Increasing libraries’ relevance on the Web

OCLC network interface services can connect users searching on the Web—where most people start their search—to their libraries and, using a broad range of intelligence about objects, identifiers, people, places and institutions, provide unprecedented context around items libraries hold

By Tom Storey

It may not be overstatement to say that the Web has become the most significant engine driving change in the technology landscape since the advent of the computer. Indeed, the information industry today is in a period of disruption that may be as significant as the introduction of the Web itself, says Mike Teets, Vice President, Global Engineering.

The Web is the new computing platform and its architecture demands a new approach to and a new strategy for product development, Teets says.

“The computing environment has moved away from large monolithic services where users start and end their work in a single application. In that environment, the design of the application was isolated and all attention could focus on the single application. Now OCLC services must be used inside workflows that involve many applications.”

Thriving in this new network environment requires developing network interface services, commonly referred to as Web services or service-oriented architecture. These services are software components that can be exposed on the Web using industry-wide protocols, making it possible to quickly link together computer systems across organizations worldwide. A Web service’s functionality and data are available through a machine interface and can be reused within other applications.

From a technology perspective, Web services provide: more flexibility, better integration of existing applications, reduced data replication and faster application development. They also allow seamless presentation and consumption of services across the network and provide the capacity for:

• data and service sharing across network nodes: local, regional and global;

• functionality to be placed at the most appropriate point in the network; and

• all nodes to add value to, and gain value from, the network.

OCLC Web services are exposed independent of OCLC applications as well as assembled into OCLC composite hosted services. They provide an open infrastructure for building a Web-scale library service in a view that’s appropriate for each library. They will allow libraries to present themselves in a local, regional or global view on the Web and bring searchers to their content and services. The services allow the automatic insertion of relevant context around the objects searchers find.

“Right now, library databases, collections and services are not in mainstream Web traffic flows—the search engines and Internet services where the majority of people start their search,” says Teets. “Library databases are flat. They require an expert to navigate the relationships between sources, content and structured metadata.”

Among the network services that OCLC is developing:

• Connexion. Many of the underlying components of Connexion, OCLC’s flagship cataloging service, are being developed as Web services, including validation and terminologies metadata creation.

• WorldCat Resource Sharing. OCLC’s new WorldCat Resource Sharing exposes interlibrary loan operations—create, search, retrieve and update requests—in local ILL services. Libraries and alternative service providers that have implemented this Web service are: MINITEX, Atlas Systems (ILLiad), ILL ASAP, Perkins and Associates (CLIO), the University of Pittsburgh and the British Library Document Supply Centre. Libraries that use these applications can use OCLC ILL at their point of need in their environment.

• WorldCat.org. This program is comprised of a suite of services that syndicate content and services, provide various integration points and operate inside many different environments.

• WorldCat toolbars. These software components work seamlessly with browsers and search engines to make library searching an “always-on” option by mixing Web search with Find in a Library—if it’s in a library nearby, toolbars let searchers find it in WorldCat no matter where they are on the Web.

• OpenURL Resolver Registry. This Web service brings together functionality from local library systems and OCLC to route searchers to their libraries’ electronic full-text collections. The registry contains location and configuration information about libraries’ OpenURL resolvers, which link metadata and identifiers to a specific copy of an object. A gateway matches registry information with the user and passes through requests to the appropriate OpenURL resolver. Together, the registry and gateway make OCLC services interoperable with whatever OpenURL resolver software libraries use and allow libraries to express preferences and conditions that govern the linking and display of their online resources. And the library will need to enter and maintain this information in only one place.

• WorldCat Registry. This is a comprehensive directory for libraries and consortia, and the services they provide. It helps libraries and consortia manage and share data that define their organizations through a single, authoritative Web platform.

• xISBN service. OCLC Research created this Web service, which supplies International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs) associated with individual works in WorldCat, for anyone interested in linking an application to it. Recently, this service was turned into a robust web-scale application that can be integrated into mainstream applications in the library environment.

An increased focus on Web services is essential for libraries and OCLC to remain relevant to users, Teets says. “To be successful in this new network environment, OCLC and library services need to interoperate with services from alternative service providers, including those outside of the typical library service industry. We may not own the interface or the user relationship in every case so we must architect for success.”

OCLC to pilot WorldCat Local | Research: WorldCat Identities