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Indiana University eText Program

December 7, 2011

David W. Lewis
Assistant Vice President for Digital Scholarly Communication
Indiana University

This session will review Indiana University’s (IU) etext program. IU has signed agreements to dramatically reduce the costs of digital textbooks for students on all of its campuses. The agreements (with publishers John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; Bedford Freeman & Worth Publishing Group; W.W. Norton; and Flat World Knowledge) will provide students with substantial cost-savings, the ability to access digital or printed hard copies, and uninterrupted access to all of their etexts while they are a student at IU. Indiana-based company Courseload was selected to provide the software for students to read and annotate their etexts. The software integrates directly with IU’s Oncourse system and enables students to tag, search, collaborate as a study group, or view multimedia on any computer or mobile device. Additionally, faculty who opt to use the software will have the ability to integrate notes, links and annotations on students’ etexts.

http://etexts.iu.edu

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2011 Project Briefings, E-Books, Teaching & Learning
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The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF): Laying the Foundation for Common Services, Integrated Resources and a Marketplace of Tools for Scholars Worldwide

December 7, 2011

Tom Cramer
Chief Technology Strategist, Libraries
Stanford University

Access to image-based resources is fundamental to research, scholarship and the transmission of cultural knowledge. Digital images are a container for much of the information content in the Web-based delivery of images, books, newspapers, manuscripts, maps, scrolls, single sheet collections, and archival materials. Yet much of the Internet’s image-based resources are locked up in silos, with access restricted to bespoke, locally built applications.
The British Library and Stanford University, with a half dozen of the world’s leading research libraries and funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, have embarked on a one-year effort to collaboratively produce an interoperable framework for image delivery. With shared technology, common application programming interfaces (APIs), and rich user interfaces, this framework has the promise to surpass the current crop of image viewers, page-turners, and navigation systems, and to give scholars an unprecedented level of uniform and rich access to image-based resources. The IIIF charter institutions are: Stanford University, the British Library, the Bodleian Libraries (Oxford University), the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Nasjonalbiblioteket (National Library of Norway), Los Alamos National Library, and Cornell University.
This presentation will lay out the need and opportunity for an interoperable framework for image access, expose the work done on APIs and tools to date, and explore opportunities for extending the institutions, resources and tools covered by the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF).

http://lib.stanford.edu/iiif

Presentation

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2011 Project Briefings, Information Access & Retrieval, Standards
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JSTOR’s Big Data Challenge: Mining Log Files to Improve Service to Users

December 7, 2011

Ronald Snyder
Director of Advanced Technologies
Ithaka – JSTOR

In the 15 years that JSTOR has been in existence, a wealth of logging data has been generated and archived.  This logging data represents many billions of user actions.  Until recently, this usage data has mainly been used for generating summary-level institution and publisher reports.  The sheer volume and complexity of these data made multi-dimensioned, longitudinal analysis impractical until just recently. Over the last year, Ithaka has made a significant investment in normalizing and organizing these data in the interest of better understanding user behaviors and trends in the consumption of academic materials.

This presentation will include discussion of the technological approach that Ithaka has taken in dealing with the data volume and complexity issues, including Big Data challenges such as storage, processing, and analysis.  Some experiences from the original attempt to build this data warehouse using traditional relational database technologies and the decision to abandon this approach in favor of a solution based on the open source Hadoop infrastructure will be shared.  Hadoop provides a robust, scalable and cost-effective solution to managing Ithaka’s big data. Ithaka has combined Hadoop with an open source indexing technology (Lucene/SOLR) and some custom-built software providing a Web-based tool for the interactive exploration of this rich data set.  The presentation will also include some top-level observations on user behaviors and content discovery and consumption trends that have been identified using these tools.

