CDLINFO

By Ellen Meltzer, CDL Information Services Manager

CDL has implemented an embedded YouTube-style viewer for Google Books in a test copy of the Melvyl® Catalog.  The book viewer is visible on the detailed record display, allowing users to view and search the full text in those digitized Google books free of copyright restrictions.

In the test version of Melvyl (http://melvyl-test.cdlib.org:8164/F/), search the sample titles and then view the detailed record display.

     Sample titles:
            Romance Island
            Cord blood : establishing a national hematopoietic stem cell bank program
            The mason-bees

(Since this is not a production server, it may not be up and running at all times, and response time may be slower than usual.)

For our initial implementation of the Google Book Search API (application programming interface), CDL integrated the API features into the Melvyl Catalog at the brief record display level.  That feature embedded online access to mass digitized content from all Google Books Library Program partners within Melvyl, permitting users to see reviews, snippets, tables of contents or entire scanned books.

With the embedded book viewer, users can explore the full contents of digitized books either in a small viewer or in full-screen, and also search within the work.  Researchers can explore the full text of an item right in the discovery tool, the library catalog, within the natural scholarly work flow.

By implementing these APIs we enable our users access to digital versions of print resources and help them make more informed choices about the materials they use for research or request from other libraries.

This feature will also appear in the near future in the Next Generation Melvyl Pilot supported by the WorldCat Local (WCL) service.

After a testing period, if successful, this feature will become a regular part of Melvyl.

By Ivy Anderson, Director of Collection Development & Management

After a careful evaluation, CDL has selected Serials Solutions 360 Resource Manager to manage the CDL’s shared licensing activities for Tier 1 and CDL-supported Tier 2 resources.

CDL put in place a rigorous evaluation process, including a detailed set of functional and business requirements, with a goal of selecting an approach and formulating a project plan by September of this year.  Two early components of CDL’s assessment included an evaluation of whether to consider local development as an alternative to a vended solution and, for the latter option, whether to seek a hosted solution or a locally-managed system.  CDL quickly found that local development would not be a fruitful option and determined that a hosted system would be preferable for operational reasons, particularly given the extensive staff resources dedicated to the Next Generation Melvyl Pilot support by WorldCat Local.

CDL then focused its activities on a detailed assessment of the two leading vendor products, Innovative Interfaces, Inc. (III) and Serials Solutions.  The evaluation included a detailed set of functional requirements, several in-house presentations and demonstrations as well as hands-on access to a test system to the maximum extent allowed by each vendor.

While neither system provides all of the functionality CDL desires and each possesses different strengths and weaknesses, the evaluation produced a clear winner in Serials Solutions due to a variety of factors:

• its superior knowledgebase
• better workflow support
• its experience operating a hosted solution
• the ability to operate in a web-based environment without the need for dedicated client software
• a commitment to open standards and interoperability
• an agile development process
• vendor responsiveness
• significantly lower cost.

CDL anticipates the Serials Solutions system will evolve rapidly in the near term to develop improved functionality for consortial licensing activities and that Serials Solutions will be highly responsive to UC requirements.  Campuses will have read-only access to the system to look up information.

Lena Zentall will serve as ERMS Project Manager going forward and will be working on an implementation plan and timetable.  We will keep the campuses apprised as these plans unfold.  Campuses should feel free to contact Lena (lena.zentall@ucop.edu) with any questions about CDL’s implementation plans.

By Rosalie Lack, CDL Digital Special Collections Director

The Library of Congress, Internet Archive, and CDL are collaborating on a project to archive web sites — from the perspective of middle and high school students — with a view toward preserving and integrating primary resources into the K-12 teaching curriculum.

Up to ten middle and high schools throughout the US will be selected to participate in this endeavor.  The project will use the Internet Archive’s Archive-It web archiving service to generate "time capsules" featuring collections that document social and cultural history relevant to the students’ lives.  Internet Archive will host the resources long-term and make the collections publicly available via the Archive-It website at http://www.archive-it.org.  Under the coordination of educators at the schools, students will identify, select, capture, and describe web resources using Archive-It over the course of the academic year, from October 2008 through May 2009.  Up to 300 websites can be crawled at any one time, and students can capture up to 10 million web-based documents.  The Library of Congress and CDL will provide program support, and the Internet Archive will provide technical resources.  This project is supported financially by the Library of Congress and the Internet Archive.

