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Applications of XML, Semantic Web & Linked Data in Library/Information Services & Skills needed by System Librarians.

H6716 (Internet & Web Technologies) & K6224 (Internet Technologies & Applications)

Semester 2 – 2011/2012

Hazman Aziz, Librarian (Library Technology & Systems)Amirrudin Dahlan, Senior IT Specialist (Center for IT & Services)Nanyang Technological University

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Introduction

On August 6th 1991, Tim Berners-Lee (1991) described a project called the

“World Wide Web (WWW)”

that aimed to

“allow links to be made to any information anywhere”.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee

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Introduction

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NOAA_Internet_example.png

An example of how the Internet allows near-universal connectivity.

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Library Science

“… the Web was one of several network-based systems to be pressed into service at the same time as the Internet was changing the rules for widespread communications.”

Late 80s

Gopher was introduced

ANSI Standard Z39.50 Information Retrieval Service

1991

1991

Wide Area Information Servers

WAIS

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The Telidon

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telidon

“… attempts to create public information infrastructure through technologies such as Telidon.”

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The Web

Source: Arthur Rhyno, (2003) "From library systems to mainstream software: how Web technologies are changing the role of the systems librarian", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 21 Iss: 3, pp.289 – 296 | DOI (Permanent URL): 10.1108/07378830310494463

“Yet the Web was different from these initiatives in that it did not stay on the fringes of the library computing landscape for very long.”

“… the technologies of the Web would become far more pervasive and central to the library’s operations.

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The Web in Libraries: The Beginnings

Source: Arthur Rhyno, (2003) "From library systems to mainstream software: how Web technologies are changing the role of the systems librarian", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 21 Iss: 3, pp.289 – 296 | DOI (Permanent URL): 10.1108/07378830310494463

HTML (HyperText Markup Language)… an easy way to publish a system of “links” known as hypertext.

… links were typically to information on library hours and services, and usually offered information on how to access the OPAC (Online Public Access Catalogue).

Figure 1: Web server uses HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) to serve HTML documents located on disk to a Web browser

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HTML Contents Needs To Be Dynamic

Source: Arthur Rhyno, (2003) "From library systems to mainstream software: how Web technologies are changing the role of the systems librarian", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 21 Iss: 3, pp.289 – 296 | DOI (Permanent URL): 10.1108/07378830310494463

Introduction to Common Gateway InterfaceCGI specification allowed external applications to be wired into the Web

… provided an interactive experience, and just as importantly, opened the door to plugging in applications that predated the Web.

Figure 2: An application is made available through CGI to any Web browser

Two of the earliest library-related CGI programs were

CNIDR’s Z39.50 Gateway (Zgate)

and an interface called

“WebCat”

from the University of Waterloo that provided a Web layer for the library’s GEAC system

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Integrated Library System

Source: http://www.mayo.edu/library/information-systems.html

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Linking, Stability and Convenience

Source: http://www.mayo.edu/library/information-systems.html

Linking issues for libraries tend to fall into two major areas,:

1. authentication, i.e. verifying the user’s digital identity so that they can be given access, and

2. redirection or link resolving, where a mechanism is put in place to ensure that users are matched to the resources that are appropriate to the context of the link itself.

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The Importance of XML

Source: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/bibcontrol/moen_paper.html

Every substantive Web initiative is now expected

to demonstrate its relationship to XML

and the library community has utilized or is investigating

XML for many of its data formats, including MARC and

other forms of metadata,

as well as using it for passing information back and forth for protocols such as Z39.50 and NCIP.

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The Importance of XML

Source: http://infomotions.com/musings/mylibrary-framework/

XML is also an important enabling technology for sharing library information with other applications

… pass circulation information into a patron’s calendaring system, for example,

XML is most likely to be the exchange format to make this

happen.

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XML Technologies of Interest

Source: http://infomotions.com/musings/mylibrary-framework/

In Systems Librarians’ Daily Work

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Example: NTU Digital Repository

Source: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-guide2versioning/

DSpace is the software of choice for academic, non-profit, and commercial organizations building open digital repositories.

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Example: Blogs @ NTU (WordPress)

Source:http://codex.wordpress.org/XML-RPC_Support , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML-RPC , http://codex.wordpress.org/XML-RPC_wp

WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website, blog a multi-blog platform

XML-RPC Support

WordPress uses an XML-RPC interface. We currently support the Blogger API, metaWeblog API, and the Movable Type API.

