CDLINFO

By Peter Brantley, Executive Director of the Digital Library Federation

Such standard interfaces will allow libraries to deploy new discovery services to meet ever-growing user expectations in the Web 2.0 era, take full advantage of advanced ILS data management and services, and encourage a strong, innovative community and marketplace in next-generation library management and discovery applications.

A group of eight professionals from major North American research libraries, including Patricia Martin, CDL Director of Bibliographic Services, prepared the recommendation during late 2007 and early 2008.  Members of the group surveyed the library community about their needs, made presentations, and held open discussions face to face and online with librarians, developers, and vendors. 

In March, the DLF convened a meeting that brought together Task Group members and representatives of library system vendors and developers, and produced the "Berkeley Accord", an agreement about the most essential and feasible interfaces to include in an initial set of interfaces.

This set of interfaces, called the "Basic Discovery Interfaces", is described in detail in the new ILS-DI recommendation.  The recommendation also describes and recommends a variety of other functions to support higher levels of interoperability.

The Digital Library Federation has made the recommendation, and related materials prepared by the ILS-DI Task Group, available on the DLF website:

http://diglib.org/architectures/ilsdi/

Besides the recommendations, this site includes links to presentations on the ILS-DI Task Group’s work, XML schemas used in the recommended formats for Basic Discovery Interfaces, information from the Task Group’s survey of library professionals, and links to example prototype implementations of the Basic Discovery Interfaces.

For the recommendations to be truly successful in promoting interoperability, they need to be implemented for ILS’s, and used in discovery applications.

Toward that end, the DLF is planning a developer’s workshop, in which those interested in implementing the Basic Discovery Interfaces can find out more about the recommendations, learn about the required interfaces and how they can be implemented, meet with potential partners for developing and using the interfaces, and form a development community that may help establish higher levels of interoperability and refine the recommendations into practical standards.  More information about this meeting will be released shortly.

The Berkeley Accord and the DLF ILS-DI recommendation are important first steps in building advanced, interoperable architectures for bibliographic discovery and use in the networked world.  We look forward to working with the library community, both non-profit and for-profit, in building on this work to enable the development of the best library services for research and learning.

By Ellen Meltzer, CDL Information Services Manager

Based on end user comments and usability testing, OCLC has made the following enhancements to the Next Generation Melvyl Pilot supported by WorldCat Local (WCL) this month.  (As a reminder, enhancements are brought into WCL on a monthly basis.)

• A “Return to Search Results” link has been added from the detailed record page, making it easier for users to navigate back to search results.

• Stickiness issues have been improved.  The user’s search terms are now removed from the search box on all but search results, no results, and advanced search pages so that users no longer find search terms in the box from either the last person who used a public terminal, or from a search conducted some time in the past.  Users can now use the Return to Search Results link (detailed above) to return to the previous search results.
• Users will no longer see the WCL Internet Resource icon (blue world with an arrow in it) on the brief list of results for items that are truly not internet resources, such as publisher descriptions or sample text, or articles. (Some articles may in fact be available online via UC-eLinks.) Users will continue to see the icon for items such as NetLibrary or eScholarship Repository resources.
• A new green whirling icon message will be displayed in the upper right hand corner of the framed page indicating that the page is loading.

• UCLA’s Configuration Questionnaire was amended so that call number prefixes can now display in the call numbers of UCLA’s records.  Click the link to see an example:  http://ucla.worldcat.org/search?q=no%3A+15432434&scope=2&oldscope=2&qt=owc_search

Preparing training materials for the Next Generation Melvyl Pilot for the onslaught of students this fall?  There’s now a link from the UC-OCLC Pilot Implementation Web page to instructional materials for the pilot.  Materials, including tutorials, were created at the campuses and OCLC: http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/about/uc_oclc.html

Facebook widgets, allowing you to search Next Gen Melvyl from your Facebook account (and who wouldn’t want to be doing that!), are coming soon. Google Gadgets are on their way, too.

Finally, as fall quarters and semesters begin, please point out the survey link in the Next Generation Melvyl Pilot web banner to faculty and students in library tours, instructional sessions, newsletters and messages, and via other appropriate mechanisms.   The survey is one instrument we can use to gauge our users’ satisfaction of this new tool and is an important part of our assessment plan.

By Jayne Dickson, CDL Helpline Manager

Have you ever deleted a CDLAlert too soon and now you’re wondering if that resource should be back in action?  Or have you ever noticed that a resource was down and wondered if the vendor had sent a downtime message?  The easiest way to find out is to check the CDLAlert Archive at
http://listserv.ucop.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A0=CDLALERT-L.  You can see all the CDLAlerts sent during a specific month or you can search the archive by keyword (e.g., by vendor, resource or platform name).

We use CDLAlerts to send announcements of systemwide interest to our users, e.g., new access points, database problems that might take significant time to resolve, notices for scheduled maintenance, etc.  So, CDLAlerts bring a wealth of information on UC resources directly to your e-mailbox.  If you’re not already subscribed to the CDLALERT-L listserv, information on how to do so is below.

To subscribe: Please send the following line to Listserv@Listserv.ucop.edu
SUBSCRIBE CDLALERT-L (your name)
      Example
            SUBSCRIBE CDLALERT-L Rita Book

To unsubscribe: Please send the following line to Listserv@listserv.ucop.edu
UNSUBSCRIBE CDLALERT-L

By Margery Tibbetts, Technical Project Lead for UC-eLinks

Since CDL web statistics have indicated that the SFX (UC-eLinks) KnowledgeBase monthly reports were little used, we are discontinuing the automatic generation of these pages in order to direct resources towards projects which have a greater impact on campus end users.

If you have questions please contact Margery Tibbetts: margery.tibbetts@ucop.edu.