Hi,

Coming to this topic late....but still willing to wade in with my size
10 feet and probably put my foot in my mouth :)

A lot of the issues regarding the flow of data from Content Providers to
institutions has been covered by the KBART report (albeit talking about
the OpenURL supply chain). There is a lot of information from this
report surrounding the processes, maintenance, and issues of data
collection that would easily transfer over to the collection of data for
indexes.

KBART: http://www.uksg.org/kbart

Andy



-----Original Message-----
From: McGowan, Jonathan [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: 15 February 2011 11:26
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [LIS-OSS] Getting from "here" to "there"? (Re: Welcome!)

Hi,

Sorry in advance if this is 'grandmother suck eggs stuff' but the way
Summon and other discovery systems return just your stuff, in terms of
e-journals, is by referencing your OpenURL resolvers knowledgebase. Also
to gain access to resources you are using OpenURL so all the data you
would actually need from publishers is enough to create an OpenURL - TOC
information in other words. I saw an interesting presentation on
University of Lincoln's Jerome project which if used in conjunction with
a resolver looked to me to have embryonic potential as the basis of a
home baked 'Summon like' system.

Jon McGowan
University of Leicester Systems bloke.



-----Original Message-----
From: Open source software in libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Chris Keene
Sent: 15 February 2011 11:09
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [LIS-OSS] Getting from "here" to "there"? (Re: Welcome!)

On 14/02/2011 10:17, Owen Stephens wrote:
> I keep going back to the fact that (presumably) publishers have an
> interest in their content being discoverable - so why does it take any
> amount of negotiation to get access to this data - why aren't they
> knocking on the door pleading to be included in search indexes? [this
is
> somewhat rhetorical as I'm not that naive, but I think the underlying
> point holds true]

Good point. Listening to Discovery layer vendors (Serials Solutions, ex 
libris, Ebsco). Content negotiation does not sound quick, with many 
references to 'we are in negotiation with publisher x'. May be an 
element of publishers who belong to the same group as a discovery vendor

not wanting to pass data to competitors.

Of course it gets 'greyer' when you move away from journal articles 
(where the full text is the paid for content, and the metadata is the 
hook). I'm also thinking of products such as LexisNexis and 
organisations which may also sell an Indexing and Abstracting service 
which they don't want to harm.



So if there are two broad areas to Resource discovery system
- [1] obtaining data, managing knowledgebase of what you subscribe to
- [2] front end search service

We've noted that the latter is pure software which OSS can provide, and 
already does with VuFind and Blacklight. But what about the former?

If the former was to be an effort carried out by a community or sole 
Library instead of a software vendor, what steps might be involved:
- Agree to T&Cs with a publisher
- Get data (duh)
- set up automation for updates
- software process to convert data to a standard (usable by the front
end)
- software to de-dup from other sources
- is this data just for your holdings, or for all their content? 
Probably requires some work. If data is for all their content, and there

is no flag for items which your institution subscribes, how do you hope 
to return results just for things users have access to
- load in to front end

I'm not sure this is a complete list, especially around local holdings, 
and ensuring any system knows which content you have access to.

What have I missed?

Chris


-- 
Chris Keene
Technical Development Manager
University of Sussex Library
Library: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/
Contact: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/150000