Science Library Pad

ili2005 wiki ranking

The Internet Librarian International 2005 unofficial conference wiki made in into the top (by hits) wikis hosted on XWiki:

http://www.xwiki.com/xwiki/bin/view/Main/HallOfFame

http://ili2005.xwiki.com

996 Page Views

Unofficial wiki for Internet Librarian International 2005.

ILI2005 - presentations are up

UPDATE 2006-01-19: As predicted the presentation URL has moved, it is now

http://www.internet-librarian.com/2005Presentations/

replaces http://www.internet-librarian.com/Presentations/

As conferences are getting very good at putting up presentations shortly after or even during the event, I'm thinking just raw "notes" type conference blogging is becoming of limited use.

ILI2005 - Tuesday 11th - Using Open Source and Open Standards to Extend Proprietary Systems

Disclaimer: I work at CISTI.

  Glen Newton 
  Originally uploaded by mstephens7.

A good picture of Glen giving his presentation, taken by Michael Stephens.

Using Open Source and Open Standards to Extend Proprietary Systems

Glen Newton, CISTI
Michael Fortin, Concordia University (co-op student)

Initial solution
- PHP
- Z39.50
- could be embedded into CMS
- due to Z39.50 problems, used Yaz Proxy
http://www.indexdata.dk/yazproxy/
- implemented using Linux, Apache, PHP 5

[slide of interface for initial solution]

results interface is simpler than the direct catalogue interface

Extensions
* moved to Ajax
* search other Z39.50 databases
* search PubMed using HTTP REST
* search Amazon using Web Services
* use Web Services to get cover art from Amazon []
* search our own metadata database (MySQL)

[slide of interface for extended solution]

basically the interface presents the search with different tabs for each service,
so you get e.g. a search for "cell" on CISTI catalogue, PubMed, Amazon

Conclusion

turned into almost a federated search

* Success due to integration of open standards and open source
* Could have been done using non open source, at greater cost
* Would prefer to have used Innovative XML Server instead of Z39.50

See CISTI Lab.

Q from Brian Kelly: Ajax is making an application inside of a web browser, what are the CLF issues.
A: Amazon.ca may offer both English and French.  Within the browser Ajax is still building HTML / XHTML
so you can still comply...
Q from Brian: but Ajax depends on JavaScript, which ? violates CLF ?

ILI2005 - Tuesday 11th - West Sussex County Library Services

West Sussex County Council - West Sussex Past Gateway

http://www.westsussexpast.org.uk/

technical info
- DScovery - commercial tool
- info in databases; not crawlable by Google
- federated search using a scalable networked architecture

results displayed as they come in

Project futures:
* User feedback survey
* Other databases added
* Updates to data and portal content

ILI2005 - Tuesday 11th - IMG_7953 - photo of people outside during fire alarm

  IMG_7953.JPG 
  Originally uploaded by rakerman.

Copthorne Tara Hotel - after fire alarm evacuation during Internet Librarian International 2005 (they let us back in shortly thereafter).

ILI2005 - Tuesday 11th - The European Library

The European Library
Dr. Britta Woldering

What is The European Library?

A web service of European national libraries
* integrated access to the digital and non-digital collections of European national libraries
* 9 libraries at launch, 45 in the future

end-user site

http://www.TheEuropeanLibrary.org/

all official languages are equal... search offered in 8 languages...
multilingual searching is a goal but not implemented
There is a "max" project for multilingual search.

metadata for journals, books, and collections

Background: Collaboration
* preparing to integrate: Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Russia (Moscow) and Serbia

Portal issues
- scalability of the portal, number of searches it can sustain, (I think I heard) server-side issues
- helpdesk
- multilingual issues

European Digital Library?

Connected to the Council of Europe, not the EU.

