Models for Digital Libraries

1
Models for Digital Libraries

• CSC 9010 - week 2
• The 5S model is the work of Edward A. Fox and his
  students at Virginia Tech. These slides rely
  heavily on that work.

2
Schedule notes

• We will briefly review the slides from week 1 to
  be sure all is well.
• I will be traveling again next week. I apologize
  for the disruption. This is the last trip this
  semester that will affect the class.
• I will have an online class for you, so we will
  just have a week of distance learning.

3
Week 2 goals

• Discuss reading of As we may think
• Review of points in the discussion of What is a
  Digital Library?
• You read the definition. I hope you gave it some
  thought. Lets explore a bit more now.
• Introduce a formal model of digital libraries
• Use the 5 S model to direct thinking about the
  design of a DL
• Briefly introduce systems to be used
• More will come about the computer systems and the
  software available. Start with your own goals.

4
Our systems

• Several linux machines, remotely accessible
• Bare machines with just basic system software.
• We will install apache and the rest of the web
  infrastructure, as well as the DL software.
• Detailed instructions will be available next week
  or the week after that.

5
Using your own?

• If you prefer to use your own computer for the
  class projects, that is fine IF
• (Required) It can be put online so that others
  can access the DL you produce during the semester
• (Preferred, but optional) You will agree to
  transfer your DL to a VU system for long term
  demonstration use if requested.
• The best projects are good inspiration for other
  students and we would like your work to remain
  visible if it is a good project that might
  interest other people.

6
Discussion - Reading 1

• As we may think by Vannevar Bush
• Published July 1945
• Had been part of the Manhattan Project, which
  produced the atomic bomb
• After the war, he wanted to direct attention to
  other possibilities for science
• His work led directly to the establishment of the
  National Science Foundation

7
Concern with access to knowledge

• Mendel's concept of the laws of genetics was lost
  to the world for a generation because his
  publication did not reach the few who were
  capable of grasping and extending it and this
  sort of catastrophe is undoubtedly being repeated
  all about us, as truly significant attainments
  become lost in the mass of the inconsequential.

8
Memex - Hypermedia

• It affords an immediate step, however, to
  associative indexing, the basic idea of which is
  a provision whereby any item may be caused at
  will to select immediately and automatically
  another. This is the essential feature of the
  memex. The process of tying two items together is
  the important thing.

9
memex

• Vannevar Bushs vision
• What did you notice about this article -- style
  or content or background or anything else.
• How far have we come?
• Did the article suggest anything you would not
  want to see happen?

Image source kelty.rice.edu/375/images/memex/came
ra.jpg http//www.knowledgesearch.org/presentation
s/etcon/images/memex.gif
10
MyLifeBits

• Gordon Bell and Microsoft
• http//www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,167
  4359,00.html
• Gordon Bell doesn't need to remember, but has no
  chance of forgetting. At the age of 71, he is
  recording as much of his life as modern
  technology will allow, storing it all on a vast
  database a digital facsimile of a life lived.
• If he goes for a walk, a miniature camera that
  dangles from his neck snaps pictures every minute
  or so, immediately committing the scene to a
  memory built not of neurons but ones and noughts.
  If he wanders into a cafe, sensors note the
  change in light, the shift of temperature and
  squirrel the information away. Conversations are
  recorded and steps logged thanks to a GPS
  receiver carried with him.
• How does this compare to Vannevar Bushs vision?

11
Related work

• Waldens Path
• http//www.csdl.tamu.edu/walden/
• When the user is building a trail, he names it,
  inserts the name in his code book, and taps it
  out on his keyboard. - Vannevar Bush As We May
  Think
• System used by itself or as a service within a
  digital library
• Allows a user to make a path through a set of
  related resources and save the path for reuse at
  a later time.
• Used to allow a teacher to blaze a trail
  through a collection of materials to help
  students find their way from a starting point to
  a goal.
• Also for recording personal trips through a
  collection of material to be revisited.

