Work Package 2 of Telematics for Libraries project PRIDE (LB 5624)
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Table of Contents
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PRIDE Requirements and Success Factors
Work Package 2 of Telematics for Libraries project PRIDE (LB 5624) |
Title page Table of Contents |
The user requirements for PRIDE are described by:
This section analyses the user requirements from the perspective of academic and public libraries providing services to their clients on the basis of a managed mix of resources, which will include:
The views reported here are based on operational experience of managing advanced library services, research & development experience, analysis of documentation and interviews with individuals. In this section the focus is on the needs of distributed libraries, and in the academic sector this has meant the careful selection of three UK higher education libraries which display a high level of service distribution: Manchester Metropolitan University (one of the PRIDE partners), the University of Central Lancashire (interesting because it offers services via intermediaries in geographically dispersed locations) and the University of the Highlands & Islands, which is developing novel services in an extremely dispersed region. Analysis of public library requirements has included a mix of metropolitan and rural services, but has focused on those which have already installed a mix of traditional and electronic services, the Genesis Project In Cumbria (NW England) being a good example. Finally, specific experience from current UK Electronic Library Programme (eLib) `hybrid library' projects has been considered, and in particular the early findings of the HyLiFe Project, which is co-directed by CERLIM (Manchester Metropolitan University).
In all of these situations, our finding is that the user is looking for a carefully managed mix of services predicated on the need for specific content. While in some circumstances the medium is important, and we consider this later, in many the information content is required regardless of form. However, the user does not require `just any' content, but is increasingly seeking some form of quality assurance. In the traditional library this was provided by
It follows that, from the end user's perspective, the identification of resources is not a simple matter of `anything on this subject' but includes the ability to define the characteristics of the content. There is an open question as to the extent to which the library can fulfil this role. However, our first finding is that a service must enable the end user to specify quality characteristics of the product which is to be delivered.
Closely linked to quality, the end user may wish to specify conditions related to his or her purpose in making the request. He or she may wish to simply view, to borrow or to buy the object. Further he/she could be interested in being a distributor (take, for example, the case of a teacher who wants the electronic copy in order to distribute it to his or her class). Each of these purposes may have conditions attached to them: thus the desire to borrow may be on condition that the book will be available tomorrow and will not be due for return for 4 weeks (the user is about to go on holiday). The desire to acquire the electronic copy may be on condition that the cost is, say, less than £5 and gives the right to distribute copies. It is also worth noting that the user's stated or implied purpose may dictate the Library's response to a request: it is common for academic libraries to refuse to obtain leisure material by inter-library loan, for example. This brings in the notion that multiple library memberships may be needed to enable a user to fulfil a variety of purposes.
Further to these issues of content, quality and purpose, it has long been recognised that users take one of two approaches to information searching: they either know the item they require (with greater or lesser accuracy) or they are interested in a subject about which they need information. Search strategies in the traditional library are often divided for this reason into `known item searches' and `browsing'. To this we might add proactive SDI services which do not fit neatly into either category. So the end user may either:
As noted above, form is also important in some instances. For example, an end-user who wishes to read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness will probably wish to specify whether he or she requires:
From the perspective of the owner of an information source the issues are:
The library acts as a broker between the user and the universe of information sources. In seeking to meet the user's needs, the Library has to pay attention to a series of issues. These are:
Most libraries serve a defined clientele, no matter how loosely it is defined. In general, public libraries have a much more `open' clientele than other types. However it is worth noting that a totally open approach is rare and probably becoming rarer - thus for example, Manchester City Libraries have been criticised recently for withdrawing services to people who neither live nor work in the city. For academic institutions the issue is clearer, at least on the surface: however, with the increase in lifelong learning, academic institutions are also having difficulty in deciding who can legitimately claim membership: for example, if someone undertakes a series of one-day courses over a protracted period of time, how should that eligibility for library membership be assessed?
To compound the difficulty, there is increasing pressure for libraries to co-operate in providing access to services. So the user may be a member (in good standing?) of another university. The library will then need a defined policy on whether, and for what period, it will offer membership (and this may be linked to demand on the library rather than any assessment of the user - so, for example, membership is more likely to be extended during vacations). In addition, membership may be partial (typical would be the university that offers such students reference and even lending facilities, but not inter-library loans). A further issue arises when that student wants to access a remote database: even if both institutions subscribe and contractual conditions allow the access, which should be `billed'? Added to this is the quite common scenario where the user is a member of two libraries - say university and public - both of which could offer the service. Where the user community is dispersed the combinations of memberships become yet more disparate and difficult to define.
