--- Apologies for cross-posting --- The following newsletter for those in libraries, museums and archives interested in internet developments is now also mounted at http://www.covax.org. COVAX News Issue 2 June 2001 1. Making cultural resources accessible Issue 1 of Covax News outlined the objectives of COVAX (Contemporary Culture Virtual Archive in XML). A key part of the project involves bringing together and searching distributed databases using fast-developing open standards based on XML (eXtensible Markup Language). How does Covax intend to describe the collections included in the service? How are we addressing the need for resource discovery in multiple languages? A key part of the Covax approach is the innovative use of an XML Explain database based on the concept of the Z39.50 Explain standard, used to describe System Details about servers, Content Provider details about organisations and XML-Repository details about databases and collections. The descriptions, names, addresses, and support information for each site or database are marked up using XML, which provides a common structure for information provided by each of the partners. The records for the prototype are being centrally coordinated, so that for each a native language version is prepared and one in English. Then each partner is responsible for translating each record into their own language, according to a schedule of responsibilities allocated by the workpackage manager. If a partner fails to contribute their translations, a record is made available to the Covax system only in English or in those version that are available. It is hoped that partners will contribute Explain content records and translations promptly in order to ensure that their materials are easily accessible to the maximum number of users. 2. PARTNER PROFILE: Residencia de Estudiantes The Residencia de Estudiantes, founded in 1910 by the Junta Para Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas, is now a private foundation, created by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) in December 1989. Originally a student residence, it became the primary cultural centre in Spain. It is known as being the institution where Spaniards such as Federico García Lorca, Salvador Dalí, Luis Buñuel, Severo Ochoa, Miguel de Unamuno, Alfonso Reyes, Manuel de Falla, Juan Ramón Jiménez, José Ortega y Gasset, Pedro Salinas, Blas Cabrera, Eugenio d’Ors or Rafael Alberti, were living or were assiduous visitors. Furthermore, the Residencia was a forum for debate and dissemination of the intellectual life between 1910-1936. Albert Einstein, Paul Valéry, Marie Curie, Igor Stravinsky, John M. Keynes, Alexander Calder, Walter Gropius, Henri Bergson o Le Corbusier among others visited and shared their knowledge in the Residencia. Since 1990 the Residencia is once again one of the most important cultural centres of Spain. Also the Residencia de Estudiantes is devoted to the recovery and dissemination of its historical legacy. Hence, a unique collection of bibliographical and documentary resources specializing in the intellectual history and contemporary science of first third of the Twentieth Century can be consulted. The personal archives of Luis Cernuda, Jesús Bal y Gay, Fernando de los Ríos, Manuel Altolaguirre y Concha Méndez o León Sánchez Cuesta and those of institutions such as the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas or the Museo Pedagógico Nacional stand out. A description of the documentary and bibliographical resources and a collection of images of the digitized documents are available at the Red de centros y archivo virtual de la Edad de Planta de la cultura española contemporánea (1868-1936), a project which is headed by the Residencia de Estudiantes and is financed by the Fundación Marcelino Botín. (website: http://www.achivovirtual.org) The Residencia promotes research projects focusing on two main areas of activity: discovery and disclosure of the historical legacy of Spanish culture, and presentation and analysis of present trends in thought in order to explore the future of culture as we know it. The Residencia de Estudiantes publishes critical editions of its historical texts and rescues exceptional testimonies such as the "Archivo de la Palabra" or the "Residencia" magazine. 