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ASIN

Page history last edited by Grant johnson 2 yrs ago

    1. THIS WIKI HAS BEEN MIGRATED TO THE ASIN TRAC SITE.
  1. ASIN Steering Committee
    1. ASIN SC Mandate
    2. ASIN SC Membership
  2. Current Projects/Activities of the SC
    1. Meetings/Activities To Date
    2. Proposed Meetings/Activities
    3. Visioning Session - 2007
    4. Collaborative Environment
    5. Management/Maintenance Structure
    6. Staffing Issues
    7. Contractual Issues
    8. Other ASIN-like Projects and Management
    9. ASIN Portal Timeline
    10. ASIN Links and Resources
  3. Summary of ASIN Components
    1. ASIN Approach
    2. Servers
    3. Resolver
    4. SingleSearch
    5. Rooms
    6. RELAIS
  4. Current Status of ASIN Partners

 

THIS WIKI HAS BEEN MIGRATED TO THE ASIN TRAC SITE.

Contact Mark Leggott or Grant Johnson @ UPEI for access.

 

ASIN Steering Committee

 

 

ASIN SC Mandate

 

The ASIN Steering Committee was established at the Fall 2006 meeting of CAUL and is tasked with coordinating the development and maintenance of the ASIN (Atlantic Scholarly Information Network) project. The key issues/projects identified so far are listed below.

 

 

1. Coordinate a Visioning Session for early 2007.

2. Develop a collaborative environment for the ongoing development of the ASIN components.

3. Review current developments and procedures and make recommendations for a Management Structure to facilitate the ongoing coordination/maintenance of ASIN.

 

With respect to the the ongoing coordination/maintenance of ASIN it is useful to think of this issue as 2 separate pieces.

 

 

1. Determine an appropriate management environment for the ASIN components for the next 12 months. This is necessary to ensure that the current ASIN environment is supported (and in a few cases installed) and maintained as originally planned. The focus here will be on the resolver and federated searching components.

2. Determine an appropriate direction for ASIN for the next 2-3 years. This includes a more detailed review of the ASIN vision, service model, components and management and how we can evolve the project to best meet the needs of the member institutions. This may also look at emerging frameworks and opportunities (e.g. Web/Library 2.0, Scholar's Portal) and how they fit with the ASIN project.

 

ASIN SC Membership

 

 

Current Projects/Activities of the SC

 

Meetings/Activities To Date

 

  1. October-November/06
    1. The ASIN Wiki site was created and edited by members of the ASIN SC.
  2. December 11/06
    1. A background meeting was held at UPEI with Mark Leggott, Grant Johnson, Slavko Manolovich and Stephen Sloan. The discussion led to an edited version of this document.
  3. December 15/06
    1. Meeting of the ASIN SC in Halifax to discuss next steps and review options for coordination/maintenance of the ASIN Project for the next 12 months.

 

Proposed Meetings/Activities

 

In addition to the activities listed above, the proposed timeline of additional activities is listed below.

 

  1. SIRSI Meeting: Week of Feb 8th (details TBD).
    1. Review the current status of Rooms and additional ASIN components with Sirsi management. This will be added to the material for review by the Directors.
  2. CAUL Directors Meeting: Week of Feb 22 (details TBD).
    1. Regular CAUL meeting with one agenda item being discussion and approval of ASIN management model for the next 12 months. This will also include a review of the cost issues both from the Sirsi and local staffing perspectives. I suggest we make this a full morning or afternoon in the agenda.
  3. ASIN Visioning Meeting(s): April or May
    1. 1-day planning session with CAUL Directors, systems and public service staff, as well as selected members of the user community. This will be at least 1 session in Halifax and possibly an additional one in New Brunswick.
  4. Steering Committee Meeting: April or May
    1. 1 day meeting to develop a summary of the meetings and recommendations for the CAUL Directors. Possibly the day after the Visioning Meeting(s).
  5. CAUL Directors Meeting: May or June
    1. Regular CAUL meeting with one agenda item being the discussion of the SC Report and next steps.

 

Visioning Session - 2007

 

The Visioning Session is seen as a way to review where we have gone with respect to the original vision described in 2000 (and re-affirmed in 2005) and if we should update that vision. The Web has evolved enourmously in the last few years and the general feeling is that we need to revisit the possibilities by gathering together a group of staff and users from CAUL institutions.

 

The evolving information landscape has the potential to impact significantly on the ASIN project, some examples of this are listed below.

 

  • Many institutions are implementing campus-wide portals, CMSs (Content Management Systems) and LMSs (Learning Management Systems) and often libraries are encouraged to work in those frameworks. While this can erect roadblocks to the development of an effective and flexible library service, it can also provide significant opportunities for libraries. An example if the ability to incorporate library resources directly into the campus portal or LMS, even down to the level of individual courses.
  • Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 reflect a web architecture that facilitates the development of functional components, or information widgets, that can be integrated into a variety of frameworks. As ASIN avolves it must be able to provide, as well as respond to, opportunities for integration.

