Introduction to the Information Environment Service Registry

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Introduction to the Information Environment
Service Registry

• Amanda Hill
• MIMAS,
• The University of Manchester, UK

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Context

• Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
  provides ICT infrastructure and advice for United
  Kingdom universities and colleges
• Funds a large number of projects, as well as
  electronic collections for the research, learning
  and teaching communities
• www.jisc.ac.uk

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Current digital landscape

• a vast and sometimes bewildering range of
  potential sources of electronic information.
• Little wonder, then, that many users remain
  unaware of their existence or fail to discover
  their value for their own learning, teaching or
  research.
• Investing in the FutureDeveloping an Online
  Information Environment http//www.jisc.ac.uk/inde
  x.cfm?nameie_home

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JISC Information Environment

• aims to make it easier for the user to find
  relevant information and learning resources
• will enable presentation, delivery and use of
  online resources in ways tailored to support
  individual and institutional requirements in
  learning, teaching and research

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IE Technical Model
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Shared Services

• To enable portals and other services to deliver
  diverse digital resources, machine-readable
  information about services, content, rights and
  users is required to act as the glue between
  portals and the content itself.
• Investing in the FutureDeveloping an Online
  Information Environment http//www.jisc.ac.uk/inde
  x.cfm?nameie_home

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Shared Services

• To enable portals and other services to deliver
  diverse digital resources, machine-readable
  information about services, content, rights and
  users is required to act as the glue between
  portals and the content itself.

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IESR

• A registry of the electronic resources available
  within the JISCs Information Environment
• Contains information about
• the resources themselves
• how to access the resources
• the resource provider(s)
• Is accessible by other applications via
  machine-to-machine interfaces

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Project history

• Partners
• MIMAS, University of Manchester
• UKOLN, University of Bath
• Cheshire Development Team, University of
  Liverpool
• Funded by JISC in three phases since November
  2002
• Current phase started 1 March 2005

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Collections

• 259 resources currently described, submitted by
• AHDS
• Edina
• MIMAS
• Resource Discovery Network
• UK Data Archive
• UK Mirror Service (now the JISC National Mirror
  Service)
• In current phase, we will be expanding our
  content to encompass non-JISC service providers
  e.g.
• institutional resources (digital repositories,
  OPACs)
• resources of other UK Common Information
  Environment partners (National Archives, British
  Library, National Health Service, BBC)

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IESR Metadata and Services

• Ann Apps
• MIMAS,
• The University of Manchester, UK

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Outline

• IESR content description
• IESR services
• Using IESR

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IESR Content

• Descriptions of
• Collections of resources
• Informational Services that provide access
• Agents Owners / Administrators
• Transactional Services
• Supplied by resource providers
• Check by IESR content manager

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IESR Entities
Collection
provides access
owns
Service
Agent
administers
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IESR Entity Description

• Entities identified with URI
• Described by metadata
• Based on open standards
• IESR terms defined in IESR namespace
• Metadata defined by Application Profile
• Semantics
• Occurrence
• Searchable

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IESR Collection Metadata

• Based on RSLP Collection Description
• Simplification for electronic resources
• Consistent with DCMI Collection Description
  Application Profile
• Links to other entities
• hasService Service
• Owner Agent

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Vocabulary Encoding Schemes

• Defined in Application Profile
• Single backbone subject scheme
• Dewey
• Other common vocabularies supported
• iesrusesControlledList
• IESR defined list (extensible)
• terminology service item level search

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IESR Service Metadata

• More than RSLP CD locator
• Bespoke IESR scheme, uses open standards
• Single access method
• Z39.50, SOAP, OAI-PMH, Web/CGI
• Location URL
• Interface property for some service types
• Links to other entities
• serves Collection
• Administrator Agent

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Other Service types

• SOAP
• Locator access URL
• Interface WSDL
• OAI-PMH
• Locator BaseURL
• Interrogate service (Identify) for details
• Web CGI Interface IESR Keys
• Web page Locator URL

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IESR Agent Metadata

• Agent name
• Agent description
• Contact details and URL
• Links to other entities
• owns Collection
• administers Service

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IESR Administrative Metadata

• Included with every entity
• Data suppliers can include
• creator / contributor, creation dates, source
• IESR includes
• creating organisation, publisher IESR
• latest modification date
• rights to reuse descriptions

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IESR Creative Commons Licence

• All IESR records licensed under a Creative
  Commons licence
• Non-commercial (freely available)
• Share-alike (maintain same licence)
• Attribution-required (attribute provenance)
• Suppliers agree to this licence
• http//creativecommons.org

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IESR Services

• Z39.50
• Bib-1
• SUTRS XML
• OAI-PMH (soon)
• Web Services SOAP (planned)
• SRW NISO VIEWS
• RSS (later)
• UDDI (under investigation)
• Web Search and Browse

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Z39.50 IESR XML

• Composite Collection record
• Collection
• All services that provide access
• All agents
• Owners of collection
• Administrators of services
• Composite Transactional Service record
• Service and all administrator agents

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Using IESR

• Portal (amalgamated set of resources)
• Metasearch on behalf of user
• Portal builder doesnt need to know about
  resources
• Users discover collections unaware of
• Harvest IESR records
• Local service registry
• Knowledgebase (convert to appropriate format)
• Local configuration file
• Link to Web Search - general resource discovery
• RSS Aggregator news feeds new data alerts
• Reuse collection description

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IESR Details

• Specifications http//iesr.ac.uk/metadata/
• Application Profile http//iesr.ac.uk/profile/
• XML Schema http//iesr.ac.uk/profile/xsd/iesr.xsd
  
• Web Search IESR http//iesr.ac.uk/registry/
• IESR Z39.50 service http//iesr.ac.uk/use/z3950/
• IESR Helpline service iesr_at_mimas.ac.uk
• Ann Apps ann.apps_at_manchester.ac.uk