The ISIS software environment

1
The ISIS software environment

• Its potential for university libraries in
  developing countries

2
Introduction to the ISIS software

• A family of softwares based on standards
  developed by UNESCOs CDS/ISIS textual retrieval
  database
• A do-it-yourself open database environment, not
  a ready-made library automation package ! Even
  though such integrated library systems based on
  ISIS exist (IRBIS, Bibliobase)
• An old concept (1970s) but still very much
  alife with many flavours and platforms nowadays

3
ISIS-software characteristics

• A database format for management of
  semi-structured textual data (cfr. XML)
• Based on ISO-2709 (-gtMARC)
• Mostly developed in non-profit environments
  (UN-organisations, e.g. ILO, UNESCO, FAO and WHO)
  and often free or low-cost
• Large users base in esp. Latin America (),
  Eastern Europe (), Asia () and Africa (),
  less in Western Europe (-)

4
The ISIS-standard formats

• The storage data-format MST based on ISO-2709
  (variable fieldstructure and variable
  fieldlengths), subfields first-order index in
  XRF-file
• Inverted File structure for fast retrieval IFP
• The Formatting Language to apply on data
• The Search Command Language (Boolean, logical and
  proximity operators)

5
Actual capabilities

• Deals with large volumes, remains fast
• Runs on DOS, UNIX, Windows, JAVA, WWW
• JAVA version available
• XML-import and export
• Visual programming environment (DLL)
• - No real full-text capability (ISO2709)
• - Not (yet) really open source -gt expected
• - Lacking co-ordination and quality control
  (UNESCO !!)

6
Members of the family 1

• Founding father CDS/ISIS for VAX (1970s)
• Micro CDS/ISIS for DOS developed by UNESCO from
  1985
• Added programming language ISIS/Pascal
• Added networking and multi-user functions
• WinISIS for Windows
• Added graphical interface
• Added database-creation wizard
• multi-media and multi-database capabilities

7
Members of the family 2

• CISIS by BIREME (WHO), Brasil
• CISIS-utilities powerful command-line tools for
  ISIS-database management
• E.g. re-tagging, cleaning, joining databases
• WWWISIS CGI-webserver for ISIS-databases
  (Unixes and Windows)
• ISISDLL programming library for C, Visual
  Basic, Delphi, Java

8
Members of the ISIS-family 3

• JAVAISIS (Italy) graphical interface using
  JAVA to access local or IP-based database access
• OPENISIS (Germany) open source development of
  new ISIS-environment
• ISISWWW (Poland) webserver
• GenISIS (France) webinterface
• All kinds of tools (ISO2709-conversion,
  dbIII-conversion)
• Interfaces (ISIS-DOS, WWW)

9
ISIS and library systems

• ISIS is NOT an integrated library system !!
• Integrated library packages based on ISIS exist
• LAMP (Pakistan) DOS-based
• IRBIS (Russia) ISISDLL, Windows
• Bibliobase (Portugal) ISISDLL, Access, Visual
  Basic
• Several more exist in Asia (e.g. Bogor
  Agricultural University, Indonesia) and
  Latin-America (e.g. Zeus, circulation system
  http//www.control.com.br/zeus.htm)
• CD-ROM interfaces (e.g. HEURISKO), OPAC
  interfaces (e.g. IRIS), data-entry with authority
  control (e.g. ADEM, ODIN) -gt facilitate use in
  libraries

10
Advantages for southern libraries

• Low hardware resources needed OPACs like IRIS
  run on 386, WinISIS on Win3.x
• Much ISIS-based software is free (ODIN, IRIS) or
  cheap, e.g. Bibliobase 1000 USD
• Very efficient web-server for low-end servers
• open system no-proprietary database format
  can be accessed with many (free) tools, taking
  away dependency on commercial providers

11
Advantages 2

• Emphasis on staff skills and time, not on
  financial resources
• Good solution if staff time is available
• But staff should be sufficiently trained !
• At its best for catalogue databases
• good start for library automation at low cost
• Due to Formatting Language strength conversion to
  other (commercial) systems is possible at any
  stage

12
Disadvantages for Southern libraries

• Low 'prestige'...
• High investment in staff training needed
• Are donors prepared to invest in such software?
• No guaranteed support available ...
• ...

13
Case study SNAL, Tanzania

• Catalogue building with ODIN CCF-format,
  authority files, thesaurus (CABI), validation,
  subfields handling
• Searching
• IRIS for easy searching, running on old DOS-PCs
  with OPAC-characteristics (looping, protected)
• WWWIRIS for Web-based access
• Loans ODIN-extension for quick generation of
  loans-records and linking of databases
  (catalogues, users, transactions)
• Tools many ISIS-Pascal programmes exist

14
Case study SNAL project activities

• Classic software installation and training
• But then also
• Training on tools for database management
• Training on network setup from cabling to
  protocols
• Training on how to maintain old computer hardware
  (adding memory, replacing harddisks,
  videocards..)
• TBD using ISIS-documentation, support
  resources, small programming...

15
A new ISIS policy by UNESCO

• Open Source Development model will be adopted
  at Eschborn (Germany) meeting 3-4 April 2003
  (!!!)
• New ISIS-technical specs
• Strong updating of max. limits for database,
  record and indexing terms size, no. of records
  (4,294,967,295)
• Output formatting to RTF, HTML, PDF, XML with
  XSLT
• New Client-Server architecture
• New DLL will be produced

16
Discussion 1

• UNESCOs ISIS policy very poor nowadays, with
  many consequences on distribution and support
  future co-ordination of Open Source development
• Which is the best spot on the X-Y graph of the
  financial vs. staff resource costs ? This spot
  will vary according to environment !
• Hope is based on new developers environments,
  e.g. OPENISIS, ISISDLL and vast users-basis