Utility of an OAI Service Provider Search Portal

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Utility of an OAI Service Provider Search Portal

• ________________
• JCDL 2003Rice University, Houston, TexasMay 29,
  2003____________________By Sarah L. Shreeves,
  Christine Kirkham, Joanne Kaczmarek, Timothy W.
  Cole University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Univ. of Illinois OAI Metadata Harvesting Project
(http//oai.grainger.uiuc.edu)

• Funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (2001-2003)
• Create demonstrate OAI harvesting tools
• Build portal to aggregated cultural heritage
  metadata
• Initially For testing purposes
• Long-term As a sustained resource
• Investigate using EAD metadata in OAI context
• Investigate usability utility of aggregated
  metadata

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Content of the repository

• 1.1 million original Dublin Core records
• Representing born-digital and analog resources
• 2.5 million including records derived from EAD
  finding aids
• Metadata originating from 39 data providers
• Academic digital libraries, museums, archives
• Included metadata from 580 institutions

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Challenges of Aggregated Metadata

• Variations in use of DC

• Many different controlled and local vocabularies
  in use
• Granularity a record may describe a collection
  of coins or one coin

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Strategies for working with heterogeneous metadata

• Normalize some aspects (dates) using scripts
• Build indexes based on type of resource (image,
  text, physical object), not institution
• Derive item-level descriptions from 8,000 EAD
  finding aids
• ________________
• Create metadata for interoperability

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Original interface

• Portal has two search pagessimple (keyword) and
  advanced.

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Pilot user study with student teachers

• 23 users in honors-level CI class
• Assignment Use the site in preparing a lesson
  plan (high school social studies)
• __________
• Introduced to aggregated metadata concept
• Focus group interviews conducted
• Students papers examined
• Transaction logs analyzed

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Results

• 1. Users expected that links in all search
  results would point to digital objects
• Some records point to finding aids
• Some records point to collections web site
• Some records represent analog objects
• 2. Users unable to make use of search results
• Keyword searches produced 1000s of results,
  unranked
• Advanced search (with limits) rarely used
• 3. Owning institutions accorded equal credibility

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What does online access mean?

• To librarian curator

• To student teacher

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Response to test results

• EAD-derived records moved to separate portal
• All-analog collections excluded
• Categories of resource types reduced to 3
• Images and Video
• Text, Sheet Music, and Websites
• Museums and Archival Collections

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Revised interface

• Keyword advanced search on one page
• Clarify online access
• Natural language in Boolean operators

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Revised search results

• Link goes to finding aid or collection page?
  Learn more.
• Link displays object? View item.
• Subj/Desc expanded

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Conclusions

• Distinction between portal and data providers
  unimportant to users
• Need better definitions of online access
• More consistent practice in metadata authoring
  will help users
• Continue testing with users

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Related projects

• LSTA-funded Yellow Brick Roads Developing a
  Digital Shortcut to Statewide Information
  (http//frasier.library.uiuc.edu)
• IMLS Digital Collections and Content(http//imlsd
  cc.grainger.uiuc.edu)
• Build registry of NLG collections with digital
  content
• Build repository of NLG item-level metadata
• Research metadata practice develop models for
  aggregating metadata from diverse projects
• See also http//dli.grainger.uiuc.edu/

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Contacts

• Univ. of Illinois OAI Metadata Harvesting Project
  (http//oai.grainger.uiuc.edu)
• Timothy W. Cole, Principal Investigatort-cole3_at_ui
  uc.edu
• Sarah Shreeves, IMLS DCC Project
  Coordinatorsshreeve_at_uiuc.edu
• Joanne Kaczmarek, Archivist for Electronic
  Records jkaczmar_at_uiuc.edu
• Christine Kirkham, Graduate Assistantckirkham_at_uiu
  c.edu