resource discovery tools for vles 1

April 2005April 2005

Resource Discovery tools for VLEs 1Resource Discovery tools for VLEs 1

Presenter: Eddie Clarke, Learning Development, Staffordshire University

DICE project http://www.staffs.ac.uk/COSE/DICE [email protected]

Presentation attempts to address the following questions:

1. What are resource discovery tools and why are they useful?

2. What kind of resources are available / can be discovered?

3. What resource discovery tools? (Google Scholar, Other commercial and Open . Source solutions and services)?

4. How is this relevant for Moodle (or any VLE) users / practitioners?

5. Are such tools useful beyond simple resource discovery (e.g. in saving and . searching of results)?

6. Why am I telling you all this? (bigger picture / evaluation)




‘What are ..’ - electronic, often web based, means to identify (poss. acquire) . resources relevant to learning. maybe best illustrated / answered by next . . question

Any project / study requires some appreciation of the existing knowledge base

There are advantages and disadvantages in using the web compared with . traditional means (pressures on libraries / budgets with expansion of . knowledge base)

. And how are the tools different (from each other) They might be different in lots of ways, but one consideration relates to open . source or freely available services v commercial systems ( and e.g. how OS . . tools can be adapted to provide bespoke features)



2. What kind of resources are available / can be discovered?

Tools can be configured to search different targets or multiple targets or even the whole web. Note: not all resources (‘results’) can be accessed via the web **

- Physical resources (Books, CDs, Journal )

Title / Author / Journal (and other limited metadata / descriptors. Shelf . Nnumber? Depending on system and protocol used in sending search query)

Abstracts // Full Text // E-resources // multimedia

But with standard protocols ( e.g. z39.50) searches can be conducted across a wide range of targets c.f. OPAC

Most tools are easy to use, or at least have a simple interface

** But useful to know they exist nevertheless, even if one doesn’t order via inter-library loan



3. What resource discovery tools? (Google Scholar, Other commercial and open . source solutions)?

Commercial solutions (may include link resolvers) are expensive (Staffs Uni are investing in a solution from Metalib / SFX ).

You can test / access (affordable solutions) e.g. d plus demonstrator

(Devil project) at http://tweed.lib.ed.ac.uk:8080/webct/search.jsp

Or through our uPortal installation

http://193.60.1.153:8080/uPortal/

or separately via http://www.staffs.ac.uk/COSE/DICE

http://scholar.google.com/

and http://www.edina.ac.uk/getref

if you are really keen. you need an Athens account to use the GetRef service.

Note: There are access and authentication issues for some resources.



4. How is this relevant for Moodle (or any VLE) users / practitioners?

Adds value to the system. Discovery tools can be embedded as other tools or accessed simply via a hyperlink ..

but be conscious of what embedded might mean ( ? the saving and searching of results)

Work on embedding resource discovery tools in Moodle (or other VLEs)

Staffs Moodle installation w edinburgh demo ( http://193.60.1.95/moodle/ )

Credit: Phil Barker, Santiago Chumbe @ ICBL, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh See link http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/~santiago/elf.html

Bolton’s WebCT http://elearning.bolton.ac.uk (my account) and Boon Low’s discovery + http://devil.lib.ed.ac.uk:8080/dplus/ includes ref to webCT widget



5. Are such tools useful beyond simple resource discovery (e.g. in saving and . searching of results)?

Results can be saved in different formats. Sent by email or saved to local drive.

Standards may apply to these formats. Results may be in XML (for data independence, first step toward interoperability*)

Metadata is a big turn off for most people – need to shield users from complexity by using simple free text search, but also to educate users in appropriate use of metadata – because it is the only (systematic) means to differentiate quality of information (results)

Searching for results saved to a system is a big job (!) – we are looking into using Google mini search engine

* Metadata standards may apply and there are new specifications for Reading Lists. Also relevant here is work from another recent JISC project we have been engaged in SURF X4L,

looking at content exchange and how content interoperability may be achieved or not !




Web Services - Resource discovery tools are just one of a host of web services* which could be plugged into your VLE (or other VLEs **)

Service oriented architectures – the next generation Web (Berners-Lee)

** available soon** we have a particuilar interest in plugging into COSE VLE, another aspect of DICE project

Evaluation of D+ toolkit – why we are interested in views from the FE sector

(Our experience working with Shrewsbury College and Stoke College within SURF. Universities likely to opt for more sophistcated commercial solutions

Funding available: £3000 ~ £50 per tutor / learning technologist

~ 2 hours work. For students ~ £30.





Specific evaluation questions / use cases identified (PB @ HW)

Please focus replies on the d plus toolkit and scholar but look at the getref service if only for 20 – 30 minutes (say so if you cannot access).

1. are resource discovery tools useful esp. embedded in VLE ?

2. are such tools useful in saving / searching for saved results ?

3. what are the best / worst features of those you have seen / have . experience of ?

4. issues relating to metadata / descriptors can mostly be made transparent . to the user. would this be nevertheless be a problem for you ?





We addressed the following questions:


2. What kind of resources are available / can be discovered?RATIONALE

3. What resource discovery tools? (Google Scholar, Other commercial and open . source solutions)? DEMOS

4. How is this relevant for Moodle (or any VLE) users / practitioners? EXEMPLAR

5. Are such tools useful beyond simple resource discovery (e.g. in saving and . searching of results)? TOOLS PLUS


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resource discovery tools for vles 1

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