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North Carolina State University Libraries
Report to the Digital Library Federation
April, 2005
A. Collections
InsideWood
InsideWood is an Internet-accessible wood anatomy reference, research, and
teaching tool designed for use by a community of users that includes botanists,
archaeologists, park naturalists, paleontologists, museum conservators, and
forensic scientists, as well as educators in the natural sciences. This resource
integrates information from a wood anatomy database for modern wood compiled at
North Carolina State University with descriptions and photomicrographs
contributed by 10 international partners. Broad taxonomic coverage provides over
5,500 descriptions that represent at least 8,000 species. Currently, over 35,000
digital images are archived. These images will be loaded and linked to
description records. The InsideWood database, developed in Oracle, is comprised
of three major components: taxonomic information, image information, and
descriptive information. Four search options in the user interface provide
flexibility in retrieving wood anatomical information, with options for searches
by features, scientific names, or keyword. Luna Insight provides browse and
search access to the images, which may be retrieved by family, genus, species,
contributor, or any field configured as searchable from Insight.
http://insidewood.lib.ncsu.edu/search/.
University Archives Photograph Collection Project
The Special Collections Research Center is engaged in a multi-year project to
digitize and create metadata for selected photographs from the 250,000-image
University Archives Photograph Collection using Luna Imaging's Insight and
Inscribe software to capture metadata and manage the digital content. The
collection--one of the most frequently used collections in Special Collections
--documents the history of North Carolina State University from its founding in
1887 to the present. A significant part of the collection highlights North
Carolina agrarian history and rural sociology through NCSU's involvement in
Cooperative Extension and Agricultural Research services. The collection was
built using an extended Dublin Core metadata standard allowing this collection to
be searched with other collections. To date, 1600 University Archives photographs
have been scanned and imported into Luna. When fully implemented, Luna Imaging's
Insight software will allow online access to these visual materials and support
the ability of students, faculty, and scholars to utilize images in teaching and
research. Information is lacking for many of the photographs and the Libraries
will be investigating ways that the NC State community can help in describing the
subjects of certain images in the collection.
Living off the Land
The NCSU Libraries Special Collections Research Center is laying the groundwork
for "Living off the Land," an online research site intended to bring together
historical tobacco and crop science-related resources available in this state.
The goal of this project is to digitize primary source research materials on
tobacco and crop science and to synthesize them into an educational resource
emphasizing the rise of the agricultural economy in North Carolina. Among the
topics represented in the collection, which will focus on the period from
1850-1950, will be education, history, economics, culture, entomology,
cultivation, and the literature of tobacco. The collection will have sufficient
breadth to be of interest to K-12 students, the advanced researcher, and the
general public. Original documents relating to the establishment of NC State
University will be included, beginning with records drawn from the state's
Agricultural Experiment Station. Research reports on various crops,
correspondence, and photographs of agricultural activity affiliated with the
university will be digitized and featured in the site.
B. Services
Services may include user-profiling services, online reference
services, services supporting interlibrary loan or the use of
electronic reserves. Details below.
Learning Commons
With the renovation of the major public spaces of D.H. Hill Library (a 1950's era
library), the library is taking the opportunity to create a learning commons. The
new space will focus on flexible and inviting computing and study spaces for
students, and will complement services already in place in the Learning and
Research Center for the Digital Age, including the Digital Media Lab,
instructional classrooms, the Usability Research Lab, and Collaboratory. The
learning commons is scheduled to open Spring 2006 with approximately 150 fixed
computing seats that will run the campus lab software image.
Endeca ProFind
The library is acquiring Endeca ProFind faceted browse software to support
improved keyword searching in the online catalog. Current keyword search
functionality in ILS catalogs falls far short of user expectations in terms of
relevance ranking of results, being able to filter and manipulate the result set,
and system suggestions of related resources of interest. ProFind's integration
with our current ILS, Sirsi Unicorn, will greatly improve our users' catalog
searching experience. We anticipate that ProFind will be installed by fall 2005.
Next-Generation Metasearch
The library is acquiring Ex Libris's MetaLib software to replace the currently
used metasearch software, BlueAngel Metastar. We will rely on our
locally-developed ERM (E-Matrix) to deliver collection lists, descriptions, and
connection information and use MetaLib's X-Server API to integrate search boxes
and result sets into the look-and-feel of our redesigned website.
Next-Generation My Library
Next-Generation My Library is a collection of web-based personalization and
customization tools to library collections and services for the NC State
community. The initial release of the Next-Generation My Library service will
consist of a single campus-authenticated interface for accessing library
borrowing record information, managing journal table of contents alerts, and
course-based access to library resources. The course-based access tool will
provide students with a personalized view of library resources, such as library
course reserves and related subject resources, based on the courses they are
currently taking. The selection of tools was informed by findings from several
student focus groups, and reflects an interest in increasing the audience and
appeal of the My Library service, particularly for undergraduate students.
