This document lays out the main tasks to be addressed by Interoperability Focus during 1999. Priorities are subject to change, both in consultation with the Advisory Committee and in the light of changing circumstances throughout the year.
Activities may be divided into five main areas, addressed individually below:
Executive Summary/ Priorities for work
Based upon the work that has so far been done, a number of priorities for action appear to present themselves. Advisory Committee input is invited on this list of short-term tasks:
Mapping the Information Landscape
As discussed,
below, a briefing document will be prepared in which the key providers and users of information are identified, as well as the enabling technologies used — and soon to be used — in linking providers to users. This briefing document will be written for a wide audience, and will be distributed extensively. It may well be backed up by a longer and more technical review.
Facilitating the DNER
Meetings have already been held at which Interoperability Focus' potential role in advancing the Higher Education community's vision of a Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER) has been mentioned. In the short term, at least, there is work to be done in identifying ways in which existing services in HE and beyond might be cross-searched more effectively. Although initially geared towards the DNER, this work potentially brings benefits outside Higher Education as well. In carrying these ideas forward, work has begun on identifying a
core attribute set for simply cross-searching Z39.50-enabled databases, and on opening lines of communication with the existing Data Centres to explore how they might be more effectively linked.
Strengthening channels of communication
As outlined,
below, steps have already been taken to establish communication with relevant organisations and initiatives. Work is required to strengthen existing links and to reach those areas currently under-represented. Advisory Committee help and advice is sought in ensuring this process addresses the correct individuals within organisations.
In order to provide effective input to cross-sectoral issues of interoperability, it is necessary to first establish a comprehensive understanding of current requirements, practices and aspirations across a range of data owning, using, and access-facilitating communities. This work will be ongoing, and means need to be found by which key elements of information may be made available to other interested parties, most probably via the
Interoperability Focus web site. It will also be important for Interoperability Focus to become involved in the discussion processes whereby individual communities move forward on these issues, and Advisory Committee members are asked to assist in this where possible.
An early deliverable in this area, and one that can also be used to help raise the profile of Interoperability Focus, is a document directed towards providing a 'map' of the information landscape.
As many people recognise, there are significant groups of organisations (libraries, archives, museums, HE Data Centres, etc.) providing access to resources. In many instances, these resources are tailored for a specific end-user community and access restrictions or data packaging issues often make access by other communities difficult.
This document will provide a review of the main sources of data/information resources, the main user communities, and the enabling technologies (such as Z39.50) being used to link them together. Discussion will be offered on resources that are perhaps being under-used by potential user communities, and on obstacles to more widespread dissemination and re-use of existing and potential resources.
Building upon work such as the
survey undertaken for CIC in the United States, it is intended to meet the requirements of several Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) projects by undertaking a review of the systems supplied in the UK by Z39.50 vendors.
These systems are often tailored to specific project requirements, rather than being 'off the shelf' solutions, and each appears to handle apparently simple and 'standard' requirements in slightly different ways, increasing functionality in certain areas, but reducing overall interoperability in others.
Potentially a huge and never-ending exercise, work is underway at present to discover exactly what the projects wished they had known in advance, and to define mechanisms for accurately obtaining the necessary facts; given the tailored nature of most systems, publicity material and system documentation is unlikely to prove helpful in the most difficult areas.
It is not yet clear what scale of survey is most appropriate, nor who the most useful vendor contacts would be, and input is welcomed from members of the Advisory Committee.
The majority of interoperability issues facing users and data providers in the United Kingdom are also being addressed elsewhere, and there are important lessons to be learned from overseas initiatives.
Furthermore, whilst the UK community is not sufficiently large on its own to necessarily influence vendor development programmes, etc., it is possible for a broader community of 'Interoperability Focus-like' individuals or organisations to have the required weight.
Through the Advisory Committee, Interoperability Focus has access to many of the centres of expertise around the planet. Working with the relevant Advisory Committee members, Interoperability Focus hopes to strengthen these and other links and increase involvement in relevant initiatives to the benefit of numerous UK projects.
