Implementation Update

All sites have functional implementations of the Fretwell-Downing (FD) software.

• Campus-wide releases: Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Iowa State University, and the University of Utah have launched the Scholars Portal search capability on their campuses.
• Limited releases: University of Southern California (USC), University of California – San Diego (UCSD), and Dartmouth College have limited releases of the software that are targeted for a special population or internal staff use in preparation of release.

Dartmouth is working with Fretwell Downing on the implementation of PKI for authentication as an alternative to LDAP.

USC has explored the implementation of Shibboleth and has done extensive usability testing. The results of the usability testing will be shared at upcoming national meetings.

UCSD is exploring integration with an external OpenURL resolver.

FD has released a new version of the software--ZPORTAL Version 3.0. This version provides the foundation for the development phase.

Project Management

There are two levels of coordination and management. One level provides overall direction, while the other manages day-to-day operations. The Project Managers Group, led by its two co-chairs, Krisellen Maloney (University of Arizona) and Fred Gulden (Iowa State University), coordinates both levels of activities.

• Project Direction. The Project Managers Group, members of the Deans and Directors Group, Robin Murray of Fretwell-Downing, and Mary Jackson from ARL meet semi-annually in person. This is a chance for all participants to step back and ensure that we are on-track for the project’s broad goals. This group finalized the decision to launch the development projects outlined below. The next meeting will take place on August 17 at the University of Utah.
• Project Management. The Project Managers Group holds bi-weekly conference calls with Fretwell-Downing to discuss issues and track milestones. Examples of items on conference call agendas include: the progress of authentication implementations, the progress and status of scripting for non-standard resources, and follow-up on open support calls. In conjunction with the semi-annual Project Direction meetings, Project Managers hold oversight meetings to set the detailed agendas for the upcoming period. A Website provides organized access to information about the project and the various collaborative activities. There is also a Project Managers listserv.
• Education and Innovation. Implementers have developed several rich methods of communication, providing each other support with technical issues and opportunities to advance skills. The collaboration is providing a testbed in which participants have a unique opportunity to work together with the information technology staffs of other research libraries and to experiment and innovate with metasearching technology.

Post-Implementation Development

The contract with FD includes 3-staff years of development to be provided by Fretwell- Downing. Priorities for this development have been agreed upon by the participants. The three priority areas are:

• Integration with courseware. This area includes the ability to move seamlessly between courseware and the Scholars Portal, searching profiles, and accessing reading lists. Participant recommendation for the first round of development is to create a ‘portlet’ that could be included on any Web page (including a courseware Web page, a course-related Web page, a subject page, etc.) that would allow the user to conduct a search on an existing Scholars Portal profile. If an institution has single-signon capabilities in place, the cross-resource searching will be conducted without the need for re-authentication.
• Intelligent search with increased support for standard targets. This area includes improved profile descriptions, the ability to include a resource in more than one profile and, the ability for the user to move between the native search screen and Scholars Portal. In addition, participants will begin defining a bridge between OAI-compliant resources and Scholars Portal. This is an area that has great potential for research (e.g., adaptive user interfaces, search recommendations) but many of the activities will require significantly more effort than three development years. The recommended items will lay the foundation for development efforts beyond the three years.
• Results set management. This area includes sorting of results based on date and the availability of full-text, de-duplication of results, a more unified presentation of OpenURL results and holdings contained within the bibliographic record, and integration of the OpenURL resolver with ILL and document delivery. This is another area where there are opportunities for future work that will have significant positive impact for users, particularly in the area of relevancy ranking. Recommendations will provide a foundation for future, more advanced work.

Role of ARL

The project is now completely self-managing. Mary Jackson attends Project Managers Group meetings, serving as a liaison regarding contractual and other administrative issues.

For additional information see http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/portals/scholarsportal.shtml.

Report prepared by Kris Maloney, University Arizona, and Sarah Michalak, University of Utah.