Hi Chris,

There are some interesting questions. I agree that library systems could usefully support much better bulk processing tools (although there are some good external tools like MarcEdit of course - and as you mentioned to me previously, scripting tools as well if you have people who can programme them). However, I'd suggest that we need to change the way with think about recording and distributing information about our resources, especially in the light of investment in separate 'search' products such as Aquabrowser, Primo, Encore, Endeca, &c. &c.

If we consider the whole workflow here, it seems to me that as soon as you have a separate search interface the role of the 'library system' needs to be questioned - what are you using it for, and why? I'm not sure funnelling resources into it so they can then be exported to another system is really very sensible (although I absolutely understand why you end up doing it).

I think that once you are pushing stuff into Aquabrowser (for Sussex anyway) there is little point in also pushing them into the catalogue - what extra value does this add? For books (print or electronic) you may continue to order them via the library system - but you only need an order record in there, not anything more substantial - you can put the 'substantial' record into Aquabrowser. The library system web interface will still handle item level information and actions (reservations/holds etc.) - but again, you don't need a substantial bib record for these to work - the user has done the 'searching' in the search system.

For the ejournals you could push directly from SFX into Aquabrowser - why push via the library system? Similarly for repositories - it really is just creating work to covert these into MARC (probably from DC) to get them into your library system, to then export for Aquabrowser (which seems to speak OAI anyway).

One of your issues is that you still need to put stuff into your library system, as this feeds other places - for example we send our records to CURL/COPAC - but this is a poor argument going forward - how long before we see COPAC change the way it works to take advantage of different search technology (MIMAS have just licensed the Autonomy search product ...). Anyway - we need to work with those consuming our records to work out more sensible solutions in the current environment.

I'd suggest what we really need to think about is a common 'publication' platform - a way of all of our systems outputting records in a way that can then be easily accessed by a variety of search products - whether our own local ones, remote union ones, or even ones run by individual users. I'd go further and argue that platform already exists - it is the web! If each of your systems published each record as a 'web page' (containing structured data as necessary), then other systems could consume this to build search indexes - and you've always go Google of course... I note that Aquabrowser supports web crawling as well - could it cope with some extra structured data in the web pages (e.g. RDFa).

I have to admit that I may be over estimating how simple this would be - but it definitely seems to me this is the way to go - lets stop trying to fit square pegs into round holes!

Owen


Owen Stephens
Assistant Director: eStrategy and Information Resources
Central Library
Imperial College London
South Kensington Campus
London
SW7 2AZ
 
t: +44 (0)20 7594 8829
e: [log in to unmask]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group [mailto:LIS-
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lene Stampe
> Sent: 11 February 2009 15:29
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [LIS-E-RESOURCES] e-resources and library catalogues
> 
> Hi Julie (and Ray)
> We are struggling with the same questions in Denmark, and I would be
> very interested in seeing step by step instructions that I could learn
> from.
> So maybe I could get a copy off list as well?
> 
> Best regards
> Lene Stampe
> Roskilde University Library
> Denmark
> 
> Julie Hart [ujh] skrev:
> > Hi Chris,
> >
> > Here at Aberystwyth we are aiming to do something very similar to
> > Birmingham. We have been testing but hope to go live with it soon. We
> > have SFX and Voyager LMS.
> >
> > We have found that using the advance export queries tool in SFX we
> can
> > include GMD and location information. We edit the records using the
> free
> > software MarcEdit, which gets rid of some dubious fields but not
> found a
> > way to add appropriate 006, 007 fields.
> >
> > To update we are aiming to do a bulk upload every month after the SFX
> > update and then bulk delete the previous months upload. This means
> > though that the records will have a different bib id each month and
> > we're not sure what the fall out would be for those users who have a
> > static link to the record....
> >
> > As with Birmingham we are having to do a lot of tidying where we have
> > previously added a link to the e-journal onto the print record.
> >
> > Ray Delahunty from University of Arts London sent us his step by step
> > instructions for this procedure (thanks again Ray) and we have
> modified
> > them to suit our purposes, which I can send to you off list if you
> like?
> >
> >
> > Best wishes
> > Julie
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: An informal open list set up by the UK Serials Group
> > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Chris Keene
> > Sent: 10 February 2009 10:30
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: [LIS-E-RESOURCES] e-resources and library catalogues
> >
> > Hi
> >
> > Over the last few years the need to add e-resources (journals/books)
> to
> > our library catalogue has grown. The primarily reason being users
> expect
> >
> > (understandably) to find books and journals in the catalogue, and
> that
> > includes online copies.
> >
> > This has seen the way we use our catalogue change, from primarily
> adding
> >
> > individual records as we purchase items, to trying to add records in
> > bulk from various third party systems.
> >
> > These third party systems include the link resolver (for journal
> > records), ebook suppliers and (experimentally) repository software
> (for
> > theses).
> >
> > I imagine many are in the same boat as us, we want to do this in a
> > scalable way, we don't want to be editing individual records by hand
> > when we could be looking at a very large number of records both for
> > journals and - as/if usage takes off - ebooks.
> >
> > For this to work, it requires high quality (MARC) records from
> > suppliers, and LMS (ILS) vendors adapting their systems for this
> change
> > in behaviour. For example, it may have been reasonable in the past
> for
> > an LMS supplier to presume that large numbers of records would not
> need
> > to be regularly suppressed/dropped, though with ever changing journal
> > bundles this may be normal practice in the future.
> >
> > Furthermore, just to add confusion, next generation web catalogues
> can
> > search multiple sources. The assumption that 'public web catalogue'
> > reflects the 'LMS catalogue' (i.e. what is in one is in the other)
> may
> > no longer apply. Should e-content be kept out of the LMS but made
> > seamlessly available to users using new web interfaces (Primo,
> > Aquabrowser, etc etc)?
> >
> > This seems like quite a big area, and a change in direction, with
> > questions, and yet I haven't seen much amounts of discussion (Of
> course,
> >
> > this may well be due to a bad choice of mailing
> lists/blogs/articles).
> >
> > Are others grappling with this sort of thing?
> >
> > Anyone else wishing they could import their entire online journal
> > collection with a few clicks but find dodgy records (which we may
> for!)
> > and fussy library systems turn it in to a very slow process?
> > And not quite sure how to keep them all in sync?
> >
> > Would love to hear from you.
> >
> > Who else has all their e-journals on the catalogue? Was it quick? Do
> you
> >
> > exclude free journals etc?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Chris
> >
> >
> 
> --
> Lene Stampe
> Roskilde University Library
> PO Box 258
> 4000 Roskilde
> [log in to unmask]
> +45 4674 2203
> 
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