3. Review of XML Spy by Fabrizio Poggi, ENEA, Rome Introduction XML Spy is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) environment from Altova GmbH & Altova used in the Covax project to manage and simplify the markup and editing tasks of users handling XML materials. Website: http://www.xmlspy.com/ XML XML is a subset of the SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) markup language, defined by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). XML is a free, non-proprietary standard that is likely in the near future to play an important part in the transfer, presentation, enrichment and standardization of computer data and transactions. Many IT companies now consider XML as crucial for the future development of innovative technologies. It should be relatively straightforward to read, validate and edit XML code but the development of the related tools is still in progress. We can certainly work with XML, including use of open source tools (that for many of us seems a preferred option), but XML tools currently available are not particularly suitable or easy to use, especially compared with tools availabile for HTML, web authoring, java and JavaScript related, etc. XML Spy 3.5 Premium version -- please note that a 4.0 beta version of XML Spy is now available but not reviewed here -- XML Spy is not an open source IDE, but, from the point of view of usability and functionality for XML management, it seems to be an excellent choice, offering the necessary reliability for professional use. XML supports the full XML syntax, parsing, well-formedness, validation, encoding; DTD definition; schema definition; XSL and XSLT management; HTML and XHTML rules (this last is a superset of HTML4.0 rules that adds to markup a more rigorous syntax and compatibility with XML environments); syntax highlighting; interoperability with other external applications (imports from Microsoft Word); some of ASP and BizTalk (untested). The grid mode In the Covax context, we use XML Spy for working with our source data in several modes. The XML graphical representation in XML Spy is called "Enhanced Grid View". Without a screenshot of this mode, think of it as a hierarchical view that allows easy reading and work on the structure of the XML source (structure intended as the tree of parents, child and sibling elements) and with field values encapsulated in the structure itself. This working mode presents coloured fonts and cells that improve visual presentation (parameters can be customised by the user: font size, font colour, colour of selected and non selected elements). This mode gives the best idea of the structure. The benefits of this mode are mainly the ability to edit the hierarchical tree safely (the content of the tree elements is limited by the grid cells and users can't mistake content editing and structure editing) and to add, remove, change the location of elements and values shown using standard windows methods (drag and drop, copy, cut, paste). XML Spy makes this work so easy that someone may accidentally move elements, so perhaps there should be a confirmation pop-up window for drag and drop events. However, the infinite undo mechanism should allow users to avoid accidental changes. At the time of writing we have come across a few small problems, related mainly to expansion of elements and scrolling grids containing cells with large amounts of texts inside, but these are just minor scrolling difficulties when viewing with a 1024x768 screen resolution. Text and browse mode The alternative mode is text view, supplemented by a browser mode. We consider these last two as a single mode of working (as in most cases the user works on the text source switching continually to browser mode to verify the result of applied changes). In this mode the user has more control over the markup coding and can work directly with it, with the support of a useful auto-completion function and syntax highlighting. This mode is always active during editing and provides readability (the tags and the special parameters appear here in different colours) as well as reducing typing effort (XML tag pairs are closed auto-magically by the IDE and in HTML, where the tags are limited to a small subset, a window list appears on the cursor popping up with all possible completions for the typed code). Switching to browser view, the user can easily see the results of editing in a preview (almost identical to Internet Explorer display) of the HTML page. The XML work Our main work was loading, parsing and validating XML sources against a DTD. XML Spy first loads the entire source. When the xml file has been loaded, XML Spy verifies the well-formedness of the source using its internal parser. An incremental check of the syntax is applied, allowing the user to apply corrections and changes. This check also includes special characters and encoding. The second phase is validation. When a DTD is specified in the XML source document, XML Spy also loads the DTD file and performs a check on rules and semantics, matching the DTD file (which contains all the rules) and the XML file (which contains a data structure and contents). At this stage it is also possible to make changes and corrections on the fly to complete the validation. Our experience of using this validation shows that the built-in parser conforms more closely to the Microsoft XML specifications, than to the full W3C XML standard. In some cases, XML source documents validated in XML Spy gave us problems with other validation systems. For example, the Tamino internal loader/parser detected errors in XML documents that had been fully validated in XML Spy. Conclusions XML Spy 