Here the library will be concerned to give access to information at the right level and in a form which the user is able to use. Level links back to, but is not the same as, quality. It requires that the user's requirement be mapped for level rather than content onto the available resources. For example, chemistry students at primary school, secondary school, college, undergraduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral levels will all have different requirements, even if they are expressed in similar terms. Even at a similar level, it may be necessary to take expertise into account. Also under this heading, the user's access to suitable equipment will be an important consideration - even in traditional library environments users were not usually offered the loan of a microfiche for this reason. (See also 1.1.4.5 below)
Virtually all libraries operate with restricted budgets. A major consideration is the maximisation of utility of information acquired. Indeed, the continuing popularity of the printed textbook is at least in part due to its efficiency as a delivery vehicle. An expensive scientific text may be used by 100 people, at a cost of less than ? 0.50 each, when placed in a university library's short loan collection. It might cost ? 10 or more per person to borrow it by interlibrary loan. The cost of the equivalent information from a charged database could be even higher.
In the emerging electronic environment, purchasing decisions have become extremely complex. The same information may be available from a variety of suppliers under different terms and conditions, which define whether it is `purchased' outright or `rented' for limited time or use. Libraries need to become expert at predicting the likely use of a resource over a period of time and basing purchase decisions on these predictions. It follows that the portfolio of information sources and services offered will be driven by budgetary considerations, apart from anything else, towards a carefully selected and dynamic sub-set of the total information universe. In order to reach those decisions the Library needs to have reliable pricing data, coupled with associated terms and conditions, available to it.
Libraries operate a variety of mechanisms for cost recovery, including:
Libraries deliver their services using some kind of infrastructure. Traditionally this has been a building equipped with reader places, shelves arranged for open access, facilities for having books issued and returned, and so on. The ICT infrastructure is becoming increasingly important, but brings with it an added layer of complexity and immediacy - for example, the availability of transatlantic bandwidth is a rather more pressing matter to the modern librarian than was the availability of shipping to transport imported American books across the Atlantic in former times.
Libraries need to be able to consider the match between the infrastructure available to them and to their users, and the requirements imposed by information providers. In a fast changing world this is a difficult judgement to make, especially as many off-site users will only have `legacy' equipment available 1. A view needs to be taken by the library, when considering purchasing services, as to whether users will have adequate infrastructure. Incidentally, a similar point can be made about information skills.
As we have seen the individual user has requirements which relate to the contractual conditions imposed by the information vendor. The Library, in its role as a broker, needs to find the best match between the end user requirement and the possible services which could be brokered, in relation to their differing conditions.
The Library will also consider the value for money represented by different contractual arrangements. One issue will be whether by taking a particular service the library becomes locked in - for example, a service may be on a subscription which, if terminated, results in all hard copy having to be returned to the supplier. A decision to cancel on economic grounds is then thwarted by the impact on service and the impossibility of replacing what has become an important resource.
A further layer of complexity arises where a library chooses (or is forced) to acquire services through consortium agreements, perhaps within a region. Not only may the service be sub-optimal in service terms, but its cancellation may again be difficult.
Finally, there are now services which make electronic versions of printed publications (e.g. journals) available only to subscribers to the paper version. Thus the library has to decide whether to subscribe to paper even if its sole interest is in the electronic copy.
The most obvious areas of concern in this area will be copyright and data protection. Copyright will restrict what can be achieved (for example by restricting the number of copies which can be made) but will have to be considered as part of the overall framework which includes legal rights, such as `fair dealing', and contractual arrangements such as national licences issued by bodies such as the UK Copyright Licensing Agency.
Data protection will be an issue because, quite apart from holding data on users, the library will wish to pass that information to suppliers - possibly as part of the contractual agreement under which access is granted. The library may also need to monitor use on an individual basis, which will also raise a number of other issues.
