d+ resource discovery tool
DESCRIPTION
Given to University of Manchester WebCT user group 9th May 2006TRANSCRIPT
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
May 9th 2006 d+ Resource DiscoveryCombining the strengths of UMIST andThe Victoria University of Manchester 4
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
May 9th 2006 d+ Resource DiscoveryCombining the strengths of UMIST andThe Victoria University of Manchester 5
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
May 9th 2006 d+ Resource DiscoveryCombining the strengths of UMIST andThe Victoria University of Manchester 6
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: [email protected]