ILI2005 - Tuesday 11th - Living with Google: New roles for libraries

Living with Google: New roles for libraries
Birte Christensen-Dalsgaard
Danish State and University libraries
(Statsbiblioteket)

try to understand libraries and technological change

Apply -> Integrate -> Infuse and Diffuse

books & journals - catalogue cards
then online catalogue
then e-journals, databases with metadata, cross search

How do libraries enter this third stage

"We have to be where the user is" (citing Lorcan Dempsey)

* Presence in user environment
* New paradigms for search and presentation
* New paradigms for communication and publication
* New roles
- service infrastructure (webservices, AAI, SOA)
- authenticity and permanent access
* New economical models

Focus: Search and presentation - The dynamic catalogue
* Web - from portals to services
- Danish example: Netlibrary/My library
* New types of roles

(Scholarly) Communication
* library used to be a communication channel
* New forms
- living reviews
- databases - with incremental results
- blogs
* integration into production process
- discussion fora
- chat
- gaming
- holistic view on institutional repositories
- Flickr etc.

(paraphrase) If you can provide customized, relevant info to users, you can provide an additional role that Google cannot always provide.  e.g. Amazon provides a lot of info on top of just a book, whereas Google just provides straight search results

discussion of search engine perspective

[diagram of visual cluster display]

They have asked for Google Scholar as a webservice, but Google won't provide it - due to need for ads.

[slide of combined results displayed together in a table]

The dynamic library card: Project involving 7 public libraries - Netlibrary "My Library"

Future: Integrated on-line services, independent of organisations - the customer should be the centre, not the organisation.  Collaboratively provide Web Services.
www.vtu.dk/fsk/publ/2003/Hvidbog/index.htm

Slide on first round of web portal
* literature page
- author portraits
- recommendations
* author web
* Net music

Portal to service

Instead of user going to a portal, EMBED the information into the catalogue... (paraphrase) built by querying various web services and integrating the results

Why not put it in the catalogue?
- this is a changing world, the catalogue should just contain the bare biblio info, everything else dynamic should be outside the catalogue

[Diagram of Web Services (SOAP/HTTP)]

example: embedded service (I think) "people who borrowed this book also borrowed..."

They are looking at issues around personalization for services, ways to manage the results from services so that the user doesn't get overwhelmed with information.

Webservices: Recommender, Material match, Journals, Aggregator, Netmusik

In the future: some libraries might just be service aggregators, some might focus on a particular service for data, etc.  Roles: data service, service provider, aggregator, customer support...

A Fundamental Paradigm Shift
* From economy of scarcity to one of abundance
* From owning to licensing
* Changing nature of content
* Democratic publishing opporuntiies
* New forms of research, preservation, teaching

My Summary: As I saw at the previous Info Grid conference in Denmark, I think the Danish are very much advanced in using Web Services within a Service-Oriented Architecture for libraries.  I think they are creating a model that we should build on and borrow from.

ILI2005 - Tuesday 11th - Relevance and the Future of Search

Relevance and the Future of Search
Stephen E. Arnold
http://www.arnoldit.com/

[sidebar

books:
Google Legacy
Enterprise Search Report

InformationWeek Author: Google's Patents Reveal Strategy To Beat Microsoft

]

Relevance: What? For Whom? When? and How

Has examined Google patents.
"patent fence around: relevance, individualizing search results, algorithms to calculate editorial value of a page"

Google: more patents in 1st 6 months of 2005 than in previous history.
Roughly a 2 year retrospective.

Google: 62% of weblog referrals.  Yahoo: 35%.  MSN: 13%.
Previously: Google 51%.  So Google is capturing a big share of search.

Cover story in Online: Relevance and the End of Objective Hits

Q: Is Google more than search?
- vast majority of audience said more than search

What makes it different?
1 Googleplex

commodity hardware
search shows how clever their HARDWARE ENGINEERING and SOFTWARE ENGINEERING is

[diagram of Googleplex - Google architecture - the Earth is surrounded by Google's distributed, parallel, supercomputer, with continuously expanding storage / infrastructure, 165,000 servers in 16-32 datacentres]

performance: 15-40x faster than IBM and HP and Dell at 1/7th cost
for every dollar Google spends Microsoft and Yahoo must spend 7 or more

Google just plugs in commodity components.

Relevance: Now a Fuzzy Black Box

[fire alarm]

[diagram showing various relevance needs: need for users...]