It cannot be assumed that the library will have complete autonomy of operation. For example, its infrastructure may be supplied through a separate department which has a variety of other priorities. Academic departments may, for example, develop courses in co-operation with other educational providers, and may then attach information resourcing requirements. A university may have requirements for student assignments which likewise pose constraints, such as a requirement that all students in a class have simultaneous access to the same text.
An over-riding consideration will be the efficiency of operation of the library, especially as staffing resources will be under great pressure. For example, the library will want to minimise the number of suppliers, will prefer to minimise the number of software packages it has to support, will want to maintain some degree of stability of service, will wish to reduce to a minimum the number of operations it has to perform to authenticate users, and so on.
Out of this web of interests, the library manager needs to make decisions which will have long-term implications, especially where supply is obtained through multi-year agreements or where the outright purchase option is exercised.
In summary, the library issues are:
Out of the above analysis, it is possible to develop a conceptual model of the library's decision process in a distributed environment 2. The diagram below illustrates this model. The first part summarises the process of setting up a suitable information landscape and infrastructure; the second shows how the end user's individual demands are handled. Note the point marked (*) which in an ideal world the `landscape creation' process would iterate in response to every individual user demand:
Library views information universe and determines suitability of each
source for its clientele
Library makes decision on which standard products to offer and thus creates a `landscape' 3
Library negotiates `deals' with selected information suppliers
Library sets up infrastructure to enable selected information products to be acquired or accessed
Library sets up infrastructure to enable information products to be used
Library creates user interface to enable information requests to be processed |
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User makes information request
Library determines § What privileges does this user possess? § What conditions does this information request carry with it? § What do we know about the user (e.g. level)?
Library maps this request onto its landscape (and may extend the landscape in respect of this particular query) (*))
Library determines which sources it might offer and determines the conditions they carry (e.g. price)
Library determines who will pay this price (library or user)
If Library: are we willing to pay for this user on this occasion (If no go back two places)
If user, library determines if user will pay. If not, go back three places.
If user is to pay, library carries out debit
User supplied with information |
The above analysis leads to some crucial questions which may be posed in the form of a `user requirement':
To what extent can/should the Library predetermine its information resource suppliers i.e. in advance of receiving demands from end users? Can technology reduce the need for the library to take such decisions in advance of demand?Underlying these questions is the raison d'être of PRIDE: how can we arrange things so that the user's requirement (information, demand, however expressed, + conditions), the library's constraints (willingness to purchase, infrastructure) and the terms & conditions of potential suppliers (price, etc.) are presented in a system-interpretable way, one which guards the legitimate (security, privacy, ownership) rights of each party and one which enables decisions to be made by systems on behalf of all the players so that none has to interpose human intermediaries in order for the transaction to be completed?To what extent can the Library identify the resource suppliers it needs in order to fulfil demand `on the fly' i.e. as and when demands occur?
To what extent can the Library capture the user's conditions, in addition to the information request, and interpret them in a way that enables the relevant permissions which will be required to be determined? i.e. so that there is a profile of the individual demand occurrence against which to match the different resource possibilities.
To what extent can the Library determine, for each demand-supply possibility (transaction), what the resource (budget/infrastructure/staff/etc.) impact of that occurrence is, and apply a programmed decision to determine whether to accept or reject that transaction?
To what extent should this demand-supply transaction require input from the user to enable the `best' source of supply to be selected?
In this section, a detailed scenario is described which shows how PRIDE will relate to other parts of the infrastructure for information services in Australia.
Macquarie University and its associated Australian partners to the PRIDE project will provide an existing base technical infrastructure and enhance that infrastructure using PRIDE to deliver mediated, automatically mediated and unmediated resource sharing services between libraries and/or other document supply services.
Through PRIDE, user, resources and ILL supplier directory information and circulation system interactions will be incorporated into the LIDDAS/Kinetica ILL service paradigm; LIDDAS is the Local Interlending Document Delivery Administration System for Australia.
The functional information flow model is shown in Diagram 1.
Diagram 1- Functional Model
From this functional model, a protocol model was developed as in Diagram 2.
Diagram 2 - Protocol Model
Within the Australia interlibrary loan service environment the links are as in Diagram 3.
