDA Task Group < Established mid 2007, work-in-progress. Charter: to define components of the draft standard "RDA - Resource Description and Access" as an RDF vocabulary for use in developing a Dublin Core application profile. RDA vocabularies (for elements and values) are now available at NSDL Registry < The works of DCMI/RDA In effect, makes RDA readily available for use in XML, RDF, Linked Data and Semantic Web. Unlike MARC, AACR2 and ISBD, library community is able to use tools developed outside of the library communities for its applications. Essential to the success of RDA as a modern, web-based metadata standard Karen Coyle HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 36

37 Goal: To enable the metadata in SmartCAT as RDF Linked Data and to make the metadata openly available on the Web for use by semantic web software agents. Experiment: January 2009 implemented the proof-of-concept infrastructure on SmartCAT: Each bibliographic record has its unique URI, based on the permanent INNOPAC record number. Serves metadata in RDF with compliance to Linked Data Principles. RDF uses RDA element and value vocabularies, together with others, such as OWL. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 37

38 Links personal names to OCLC s VIAF (Virtual International Authority File). Links subjects to OCLC s Terminology Services for LCSH. Both these OCLC web services are SRW/U based, and are not Linked Data in nature. [We could have linked to lcsh.info, the LCSH linked data site by Ed Summers. But, too bad, it was forced to be shut down in December 2008!]. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 38

39 RDF Linked Data of a SmartCAT record View linked data with OpenLink RDF Browser RDF of this book < Permanent URL 39

RDF of the book in XML, with RDA vocabularies <http://catalog.ust.

40 RDF of the book in XML, with RDA vocabularies < Work Expression Manifestation Author Subject 40

41 Relationship of M1 (Manifestation) with others Wrinkles in time rda:titleproper E1 frbr:embodiment rdf:type frbr:expression rdf:type frbr:manifestation M1 rda:identifierforthemanifestation rda:publishersname ISBN-10: W. Morrow rda:dateofpublication

42 Relationship of E1 (Expression) with others frbr:realization W1 rdf:type frbr:expression rdf:type E1 frbr:work frbr:embodiment rda:contenttype rdvct:1020 rdf:type M1 rda:languageofexpression skos:preflabel frbr:manifestation eng text 42

43 Relationship of W1 (Work) with others Winkles in time rdfs:label Cosmology rda:preferredtitleforthework frbr:work rdf:type W1 rdf:type S1 frbr:subject dcterms:subject frbr:person rdf:type rdarole:author Smoot, George frbr:realization E1 rdf:type frbr:expression P1 rda:preferrednamefortheperson rdarole:author owl:sameas rdf:type frbr:person viaf:lc n P1 owl:sameas viaf:lc n rda:preferrednamefortheperson Davidson, Keay 43

44 To do list: Load authority records from INNOPAC to SmartCAT. Build SPARQL endpoints for bibliographic and authority metadata. Map MARC21 to RDA vocabularies, in effect, FRBRising the bibliographic records on SmartCAT. etc. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 44

HKUST Library advocates system openness. In addition to the physical open door policy, we also support movements in open access, open source, open catalog and open metadata.

45 HKUST Library advocates system openness. In addition to the physical open door policy, we also support movements in open access, open source, open catalog and open metadata. In light of the recent consortium effort known as Open Library Environment, which calls for a redesign of the integrated library system for more flexibility and interoperability, it is anticipated that library services will increasingly be open, allowing library users to work seamlessly in a digital environment that is socially connected, with readily available services and resources. HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 45

46 HKUST Library's initiatives for promoting system openness. K.T. Lam 46

Future Trends of ILS

Held at The Hong Kong Institute of Education 24 April 2015 Future Trends of ILS K.T. Lam The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Library lblkt@ust.hk, orcid.org/0000-0003-2625-9419 Last revised: