CDLINFO

By Ellen Meltzer, CDL Information Services Manager

The new version of the Melvyl Catalog with upgraded software, which will be released on December 10, 2007, may display a UC-eLinks button on the Full Record display for online resources.  Melvyl will pass the user’s IP address along with the item metadata to the SFX (UC-eLinks) KnowledgeBase in order to determine if this user has online access to this item. If the SFX KnowledgeBase determines that the user has online access to the item, the UC-eLinks button appears.

For the display of the UC-eLinks button to work correctly for Tier 3 items (campus licensed resources), Melvyl will need the appropriate campus IP address when users are accessing from off-campus. Therefore, we are asking off-campus access mechanism (proxy or VPN) administrators to add “melvyl.cdlib.org” to their configurations, where needed.  Non-UC IP addresses will check the CDL (systemwide) instance of the SFX KnowledgeBase.

For campuses using proxy servers, patrons may be challenged for proxy authentication when they first visit Melvyl, if Melvyl is the first proxied web site they visit in a session.

By Lena Zentall, CDL UC Image Service Manager

ARTstor and CDL representatives met with faculty and stakeholders at all 9 campuses participating in the ARTstor systemwide license, beginning with Berkeley on September 13 and concluding with a whirlwind tour of the final 8 campuses in 8 days from October 15-24, 2007.

The joint CDL/ARTstor campus visits attracted large numbers of faculty, staff, administrators and other stakeholders who were enthusiastic about using ARTstor and welcomed the collaborative opportunities and efficiencies of participating in UC Shared Images. We held two 90-minute sessions at each campus — a demonstration of ARTstor, and a meeting with stakeholders to discuss integration with ARTstor and UC Shared Images.

We were elated with the tremendous diversity of faculty, staff, administrators, and other stakeholders and with the many compelling questions and comments we received. We were pleased to see the large number of disciplines interested in using ARTstor and it was gratifying to hear the plans of instructional technology staff at the new ARTstor campuses for promoting ARTstor and installing the ARTstor Offline Image Viewer (OIV) for faculty and students.

Upcoming will be a summary of issues raised and next steps in implementing UC Shared Images.

For more information, contact Lena Zentall, Image Service Manager (lena.zentall@ucop.edu; 510.987.9233).

By Ellen Meltzer, CDL Information Services Manager

The version 16.2 upgrade to the Ex Libris Aleph software for the Melvyl Catalog will go live on December 10, 2007.  The software upgrade (and corresponding Oracle upgrade) was done in conjunction with a migration away from an aging hardware platform.  The Melvyl Catalog is now on supported versions of Aleph and Oracle.

Fear not, though, changes to the user experience are not so substantial as to require additional training.  Melvyl guides have been updated and are currently available on the CDL Instructional Materials web page under Melvyl at http://www.cdlib.org/inside/instruct/.

Upgrading the software has resulted in the following changes in Melvyl.

Search Improvements

1. Author names included in Keyword search: This enhancement was added earlier, but the entire database was not re-indexed at that time which was necessary for the change to become effective for all records.  This has now been accomplished.
2. Exact becomes “Begins with”: CDL changed most index descriptions in Melvyl that began with “exact” to “begins with”, a more accurate description.
3. Enriched searching: AUT (Author, last name first), SUB (Subject begins with) and SLC (LC Subject Heading begins with) search results may be larger than expected and/or records may not appear to contain search terms because cross references are now included in searches.
4. Integrating Resources (IR) and assignment of the Ex Libris Format code: In version 15.3, Ex Libris did not take the new leader value for Integrating Resources into account when assigning the Format (FMT).  This has now been changed.  Wonder what Integrating Resources are?  Check out the new Helpà Expert Searchingà Record Formats – Descriptions à Integrating resources, when the new version goes live.