For more information and for application details, see the Library of Congress’ K-12 Web Archiving Project announcement (PDF).

By Rosalie Lack, CDL Digital Special Collections Director

Now that fall has returned and UC students are streaming back to campus, it’s a good time to take another look at Calisphere (http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu) with undergraduate students in mind.  Calisphere is the University of California’s free public gateway to a world of primary sources.  Calisphere contains more than 150,000 digitized items — including

• Photographs
• Documents
• Newspaper pages
• Political cartoons
• Works of art
• Diaries
• Transcribed oral histories
• Advertising, and other unique cultural artifacts

These items reveal the diverse history and culture of California and its role in national and world history.

Calisphere’s content has been selected from the libraries and museums of the UC campuses, and from a variety of cultural heritage organizations across California.  Although originally aimed at California’s K-12 teachers, Calisphere contains a wealth of information that can be used successfully in undergraduate courses where primary source materials are required.

Calisphere’s success rests on the quality of the primary source images and documents provided by CDL’s content contributors.  The site’s unique organization and intuitive user interface makes these resources easily accessible to students.  They can use its segments on themed collections, California Cultures, and JARDA: Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives.  Sections are grouped by topic or time period with a selection of representative images and documents and relevant historical context.

In your own instruction, and in working with faculty and graduate student instructors, keep Calisphere in mind.

By Ellen Meltzer, CDL Information Services Manager

OCLC’s monthly enhancements in the Next Generation Melvyl Pilot supported by WorldCat Local (WCL) are based on input from bug reports submitted by the Implementation Team, via feedbacks from end users, survey responses, and usability testing.  Several of these improvements come from University of California Next Gen Melvyl users.

Beginning this month, now that all campuses will be in session, the link to the user satisfaction survey in the web banner of Next Gen Melvyl has been changed to a bold font and has been moved to a separate line to enhance its visibility.

Another change not mentioned below is that the terminology in the formats section of Advanced Search.  The language now reads, “Journals/Magazines/Newspapers” instead of  “Serials/Magazines/Newspapers”.  This change was made in part based on UC’s usability testing.

The September install updates were written by OCLC staff members Cheryl Snowdon, Bob Robertson-Boyd, and Mela Kircher (with a few additional notes from me).

Enhancement:  Serial records no longer display personal authors under the title

What it is

In serial records, personal authors (100 and 700 MARC fields) no longer show up under the title in the brief or detailed display.  Instead they show up as “editors” in the details tab.

What it means for the user

Serials are not written by single individuals but are made up of articles by individuals.  Therefore it is confusing to users to show an individual author of a serial.

Before install:

After September install:

Enhancement:  New sorting option “Relevance Only”

What it is

A new sorting option is being added to the sort by drop down.  Relevance only uses the worldcat.org algorithm for relevancy by evaluating the appearance and proximity of the searched terms within the WorldCat record.

The default sort is Relevance and Location.

What it means for the user

Users can change the sort option if they are more interested in relevant items regardless of what’s in their library.  Note:  In UC’s usability testing, it was found that researchers want to see and be aware of the most relevant items on a topic regardless of whether or not it is located in their own library, and this enhancement addresses that issue.

Example of default sort Relevance and Location:

Example: same results with sort by Relevance Only:

Enhancement:  Improved material type icons on brief results

What it is

OCLC is implementing new icons on the brief results page to better reflect the item type of the displayed record.

What it means for the user

It will be easier for users to determine if the record in the results list is what they want to read, view, listen to, etc.

Enhancement:  New editions page

What it is

OCLC is moving editions from a tab to a new page that will open when the user clicks on “view all editions and formats” link that will now display on the results list as well as the detailed record.

The editions page will reflect the scope searched. For example, if a user scopes to The Ohio State University instead of Libraries Worldwide the editions will reflect only items held by The Ohio State University.

What it means for the user

It will be more apparent to users that there are additional items they may want to look at for a particular record.