To increase the cost-effectiveness of building distributed interoperable collections of resources, it is vital that sensible, intelligible standards are developed, maintained, and widely publicised. Interoperability Focus has an important role to play, both participating in the evolution of these standards through recognised development processes, and in disseminating them as widely as possible within the UK community. These standardisation efforts will be vital to ensuring the success of programmes such as
New Library,
Museums in the New Learning Society, and the DNER.
At present, Interoperability Focus strongly advocates community interests within the Dublin Core community, the museum world's Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI), and the UK's National Geospatial Data Framework (NGDF), and plays a lesser role in a number of other developments. It is proposed that Interoperability Focus should also become involved in the Z39.50 Implementor's Group (ZIG) meetings, and other emerging bodies of relevance such as IMS and INDECS are perhaps worth approaching in order to establish a closer relationship.
Interoperability Focus, and other established projects within the UK, have a lot to offer to high-profile developments such as the National Grid for Learning and the University for Industry, and closer links should be pursued with both of these initiatives.
Suggestions of useful contacts within these, and other, initiatives are welcomed from Advisory Committee members.
An early focus for standards-based attention is the development of a small 'core attribute set' for those projects within the UK making use of Z39.50-based catalogues of information. These projects, which include the Arts & Humanities Data Service (
AHDS), the Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network (
SCRAN), the Electronic Libraries Programme's
clumps and
hybrid libraries, and the JISC-funded data centres, are discovering difficulties in linking together to allow basic cross-searching of holdings.
This work, building upon the MODELS Profile and studies in Texas, Canada, and elsewhere, would result in the formulation of a very small set of Z39.50 Use Attributes which all suppliers of JISC-funded Z39.50 systems might be encouraged to adopt. This reduced set would allow users a high degree of certainty that a number of fairly simple queries would be handled in a consistent manner by the constituent services of the DNER. Additionally to drawing up the list of Use Attributes, recommendations would also be made as to the default handling of other Attributes (Relation, Position, Structure, etc.) within the Attribute set. Where such a process does not directly impact upon DNER development timescales, it would be valuable to develop this set in conjunction with a range of interested parties here and abroad. It may prove necessary, though, to quickly release a DNER-friendly version and then return to the document after release in order to review it from an international perspective.
Right from the outset, effective communication has been core to the work of Interoperability Focus. A number of foundations have now been laid, and work continues to strengthen each avenue of communication as and when possible. Comments from Advisory Committee members on existing efforts, and on ways in which they might be expanded or otherwise improved, are welcomed.
The Interoperability Focus web site <URL:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/interop-focus/> serves as the main route by which Interoperability Focus-related information will be disseminated. At present, there is little information available, largely because it has not yet become clear what is most urgently in need of dissemination via this mechanism. I intend to make any reports available here, as well as providing access to key resources already available internationally.
Widespread publication, both in print and electronically, will be important if the issues covered by Interoperability Focus are to be adequately disseminated.
Short informational pieces have already been submitted to the UKOLN Newsletter and to BLRIC's Research Bulletin, and these will be followed by longer articles on a range of subjects.
The web site will be used in order to point to these publications as they appear.
A short flyer has been prepared, outlining what Interoperability Focus intends to do. This flyer is
available on the web site, and is currently being printed for dissemination in hardcopy form. [Copy to be tabled]
Similar documents will be prepared on a range of topics if appropriate.
Interoperability Focus has already spoken on a variety of topics at gatherings in the UK and abroad, and presentations from some of these are
available on the web site.
A number of other venues are lined up in the coming months, and Interoperability Focus will continue to address issues of relevance to the community wherever practical.
Much of UKOLN's other work has direct or indirect relevance to those working on Interoperability issues. Interoperability Focus aims to work closely with colleagues at UKOLN, and to disseminate their work down avenues with which they might not have close personal contact.
Interoperability Focus is keen to establish links with the major organisations and individuals working in related fields, and would welcome input from Advisory Committee members, both in identifying suitable contacts, and in establishing lines of communication.
Although all areas could do with increased contacts, major shortfalls at present appear to be in the vendor community, public libaries, and the formal standardisation bodies such as ISO and CEN.
Perhaps nothing is more effective at encouraging good practice than being able to see examples of it in action. Interoperability Focus will encourage the adoption of good, scaleable practice with regard to interoperability, and will widely publicise exemplar services in order that others might emulate their work.
UK Interoperability Focus