Interface Improvements / Streamlining & New Features

1. “Available online” links display the linked content directly: There is no longer an intermediate “Copyright” screen between the Full Record view in Melvyl and the online resource when clicking the “Available online” hyperlinks.
2. Removal of “Find Related Items” popup box: In version 16.2,the searcher goes directly to a Browse page after clicking on an author’s name, or subject heading “hot” link.
3. UC-eLinks button, displayed conditionally: The UC-eLinks button appears after clicking “Details/Locations” for resources that UC-eLinks determines are available online, including Tier 3 (campus licensed) resources.  If UC-eLinks is not able to match a record in Melvyl to a title in its KnowledgeBase, the UC-eLinks button does not display.
4. Full Record display / New “Note” field is available when saving records: This Note field replaces the “Folder” feature which is not available in this version of the software.
5. Items Saved Across Sessions can now be printed/emailed with library locations: Previously, this was not possible.
6. My Workspace / New labeling: The new “User Information” label in version 16.2 is far more user-friendly than the previous “Update addresses” label.

Interface Improvements / Miscellaneous

1. Changes in the holdings display (order and spacing): Within a campus display box, locations are now listed in alphabetical order.  Also, there are changes in the order and spacing of elements that comprise the Notes area of the holdings display.
2. Vertical bars with subfield codes in MARC display: In 15.3, subfields in the MARC record were not preceded by any punctuation (e.g., subfield delimiter).  Now they are preceded by a vertical bar which helps to distinguish them from the rest of the text.
3. Changes in the MARC display (new fields used by Ex Libris): The MARC display contains new fields that are tagged HOL. They are used by Ex Libris to build holdings displays.

Interface Improvements / Fixes

1. Browse / Multiple headings numbers are displayed more accurately: In version 15.3, multiple Browse headings often displayed an arbitrary “999”, a number with no relation to the actual number of browse headings available.  In 16.02, the multiple heading displays as “50+”.
2. Search results pages / “Previous” and “Next” buttons display correctly: In 16.02, the “Previous” button is grayed out when no previous page is available; the “Next” button is grayed out when no next page is available.
3. Problem searching for items with multiple hyphens and apostrophes resolved: Previously, searching for items containing multiple hyphens (either together or in separate areas of the title) always retrieved 0 results.  Example: “Peer-to-peer”.  A user could only locate the title using Browse or with a Title (exact) search.  Searching now works as expected in version 16.2.  In addition, it is now possible to do successful searches on words with multiple apostrophes.  Example: Keywords = o’hara’s.
4. Merge problems: Some, but not all record merging problems, were improved with version 16.2 of the software.
5. Update / Previous Searches screen actually includes previous searches: In 15.3, after users created an Update, they were returned to the Previous Searches screen.  However, the actual searches were missing from this screen (only the number of results remained).  In 16.2, when users are returned to the Previous Searches screen, all their searches are present.
6. Update / Review Search button functions correctly: In 15.3, when users selected an Update and clicked Review Search, the system took them to the Previous Searches screen that included the same search.  When users clicked the Review Search button on this screen, they received an error message indicating “The selected set has no records.”  In 16.2 when users click the Review Search from Previous Searches screen, the search actually works.

By Steve Toub, Metasearch Project Manager

CDL and UCLA have completed development on a pilot federated search application that helps scholars conduct research on the topic of "Women in U.S. Social Movements". This portal searches 12 separate databases, retrieves results, and presents the ranked results to a user, all with a single click.

It is viewable at: http://matisse.cdlib.org:3082/

This milestone is the latest in a series of efforts to deploy and assess components of CDL’s Metasearch Infrastructure Project; for more information on this project, see: http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/metasearch/

This portal provides functionality new to Metalib 4.0, notably the display of facets on the page that displays the merged results. It also utilizes a Ruby on Rails web development framework, which was deployed in order to simplify development by campus web teams. The CDL team developed the middleware, the Rails templates, and configured the database connections; the UCLA team selected the databases, prioritized the functionality, and customized the look and feel of the interface.

UCLA is in the process of recruiting participants to assess the portal in the coming weeks. In addition to their write-up of the end-user assessment, UCLA will deliver a final report that includes their recommendation of whether the pilot was worth the effort in providing improved service to users and whether the system should be moved into production systemwide. CDL will also make a similar recommendation. Various all-campus groups will consider CDL¹s recommendation in early 2008.

If the recommendation and consultative process on next steps do end up with a decision to move the platform into production systemwide, the move into production would not be immediate, as there is some amount of work CDL needs to do in order to transform the pilot application so it can scale to production status.

Congratulations to all those involved with reaching this milestone.

By Adrian Turner, CDL Data Acquisitions

The "CDL Guidelines for Digital Objects, Version 2.0" (CDL GDO) has been updated to include specifications for use of the METS File <file> element.  You can find the updated version at http://www.cdlib.org/inside/diglib/guidelines/ .

The revision applies to Sections 2.1, 2.2.2, 3.1, and 3.2.4 only:

• To support the orderly transmission and ingest of digital objects, the CDL recommends the inclusion of checksum (MD5, SHA-1, or CRC32) and byte size values in the METS File <file> element.  Note that this information is preferred, but not required.
• The subheadings within Sections 2.1 and 3.1 have been relabeled, and are now consistently based on METS element names.

Please contact the CDL at oacops@ucop.edu if you have any questions.

Access to texts, notes, and facsimiles available online at no charge to institutions or individuals

University of California is pleased to announce the launch of the beta version of the Mark Twain Project Online (www.marktwainproject.org), a digital critical edition of the writings of Mark Twain.

The Mark Twain Project Online (MTPO) applies innovative technology to more than four decades of archival research by expert editors at the Mark Twain Project.  It offers unfettered, intuitive access to reliable texts, accurate and exhaustive notes, and the most recently discovered letters and documents.

MTPO is a joint undertaking of the Mark Twain Papers and Project, the California Digital Library, and University of California Press.  It is funded in part by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Mark Twain Project, and is supported by a number of institutions and individuals.  The Mark Twain Foundation, a perpetual charitable trust that possesses the publication rights to all of Mark Twain’s writings, has given UC Press and the Mark Twain Project Online exclusive rights to publish copyright-protected writings by Mark Twain, both in print and electronically.

At beta launch, the site will include more than twenty-three hundred letters written between 1853 and 1880, including nearly 100 facsimiles of originals.  Users will also be able to search for information about Mark Twain’s complete correspondence across his entire life, including letters to him and his family. In future years, the site will release more of the nearly ten thousand known letters, including many never-before published; electronic editions of many of Mark Twain’s most famous literary works; the most complete catalog of Mark Twain’s writings currently available; and, in 2010, Mark Twain’s Autobiography, never before published in its complete form.

"The Mark Twain Project Online is an extraordinary resource for scholars, teachers, and ordinary readers.  Materials that previously could be examined only by scholars fortunate enough to be able to visit the Mark Twain Project in The Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley will now be available worldwide to anyone with an interest in Mark Twain—and that’s a cause for celebration," Shelley Fisher Fishkin, author of Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture, said.

The customizable interface provides a powerful reading and research experience.  The site offers users unprecedented access to authoritative transcriptions of Mark Twain’s writings and the ability to compare those transcriptions side by side with facsimiles when available. Researchers can gather and store digital citations and links to selected documents, images, and other resources.  These features are supported, in large part, by the California Digital Library’s eXtensible Text Framework (XTF) and the ongoing work of the Textual Encoding Initiative (TEI).

The Mark Twain Project Online demonstrates the great advantages of digital presentation and will be a model for future digital scholarly work.  “The Mark Twain Project Online is an exciting initiative that will make a fundamental literary and biographical archive available to scholars and students.  MTPO offers easy access through a sophisticated web interface that is growing and comprehensive scope.  This project has the potential to become a model for Web accessibility to foundational scholarly resources,” Richard Terdiman, author of Body and Story: The Ethics and Practice of Theoretical Conflict, said.

View the Mark Twain Project Online and access information about the making of this landmark online publication, by visiting http://www.marktwainproject.org.  You can also contact Catherine Mitchell (Catherine.Mitchell@ucop.edu; 510.587.6132), Acting Director of CDL’s eScholarship Publishing Group for additional information.

By Ivy Anderson, Director of CDL Collection Development & Management

It is with much regret that we announce that Robin Chandler will be leaving the California Digital Library on November 30th to accept an appointment as Digital Library Program Manager at UC San Diego.

Robin has been a creative force at the CDL since her arrival in 2000.  Under her leadership as Director of Built Content, CDL cemented its reputation as a nexus of cultural heritage digital archives for the state of California.  Projects that owe their existence and/or development to Robin include the Online Archive of California, CalCultures, the Local History Digital Resources Project, and the American West virtual collection.  Most recently as Director of Data Acquisitions, Robin’s work at CDL has been synonymous with mass digitization.  Due to the efforts of Robin and her team working in close collaboration with campus libraries across UC, a robust infrastructure has been put into place through which more than half a million volumes from University of California collections have been digitized in partnership with the Open Content Alliance, Google, and Microsoft.

The CDL wishes Robin well as she explores new challenges as a valued colleague and collaborative partner in digital library development at UC.

Organization of CDL Data Acquisitions Activities Effective December 1st

In preparing for Robin’s departure, we have given considerable thought to how best to organize the diverse responsibilities currently performed by Robin’s unit within the CDL.  These activities generally fall into two areas:

• Data consultancy and ingest for CDL digital collections, including OAC, Calisphere, and the Local History Digital Resources Project (LHDRP)
• Mass digitization project coordination and partner relations

Staff contacts for these activities will continue unchanged, ensuring a high level of continuity for UC colleagues and other institutional partners.  Beginning December 1st , overall responsibility for these areas will be organized as follows:

• The Data Consultancy unit, including OAC and LHDRP, will report to the CDL’s Digital Special Collections Program, directed by Rosalie Lack.  Staff within this unit include:
• Adrian Turner, Data Consultant, LHDRP
• Gabriela Montoya, Built Content Operations Technician
• Data Consultant (currently vacant)

• Mass Digitization will reside within the CDL Collections Program, directed by Ivy Anderson.  Staff within this unit include:
• Heather Christenson, Mass Digitization Project Manager
• Ann Jensen, Projects Liaison
• Paul Fogel, Technical Lead

Colleagues both within and outside of UC should continue to interact with the staff in these units as you do currently.  As we approach Robin’s departure date, some leadership roles and responsibilities will shift to accommodate changes in reporting.  Beginning December 1st, questions and concerns relating to overall policy and program management can be directed respectively to Rosalie Lack for data consultancy and Ivy Anderson for mass digitization activities.

We are confident that this alignment will enable the CDL to maintain a high level of service and momentum in these strategically vital activities.  Please contact Ivy Anderson (ivy.anderson@ucop.edu) or Rosalie Lack (rosalie.lack@ucop.edu) with any questions.

By Ellen Meltzer, CDL Information Services Manager

Planning for the UC-OCLC Next Generation Melvyl Pilot is complex; some of the Task Group reports are dense reading, and the impact of using WorldCat Local as a discovery tool is significant for our users and for all of us working in the UC Libraries.

The Implementation Team wants to hear how you’d best like to be kept informed of the work of this project. Your input is important.

Please take our brief, 5-question survey this November and have your vote be counted!  Encourage your colleagues to take it, too.

Find the survey at http://vovici.com/wsb.dll/s/aaeg2e40f .

You will also find it linked from the UC-OCLC Pilot Implementation Web Page: http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/about/uc_oclc.html .