 

Handout (PDF)

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2011 Project Briefings, Digital Curation, E-Journals, Information Access & Retrieval
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Learning in the Digital Age: Certificate Program in Conceptual Curation and Pedagogy for Conceptual Thinking

December 7, 2011
Uri Shafrir
Leader, Conceptual Curation
Cross-disciplinary Research Group
University of Toronto

 

 Bruce Stewart
Director, The iSchool Institute
University of Toronto
Ana Patricia Ayala
Instruction and Faculty Liaison Librarian
Gerstein Science Information Centre
University of Toronto		 Masha Etkind
Professor, Architectural Science
Ryerson University

In contrast to the role of curation in the print age, the recent emergence of the digital age gave birth to the novel methodology of conceptual curation that allows learners to engage in Interactive Concept Discovery (InCoD): semantic searches in the Knowledge Repository of a course of study with networked information of a comprehensive collection of full-text digital documents. Such searches make it possible for an individual learner to find, read, compare, annotate, tag, and share, all found documents that are relevant to the conceptual situation under consideration. Therefore, conceptual curation exposes the learner to multiple viewpoints, created by different authors, and allows comparison of multi-semiotic representations of a particular conceptual situation, that share equivalence-of-meaning. This motivates the learner to use his/her own individual learning style to focus on the meaning of the conceptual content being studied, and to develop higher-level thinking and deeper levels of comprehension.

Conceptual Curation and Pedagogy for Conceptual Thinking has been in development since 2002 and has evolved during evaluative implementations in different knowledge domains, including: mathematics, physics, biology, psychology, education, architecture project management, and business. A certificate program in Conceptual Curation and Pedagogy for Conceptual Thinking is now offered by the iSchool Institute of the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. It was designed for digital librarians and instructors in secondary and post-secondary institutions, as well as those in professional learning and support programs. The certificate program provides hands-on, experiential learning of practical tools for implementation of Conceptual Curation and Pedagogy for Conceptual Thinking in the classroom, and covers a total of 72 instruction hours.

Meeting attendees interested in participating in a collaborative implementation project of Learning in the Digital Age with Conceptual Curation and Pedagogy for Conceptual Thinking, are strongly encouraged to attend this presentation.  This session will also include discussion of a follow-up meeting (time/place to be announced) where the nature of collaboration and organizational issues will be discussed.

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2011 Project Briefings, Teaching & Learning
Tagged With: ,

Learning Spaces and Assessment: What Do We Want to Know?

December 7, 2011

Joan K. Lippincott
Associate Executive Director
Coalition for Networked Information

Malcolm Brown
Director, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI)
EDUCAUSE

Jeanne L. Narum
Principal
Learning Spaces Collaboratory

This session will include a description of the context of the assessment of learning spaces, seeking to understand the motivation for assessment, exploring the kinds of questions which might be asked about the link between physical spaces and learning, and suggesting potential links between this activity and broader measures of student learning and success.  The presentation will focus on both formal spaces (e.g. classrooms) and informal spaces (e.g. learning commons, computer labs, and media centers).

The presentation will also include reports from two programs:  the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s (ELI) Seeking Evidence of Impact is bringing institutions together into a discussion about ways of gathering evidence of the impact of our technology innovations and current practices on teaching and learning.  The Learning Spaces Collaboratory is bringing together faculty, students, architects, facilities officers, technologists, and librarians and is focusing its work on answering the question, “What difference do spaces make to learning and how do we know?”

Participants are invited to contribute to the ongoing conversation taking place in both of these initiatives and to suggest their own needs, provide examples, and offer suggestions for future work in this area.

http://www.educause.edu/ELI/SEI

http://www.pkal.org/activities/PKALLearningSpacesCollaboratory.cfm

Presentation

 

Filed Under: Assessment, CNI Fall 2011 Project Briefings, Learning Spaces (includes Information/Learning Commons), Teaching & Learning
Tagged With: ,

Leveraging an OAIS Digital Preservation System to Build a Locally Relevant Digital Library

December 7, 2011

John M. Meador, Jr.
Dean of Libraries
Binghamton University
State University of New York

Ido Peled
Rosetta Project Manager
Ex Libris Group

Binghamton University Libraries began digitizing special collections in 2006 and utilizing multiple digital repository platforms for storage and access. However, it was the 2010 admonition by the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access (“without preservation, there is no access”) that prompted a re-examination of this strategy. Realizing that several digital silos had been developed, each with its own public interface, and all lacking long-term preservation components, the institution embarked upon building a digital library mirroring the traditional library values of a print library.