[we just had to evacuate due to fire alarm
photos will be forthcoming
we're back now]

Relevance under seige:
- small overlap between Ask Jeeves, Google and Yahoo
- 90% of search users cannot differentiate between search results and ads

When is a "hit" relevant?

Individualized Google
- Google is interested in providing INFORMATION THAT SOLVES A PROBLEM - this could be an ad

Patents on Individualizing Results

- list of many examples of personalization: News, Toolbar, Desktop Sidebar, Desktop Search, Local... more than 51 services to which personalization can be applied in some manner

"Google is a mathematics-based entity" - users provided click data, they do analysis, result: actionable information - what users do is watched and analyzed

"significant consequences for competitive technical intelligence"

How does this math (these metrics) affect relevance?

Section 3: Search-Engine Optimization (SEO)

Relevance is both about what is on your site, but also about how often Google indexes you.

Ranking is important in Google.

Example: Aviadian - made changes to their site (based on SEO recommendations) and got in the "google sandbox" i.e. they were blacklisted

Five Musts
* In-bound links from high-traffic sites
* Fresh, seminatically "tight" content
* Site map that points to what you want indexed
* Well-formed pages
* Appropriate metatags

he urges interlinking: point to relevant content, have relevant sites point to you

A site that has highly diverse content will rank lower, they want "tightly" focused content,
including the URLs, metatags, ...

"What about MS and Yahoo?  For all intents and purposes, relevance is defined by Google's guidelines"

Have accurate, well-coded pages. 
Session ids cripple Google's technology.

Five Cheats
* Steal text from high-ranking sites.  Risk: duplicate detection will blackball you.
* Metatag spamming.  Risk: low ranking.
* Blog seeding.  Risk: spam detection algorithm can sandbox your site.
* List yourslef in link farms.  Risk: link analysis algorithm will sandbox your site.
* Doorway cheat.  Expose one page to Googlebot and another to a human.  Risk: remove site from index.

Google calculates semantic similarities between blog postings and if they detect duplicates, they will downgrade you.

"[in terms of technology] Google has a Ferrari, everyone else has a Mustang"

What's the boundary between SEO and "real indexing"?

Section 4: GUIs

How do we address this?  The answer is the interface.

eToys - clickable links that narrow search e.g. to particular age group
Endecca??

Hybrid Search: Facets, Hard Coding, Synonym Expansion - example of pre-selected search results

Who defines relevance in a GUI?

Summary
* Many ways to deliver relevance
* Understand context of content
* Asses the basics
- Provenance
- Accuracy
- Currency
- Selective depth
* SEO is a legitimate "indexing model"
* More work needed on situational relevance

My summary: I found it a bit difficult to complete grasp the concerns he was expressing.  He is definitely very concerned about Google's size and advantage in computational power.  I initially thought he was recommending that you use SEOs in order to get good rank, but if I understood his reponse to a question, he was actually saying that it was very worrying for him that it is Google + SEOs who determine how your site ranks, and that depending on them, important information may get a low ranking.

I have to say for myself, I think SEOs are total voodoo and I would never use one.  The only thing I have ever done is written detailed technical content and I frequently show up not only on the first page of the Google results but also quite high up on the page as well.

I think for now, I would recommend just producing good content, updating it frequently, make sure that you get well-linked by other sites, and make sure that the X/HTML for your pages is clean i.e. validates without errors.

ILI2005 - presentation - Web Browser Extensions

I did the presentation using live changes to Firefox using extensions from the Internet, which has its pluses and minuses.  I didn't want to do recorded/screencasted because that approach can make things look too smooth and easy, in my opinion.  Some things worked, some things didn't.  Most of the information is in the Web Browser Extensions wiki page (which you are welcome to contribute to).  Here's the presentation itself.

Download how_to_enhance_access_with_browser_extensions.ppt

The main points not on the slides:
- to start providing web browser extensions the main skill sets are HTML and JavaScript
- if you want to create advanced Firefox extensions like toolbars and sidebars you also need to learn the Firefox XUL language
- advanced extensions are still fairly beta, there are dependencies on Firefox versions,

If you're deploying extensions you do have some ability to push out new versions automatically.
If you're just doing search plugins, or bookmarklets, you don't have that ability.