 

We need to make sure that the ASIN components are able to support the member institutions both in a common, shared ASIN portal framework as well as a more distributed component-based local framework.

 

The current framework of the meeting:

 

  • A facilitated meeting in Halifax in April/May, with a possible 2nd meeting in New Brunswick soon after.
  • Attendees to include Directors, Systems reps and Public Service reps. The suggestion was also made that students and faculty be invited to attend.

 

Collaborative Environment

 

As the ASIN project moves ahead we should consider creating a collaborative support/development environment that can be used by the distributed ASIN team to more effectively communicate and maintain the various elements of the ASIN project. There are various possibilities/components, but some options include:

 

  • This Wiki (or something like it)
    • This Wiki is being used at present to gather the information about the ASIN project and provide a baseline for discussion about the project. Since it is only a Wiki the focus is on information rather than interactive discussion.
  • A Trac system
    • Mark has setup a Trac system which can be used for this project. The system provides: a Wiki for basic documentation and development of roadmaps next steps/milestones); a ticketing system for coordinating technical/support calls and who is working on them; a file repository for maintaining code and other files.
    • This system will be setup and communicated to ASIN community members by early January/06.
  • Realtime communication tool

 

Management/Maintenance Structure

 

There has been significant discussion in recent months regarding the ongoing maintenance and support of the ASIN system and community. The efforts to date have been focused on implementation. Now that most institutions are setup in the environment to varying degrees (see Status Page) we need to determine what resources are needed to ensure effective development and maintenance of what we have created.

 

In order to ensure short-term oversight, the ASIN SC has drafted an interim structure that we should be able to use until additional discussion occurs and decisions are made. The following structure and memberships are suggestions at this point and will be confirmed by the end of January. Each group should consist of between 4 and 7 people and reflect a range of skills and institutions. We need more name for the Groups below - Please make suggestions.

 

In most cases meetings and discussions will be held online using appropriate tools. Status and discussions will be maintained using Listservs, and the Wiki/Trac sites.

 

  1. ASIN Steering Committee (as described above).
    1. Ensure oversight and management of the ASIN project.
    2. Will meet at at least 2 of the 3 CAUL annual meetings and more often as needed.
    3. Additional discussions/meetings to be held using available technology whenever possible.
  2. Communications Group
    1. Donna Bourne-Tyson (Chair), Lynne Murphy, Mark Leggott.
    2. Ensure appropriate and regular updates on the ASIN project and activities.
  3. Server Group
    1. Ensure oversight and maintenance of the ASIN servers, including OS and related requirements.
    2. John Tesky (Chair), Stephen Sloan, Stephen MacNeil
  4. Resolver Group
    1. Ensure oversight and maintenance of the resolver system.
    2. Peter Webster (Chair), Louise White, Grant Johnson, Stanislav Orlov, someone from Moncton
  5. SingleSearch Group
    1. Ensure oversight and maintenance of the federated search system.
    2. Slavko Manojlovich (Chair), Glenn Preston, Betty Jeffery, Terry Nikkel, someone from Moncton
  6. Rooms Group
    1. Ensure oversight and development of the Rooms/Web 2.0 functions of ASIN.
    2. Gillian Byrne (Chair), Stephen Sloan, Rita Campbell, Peter Higham, someone from Moncton
  7. RELAIS Group
    1. Ensure oversight and maintenance of the RELAIS components.
    2. Gwyn (Chair), Current Members of the RELAIS Group.

 

There are currently two versions of a long-term management structure that have been distributed. Both include the general governance in the context of 3 main components: CAUL Executive Director; Portal Management; RELAIS Management.

 

Modified version of Donna's original Chart by Lynne

 

 

Dick's Version

 

 

The management structure for the current ASIN infrastructure needs to be fleshed out, however we should bear in mind that the visioning session will help set the direction for the future, so we may not be able to put a long-term structure in place until that process has happened. Having said that, it is clear that we need to come up with something for the next 12 months at least to ensure proper support of the system.

 

Staffing Issues

 

The December meeting of the ASIN SC made some basic assumptions about staffing in order for us to proceed prior to longer-term decisions being made.

 

  1. Go with Option 1 - use existing resources.
  2. Issue of funds for backfill will have to be discussed - currently no backfill funds is the assumption.
  3. Groups have been identifed to provide support for each component and are outlined above.

 

  1. Resources
    1. Resource to manage the Openly 1Cate component: 1 day per month
    2. Resource to manage the MUSE Global component: 2 days per week
    3. Resource to manage the Rooms component: 1 day per week
    4. Resource to manage the RELAIS component: 1 day per week
    5. Resource to manage the ASIN Server environment: 5 days per month
  2. Possible Options
    1. Go with the Status Quo
      1. Use existing resources from members institutions with some form of backfill funding from CAUL.
      2. Distributed model can work if appropriate support tools are available.
      3. Challenge of making sure resources are used to support the ASIN project and not local functions.
      4. Estimate of $10,000-$30,000 backfill costs, per year.
    2. Second existing institutional resources to focus on the ASIN project.
      1. Advantage to this is that the resource(s) is seconded to the ASIN project so can focus more.
      2. Would be nice in this context to have at least 2 resources, one with French expertise.
      3. Challenge is to find a resource that a member institution would be willing to give up.
      4. Estimate of $30,000 to backfill for one 1/2-time person, per year.
    3. Hire new resources to focus on the ASIN project.
      1. May be the most costly, although if backfill funds are actually provided in the examples above, the costs would be similar.
      2. Advantage to this is the resources are focused on the ASIN project.
      3. Could be filled by someone who is working remotely (this is how support is provided for the COPPUL project).
      4. Estimate of $60,000 per year.
    4. Regardless of which scenario is used we need to ensure oversight by the CAUL Directors/SC.