Diagram 3.- Australian Interlending Service Environment Linkages
The primary service challenge is to optimise access paths for the user and to introduce unmediated access management, wherever possible. This implies being able to search easily across a range of resource discovery systems and to be able to request supply without necessarily knowing the source of supply.
In addition, such access needs to be able to operate in a "mixed" economy where the user will have access to subsidised services as well as "pay-as-you-go" services.
Whilst LIDDAS is extremely rich in terms of management functionality, there is still a fundamental need for management mediation because there is, as yet, no technical means of matching people and resources in a direct unmediated manner.
The key to meeting this technical challenge is the development of directory services, both for user databases and for libraries as supply agents.
In other words, details about Users have to be recognisable across systems in a standard form as a prerequisite for unmediated service. Systems then need to be able to match user requests to potential supplier profiles.
The resource sharing concept makes no distinction between print and electronic
formats, or the physical location of the User in relation to the Supplier. The
management of returnable items, and arrangements for Users to borrow or obtain
services personally from libraries other than their home institution, requires
links between circulation systems, interlending management systems and
directory systems.
Optimising service delivery to users requires knowledge about the user, the services to which he has access, the levels of service to which he is entitled, the available resources to meet the request, the potential suppliers for the item and the terms of supply offered by specific suppliers.
User, Resource and Library/Supplier Directories will interoperate with the LIDDAS/Kinetica ILL applications, enabling these applications to make automatic mediation decisions dependant on the application business rules and the information maintained in the directories.
Directory information will be maintained once and accessed by the applications as required by each application.
Directory systems will be a mix of centralised and distributed directories.
Information held in a central directory system may be maintained in a distributed manner.
A User Directory will be constructed and maintained for Macquarie University to support the applications involved in the interlending activity including Student and Personnel Systems, the Circulation System, Access and Password Management Systems and the LIDDAS.
These applications share common knowledge of Users and their attributes, but each application maintains this knowledge individually.
User Directories will be used to authenticate Users and manage authorisation and access to the services to which the User has been granted access.
Users may be authorised with individual permissions and permissions acquired according to membership of assigned groups.
The schema and associated attributes for User ILL activity, which are developed, will be proposed as an international standard.
Directory services may be used to provide alternates to catalogues of resources. As well as holding catalogue information, the directory approach allows access to electronic services to be properly managed, without requiring the user to re-authenticate for each resource accessed.
A catalogue of journal titles, including both electronic and hard copy titles will be implemented as a directory. A second phase is planned in which a union catalogue of journal titles for several institutions will be implemented as a distributed directory. The Users of each institution will have access only to the electronic services to which they have been authorised according to the licences negotiated by their home institution.
The Resource Directory will be used to investigate the interoperability and association of the X.500 Directory Standards and Z39.50.
A core component of the LIDDAS/Kinetica architecture is a national interlending and resource sharing Directory Service which is logically a single entity containing information about libraries and suppliers and the services they offer. Currently each LIDDAS/Kinteticas system maintains a local directory system, which contains known information about a supplier. The core of this information is repeated in each system and can only be updated by the owner of the LIDDAS system.
A National Resource Sharing Directory will be implemented. The directory will be accessed by the LIDDA systems when supplier information is required in the automated mediation of requests.
Libraries may maintain their own entry in the national directory or maintain information in the same schema on their organisational directories.
Non - LIDDAS/Kinetica libraries and Users will be able to search the directory using either products supporting DAP or LDAP directory access protocols.
The schema and associated attributes for an ILL supply directory based on the Australia library experience will be proposed as an international standard.
Whilst the service paradigm makes no distinction between electronic and physical items, the supply of physical items requires additional management processes for both the supplying and requesting libraries.
The LIDDA system currently operates independently of the local circulation system. A circulation protocol will be developed and implemented allowing LIDDAS and the local circulation systems to interoperate. Implementations from at least two vendors are under negotiation.
Users may be granted permission to borrow documents personally from another library under a consortium arrangement. A second phase of the project will implement this strategy.
A protocol for circulation interactions in support of interlending will be developed as part of a full circulation protocol and proposed as an international standard. The research contribution will evaluate the use of the protocol in conjunction with, and parallel to, User Directory services.
Figure 5 provides a schematic of User activity to be supported by the service scenarios. Payment activities have not been included. Payment mechanisms developed through PRIDE will be trialled. Normal library processing activities have not been expanded except where they are impacted by the extended services.