There are definitely challenges in terms of user deployment, you might start out deploying to library workstations.

In order to create you may need a collaboration between the IT and library groups, as there is some coding required, however you don't necessarily need a strong coding background to create simple extensions.

CISTI has a beta site called CISTI Lab which has some of our extensions.
Probably there are things that aren't working, so please let me know if you encounter problems.

at ILI2005 in London

I'm at Internet Librarian International, I've posted some more links and info on the ILI2005 wiki/blog.

Presentation links are going up when I can find them.

I will be speaking about web browser extensions this afternoon, with a particular focus on Firefox extensions.

Internet Librarian International 2005

In one week I will be at Internet Librarian International 2005 - Transcending Boundaries:
Information Technologies & Strategies for the 21st Century.
(UPDATE: Just to be clear, this is the UK version of the conference, held in London, England.)

I will be doing a 15 minute presentation on Monday October 10, 15:15-15:30
Session C104 – How to Enhance Access with Browser Extensions in
Track C: Global Best Practices.

As reference I will be using the LibSuccess Wiki page on Web Browser Extensions for Libraries that Gianluca Drago and I have put together (along with others - please don't hestitate to contribute).

My colleague from CISTI, Glen Newton, will be presenting with Brian Kelly on Tuesday October 11, 13:45 – 14:45
Session B203 – Using Open Standards and Open Source Software in
Track B (afternoon): Technology for Libraries.

I have created an unofficial wiki for the conference at
http://ili2005.xwiki.com/
You can also blog there if you want by entering a title in the "Add a Blog Entry" box in the left-hand side column, keep in mind that you need to use XWiki syntax within the blog portion as well.
So far, the participation level in this wiki has been very low, I will be interested to see whether there are actually very many additions.  It is additional overhead to run an open wiki due to the need to clean up any spam and defacement.

You can read more about the features I have added to the wiki in my previous posting.

I will probably be raw-blogging the conference here under category/tag ILI2005.
I may post summaries to the wiki.

I have pulled some placemarks for Google Earth from searches:
Download CopthorneTaraHotel-London.kmz
Download HighStreetKensingtonStation-London.kmz
As you can see, Google Earth has good searching for UK info, so you can just e.g. enter a hotel name or tube station while zoomed in on London and it should be able to find it.

I found the Google Earth view to be useful for my previous trip to Copenhagen, but mainly in terms of the relative positions of things.  I found it hard to get a good sense of the size of things - I couldn't tell whether the buildings and streets I had printed out in order to locate the conference venue were huge buildings separated by wide streets, or small buildings separated by alleyways.

You may find the Google Earth view a bit more helpful if you go into the roads layer and turn on UK Roads.

Internet Librarian International 2005 in 5 weeks

I've been asked to post some updated info about Internet Librarian International.
Here's some info today from InfoToday:

Transcending Boundaries:
Information Technologies & Strategies for the 21st Century
10-11 October 2005 • Copthorne Tara Hotel, London

Only 5 weeks remaining to arrange your visit.  More info on the Registration page.

This year’s conference programme showcases innovative information environments and ideas that will help you update your skills and energise your thinking about how to find, organise, and manage information resources.  Create a personalised conference agenda by choosing among sessions, tracks, and topics including:

• Blogs, Wikis and Collaboration Tools
• Global Best Practices
• Digital Libraries
• Exploring Web Research Skills and Resources
• Innovative Information Environments
• Technology for Libraries
• National Digital Projects and Initiatives

For my previous postings on this conference you can check my ILI2005 category.
I have mostly been working on the unofficial conference wiki/blog at
http://ili2005.xwiki.com/

I encourage everyone to contribute.  Currently you don't even have to be a registered user to add content.  I have put in some new features that I hope will be useful:

• If you will be blogging about the conference add your blog or (preferably) ILI2005 category/tag RSS feed to an aggregation page that will display the combined results
• Photos posted to Flickr with tag ILI2005 will show up on the built-in Flickr Photos page
• In case anything slips through the cracks, I have also set up a page that aggregates blog search results for "internet librarian international" or ili2005.  It uses Feedster, Blogdigger (which now has feed ads) and PubSub.  It's not perfect due to spammers :( but it does catch a fair number of postings.

