Texas-sized Bytes!
Z39.50 and Metasearch/Interoperability Standards
William E. "Bill" Moen
Interim Director, Texas Center for Digital Knowledge
Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Sciences
University of North Texas
In his presentation "Resources in the New Information Landscape: Threats or Opportunities?", Bill Moen gave an overview of how metadata and Z39.50 standards contribute the interoperability necessary to create institutional repositories and to make them widely accessible. He discussed the opportunities for long-term persistent open access to resources afforded by the creation of institutional repositories. He also discussed the importance of metadata creation and the several metadata standards available. Metadata harvesting and the metasearch approaches useful for finding resources were highlighted. Throughout the presentation, he refined models for user access to resources.
Kevin Marsh discussed the Z39.50 standards-based federated search service provided by the Library of Texas. Precision searching options were described. He highlighted the flexibility provided for customizing local access by creating local groups of resources, adding local virtual reference service links, using the Interlibrary Loan features, and incorporating open URL links for local subscription databases not part of the basic TexShare package. The Library of Texas is provided as a one-stop portal to library resources available from participating libraries in Texas. It gives local libraries a way to provide a free federated search interface for their users.
Cathy Hartman discussed the development of the Portal to Texas History, which provides unified online access to cultural heritage documents and images at participating libraries throughout Texas. The Portal is designed to make locally-held historical resources easily searchable and available to teachers, students, genealogists, historians, and other researchers. The project establishes common standards, shares "best practices", and facilitates cooperative funding.
PPT
Beta version of Portal to Texas History
Final version of Portal to Texas History (available June 1, 2007)
Copyright ©2007, Reference Round Table, TLA