It's a spec and a set of implementations that allow software running on disparate operating systems, running in different environments to make procedure calls over the Internet.

It's remote procedure calling using HTTP as the transport and XML as the encoding. XML-RPC is designed to be as simple as possible, while allowing complex data structures to be transmitted, processed and returned.

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Example: Blogs @ NTU (WordPress)

Source:http://codex.wordpress.org/XML-RPC_Support , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML-RPC , http://codex.wordpress.org/XML-RPC_wp

Defining the WordPress API to match with the other Blog providers

Pull and write into the WordPress Database.

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Example: Blogs @ NTU (WordPress)

Source: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-guide2versioning/

An XML sitemap is a must for your Blogs @ NTU

XML is the format that Google, Yahoo and Bing wants us to submit our Sitemaps to them so they can crawl the deeper pages of our blog.

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Semantic Web

Source: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-guide2versioning/

“The Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation” (Berners-Lee et al., 2001).

Planned to take advantage of the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and additional standards, the semantic Web is being developed by the W3C in collaboration with a large number of researchers and industrial partners (RDF, 2002) (W3C, 2001).

The goal is to construct a network of structured, sharable semantics that is accessible, understandable, and manipulable by computer agents. Computer agents (Semantic Web agents), acting on behalf of people or other computer agents, will traverse the semantic network, find and manipulate information, perform desired tasks, and offer services.

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Web & Library Portals (Blogs @ NTU)

Source:http://ep-books.ehumanities.nl/semantic-words

Semantic WordPress for Digital Scholarship framework

(Semantic WORDS)

• Enhanced Bibliplug

• Enhanced Publication for WordPress

http://ep-books.ehumanities.nl/enhanced-bibliplug-plugin-for-wordpress

http://ep-books.ehumanities.nl/enhanced-publication-plugin-for-wordpress

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Semantic Web in Federated Search

Source: Tamar Sadeh, Jenny Walker, (2003) "Library portals: toward the semantic Web", New Library World, Vol. 104 Iss: 1/2, pp.11 - 19

The current process of accessing several resources for the sake of seeking information is cumbersome and requires some knowledge of the various resources, their access mechanisms, the query interface they provide, and the type of results they return.

… requires a manual comparison between the results returned from several resources and does not enable the user to move from one resource to another for further discovery and navigation.

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Semantic Web in Federated Search

Source: Tamar Sadeh, Jenny Walker, (2003) "Library portals: toward the semantic Web", New Library World, Vol. 104 Iss: 1/2, pp.11 - 19

Semantic Web (Web 2.0 Applications)

Web portal (NTU Library)

Library Portal (Library Management System /

OPAC / Database Directory)

Federated (Cross-Database Searching)

MetaLibKnowledgeBase

The functional information in the KnowledgeBase

• Information that sets the rules for the transfer of a query

• Information that sets the rules for the interpretation of the results obtained from the resource.

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Semantic Web in Federated Search

Source: Tamar Sadeh, Jenny Walker, (2003) "Library portals: toward the semantic Web", New Library World, Vol. 104 Iss: 1/2, pp.11 - 19

Berners-Lee et al. (2001) state that “for the semantic Web to function, computers must have access to structured collections of information and sets of inference rules that they can use to conduct automated reasoning”.

A feasible example of the implementation of such inference rules is the use of a set of transformations to convert the user query into a format that matches the specification of the target’s search engine.

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Semantic Web in Federated Search

Source: http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-guide2versioning/

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Linked Data

Source:http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

“The Semantic Web isn't just about putting data on the web. It is about making links, so that a person or machine can explore the web of data. With linked data, when you have some of it, you can find other, related, data.”

Tim Berners-Lee on the next WebWatch: http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web.html

In computing, linked data describes a method of publishing structured data so that it can be interlinked and become more useful.

It builds upon standard Web technologies such as HTTP and URIs, but rather than using them to serve web pages for human readers, it extends them to share information in a way that can be read automatically by computers.

This enables data from different sources to be connected and queried

One example is : WikiPedia

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The Principles in Linked Data

Source:http://mashstream.com/semantic-web/about-mashups-and-linked-data/

The principles in Linked Data are the following:

1. Use URIs as names for things.

2. Use HTTP URIs, so that people can look up those names.

3. When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information, using the standards (RDF, SPARQL).

4. Include links to other URIs, so that they can discover more things.

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NTU LIBRARY’s Web Scale Discovery

Source: Vaughan, J. (2010), Web-Scale Discovery. URL: http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/columns/dispatches-field/web-scale-discovery

Web-scale discovery services for the library environment are an evolution holding great potential to easily connect researchers with the library’s vast information repository, whether physical holdings, such as books and DVDs; local electronic content, such as digital image collections and institutional repository materials; or remotely hosted content purchased or licensed by the library, such as e-books and publisher or aggregator content for thousands of full-text and abstracting and indexing resources.