I can't take much credit for the advanced features; Ludovic Dubost and his team at XWiki have been a big help getting them set up.

back

I am back from vacation.

As always, I will try to provide mostly analysis and commentary in this blog.  For raw links, check out my Furl linkblog.

As indicated on my wiki, my main current projects are

• Internet Librarian International 2005 unofficial wiki (please contribute!)
• Library Success wiki - Web Browser Extensions

The Web Browser Extensions page will be used to support the brief presentation I am giving at ILI2005.
I am planning to add more information about JavaScript and XML there as it is becoming clear to me that these are new core technologies for building interfaces to your library on the web.
I am also working on secret project which hopefully will be done by the end of the month.

In terms of conferences you can see the conference plan on my wiki, but basically here's what's coming up:

Council of Federal Libraries in Ottawa September 14, 2005 (will attend).  I'm going to tag this with the rather awkward CFLAFS2005 (the AFS part is for Annual Fall Seminar).
Internet Librarian International in London October 10-11, 2005 (will present) - for more info, see my ILI2005 category.
There will be an entire track on blogs and wikis at ILI.

In 2006 I may attend some or all of:
148th ARL in Ottawa May 16-19, 2006
CLA 2006 in Ottawa June 14-17, 2006 - for more info, see my CLA2006 category.  Presumably the web site will be http://www.cla.ca/conference/2006/index.htm, but currently only info for exhibitors is up.

Access 2006 in Ottawa October 11-14, 2006

As you can see, 2006 is going to be a library-conferenceriffic time here.

ILI2005 - provisional programme

The provisional programme for Internet Librarian International 2005 is up.

I have a search set up in Bloglines, I have been catching a few postings recently, including Peter Scott reporting about the programme.

I have Furled a few people who will be presenting, using tag ILI2005.

There is a daylong track on Monday October 10, 2005: Blogs, Wikis, and Collaboration Tools.

ILI2005 - talk on browser extensions

I will be presenting at Internet Librarian International 2005, in the Global Best Practices track.
I will be talking about using browser extensions to add functionality to web pages.
It will be a 15 minute spiel, so I will be just covering a few areas quickly and providing lots of reference info.

Global Best Practices: How to Enhance Access with Browser Extensions, 10 October 2005, 15:15-15:30

The venue is the Copthorne Tara Hotel (London, England).
The Hotel Fact Sheet (PDF) says

* High speed internet access in Club rooms [this appears to be a room type].
* Wi-Fi Connectivity and internet points in lobby.
* Multiple broadband internet access in both function suites [conference rooms] with
Wi-Fi connectivity and full audio visual support.
* cafexpress - in house coffee shop; a light, airy and thoroughly
modern space with wide screen T.V, Internet access and a delicious
selection of freshly-made sandwiches and light bites

There doesn't seem to be a formal blogging plan.  I am told

about blogging the event.  We don't have any formal plans to do so right now, but a number of bloggers will be there, plus we are running a full-day track on collaboration, blogs, wikis, etc.   I am certain the conference will be covered in the blogosphere one way or another.

I have set up a wiki for the conference since I will be vacationing in the area anyway and need to gather some information.  Anyone else going and interested in the conference blog / wiki planning?  There's not much content there yet, the URL is

http://ili2005.xwiki.com/

XWiki actually provides both wiki and blog functions, I'm also going to look into the Web Services possibilities (particularly pulling photos in from Flickr.)

As indicated on my conference plan and in the (open for anyone to edit) list of library conference tags, the proposed tag is ILI2005.

Internet Librarian International Oct 10-11 2005

The dates for Internet Librarian International 2005 (ILI2005) have been announced.

10-11 October 2005
Copthorne Tara Hotel, London

so now I'm wondering as usual: wireless? blogging? wiki?

You can read their Call for Speakers.  The proposal deadline is 1 April 2005.

If everyone can agree on ILI2005 as the tag, then you'll be able to

www.technorati.com/tag/ili2005

for any related postings. 

So now we need a central registry of conference tags... Maybe in a Wiki... :)