CDLINFO Newsletter, February 10, 2005 Vol. 8 No. 3
CONTENTS
- Online Archive of California: OAC 3.0 Release
- Resource Update: America's Newspapers Features a New Interface and New Search
- VDX: Status Update
- Library Staff News
- Roy Tennant Receives Literati Club Award for Excellence; Named User Services Architect
- Robin Chandler Awarded the California Heritage Preservation Archivist Award of Excellence
- Adrian Turner Named CDL Data Consultant
- For More Information
- News and Publications
- Contacts for Questions or Problems
- About CDLINFO
1. Online Archive of California: OAC 3.0 Release
The CDL and the OAC Operations Group are pleased to announce the release of the Online Archive of California, Version 3.0 at http://www.oac.cdlib.org.
OAC 3.0 represents two primary changes from previous systems:
- Use of a new software platform developed by the CDL, the eXtensible Text Framework (XTF), for the search, browse, and delivery of Encoded Archival Description (EAD)-formatted finding aids and Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)-formatted textual documents. For more information about XTF, see http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/xtf/.
- Support for EAD Version 2002, the current version of the EAD encoding standard maintained by the Society of American Archivists.
OAC 3.0 does not significantly depart from the previous OAC system in terms of look-and-feel. However, the CDL utilized the opportunity to upgrade legacy style sheets for EAD and TEI search results and views. The new style sheets are a product of iterative development, incorporating feedback received from the OAC community.
FEATURES
OAC 3.0 includes the following new features:
- Delivery of EAD Version 2002 finding aids.
- Updated style sheets for EAD and TEI search results and views, including linked search terms in context.
- EAD and TEI searching with wild cards: an asterisk will find from one to many characters within a word; a question mark will find only one character within a word.
- Sorting of EAD and TEI search results by relevance, title, date, and publisher/institution.
- Searching text within EAD and TEI views (includes navigating between occurrences of search terms in context).
- Searching objects within EAD views.
- New EAD style sheet for printing.
CONTEXT
Developed and maintained by the CDL using open source software, the XTF platform underlying OAC 3.0 provides for even greater long-term functionality and flexibility for the search and delivery of a wide range of document types, including EAD finding aids and TEI texts.
For more information about the OAC 3.0 project, see http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/oac/news/.
We encourage you to visit the enhanced site, and we welcome your feedback for both big picture issues and details. The CDL will be implementing incremental enhancements to the OAC resource, and your input will help us prioritize improvements.
2. Resource Update
a. America's Newspapers Features a New Interface and New Search
By Kay Collins (Resource Liaison), UC Irvine
America's Newspapers from Newsbank recently launched a new interface. With the new interface, selecting which papers to search is the first decision. You can select papers from the new menu in the left tool bar, by clicking on the map, or by selecting by region of the country.
The new left-hand window allows you to choose local papers, California papers, national papers, United States papers, or create a custom list. The local papers will vary from campus to campus. If you would like to change the set of papers displayed for your campus, contact me (Kay Collins) at kcollins@lib.uci.edu and I will work with Newsbank to change them.
At the top of the main page is a link to a list of all papers represented. Newsbank has been adding titles, mostly to smaller local papers. They will accept suggestions for new titles but we will need to make certain this does not change our negotiated price if they are added to our current list.
Other changes include improvements to the search boxes. With advanced search, more search fields are supplied than in the past. A new browse feature has been added to search a specific newspaper title. It appears once a single newspaper is selected. Once an article is displayed, then links to related topics appear. Toward the bottom, index terms are provided to help with other searches if the links are not useful.
An article bookmark (open URL compliant) is also supplied on the displayed article. This feature allows you to link directly to the article if cited within a paper. These citations will probably also start showing up with Google and Yahoo searches.
Newsbank has also added links to some of their other resources to which you subscribe as a library, e.g., the U.S. Congressional Serial Digital Edition. Like LexisNexis products, it helps transition from one database to the other within the company family of titles to which a library subscribes.
If you have suggestions for changes to the new interface, email me at kcollins@lib.uci.edu. Newsbank seems open to useful ideas, and they already have plans for more improvements.
3. VDX: Status Update
VDX (Virtual Document eXchange) is UC's consortial borrowing system for use in interlibrary loan (ILL), based on Fretwell-Downing's product. The VDX implementation is a large and complex project that has far-reaching implications for all UC library patrons. As such, it requires the allocation of resources to ensure success.
The VDX Implementation Task Force was created to provide collaborative advice to the staff of the CDL and the campuses for the ongoing implementation of the VDX ILL request tracking system. The task force will provide a process for setting priorities and reaching agreement on technical issues. Gary Johnson (UC Santa Barbara) and Jennifer Lee (UCLA) co-chair this group. Information on task force membership and activities, as well as other information about the VDX implementation may be found at http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/request/vdx/.