12
Moving Forward

• Last week
• Looked at what a library is
• Now
• How do we translate that to a digital entity?
• Information resources, including digital
  libraries, are very complex systems.
• A formal model helps to capture the essence of
  the system and give special attention to specific
  areas
• The model also allows developers of digital
  libraries to have a check list of areas to
  consider and develop well.

13
The 5S model - An informal summary

• Streams
• The flow of information in various formats
• Structures
• Organizational aspects of the DL
• Spaces
• Views of components real or abstract images
• Scenarios
• Services and behaviors
• Societies
• Communities and relationships among them

14
5S summary
Source http//www.dlib.vt.edu/projects/5S-Model/
15
Etana - A DL for archeology
16
An example application of 5S - Etana A DL for an
archeological site
Scenario model
Society model
Repository building
Services
Archaeologist
Service Manager
Value added
General public
Domain specific
Space model
Information Satisfaction
Geographic space
User interface
Metric space
Structure model
Taxonomies
Spatial
Metadata
Temporal
Artifact-specific
Sub-partition
Site
Container
Artifact
Locus
Region
Partition
Stream model
Text
Video
Audio
Drawing
Photo
3D
Source E. A. Fox http//feathers.dlib.vt.edu/
17
An exercise - Subjects of interest for creating a
DL

• Indian Music
• Video games
• Photos
• Books
• Animals
• Cultures
• National Parks

• Example to use
• Music -1
• Video games - 3
• Photos - 2
• Books -2
• Animals 3
• Cultures - 3
• National Parks 2

18
Applying the model, informally

• Subjects from class interest list
• Stream - what types of data? Gif, jpg, avi?
• Structure - How are the elements organized? Is
  there a hierarchy? Are there multiple
  structures?
• Spaces - How will we index the items? How will we
  divide them into related groups
• Scenarios - what services will we provide? What
  information do we need to provide those services?
• Societies - who is the library intended to serve?
  Remember to include agents and other processes
  as well as users.

In your group, choose one or the other. Start
with stream, scenarios, societies.
19
More formally Definitions

• Definition A stream is a sequence whose
  co-domain is a non empty set.
• Definition A structure is a tuple (G, L, F)
  where G (V,E) is a directed graph with vertex
  set V and edge set E, L is a set of label values,
  and F is a labeling function.

20
Definitions, contd

• Definition A space is a measurable space,
  measure space, probability space, vector space,
  topological space, or metric space
• A vector space is a representation for the set of
  elements in a collection. The vector
  representing each element is a set of
  characteristics held by that element and both
  connecting that element to others that are
  similar and distinguishing it from those that are
  different.
• We will do an exercise to illustrate

21
Definitions - 3

• Definition A scenario is a sequence of related
  transition events (e1, e2, , en) on state set S
  such that ek (sk, sk1,) for 1 lt k lt n.
• More easily visualized, a scenario is a path in a
  directed graph, G (S, ?e), where vertices
  correspond to states in the state set S and
  directed edges are equivalent to events in a set
  of events, ?e, and correspond to transitions
  between states.
• Scenarios must be implemented to make a working
  system.

22
Definitions - 4

• Definition A society is a tuple (C,R) where
• C (c1, c2, , cn) is a set of conceptual
  communities, each community referring to a set of
  individuals of the same class or type (e.g.
  actors, activities, components, hardware,
  software, data)
• R (r1, r2, , rm) is a set of relationships,
  each relationship being a tuple rj (ej, ij)
  where ej is a Cartesian product ck1 x ck2 x x
  cknj. 1lt k1 lt k2 lt lt knjlt n, which specifies
  the communities involved in the relationship and
  ij is an activity.

23
Summary - Week 2

• Continued to explore what a digital library
  really is
• Introduced some formal concepts for modeling a DL
• Briefly discussed the installation and operation
  of our own DLs.