d+ resource discovery tool

Combining the strengths of UMIST andThe Victoria University of Manchester

d+ Resource Discovery Tool work in Progress

WebCT User group

9th May 2006

Adrian StevensonLearning Technology Services

The University of Manchester

May 9th 2006 d+ Resource DiscoveryCombining the strengths of UMIST andThe Victoria University of Manchester 2

d+

• Discovery+: Brokerage for Deep and Distributed e-Learning Resources Discovery

• Part of the ‘service-oriented’ JISC e-Framework

• d+ is a tool that allows discovery of ‘deep’ resources stored in distributed repositories

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Why d+?

• Effective study requires resource discovery

• d+ allows for the discovery of quality, peer-reviewed resources

• Google useful but has flaws

• More and more of these resources becoming available

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Why d+?

• Enhances WebCT– Highlights the availability of learning

resources when they are most relevant

• Open source– Free– Search targets tailored to the institutions

requirements– Toolkit functionality customisable

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Searchable repositories

• Peer reviewed resources – RDN• Subject specific gateways – SOSIG• Serials / journals – e-prints• Learning object repositories - JORUM• Web – Google• Amazon, O’Reilly, Safari• Other library / bibliographic targets

– Z39.50 targetshttp://www.ukoln.ac.uk/distributed-systems/zdir/

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How to use d+?

• Enter a search term and select a target

• Results can be captured and saved– In XML format e.g. content package, resource

list

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WebCT Integration• ‘Loose’ and

‘tight’ integration with WebCT

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d-

• D+ project finished– Lack of support– Not well documented

• Slow response• Lack of resources

– Not a d+ issue– Inadequate metadata

• Not true federated search• Competition – Google, Google Scholar, Metalib

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References

• d+ Project http://devil.lib.ed.ac.uk:8080/dplus/

• Related Projects– DICE

http://www.staffs.ac.uk/COSE/DICE/– ELF Search Service Demonstrator

http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/elfsearch/

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Contact

Adrian Stevenson

Learning Technology Services

Room B38, Sackville Building

University of Manchester

Sackville St

Manchester M60 1QD

Tel: +44(0)161 306 3109

Email: adrian.stevenson@manchester.ac.uk