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How does it works?

Source: Vaughan, J. (2010), Web-Scale Discovery. URL: http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/columns/dispatches-field/web-scale-discovery

NTU Web Scale Discovery

HTML

RSS

OpenURL - XMLMARC - XML

OAI - XML

Dublin Core / Custom - XML

SFXOpenURL link server

MetalibFederated Search Engine

Library CatalogueDatabase of local book, media & journals Holidings, as well as print and media resources

Digital RepositoryLocal Publication of the university.Student works, etc

E ResourcesDatabase of e-resources

MARC - XML

Z39.50

XML

MARC

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One Search @ NTU Library

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Industrial Experience : Usage of XML in Energy Market Industry

• In early 2000, EMA (Energy Market Authority of Singapore) decided to liberate the energy market of big consumers.

• Big consumers include:o Industries

o Oil and Gas production plantso Pharmaceutical companies

o Ministrieso etc

Liberation of Market for Large Energy Consumers

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Implication of Energy LiberationUsage of XML in Energy Market Industry

• Singapore Power used to supply the energy.

• Liberation meanso There are many energy provider (retailers) for consumers to choose

from.o Concept similar to Telco’s:

o No longer relying on Singtelo Competitors are M1 and Starhub

o Energy retailerso Power Serayao Senoko & etc

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Implication of Energy LiberationUsage of XML in Energy Market Industry

• Liberation meanso Price competitionso Ensuring quality of good energy supplyo Absence of energy monopolizing by a single entity (Singapore Power)

o Fairer energy price pegs for the energy consumption. o Benefit the consumer by a reduction in the overall energy bill due to

competition.

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Implication of Energy LiberationUsage of XML in Energy Market Industry

• Singapore Power used to supply the energy.• Liberation means

o There are many energy provider (retailers) for consumers to choose from.

o Concept similar to Telco’s:o No longer relying on Singtelo Competitors are M1 and Starhub

o Energy retailerso Power Serayao Senoko & etc

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The Role of IT in Establishing KMUsage of XML in Energy Market Industry

• A system to permit transfer of energy readings from SP Services to retailers for billing calculations.

• Keeping in mind these factorso Independence from different business needs of retailers.o Independence from the adopted technology adopted by each retailers.o Permit easy segregation of cost of building the system.o High availabilityo Expansion opportunity to include new energy retailers.

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SolutionUsage of XML in Energy Market Industry

• SonicMQ by Progess as a messaging brokero A messaging software that open channels to allow transmission of

XML between 2 entities.o Adopting J2ME engine.o Independent of the software that consumes or transmit the XML.o Works with

o Microsoft .Net platformo Java SDK

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Skills & Knowledge NeededMain Activities/Tasks Done By System Librarians

Leadership, policies and procedures, collaboration, planning, supervision, resource management, project management, grant, representation

Management

Digital projects/initiatives, technical standards/practices, design, development and implementation, digital preservation, framework, digital repository, digital contents aspects

Digital Library

Websites, digitizing/converting, technical support, system administration/maintenance, data conversion, system analysis/testing, open source software development, usability testing, interoperability, digital library technology

Technology

Metadata, access and retrieval mechanisms (bibliographic records, finding aids, EAD, MARC records), quality control, databases.

Processing

Collection development, collection management, preservation/record management, online resources

Collection & Resources

Instruction/staff training, reference/public services, liaison, professional activities, user studies

Others

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Skills & Knowledge NeededMain Activities/Tasks Done By System Librarians

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45Source: http://dailyinfographic.com/anatomy-of-a-librarian-infographic

46Source: http://dailyinfographic.com/anatomy-of-a-librarian-infographic

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Applications of XML, Semantic Web & Linked Data in Library/Information Services & Skills needed by System Librarians.

H6716 (Internet & Web Technologies) & K6224 (Internet Technologies & Applications)

Semester 2 – 2011/2012

Hazman Aziz, Librarian (Library Technology & Systems)Amirrudin Dahlan, Senior IT Specialist (Center for IT & Services)Nanyang Technological University