The Library began anew with the foundation of the digital library being Rosetta, a proven Open Archival Information System (OAIS)-compliant digital preservation system from Ex Libris that is used by several national and state libraries as well as archives and research institutions. This new strategy has garnered campus support from two new directions: University Publications and data-intensive researchers, primarily because of the institution’s newfound emphasis upon preserving born digital artifacts as well as unique digitized research. A discovery tool that integrates Rosetta with print and licensed collections via a single search box provides access to it. Several of the born digital collections, however, have restricted access similar to that found in print archives.  This presentation will elaborate upon the local digital strategy and describe Rosetta’s digital preservation methodology.

 

 

http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/category/RosettaOverview

http://library.binghamton.edu/

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2011 Project Briefings, Digital Curation, Digital Preservation, Repositories
Tagged With: ,

Localizing Integrated Search

December 7, 2011

Jens Hofman Hansen
Special Consultant, IT Business Development
State and University Library, Denmark

Simeon Warner
Director, Application Development
Cornell University Library

Business and Technology Hand in Hand:  Latest Developments in Integrated Search and a Look Forward (Hansen)

The State and University Library (Denmark) has been working with integrated search for the last six years. The library’s primary users demand a Google-like search experience, making integrated search a necessity in order to achieve the organization’s business goals. Without stepping back to old school federated search, thanks to the use of the Lucene/Solr search engine, the Library has succeeded in co-searching the metadata it owns, as well as metadata covering 200 million articles located on a foreign server in the US at Serials Solutions. Results are quick, there is true relevance ranking, and the Library does not need to handle or own the enormous amounts of data located on the American server.

Looking forward, the mastering of the technology gives us some potential business spinoffs. New business goals can be set and achieved by developing new aspects of the search technology. 200 million articles represented by metadata are already publicly available, but, at present, the actual content is only available in digital form for university users. The service is now being taken to a new level by making all the licensed material available for all citizens of Denmark. The presentation will explain how the service will legally work thanks to interlibrary loan, and the user interface will be demonstrated.

Being focused on business goals also implies that everything should not necessarily be available from the same, single search field; this project focuses on narrow portals that have their own graphical look and only search in small parts of all the data. One reason is that it is easier to sell a targeted portal than a universal service featuring vast amounts of different data. The latest development in this direction is a portal that makes all Danish TV and radio available for university users. A demo will be given.

http://www.statsbiblioteket.dk/

Presentation


Integrating Local Expertise into Virtual Libraries and Discovery Systems (Warner)

In this age of virtual libraries and centralized discovery systems there is the danger that local expertise is left out of the increasingly disintermediated user experience. Cornell University has developed a system that captures some of the expertise subject librarians formerly offered via local guides, physical arrangements, and personal guidance, so that it can be used in the University’s new discovery services.

The system is called the “Curated List of Library Resources” (CuLLR) and the central metaphor is annotation of a select subset of resources. Key annotations such as discipline and format (frequently requested search criteria not supported within the library’s main catalog) and a weighting are provided for all records. Other information, such as cover image, table of contents, and chemical or biological names from specific ontologies, are optional and may be relevant only to specific disciplines. Care has been taken to ensure that data within CuLLR can be easily migrated as the corresponding catalog records are updated, and that the appropriate subject specialists can make updates. The system offers a lightweight way to add specific functionality without modification of, or duplication of effort associated with, the main catalog.

Some ideas now incorporated into CuLLR were prototyped in the Physical Sciences virtual library, which went live in 2009. The final stages of testing the Engineering virtual library, which uses CuLLR to provide engineering-specific browse functions, are now underway. The plan is to re-use the data in CuLLR within a new, Cornell-wide discovery system, which integrates externally-provided search over licensed and locally held resources (via Summon), other local collections, annotations, and information about local expertise. This session will include a description of the system design and future plans.