Five campuses currently manage their interlibrary borrowing transactions through VDX. Four more campuses are planning to begin using VDX for their borrowing. All campuses are using VDX to lend to the five UC borrowers.
Jennifer Lee's appointment to the CDL to assist campus ILL units with their implementation of VDX ended in October 2004. Jennifer participated in the implementation through the training of ILL staff, the development and distribution of documentation, and advice on workflow considerations and location configuration. Jennifer's assistance was a primary factor in moving the VDX implementation project forward, and we are all very grateful to her and to the UCLA library administration for allowing her to assume that responsibility.
The UC ILL community felt that it was imperative that Jennifer's role be continued, and so, in November 2004, Gary Johnson assumed a one-year, half-time appointment at the CDL to provide ongoing assistance. Gary has been involved in the VDX implementation since its beginning. His position as head of UCSB's ILL operations for the last seven years, his participation in the Patron Initiated Request (PIR) team over the last two years, and his ongoing role as the UCSB representative to the UC Resource Sharing Group-Interlibrary Loan Advisory Group (RSC-IAG) made him an obvious candidate for this role.
Gary's responsibilities over the next year in his CDL role will be very similar to Jennifer's responsibilities. Gary will coordinate and provide training and documentation, and will assist the CDL with troubleshooting VDX issues and testing VDX program fixes and new versions.
One of Gary's goals has been the creation of a UC VDX operations manual. He and his UCSB staff have already completed a significant number of pages for this manual, which can be found on the VDX project page at http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/request/vdx/.
Another milestone in this project has been recently accomplished with UCSB's implementation of lending to non-UC partners through the VDX-to-OCLC ISO ILL communication mechanism. UCSB is now able to perform 98 percent of their ILL work flow through this single system.
4. Library Staff News
a. Roy Tennant Receives Literati Club Award for Excellence; Named User Services Architect
Roy Tennant's article, "A bibliographic metadata infrastructure for the twenty-first century," has been named the 2005 Literati Club Awards for Excellence outstanding paper for the journal Library Hi Tech.
A copy of the article can be found on the E-LIS repository at http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00002310/ .
More information about the award is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/literaticlub/whatsnew/awards.htm.
In addition, the CDL is pleased to officially announce Roy Tennant's new job title: User Services Architect. Roy has been acting in this capacity for some months now, especially in his work with the Metasearch project.
Previously, Roy performed the same role for eScholarship, along with being a jack of all trades. Now he will bring his skills in identifying promising technologies, formulating a plan for how we might best use them, and leading or working on efforts to test, develop, and move technologies to production status to a broader range of the CDL's projects.
b. Robin Chandler Awarded the California Heritage Preservation Archivist Award of Excellence
The California Heritage Preservation Commission has selected Robin Chandler to receive the 2004 Archivist Award of Excellence. To quote in parts from the letter announcing the award: "The Archivist Award of Excellence was established by the Cal Heritage Preservation Commission to honor individuals who have done superior work in archives and records management within California…"
Robin was nominated for her work in developing the Online Archive of California (OAC), and in selecting her, the commissioners focused on the tremendous impact that the OAC has had statewide and beyond, as well as on Robin's vision and leadership.
c. Adrian Turner Named CDL Data Consultant
On January 31, 2005, Adrian Turner began working in his new position as the CDL Data Consultant.
Adrian has served two years as the OAC Operations Coordinator, working closely with the CDL Digital Ingest Group and coordinating the OAC Operations Group and the OAC Working Group and subcommittees. In this role, he has been actively involved in coordinating OAC operational activities, in addition to several important OAC and CDL projects including the Local History Digital Resources Project and the CDL Guidelines for Digital Objects.
On these projects, Adrian has worked to translate technical information for lay users seeking to contribute content. In his new role, Adrian will be working with a broad range of CDL staff to explore ways to apply his data consultant skills to emerging CDL projects, initiatives, and priorities.
Please join us in congratulating Adrian on his new position!
5. For More Information
a. News and Publications
News and events, press releases, reports and guidelines, and articles published by CDL staff are posted on the CDL web site. Please share news of this resource with your colleagues!
In addition, status information about CDL resources, reports, and working documents of particular interest to library staff are available on the Inside CDL web site.
b. Contacts for Questions or Problems
If you have problems accessing CDL resources or have questions, including questions about the status of electronic journal collections and Internet resources, contact the CDL:- For immediate assistance, call the CDL Helpline at 510-987-0555. Callers with TDD equipment, please call 1-800-735-2929 in California for the telephone relay operator.
- Or, send an email to cdl@www.cdlib.org.
For information about whether your UC campus has access to a particular electronic journal or Internet resource, contact your local collection development officer.
c. About CDLINFO
CDLINFO informs UC librarians and the UC community about the progress of the CDL, policy issues under discussion, and newly available electronic resources. Please share selected information from this newsletter with faculty, staff, and students on the campuses.
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