Each activity is described in the following sections.
Figure 5 - User Activity Diagram
The User will have a single point of entry to all services.
Authentication and authorisation occur at the point of entry using the Patron Directory.
The User will be presented only with services for which he has access.
Simple authentication will be implemented in the first instance. The use of strong authentication will be considered at a later stage of the project.
Example :
Dr. Roo, an academic from the Science Department accesses the Web User Interface, logging on with Username and Password. As an academic from the Science Department he is able to access resources that are not available to other departments in the University. As an academic Dr Roo is able to use the interlending and document delivery service, and access full text services. An honours student from the Science Department accessing the interface will not have access to the same resources or the interlending and document delivery service, but will have access to resources such as networked CD-ROMs and some external databases, for citations only.
The User will be able to maintain information about himself and his service preferences if granted authority so to do.
Only the User and authorised Institutional Administrative Staff will have access to personal information.
For example
Dr. Roo can maintain records about document delivery preferences - paper or electronic delivery, delivery address, limit on the amount he will pay per request.
The User searches from the selection of available resources including catalogues, citation services, and resource directories.
Searches may be conducted using Z39.50 or Directory Protocols. Searches may be performed in parallel. The User will not be aware of the protocol used to undertake the search.
Ideally the User will be presented with a single result set regardless of the protocol used to perform the search
Authentication and authorisation access for services and resources licensed/managed by the institution will occur automatically as the User navigates the discovery environment - the User will not be required to manually authenticate for these services.
Authorisation for a specific service may be at the individual level or according to the group to which a User belongs, depending on the security policy for the service.
Bibliographic results may be bibliographic details only or bibliographic details plus locations.
Locations may reference electronic or physical sources of the document.
From the discovery process the User will identify documents that he wishes to obtain.
Example
Dr Roo has completed his discovery activities and the result set includes
Citations for documents held as physical items in his own collection - he will be alerted that he may retrieve the document personally, and will be prevented from placing a request for the document.
Citations for documents held as electronic items licensed by his institution and for which he has access - he may retrieve the document personally (see 6.4)
Citations for documents held as electronic items licensed by his institution for which he has no access - he may place a request for the document.
Citations for documents held as physical items in a consortium member library - he might either collect the document personally or place a request for the document.
Citations for documents for which he has location/supplier information - he may place a request for the document
Citations for documents for which he has no location information - he may place a request for the document.
If a Citation is retrieved for a document that is held electronically at a consortium member institution, and the licensing for that document is restricted to members of the institution only, Dr Roo will not see the location information for the electronic version, only the citation.
Documents may be retrieved personally by the User from the physical collection of the home institution, from electronic resources licensed by the institution or from the physical collection of a consortium member institution.
Any authentication required when retrieving documents from resources licensed by the home institution occurs automatically without requiring the User to manually re-authenticate
The User will not be able to retrieve documents from services for which he has no access authorisation.
If the document is held as a loanable item in the collection of the consortium member institution the circulation system at the consortium institution will have access to the User Directory and circulation system at the Users home institution to access User details and status information. The consortium library's circulation system uses this information to establish a loan record.
Examples
Dr Roo found a citation in the First Search service. A location search for the title has a link indicating the journal is held electronically in one of the full text services licensed by the institution. Dr Roo is authorised to access the full text service as a member of the Science Department. Clicking on the link takes the Dr Roo directly into the service, without the service requiring Dr Roo to enter the standard authentication information. Dr Roo finds the article in the service and downloads an electronic copy.
Dr Roo finds a number of references to interesting monographs held in the collection of a consortium library near his home. He visits the library and wants to borrow several of them. Dr Roo has not used the consortium library previously. The circulation system at the consortium library sets up a borrower record for Dr Roo using the information in the User Directory at his home institution. Before authorising the loan the system checks that Dr Roo is not blocked from borrowing in his home institution. Notices and fines are managed at the consortium institution.
A User may place a request for a document without first undertaking the discovery process. The request is entered into a form in the Web interface.
A User may place a request for a document identified in the discovery process. Details from the citation are automatically copied into the request form, including any location/supplier information.
