ELAG 2009 - New Tools of the Trade

ELAG Workshops provide an opportunity to discuss in depth or work with colleagues on one particular subject of interest or project over four separate sessions. Workshops run in parallel over the course of the four sessions. While each conference goer can therefore participate in only one works during the conference, the results of all workshops will be presented on the last day of the conference. 

1. STANDARDS FOR SHARING SOCIAL NETWORK DATA / ERE MAIJALA

Presentation pdf

Many existing and emerging systems such as OPACs and library portals  support
social metadata added by the users. This data includes e.g.  tagging, rating and
commenting. Usability of this data improves as the amount of data increases.
Therefore it would be useful to be able to share the data between different
systems. For this we need standards and protocols. There are existing protocols for
sharing metadata, e.g. OAI-PMH for harvesting or SRU for online lookup, but we need
to define common semantics for the data to be usable in any system.
The purpose of this workshop is to create guidelines and specifications that would
enable sharing the social metadata. Items to be considered:
-Elements and aspects of social metadata
-Is a central store for the metadata (like WorldCat) necessary or can it work
without a central authority in a peer to peer manner
-Real-time lookup for social metadata (e.g. LibraryThing API)
-Multilingual issues
-How to actually implement anything we come up with and make everyone endorse it
-Everything else :)

Presentation pdf

Can you summarise your library s strategy in a few words? Can your colleagues? As
you go about your daily tasks do you know how you are contributing to your
organisation s overall mission and strategy? If you do not, then how do you know
what Web 2.0 tools to use, how to use them and how they should be evaluated?
Libraries are under increasing competitive pressure from global web based
commercial library services. Google's mission statement is to organize the world's
information and make it universally accessible and useful'. Isn't that library
mission? Increasingly libraries will need to think competitively and that means a
clear understanding of your organisation's mission and strategy. While many
organisations may share the same mission each will have its own particular
strategy. Where does your strategy differ from Google's?
This workshop will take participants step by step through the three key aspects of
simple but very effective strategy statements. This process will help find that
elusive strategic sweet spot where your organisation's capabilities intersect with
customer needs in a way that rivals cannot.

5. WORKFLOW FOR SCANNED OLD MAPS IN LIBRARIES / PETR ZABICKA, PETR PRIDAL

Presentation pdf

There is an enormous amount of old maps and other historical documents in the
collections of libraries and archives all over the world. Increasing numbers of
these documents are being digitized every year to protect them from excessive use
by publishing them online. What are the best ways of publishing a map that will
allow us to reuse the images of maps for further analysis or study by comparing
maps or other documents? What are the advantages of using various open standards?
We will discuss available publishing methods, to find and recommend the best way of
fulfilling the following requirements:
-Providing a fast and comfortable viewer available for users through the web
browser with no special extensions.
-Integrating published maps with existing systems
- Presenting maps in 3D viewers
-Use of production for data providers such as libraries and archives
-Using expandable and open tools.
-Publishing maps at a reasonable price.
For more information, see
http://sites.google.com/a/oldmapsonline.org/oldmapsonline/elag2009

http://help.oldmapsonline.org/

6. EVALUATING OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE / EDWARD CORRADO
Open source software has been receiving a lot of attention in libraries of late.
With the emergence of quality library-specific Open Source applications (including
Koha, Evergreen, D-Space, E-Prints, and Greenstone) that offer similar and
sometimes better functionality than their closed- source proprietary competitors, it
is no wonder why. While there is no doubt that Open Source applications have proved
to be a viable alternative to proprietary offerings at many libraries, some
librarians still have questions about whether or not Open Source is right for their
particular library. There are many factors that should go into evaluating any
software program one is considering implementing. This is true whether or not the
program being considered is proprietary or Open Source. These factors include the
maturity of the software application, the availability of local expertise, level of
support required and available, features offered, extensibility, total costs, and
return on investment. Although it is important to evaluate any new software
acquisition, some of these criteria may take on a greater importance when
investigating Open Source Software applications. This presentation will discuss the
criteria for evaluating software applications with a special emphasis on evaluating
Open Source Software offerings in libraries. The workshop will deal with the
following topics:
-What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of OSS?
-OSS for libraries.
-What to consider when evaluating OSS for libraries and how is this different from
evaluating proprietary software ?
-General discussion about OSS in libraries: where is Open Source now and where is
it going?