Quick Search
Quick Search is a search tool designed to provide users with quick and
comfortable access to the diverse set of content and services available through
the NCSU Libraries website, from a single search box. This search tool will
replace the current Google-based site search tool when it is released as part of
a larger website redesign. A "sponsored-links" component of the tool provides
users with a direct link to relevant high-use library resources and information.
A subject identification component provides contextual links to subject resource
guides, thus encouraging subject-based resource discovery. An integrated
frequently asked questions component responds to common institutional queries.
Additional integrated search modules are planned. The Quick Search tool is an
in-house solution based on open source tools such as Nutch and SWISH-E.
C. Systems
Systems may include reports by members on their development,
implementation or experience of various applications and software
whether developed locally, acquired from a third party. etc.
Reports might focus on integrated library systems, application
specific software or software components, applications developed
by members for specific functions. Details below.
E-Matrix
In 2002, NCSU Libraries began development of an electronic resources management
system to support acquisition and licensing, collection management, and resource
discovery for the Libraries' journals and databases. Working from the baseline
functionality and data dictionary of the DLF-ERMI, the scope of E-Matrix has
expanded significantly to include not only current print periodical data, but
also a robust module for resource evaluation and reports. Built with an Oracle
back-end and Java front-end interfaces, E-Matrix will integrate with both the Ex
Libris SFX Knowledge Base and the Sirsi Unicorn ILS to present both staff and
public views of e-resource and periodical information. By integrating existing
datastores, E-Matrix will avoid the necessity of re-keying or double-keying of
important data, while at the same time creating an authoritative datastore for
information not previously centralized in a single system. E-Matrix will drive
web displays
Digital Repository Development
Development is ongoing for a library-based digital repository system. Using
DSpace as a common backbone, the repository will consist of a number of
atomically presented collections. First among these will be the redevelopment
and redeployment of two existing collections: NCSU Electronic Theses and
Dissertations, and an enhanced Faculty Publications Repository. The ETD project
will involve merging our current implementation of the Virginia Tech ETD-db
system as a submission management system connected to a DSpace implementation
that will act as repository, discovery and presentation layers. The Faculty
Publications Repository will be an extension of our existing NCSU Authors
Database and will include citations for articles, coupled with submitted
full-text copies of post-prints when authors choose to contribute them. Future
collections presented through this digital repository system might include campus
technical reports and an electronic government documents collection. For this
project, DSpace will be run on a Solaris system and connected to an Oracle
database.
A. Projects
New Project Announcements
NDIIPP Project: Collection and Preservation of At-Risk Digital Geospatial Data
The NCSU Libraries is partnering with the North Carolina Center for Geographic
Information and Analysis on a three-year project to collect and preserve at-risk
digital geospatial data resources from state and local government agencies. This
project is being conducted under a cooperative agreement with the Library of
Congress in conjunction with the National Digital Information Infrastructure and
Preservation Program. Although the effort will focus solely on North Carolina, it
is expected to serve as a demonstration project for other states. Targeted
resources include digitized maps, geographic information systems (GIS) data sets,
and remote sensing data resources such as digital aerial photography. The project
partners will develop a digital repository architecture for geospatial data
through use of open source software tools such as DSpace and metadata standards
such as METS and FGDC. In addition, the partners will investigate application of
emerging Open Geospatial Consortium specifications for data interoperability in
the archive development process.
Sociolinguistics Digital Audio Analytical Archive
The NCSU Libraries is planning to build a digital analytical archive of the
recordings of Professor Walt Wolfram, William C. Friday Distinguished Professor
of English at NCSU. Professor Wolfram has been making recordings of North
Carolina accents and dialects since the nineteen-sixties; this private collection
will serve as the basis for a collaborative project that combines the information
management skills of digital librarians with the subject knowledge of
sociolinguists. The as-yet-unnamed project will have two prongs: first,
digitizing and ensuring preservation of and access to the audio recordings;
second, developing an integrated application designed specifically for
sociolinguists engaged in phonological analysis. Digitization standards and
metadata standards will be tested in the course of developing the archive.
Community
One of the new sections of the library's redesigned website, scheduled for
deployment August 2005, will be "Community." In this space, the library will
offer collaborative tools (blogs, wikis) for general campus use, a conceptual
virtual counterpart to the learning commons physical space. The library has
familiarity and expertise with these tools, using them for a variety of internal
communication and library publication purposes. Challenges include effectively
building on the experience of other institutions (University of Minnesota's
UThink project) and working closely with others on campus who are also exploring
expanding use of these technologies to support student learning, teaching and
research.
Metasearch Integration
Over the last two years, the library has acquired a significant body of log and
usability data on how our users make use of and feel about metasearching. With
the new implementation, we will seek to address identified issues related to
usability, technical integration, and collection "framing." Balancing
institutional investment in this tool with user benefit will also be closely
examined.
Integrating with Campus Infrastructure and Data Stores
The library is increasing efforts to link users with campus resources--such as
facilities, services, information resources, people and expertise--which reside
outside of the library. At the same time, there is increasing interest in making
library resources and services contextually available in online campus
environments outside of the library. A related challenge is that of more
effectively integrating library systems with campus data stores such registration
data and faculty instruction schedules.
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