Www.monash.edu.au Simon Huggard ICDL Conference Wed 25 February, 2004 The Management of electronic...

www.monash.edu.au

Simon HuggardICDL Conference Wed 25 February, 2004

The Management of electronic resources for a Digital Library

www.lib.monash.edu.au

Overview

• About Monash University Library• Definition of Electronic Resource Management• Strategies employed at Monash University

library• Examples from Monash

- eJournals- eBooks- databases- eprints


About Monash University Library

• Monash University Library has 8 libraries in Australia (all in the state of Victoria).

• 2 overseas campus libraries located in Malaysia and South Africa.



• The Australian library collection comprises of over 2.6 million physical items.

• Electronic resources cover 25,000 eJournals, 20,000 e-books, with links to over 90,000 URLs in the library catalogue.



• The library serves a population of approximately 50,000 students and over 5,000 staff.

• The library has approximately 200 staff.• The Systems Support area has 13 staff.


Statistics

• Over A$4 million spent on electronic databases and journals in 2003

• Over 9 million uses of databases & eJournals in 2003

• 900,000 hits per week on library web site

• 80,000 hits per week on databases area

• 200,000 hits per week on library Voyager catalogue


Management of electronic resources

• Web site development (resource discovery)

• Library catalogue management• Links to databases and eJournals• Local digital collections• Authentication• Metadata• Usage analysis• Usability analysis & surveys


Strategies at Monash University Library

• Add all resources to the local catalogue• Single metadata vocabulary & description• Export data to all places where it is useful• Automate all of this as much as possible• Use local resources as much as possible• Experiment with commercial and open source

software


Problems

• Early adoption means software is often not very well developed or documented

• Require expertise (and/or time to learn)• It is always a risk (we’ve had a few disasters in

my time)• Copyright / legal issues can be a problem• Local expertise must be documented as well• When staff change, value of projects can

change and systems can be dropped


Examples from Monash – Databases page

• Old page created in plain HTML in 1998• As the list of databases grew, it became more

difficult to manage and more confusing for users

• User survey in 2001 said:– access pathways needed to be simplified– help material needed to be re-examined– database selection screens need to be re-written, to

include descriptions that will assist users to choose relevant databases


Examples from Monash – Databases page


Databases page: objectives for replacement

• More and better defined metadata• Multiple access points• Searchability• Links between pages due to metadata

hierarchy• Web pages (about 1000 pages) created

from one single data point (library catalogue)


Databases page – metadata

• A faculty and subject-based set of metadata descriptors was already being used in the library catalogue

• Over about 7 months in 2003 this was revised for use on the databases page

• 120 descriptors was too many – revised down to 80

• Program was written to create the new page


Databases program

• Uses ODBC drivers to connect to the Oracle database and do the initial SQL query

• Program written in MS Visual FoxPro to reformat the data

• Output in HTML format• HTML files copied to web server• XML data is also created to be used in a future

system (web Content Management System)


MARC data is retrieved


MARC data is reformatted into fields


What has been the effect of the change?

• Important to help users through change and keep them informed

• Don’t just do things because it’s easier for your library to maintain

• Many users have said it is really great and a huge improvement (~65%)

• Others have said the complete opposite (~35%)


How has the new page been received?

• One user said: “Hi, just wanted to let you know that I feel the new format is easier to follow and use. I spent about 15 minutes looking for something using the existing format, and couldn't find it, and spent about 5 minutes in the new format and found what I was after almost straight away. The new format is definitely a winner.” [email received 8 August 2003].

• Another user, however, said: “If it isn't broken, then don't fix it.” [email received 19 September 2003]


Eprints.org software

• In 2002 the library decided to download and install the open source “eprints.org” software, to promote published and unpublished academic content produced by the University each year.

• The metadata used is DC but the subject descriptions use the Australian Bureau of Statistic’s Australian Standard Research Classification scheme to describe the subjects covered by the documents. Plus there is a list of faculties and some departments which is used.


Eprints.org software

• Separate repository• Supports OAI-PMH protocol• Not unified with other library resources• Plan to integrate with library catalogue• Plan to integrate into my.monash portal


Eprint.org software

• Learnt a lot about OAI-PMH, XML, metadata schemas, MySQL database

• Did upgrade to latest version and customisation of software in the library

• Loading of records by cataloguers• Can run on very cheap hardware• Quite a simple system and a good starting point

for getting involved with open source software


E-books and E-Journals

• Management within the library• Not outsourced to Serials Solutions,

TDNet or other providers• Gained lots of experience with titles,

linking and so on• Good experience for dealing with

OpenURL resolver software


E-books and E-Journals

• Library catalogue well maintained and up to date

• Local expertise• Use this data confidently elsewhere on

the web site• Updating of data when and how we want

it done


Bulk editing tools

• Fastcat page• MARC tools program• Voyager editing tools• MARC editing tools


Fastcat input page


Ejournals pages

• Also created automatically from Library Catalogue

• Customised for Faculty-based users• Will push to users within the my.monash

portal• Require a lot of maintenance in the

catalogue, but tools have been developed to automate a lot of this


Example of ejournals pages


Ejournals pages


Future projects

• Automation of Monash University Lectures online requesting and web pages

• Automation of eReserve requesting and web pages

• Monash University ePress and the ARROW project (possibly using Fedora, ePrints.org , commercial (TerraText) and other software).


Future considerations

• Separate repositories may cause more confusion, unless they are all searchable from the one interface (an OAI compliant repository for example)

• Library catalogues need to catch up to become OAI, Z39.50, XML, ISO & OpenURL compliant



• I see large portal / DL software merging with the library catalogue – eg. ExLibris’s SFX & MetaLib, and Library

Catalogue software will merge.

– Fretwell-Downing’s VDX, Olib & Zportal software will merge

– Endeavor’s EnCompass, Clio & Voyager software will merge



• Commercial library software will also be better at managing and bulk editing of electronic resources (particularly if they move away from MARC and towards XML).



• Fedora, Dspace, ePrints.org, Koha, Greenstone, MyLibrary and other open source software will move towards the same standards

• OpenURL, Z39.50 compliance for all large ejournal and database sets, such as ScienceDirect, Wiley, Lexis/Nexis, etc.


Thank You

• Any questions?

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