7. SELECTING AND MANAGING E-BOOK SOLUTIONS / THOMAS GUIGNARD

Many collection development practices
are relevant for electronic books as well as for their paper counterparts: selection,
acquisition, management, cataloguing, evaluation, etc. Over the years, libraries have developed best
practices and tools to tackle these issues for physical objects. But tools to handle e-books have
yet to be developed. On the contrary, librarians are often overwhelmed by the
disparity in e-books solutions and lack a way to rationally select the solution that
best suits their needs. To start the discussion, we first present the real- life example of the selection
of a new e-book provider for an academic library to suggest a systematic approach to the problem.
The selection process starts with the listing of objective decision criteria (e.g. pricing
and loan models, ease of integration in our catalogue, ease of use, file format, etc.), which are
then used as base for a market analysis. Six major providers of comparable content
(e-books mainly in English and on scientific and technical subjects) are tested against those criteria.
In addition to that, the actual availability and pricing of a sample list of 3’000
representative titles is assessed by matching it to the catalogue of all surveyed providers.
We thus have developed a system able to help us choose which supplier best suits our specific acquisition
needs. The above method can of course be repeated for every library wishing to
develop an e-books collection. But the data we have collected can also easily be
extended to a shared database, from which other libraries can profit (a sort
of “Global e- books in print”). Collaboration between libraries and content providers
could also lead to the creation of simple tools that would help the selection
process. We will also address the remaining challenges in the evaluation of e- books
usage, which is critical for coherent collection development. The goal of this workshop
is to share experience among the participants in the management of ebooks and to discuss
the opportunity and feasability of collaborative tools to help libraries develop
a coherent e-book collection.

8. LIBRARY MASH-UPS / KAREN COOMBS

Presentation pdf

Libraries as repositories of data have a wealth of information  which can be mashed
up with data from other site and application such as  Google, Flickr, Delicious.
With new tools and scripts available daily, it’s becoming easier and easier to bring
pieces of the web together and enable users to find and build new web services with
library data. This workshop will discuss the possible sources of data for library
mashups, discover and how to start consuming and creating web services for  your
library with available tools and scripts, and challenges and pitfalls. Learn how
widgets or gadgets can be used to allow users basic library search and browse
functions in these new user environments away from the catalog or library website
and what libraries can do to make their data more remixable and  mashable with other
services.

9. E-LIBRARY ACCESSIBILITY / ......  .........

Libraries are services that provide information—not only books but a range of other
types of media-- to a given public. That public inevitably includes people with
disabilities. There is great potential for Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) and AT (Assistive Technology) to help provide access to people with
disabilities particularly as we move towards electronic libraries or eLibraries.
Anti-discrimination legislation, guidelines and standards have given rise to
regulations for eAccessibility which apply to library services: these regulations
are likely to become even more important in an aging society.
This workshop is aimed at  library experts in charge of services both in technical
and organisational settings..With the input of participants, we will to identify
the different roles and functions of libraries and the importance of accessibility
for different groups of users with disabilities. The workshop will explore areas
like AT and needs of end user groups; legislation in Europe; and relevant standards
and guidelines (e.g. W3C/WAI, ISO_TS_16071, DAISY). A special focus will be given
to accessibility of eServices such as Web-based information services, Web-based or
other elibrary catalogues and electronic documents.
Finally the workshop will :
- provide an analysis of the state of the art in eLibrary accessibility;
- identify resources and best practices
-describe the role and the co-operation of different stakeholders (libraries,
service providers for people with disabilities, publishers/authors,
policy makers); and
-identify activities including ratings based on guidelines and handbooks,
accessibility checking of software and systems, procurement, education, standards,
research and means of co-operation

10. AUTHORITIES AS A 
LINKING ELEMENT FOR A COMMON ONTOLOGY / NADEZDA
ANDREJCIKOVA
 
Presentation pdf

Preservation of cultural heritage and its presentation on the web is a
very current topic nowadays. However, the main problem is that information
related to cultural heritage gets lost among other information on the web.
For this reason memory institutions can fight for their position on the
web by providing value-added information about cultural heritage. They
seek opporunities for cooperation – data sharing, creation of information
networks and enriching information by adding context. Various agreed upon
and internationally recognized standards, rules and solutions to
interoperability issues so that it complies with semantic web requirements
serve as a principal tool for cooperation. We can boldly state that
transition to the use of standards and formats which support ontology and
semantic web creation is a matter of survival. Creation of a common
ontology is a place where individual cultural institutions can present and
use their strengths. Workshop is aimed at librarians, information
specialists and other people who work in museums and archives. The goal of
the workshop is:
- to clarify terminology and differences between ontology and authorities,
- to describe the possible use of authorities as a linking element in
memory institutions and their importance for the creation of a common
ontology,
- to identify needs of individual types of memory institutions in relation
to authorities based on required and used standards,
- to design elements of the common ontology,
- to sum up advantages of the application of common ontology in memory
institutions.