If a document has associated location/supplier information, and the User has the authority to generate requests to that supplier, the request is sent to the supplier by the LIDDAS without mediation.
If no location/supplier information is included, and/or the User does not have authority to make unmediated requests, the request is processed by the automatic mediation system in LIDDAS.
Requested documents may be supplied as electronic or physical items.
Example
Dr Roo would like to obtain a copy of an article from a journal held by one of the consortium libraries. As an academic he is authorised to place this request without mediation. The LIDDAS sends the request to the consortium library without further checks.
Dr Roo would like a document for which there is no supplier information in the resources to which he has access. His request is sent to the automatic mediation system in LIDDAS.
The delivery mechanisms available will depend on the permissions granted to the User.
A non returnable document may be delivered directly to the User, either by electronic or physical delivery.
Documents may be delivered to the User's home library.
When the document arrives at the User's home library, User information maintained on the User Directory will be accessed to determine the details for the delivery process.
An electronic document may be forwarded to the User, the User may be advised that a copy is held on a server and may be collected, or a physical copy created for collection/delivery. Available mechanisms depend on copyright compliance requirements.
A physical document that has been loaned by the supplier will be loaned to the User on the home institution circulation system. The LIDDAS and the institutional circulation system will use a circulation protocol to manage the loan between the institution and the User and between the supplier and the institution.
Example
Dr Roo has changed his email address between placing the request and the electronic document arriving at the home library. The LIDDAS will use the current email address on the User Directory to automatically notify Dr Roo that he may collect the document from the document server.
Dr Roo is issued by his home library with a monograph on interlibrary loan from Library X. The LIDDAS system receives a recall notice from Library X. LIDDAS request the local circulation system to recall the item from Dr Roo. The local circulation system sends Dr Roo an email requesting he return the item within 3 days.
When an item on ILL is returned to the home library by the User the item is checked-in in the local circulation system and synchronously marked as returned in the LIDDAS system.
LIDDAS checks the Library Directory to obtain the supplying library's return address information to use in creating a mail label.
If a User is not authorised to place an unmediated request, the LIDDAS will attempt to automatically mediate the request. Figure 6 provides a schematic of Requesting LIDDAS activity to be supported by the service scenarios. Normal library processing activities have not been expanded except where they are impacted by the extended services.
Each activity is described in the following sections.
Requests may be received from the User Interface or as formatted email messages generated by other resource discovery systems such as catalogues and citation management systems.
Where a request is received as a formatted email the User will be authenticated.
LIDDAS will perform an automated search on the services available to the system to locate potential suppliers for the document. LIDDAS may have access to resources in addition to those made available to Users. For example the National Bibliographic Database my only be accessible to the Libraries Administrative Staff and LIDDAS
Supplier Location data will be transferred to the request for all potential suppliers.
LIDDAS will obtain from the Library/Suppliers Directory, for each of the potential suppliers, all the information required to determine the conditions of the supply for the document requested. The Library/Suppliers Directory will contain the advertised supply policies for the supplier. The policies will be highly granular, allowing suppliers to define policies by combinations of (for example), the type of library, consortium membership, material type, service level, delivery mechanism, number of pages, copy right fees. The Directory will also contain information such as accepted payment types, request protocols, which will be used by the Requester to determine which suppliers are preferred.
LIDDAS will maintain performance data on suppliers for each of the supply terms, such as fill rate, turn around time, actual cost, quality. The data for each of the potential suppliers is retrieved.
Figure 6 Requesting LIDDAS - Automatic Mediation - Activity Diagram
User permissions are maintained in the User Directory and the LIDDAS application. Determining the optimum location for permission information will be a component of the research effort. The User permissions and privileges include for example, any restriction on the suppliers available to the User, the number of requests that may be placed per day/week/year, the maximum cost per request, available budget, accounts that may be used, service levels, material types.
Using the business rules, applied to the Supplier and User data, LIDDAS will rank the potential suppliers and develop the actual list of Suppliers to which the request will be sent, in a preferred order (the "Rota").
The request will be sent to the first supplier in the rota. Before the request is sent LIDDAS will access the Library/Supplier Directory to obtain for that specific supplier the information required to complete the request such as the request protocol to use, addressing information and service codes.