Presentation

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2011 Project Briefings, Information Access & Retrieval, Metadata
Tagged With: ,

Mapping Atlanta: Building Spatial History Tools and Digital Resources

December 7, 2011
Michael Page
Coordinator, Geospatial Services
Emory University

 

 Kim Durante
Metadata Librarian
Emory University
Randy Gue
Curator of Modern Political
and Historical Collections
Emory University

 

Historical atlases and gazetteers have long proved invaluable to scholars examining phenomena with a time-space dynamic. By leveraging geospatial technologies to link spatial features with archive and library collections, historical atlases can be transformed into digital databases and tools for researchers. This presentation discusses recent trends in addressing spatial history with technology and shares the concept, methods, intended outcomes, and challenges of a current project at Emory University Libraries in (re)mapping early 20th century Atlanta.

 

http://www.digitalgallery.emory.edu/luna/servlet/EMORYUL~3~3

http://marbl.library.emory.edu/remapping

 

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2011 Project Briefings
Tagged With: ,

Microsoft Academic Search: Next-Generation Scholarly Discovery

December 7, 2011

Lee Dirks
Director, Portfolio Strategy
Microsoft Research

Microsoft Research (MSR) is actively developing a novel academic search service called Microsoft Academic Search.  Although it has been a research project out of Microsoft Asia research lab for years, in the past 18 months the site has undergone a massive expansion and upgrade.  In addition to expanding its breadth to include all academic domains (over 100 million papers have been secured via publishers and open access repositories from around the world) MSR is providing rich, customizable author profile pages, a number of innovative visualization tools, and even an open API available to the community.  This talk will include an in-depth introduction to this site and will detail Microsoft’s near-term and future plans for this platform.


http://academic.research.microsoft.com

Handout (PDF)

Presentation

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2011 Project Briefings, Information Access & Retrieval, Scholarly Communication
Tagged With: ,

Moving Video and Audio into the Scholarly Mainstream

December 7, 2011
Judith Thomas
Director, Arts and Media Services
University of Virginia		 Rafael Alvarado
Associate Director, Sciences,
Humanities and Arts Network
of Technological Initiatives (SHANTI)
University of Virginia 
Jama Coartney
Head, Digital Media Lab
University of Virginia		 Julie Meloni
Lead Technologist/Architect
Online Library Environment
University of Virginia

The University of Virginia (UVA) is building a comprehensive suite of solutions for video and audio management based upon an open-source online media platform called Kaltura.  These solutions are intended to support the use of motion media in all areas of scholarship by providing the necessary infrastructure for Web-based creation, management and delivery. The solutions include:  1) a tool set within UVA’s Sakai-based learning management system for simple collecting, editing, sharing and annotating; 2) a more advanced Drupal-based solution, integrated into departmental sites, that features tools for researchers; 3) a standalone online application studio, the Kaltura Management Console, for video creation, editing and management.  In addition, the Library is integrating the platform’s delivery system into its Fedora-based repository architecture.
Scholars (both faculty and students) have shown marked interest in the new tools and a sharp increase in the use of digital media across the academic landscape has occurred. The ongoing project, although clearly successful in many respects, has faced its share of challenges during this, its first year of implementation.
This presentation will include descriptions of some of the obstacles the project has encountered (technical, political, and financial), and the strategies used for overcoming them.  It will also include a discussion of the transformative effects that are taking place within teaching and learning, and it will describe future plans for this initiative to move media into the mainstream of scholarly communication.

http://shanti.virginia.edu/
https://wiki.shanti.virginia.edu/display/KB/Kaltura+-+UVa%27s+AV+Solution
http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/dml/

Handout (MS Word)

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2011 Project Briefings, Scholarly Communication, Teaching & Learning
Tagged With: ,