3.5 Premium Version is a professional, stable tool for Windows 98, ME, Nt4 and Windows 2000 O/S. It has an attractive, intuitive interface well implemented using a small setup package. It is an ideal IDE environment for markup languages in specific contexts (e.g.: XML, XSL, XSLT, HTML, XHTML etc.). It is one of the first powerful tools available. XML editing benefits include auto completion, syntax highlighting, multiview environment, parsing, undo/redo infinite mechanism. Despite the small package size, XML Spy requires a huge amount of physical memory and system resources (because of the undo/redo mechanism and the need to load documents fully into RAM memory). We have experienced some problems with large XML documents (10MB) on a Windows NT4 Workstation running on a Pentium II processor with 128 MB RAM. Other minor problems are: the management of tree expansions and window scroll bars when used in grid mode working on fields containing large amounts of text; some delays in text mode when typing in large files. 4. Kulturerbe:online By Georg Guentner, Salzburg Research, email: [log in to unmask] Exploitation plans for COVAX in Austria start with a virtual catalogue for Austria's cultural heritage on the Internet. One important issue arising with RTD projects carried out under the IST programme within the 5th Framework Programme is the development of exploitation strategies for the results achieved. COVAX (Contemporary Virtual Archives in XML, IST-1999-11820) provides mainly technological proof, that the upcoming XML standard is feasible as the basis of distributed cross-domain metadata-searching in the field of cultural heritage and as a communications interface within the component based application architecture. Exploitation plans at Salzburg Research, one of the technology partners of the COVAX consortium, consider a strategy that starts from a service centred point of view. The "Kulturerbe:online" project ("cultural heritage online") aims to create a national service infrastructure, both organisational and technical, that provides a virtual catalogue of Austria's cultural heritage. COVAX components will be used for this, although they will have to be adapted, localised and further developed. The main aim of the Kulturerbe:online project is to set up a virtual catalogue of the Austrian cultural heritage on the internet accessible from an ALM portal. A number of different cultural institutions (Museums, Libraries, Archives) will create a common platform for making their catalogues available to the public. Kulturerbe:online thus offers a comprehensive search engine for the Austrian cultural heritage. This search engine is not a substitute for existing catalogues, but instead makes these accessible via a single user interface and links to the more detailed catalogues of the partner institutions and their digital surrogates. Kulturerbe:online is a pilot project, which proves by developing a network of participating partner institutions that it is possible to consolidate different standards of description and categorisation schemes to form a common platform and make resources searchable via a shared method. The participating cultural institutions provide parts of their digital catalogues and participate unremunerated as pilot-users in the project. In later issues of this newsletter we will describe our plans to use the Kulturerbe:online portal as the starting place for search services and for information services from syndicated ALMs. The Kulturerbe:online project is being carried out by Salzburg NewMediaLab, a national centre of competence for new media, and by a consortium of partners comprising amongst others AIT, Software AG Austria and the Austrian National Library. Kulturerbe:online · Is developing a virtual catalogue of the Austrian cultural heritage · Offers a common and uniform view of Austrian cultural heritage · Makes references to the detailed catalogues of cultural institutions · Is developing the technical basis for the preservation of the catalogue of Austrian Heritage · Advises and assists institutions in the development of their own digital catalogues · Represents an important building block in the development of comprehensive e-services for museums, libraries and archives 5. COVAX EVENTS Fifth ICCC/IFIP Conference on Electronic Publishing, Canterbury, UK The main objective of COVAX is to test the use of XML to combine document descriptions and digitised surrogates of cultural documents to build a global system for search and retrieval, increasing accessibility via the Internet to electronic resources, regardless of their location. COVAX's approach to achieving its objectives is based on the conversion of existing records to homogeneously-encoded document descriptions of bibliographic records, archive finding aids, museum records and catalogues, and electronic texts and on the application of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and the various Document Type Definitions (DTDs) currently