 

Contractual Issues

 

  • The Sirsi implementation contract is up in December 2006. This means special pricing for the primary software components has expired and any new sites will have to negotiate separately. As of December 10, all CAUL institutions are in on this phase of the project.
  • The Sirsi maintenance contract is a separate issue and does not have to be renegotiated.
    • The maintenance contract is favourable to CAUL institutions, especially as key pieces, such as MUSE Global connectors, are provided at no extra cost.
    • As the business landscape evolves, we will need to be diligent about the terms to ensure that we maintain a favourable maintenance contract.
    • For example, the recent purchase of Openly 1Cate by OCLC means that the business relationship between Sirsi and OCLC may change. If that happens, we must be prepared to ensure favourable maintenance terms.
    • The details of the contract will not be posted here, but each Director should have a copy. If not, please contact Mark Leggott and one will be forwarded to you.

 

Other ASIN-like Projects and Management

 

  • COPPUL
    • COPPUL has a similar project (minus the Rooms component) where some institutions maintain their own linker (mostly SFX) and the majority use the SFU ReSearcher components (dbWiz and GODOT/CUFTS).
    • This project is unlike ASIN in that it is an opt-in/opt-out model and the three main components are developed at SFU, so resources are assigned to that development aspect where they wouldn't be in ASIN.
    • The estimate of resources needed to install/support/maintain the system is one fulltime tech-support person who also interfaces with the programming team for fixes and specific problems. The development of the project is distributed among developers in the SFU team, but is probably about 2 fulltime equivalents.
    • Kevin Stranack is the support person, who also works on the project from a distance (Ontario), so the support model is distributed.
    • The Resolver component is maintained centrally at SFU. Members libraries are required to update the resolver knowledgebase when they acquire new resources (details and updated linking information is provided by the support person). They can also custimize the interface to a very high degree using the style sheets and modular framework.
    • The Federated Search component is also maintained centrally. Like the Resolver member libraries are able to define search communities and customize the interface using the Admin environment. All target modules are developed and maintained by SFU.
    • There is no Rooms equivalent in the COPPUL project.

 

ASIN Portal Timeline

 

  • April 2005 was the first installation of the SingleSearch and Openly server with a separate Rooms install at UNB.
  • An early implementors group (Coalition of the Willing) went forward with the 1st implementations of SingleSearch and Openly. This included the installation of a central component for dealing with each institutions EZProxy.
    • UNB
    • MUN
    • Acadia
    • StFX
    • MTA
    • UPEI
  • A year later additional institutions started to come on.
  • Dalhousie implemented Serials Solutions' resolver and federated search in August 2005.
  • Sirsi announced a deal with Serials Solutions to sell/support their resolver and federated search modules.
  • A side effect of this deal was an improved support from MUSE Global, as it was proceeding with poor service.
  • RELAIS
    • RELAIS came next.
    • RELAIS accepts the OpenURL string for user data.
  • Single Sign-On
    • A process was agreed to by the consortium of service companies and institutions.
    • This is done with a set of local scripts that grab the initial data.
    • Record Key, Library Symbol and Barcode. For example, UPEI does this with an LDAP lookup, which sends the username to RELAIS, which does an NCIP lookup on the Library catalogue. RELAIS maintains the polciy table that determines when a user can make a request.
    • Some sites do a batch upload to RELAIS since they don't have the LDAP/NCIP lookup.
    • The problem currently is that there is no way to store the user login. RELAIS has now developed 2 cookies that can be used to make a request: a private cookie for use with their own systems; a public cookie that will be installed on public systems in the institutions.

 

ASIN Links and Resources

 

 

 

Summary of ASIN Components

 

ASIN Approach

 

The advantages to the current ASIN approach are:

 

  • the system is maintained and supported in one central location
  • local server installs allow us to make local changes and customize the system
  • the consortial purchase power
  • all ASIN technologies are available to all members regardless of their size
  • it gives us the chance to all work together for the greater good

 

The disadvantages of the current ASIN approach are:

 

  • significant CAUL resources needed to support the system
  • All-In model constrains individual institutions?

 

Servers

 

Resolver

 

SingleSearch

 

Rooms

 

RELAIS

 

Current Status of ASIN Partners

 

This list provides the latest information on the status of all ASIN partners with respect to ASIN, what has been done, what remains to be done, as well as some indication of timelines and resources.

 

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