LIDDAS will check the directory to determine if the supplier is currently available for supply. The Directory will contain data about permanent and temporary suspension from participation in the interlending service.
LIDDAS will manage the negotiation of supply (alerting administrative staff for manual inputs when necessary). If an approached supplier is unable to supply the document the request is routed to the next supplier on the rota until the document is supplied
If no supplier is identified in the automated mediation process, LIDDAS alerts administrative staff for manual mediation of the request.
The delivery mechanisms available will depend on the permissions granted to the User.
A non returnable document may be delivered directly to the User, either by electronic or physical delivery.
Documents may be delivered to the User's Library.
The User information maintained on the User Directory will be accessed to determine the details for the delivery process.
An electronic document may be forwarded to the User, the User may be advised that a copy is held on a server and may be collected, or a physical copy created for collection/delivery. Available mechanisms depend on copyright compliance requirements.
A physical document that has been loaned by the supplier will be loaned to the User on the home institution circulation system. The LIDDAS and the institutional circulation system will use a circulation protocol to manage the loan between the institution and the User and between the supplier and the institution.
When an item on ILL is returned to home library by the User, the item is checked-in in the local circulation system and synchronously marked as returned in the LIDDAS system.
LIDDAS checks the Library Directory to obtain the supplying library's current address information to use in the production of mailing labels.
Figure 7 provides a schematic of Supplying LIDDAS activity to be supported by the service scenarios. Normal library processing activities have not been expanded except where they are impacted by the extended services. Each activity is described in the following sections.
Figure 7 - Supplying LIDDAS - Activity Diagram
LIDDAS will receive requests as ILL Protocol Request messages or formatted email.
LIDDAS will automatically check the local catalogue to determine if the document is available for supply.
Sites may configure LIDDAS to automatically send an unable to supply response or alert Administrative Staff for manual intervention.
LIDDAS will access the Library Directory, or Users Directory, to obtain all the information about a requestor, such as the type of library, required to determine the conditions of the Supply for the document requested.
LIDDAS will apply business rules to the requestor information and document details to determine the conditions of supply.
If the supply terms are within the limits specified by the requester the document will be supplied.
If the supply terms are not within the limits specified by the requester, a supply response will be sent.
If insufficient information is included in the request to determine the details for the delivery process the information maintained in the directories will be accessed.
An electronic document may be forwarded to the Requesting Library or the End User, or a physical copy created for delivery. Available mechanisms depend on copyright compliance requirements.
The supplier to the requesting library may loan a physical document. The LIDDAS and the institutional circulation system will use a circulation protocol to manage the loan between the institution and the requester, and synchronise circulation activity and ILL protocol messages. For example if the circulation system requires that the item be recalled, the circulation system will notify LIDDAS, which will send an ILL-Recall message to the Requesting LIDDAS.
if insufficient information is included in the request, LIDDAS will check the Library Directory to obtain address information to use in creating mailing labels.
When an item on ILL is returned by the requester, the item is checked-in in the local circulation system, and synchronously marked as checked-in in the LIDDAS system.
The earlier parts of this document describe the environment and a scenario in which PRIDE is to be used. In this section the objectives and the success factors of PRIDE are listed.
The principle emphasis in PRIDE is to support the provision, as much as possible without management intervention, of a variety of information services. PRIDE will be a broker, holding information about the suppliers and users of information, enabling services, such as searching, delivery and lending to be completed using the information it holds.
Support for the automatic management of the information services infrastructure will be demonstrated by establishing a directory: The directory will contain:
PRIDE will enable the user to gain unified access to a potentially global range of information, resources and services in a more efficient, scaleable and functional manner by facilitating
PRIDE should impact the full range of distributed services currently under research, development and implementation in libraries and networked information services.
The availability of distributed Patron information (not restricted to the local library automation system) will facilitate a range of services that can be applied to users regardless of their library services affiliation (membership). These include:
PRIDE application will improve the interface between distributed library services and those emerging in the wider world of information supply - including digital lifestyle offerings such as teleshopping and edutainment.