being used for library resource descriptions (MARC DTD), archives finding aids (EAD), museum materials (AMICO DTD) and electronic versions of cultural texts (TEIlite). The conversion process has proved to be a crucial one in the COVAX-project and we therefore try to disseminate our experiences of converting existing data at seminars, workshops and conferences. One such event is the Fifth ICCC/IFIP Conference on Electronic Publishing to be held in Canterbury, UK 5-7 July 2001 The conference will be concerned with electronic publishing both for specialist audiences and for the general public. There will be two parallel tracks. The first track will include case studies, presentations of projects and presentations of implemented electronic publishing solutions in public and scholarly libraries, publishers, museums, etc. It will also include electronic provision of local community or tourist information, government information, and the like. The second track will concentrate on technical issues such as file formats, retrieval issues, etc. A major underlying theme of the ICCC/IFIP Electronic Publishing conferences is the promotion of an 'exchange of experience' between the participants - especially between academics researching in the area, and publishers and others with practical experience. All papers are refereed to ensure high quality. The Covax paper written for the conference (Friday the 6th of July 13:30) is entitled "Converting heterogenous cultural catalogues and documents to XML - strategies and solutions of the Covax project", by Francisca Hernández, Peter Linde, Bob Mulrenin and Robin Yeates, presented by Robin Yeates. (http://library.ukc.ac.uk/iccc/2001) First Austrian Metadata Seminar, Vienna, Austria Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur, Vienna 18 May 2001 This event organized by CSC Austria and the Bundesminsterium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur reviewed metadata and current European XML developments for museums, libraries and archives, including COVAX, presented by Georg Guentner of Salzburg Research. The event has a website at http://www.cscaustria.at/events/eu0006.htm that includes presentations and a short summary by Michael Day of UKOLN. OTHER COVAX EVENTS First Italian Workshop "XML e Conoscenza" Podere d'Ombriano - Crema, Italy 29th-30th June, 2001 http://kaos.crema.unimi.it/xml An experience in XML: the COVAX project - L. Bordoni Workshop on "Artificial Intelligence for the Cultural Heritage and Digital Libraries - Bari, Italy 25th September, 2001 http://www.di.uniba.it/~aiia/english.html The Covax project- L. Bordoni Society of Archivists' Annual Conference "Safeguarding our culture' - Aberystwyth, UK 4-7 September, 2001 http://www.archives.org.uk/conf/aberystwyth.html COVAX - Contemporary culture visual archives in XML - Robin Yeates (5 September, 2001) 6. MORE ABOUT Covax A website has been established in Catalan, English, German, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish at http://www.covax.org, where you can find other issues of Covax News and other information about the project. Carlos Wert, the project Coordinator and Francisca Hernández have published an introductory article on Covax in Cultivate Interactive Issue 3 January 2001 (http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue3/covax/). 7. CONTACTS Project coordinator Carlos Wert, Residencia de Estudiantes, Pinar, 23, 28006 Madrid, Spain. Email: [log in to unmask] URL: http://www.covax.org Dissemination Robin Yeates, LASER, Robin Yeates, Assistant Director: Research & Development, LASER, 4th Floor, Gun Court, 70 Wapping Lane, London E1W 2RS, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (020) 7702 2020 Fax: +44 (020) 7702 2019 email: [log in to unmask] URL: http://www.viscount.org.uk/research/covax/ Rights and disclaimer --------------------- COVAX is part funded by the European Commission. The authors are solely responsible for the content of this newsletter. The site does not represent the opinion of the Community and the Community is not responsible for any use that might be made of data appearing herein. Reproduction of the newsletter is authorised, except for commercial purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. Some of the documents and multimedia sequences in this newsletter and on the COVAX website might contain references, or pointers, to information maintained by other organisations. Please note that we do not control and cannot guarantee the relevance, timeliness or accuracy of these outside materials. -- Robin Yeates Assistant Director: Research & Development LASER The Development & Networking Agency 4th Floor, Gun Court 70 Wapping Lane London E1W 2RS United Kingdom Tel: +44 (020) 7702 2020 Fax: +44 (020) 7702 2019 email: [log in to unmask] URL: http://www.viscount.org.uk/ 'Serving the London, South East and Eastern Regions' Company No. 1991362. VAT No. 233106019 A Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered Charity No. 293864.