Enhancement:  Search within journal feature

What it is

On the detailed record for articles there is a search box below the bibliographic information that will allow users to search for other articles in the same publication.

What it means for the user

Users will be able to search for other relevant information in a journal publication.

Enhancement:  Removed publication date for journals from OpenURL (UC-eLinks) link

What it is

The publication date has been removed from the OpenURL link, for journals, that is passed to OpenURL Resolvers for version 1.0 URLs.

What it means for the user

Results in the OpenURL resolver (UC-eLinks window) will not be limited to a publication year so users will see all available resources.
Example:

Result in OpenURL resolver with publication date.

Result in OpenURL resolver without publication date.

Enhancement:  Adding new field for OCLC number to OpenURL link

What it is

A new field is being added to the OpenURL link for OCLC accession number.  This is to allow OCLC ILLiad libraries to get the OCLC number passed into the patron request form.

The new field is rfe_dat.  This field will only have the OCLC number.  It will be in all OpenURL links.

What it means for the user

This may not be something the end user will notice, however, it is significant to the ILL staff processing ILLiad requests.

Note: You should not have to do anything to your ILLiad configurations to get this change unless you’ve made changes to your OpenURL mapping table.

Enhancement:  New downloadable search box

What it is

The new version will allow you to display tabs that limit the users search by material type.  For example, tabs could be Everything, Books, Articles and DVDs.  Up to five tabs can be displayed.

A simple version, similar to what you have today, will also continue to be available.

Each library can go to the following URL to configure and download the enhanced search box: http://<prefix>.worldcat.org/tools/searchboxhtml after September 7. Note:  UC will choose a solution for all campus versions so that it will be easier to test and support throughout the pilot period.

Search box customization options:

• Layout: Horizontal or Vertical
• Tabs:
• Appear yes/no
• Set default tab
• Tab choices (can choose up to five)
• Everything
• Books
• Journals/Articles
• DVDs
• Audio Books
• Internet Resources
• Language choices (English will be default)
• Scoping dropdown Yes/No

• Preview the search box with selections

Simple version of search box:

• Default settings:
• No tabs
• Language option: English
• Scoping dropdown
• Horizontal orientation

Enhancement:  Buy from the British Library

What it is

British Library buying option will be displayed for articles supplied by the British Library.

Please note this option will only be visible for the libraries who display the “Buy It” link.

What it means for the user

Users will have the opportunity to purchase articles directly from the British Library.

Change:  Google Preview button
Before:

After:

Enhancement:  reCAPTCHA

What it is

A new step in the WorldCat account creation process that will help reduce the likelihood of inappropriate content on WorldCat.org.

What it means for the user

The user must type the two words correctly to complete the account creation.

Ivy Anderson, Director of Collection Development & Management

Beginning immediately through December 31st 2008, a public trial of all English-language Springer electronic books is available to UC library users via the Springer Link website at http://springerlink.com/home/main.mpx.  The broad trial is being made available as part of an ebook pilot project undertaken on behalf of the UC systemwide Collection Development Committee (CDC).

As many of you know, CDC convened a task force last year under Jim Dooley’s (Merced) leadership to take a fresh look at the ebook market and develop principles and recommendations for systemwide investments in electronic book content.  The deliberations of that group (available at http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/cdc/taskforces/ebooks_final_report.pdf) resulted in a recommendation to pursue strategic opportunities to experiment with ebook licenses that meet UC’s desire for flexible business models and favorable licensing and use rights.  Following the task force’s work, CDC identified Springer as a publisher who met these criteria, and asked CDL to pursue an ebook pilot with Springer.  The pilot task force will study and make recommendations concerning which Springer ebooks to license and how they should be acquired and made available, in consultation with UC bibliographers, as well as technical and public service librarians.

A rectangular orange logo on the left-hand side of the Springer Link screen announces that the trial is being made available courtesy of the UC Libraries (note: Springer Protocols are not included in the trial).  UC librarians are invited to publicize the trial to their users, but should do so with the understanding that more focused selection decisions – for example, licensing specific Springer subject collections or series - will be made later this fall, with the intent to restrict access to only these licensed collections at the start of the 2009 calendar year.  A formal user assessment will be conducted later on as the pilot project unfolds.