It is very important that the library community recognises that the digital services marketplace is much broader than just libraries and networked information. Therefore generic and focused services will be developed for the home, the office and the public place by major corporations (such as financial through SET and edutainment players through DAVIC). To guarantee a place in the public eye, library services must therefore be able to inter-operate with those services in terms of:
Requirements under the heading of location directories are:
Under the heading of patron/borrower directories, the requirements are:
Directory service applications (in this case inter-operating patron and service description directories) should be distributed - so that information can be lodged with one of a number of global sources, selected according to personal preference, convenience and operational criteria. At the same time it is essential that such distribution should be transparent to the user other than at times when it might effect choice or quality of service.
The nature of this distribution will ultimately be driven by commercial and organisational constraints - determined by who has a business case or mandate to set up directory services and which directories they elect to cover (e.g. patrons or service descriptions).
For example, a large scale agency such as a National Library, a university consortium, a regional libraries grouping or a subject area association may be motivated to establish resource and information's service directories.
On the other hand, it is likely that other players will compete to establish 'people' directories - organisations such as Banks, Credit Card Acquirers, Mail Order Services. Nevertheless in the case of 'people' directories, it must be assumed that specialised service providers (such as information brokers & libraries maintaining SDI & CA profiles) will need to maintain data that will be out of scope for generic operators like Certification Authorities and Banks.
Given the inevitable distribution, specialisation and also competition between these services, a number of issues become critical:
The PRIDE project will provide demonstrator services in a number of different countries in the national language. In order to provide authentication and payment services, it will work with other services established either as development projects or as commercial operations, such as the ICE-CAR project.
Two scenarios are described showing how PRIDE will work:
Scenario 1 : Large-Scale Distributed Searching
The user submits a query to the PRIDE server to ascertain which databases hold information on the required topic. The PRIDE server responds with a list of potential targets based on its knowledge of their contents and provides the client with contact information for the targets. This contact information includes address details as well as semantic inter-operability information gleaned from its explain service (e.g. query attributes supported, schema and record syntax details etc). The client then dynamically re-configures itself in line with the available services from the target databases. The query is then entered against the list of supported attributes for the targets and issued to them in parallel.
Alternatively, the user can issue the initial search to the PRIDE server and the server will forward the query to the appropriate databases based on its knowledge of their content.
The Benefit to End-User
Distributed database searching is now becoming possible through the use of parallel Z39.50 clients, however the initial step of finding out which databases should be searched is as yet unsolved. PRIDE aims to provide this initial referral capability and integrate it with distributed searching to provide an end-to-end information discovery service. Additionally, as more Z39.50 servers are becoming available the problems of semantic inter-operability are becoming more apparent and the need for dynamic interface configuration is now seen as essential. Through its explain service the PRIDE server will provide dynamic inter-operability information to connected clients.
Scenario 2 : Distributed Authentication for Document Delivery
After locating an item of interest (using the above scenario) the user issues a document request either through Z39.50 item order or through an ISO ILL request message to the supplier. The supplier must establish the authenticity of the user and obtain payment information. To do this the supplier contacts the PRIDE directory service, which establishes a 'trust path' to the user and obtains account information for that user.
The Benefit to the Service Provider
This is essential for all service providers who wish to provide large scale commercial services. It should be noted that at present large scale document delivery services do not deal directly with the public due to this problem (for example BLDSC only deals with libraries who operate on behalf of members of the public).
The Benefit to the End User
Without such a service in place, end users will never be able to deal directly with document suppliers.
PRIDE is a background service which holds information about other services and users which enable foreground services to work more effectively. This will be demonstrated by integrating a selected number of foreground service applications and showing how their effectiveness is increased through their use of the PRIDE directory.
The foreground service applications which will be integrated with PRIDE are searching, inter-library loan, document delivery and information alerting.
Since PRIDE is a demonstrator integrating a number of services it will build on the work of the following complementary projects, in the areas indicated:
directory systems
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DESIRE,
LIRN, ROADS
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search and retrieve
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EUROPAGATE,
DALI, UNIVERSE
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meta information
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MODELS,
NEWSAGENT
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harvesting
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ROADS,
NEWSAGENT, ADAM
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security and payment
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ICE-TEL,
ICE-CAR, SEMPER, OKAPI
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ILL protocol
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UNIVERSE,
ION, V3.Online, BLDSC, OCLC
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There are four measures according to which the success of PRIDE will be measured:
| 1999-01-22 | PRIDE Requirements and Success Factors |