Please feel free to send questions and comments about the pilot to the CDL Help Desk or to any member of the Springer Pilot task force:  Ivy Anderson and Emily Stambaugh (CDL), co-chairs, Janet Carter (Los Angeles), Jim Dooley (Merced), Martha Hruska (San Diego), Brian Quigley (Berkeley), Michelle Potter (Riverside), Keith Powell (Irvine), Lucia Snowhill (Santa Barbara), and Adolfo Tarango (San Diego).

By Ellen Meltzer, CDL Information Services Manager

The findings and recommendations summary report of the UC usability tests conducted on the Next Generation Melvyl Pilot in spring 2008 at UC Berkeley and UC Irvine is now available online at the Pilot Web site, at http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu/about/oclc_docs/WCL_Summary_03Sept2008.pdf

The report, by Arnold Arcolio, Program Analyst, OCLC Programs and Research, and Felicia Poe, Assessment &Design Manager, CDL, describes the objectives, methodology, findings and recommendations of the usability testing on the Next Generation Melvyl supported by WorldCat Local, and also includes a list of usability tasks.  The report has been reviewed and discussed by the UC Implementation and Executive Teams, by the Joint UC-OCLC Executive Team, and by key OCLC staff.  Some of the recommendations in the report have already been implemented.

A second round of usability testing is planned for later in the development of the pilot.

By Paul Fogel, CDL Technical Lead for Mass Digitization

On Sept. 5, 2008, the Mass Digitization group welcomed Andy Mardesich as a Programmer/Analyst for applications, support, and development.

Andy is a UC alumnus (Santa Barbara) and holds degrees in Communications, Film and Computer Science.  His most recent position was at IBM Global Services, where he helped design and build a file transfer monitoring system in Java.

Andy is the proud papa of a 5 month old and has a broad range of interests that have led to past experience as a radio DJ, an ESL teacher, a film crew member, the volunteer webmaster for Bay Area Wilderness Training and the creator of a website devoted to the bizarre scat singer Shooby Taylor (http://www.shooby.com/).

By Adrian Turner, CDL Data Consultant

Over 2,000 new digitized primary resources are now available in the CDL’s Calisphere and Online Archive of California (OAC) websites as of September 2008.  The collections offer unique glimpses into California local history, and were assembled by a range of institutions throughout the state:

• Alameda County Library, Dublin Library and the Dublin Heritage Museum
• California State University, Los Angeles. Library
• Fresno County Public Library
• Inglewood Public Library
• Loyola Marymount University
• Mission Viejo Library
• Riverside Public Library
• San Mateo County Library, Brisbane Library
• South Pasadena Public Library
• Yorba Linda Public Library

Digitization work was supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian, as part of the "Local History Digital Resources Program" (LHDRP).

The LHDRP is a multi-year (2000-present) statewide program to provide persistent public access to local history digital resources. The project is a collaborative endeavor involving multiple supporting agencies, including the California State Library, Califa, and CDL.  Over 55 public and academic libraries, historical societies, and archives have participated in the LHDRP, and approximately 18,000 images have been made publicly available for the long-term. For more information, see the LHDRP project website.

By Adrian Turner, CDL Data Consultant

Approximately, 350 proceedings and papers dating back to 1901 from the records of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) are now available in Calisphere and the Online Archive of California (OAC).

These primary resources documenting California labor history have been made available by the UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) Library.  The documents are available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), a file format that is newly supported within Calisphere and the OAC.  The CDL anticipates offering enhanced support for PDF resources in 2009, including full-text searching across PDF documents (when transcriptions are available).

The project was made possible by a grant from the UC Labor and Employment Research Fund (LERF), which is based in the UCOP Office of Research.  The principal investigator for the ongoing digitization project work is Terry Huwe, IRLE Librarian.  Former CDL eScholarship staff member Dayna Holz provided assistance as a digital library developer to IRLE.  The IRLE Library collaborated with UC Berkeley Library’s Digital Publishing Group to create these new resources, and presented CDL with a pilot opportunity to support the PDF file format in Calisphere and the OAC.