Enterprise Abstraction

CISTI Mobile - beta

A quick overview and introduction to our thinking and work on a federal libary mobile website.

In observing the growing trend in the use of mobile devices, a small group of us at CISTI decided to explore the options and best practices for offering better access to CISTI services.

Check out the CISTI Mobile website (beta).

We had been investigating the possibility of producing some sort of application, possibly for the iPhone/iPad... but there are a couple of distinct disadvantages to that approach.  Firstly, we'd need to obtain and retain the knowledge to support application development - or contract for someone to do that work.  Secondly, we'd only be improving access on a small sub-set of the main mobile devices available. 

With that understanding, we pursued investigation into providing better access for mobile devices to our website.  CISTI is an institute of the National Research Council - an agency of the federal government, and hence obliged to meet federal government CLF standards for websites.  Fitting our full featured CLF site into a mobile screen size was essentially impossible.  Moreover, very few federal government mobile websites exist - and those that do seem to be older WAP-based sites designed before the advent of modern smartphones.

Further investigation revealed that the current best practice is to create simplified and separate dedicated mobile website in these cases - reducing the content and services to their core - and offering clients the option of using either the full regular site, or the mobile site as desired.

That said, the site attempts to meet the spirit of federal government CLF policy (branding, look and feel, accessibility and bilingualism) - but could not actually follow the established guidelines as they are based on desktop oriented browsers, and monitors.

Armed with this knowledge, a prototype was created using JQuery Mobile and the beginnings of code to connect with the Metalib API.  This prototype was intended to gauge the amount of effort that would be required to produce a fully functioning mobile website - and to demonstrate the concept to interested stakeholders.  Development of a functional prototype took far less time than expected, and demonstrated that a mobile website was achievable with minimal effort. Further, the prototype was able to demonstrate that we could create a single mobile website suitable for most common and modern versions of iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices.

Most library mobile websites provide contact/location information, hours of operation, access to search the library catalogue, and often - particularly in the case of academic libraries - reserves, holding information, course notes, etc. 

CISTI, as usual, is different in this regard.  We are not, particularly, a conventional lending library, nor an academic library, and the resources of most interest to our clients (and particularly the research staff of the National Research Council) are the licensed electronic access to scientific and technical articles.  A simple search of the Catalogue would not do.  Hence, we focused our effort towards providing access to search across large sets of scientific articles in addition to our library catalogue and local institutional repositories.  Though the Metalib x-server api, we were able to construct queries and receive results from any sets of licenced and local resources required - and format those results to make them suitable for display in most mobile devices.  Taking advantage of Metalib means having to code this once - and having mobile access to all of our available search resources.

Location and contact information (phone, maps) are something that most mobile devices support very well - and we thought it would be a useful (and easy) addition to the content of the mobile site. 

Further, links to CISTI's Twitter, Facebook, the ubiquitous "about us" pages, and a link to CISTI's full website were included.

More information is available on the CISTI Lab Website page for CISTI Mobile.  Comments and suggestions on CISTI Mobile (beta) are welcomed at this blog, or via any of CISTI's usual communication channels.

CISTI Tacky Christmas

In a groundswell of tackyness - CISTI staff are participating in a Tacky Christmas Decorating contest amongst the various sections of staff.  Examples from the IT group included below:

I hope nobody needs anything from those particular shelves in the reference section...

QR Codes

I've been interested in playing with QR codes, and how they might be applied to my work at CISTI.  Recently, I found a useful tip from Lifehacker showing how to create a bookmarklet that will make a QR code of the current web page... useful if you want to transfer the current page on your desktop/laptop to your phone for mobile reading.  It's a lot more convenient than emailing yourself the URL.

It's dead simple, making use of Googles chart API's.  Just make a bookmark in your toolbar with the following as the location information:

javascript:void(window.open('http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=150x150&chl='+encodeURIComponent(top.location.href)+'&chld=H|0','qr','width=155,height=155'));

Journal cover images - in SFX Link Resolver

I been learning SFX administration - adding some features here and there... last week I added the Google Books covers service - which turned out to be quite satisfactory.  It got me thinking that there must be a similar service for journal covers.  Apparently not.

However, some colleagues in the Twitterverse recommended using the journal covers supplied by Elsivier.  It's not an API call, nor am I able to directly call the images remotely - but I have some space - so I decided to download and link them locally.

All the files are named XXXXXXXX.gif - where XXXXXXXX is the ISSN of the journal.  (I've since renamed the files to XXXX-XXXX.gif to support the way that SFX deals with ISBN's).  After downloading and untarring the image files, I placed them in a web-accessible directory.

Then, it was simply a matter of linking, unobtrusively, to the images in SFX (or presumably from any application that deals with ISSN's).  For SFX, I inserted the following - but this code would work for any page as long as you can insert the desired ISSN in the appropriate places:

<!-- SKA EXPERIMENTAL - Adding journal cover images -->
<!-- Will show image if available, or will show 0 height 1px image otherwise -->
<!-- Note:  Without Javascript in IE, will show no-image icon if image does not exist -->
   <TMPL_IF ISSN>
        <a href="http://lab.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/anthonys/journalcover/<TMPL_VAR NAME="ISSN" ESCAPE='HTML'>.gif">
          <img src="http://myserver.mydomain.ca/journalcovers/<TMPL_VAR NAME="ISSN" ESCAPE='HTML'>.gif" height=90 alt="" onerror="this.src='http://myserver.mydomain.ca/journalcovers/px.gif'; this.height='0';">
        </a>
    </TMPL_IF>
<!-- END SKA EXPERIMENTAL -->

In my case, I inserted this code in sfxmenu.tmpl, just after the area where the Google Books cover would load.  The <TMPL_IF ISSN> prevents this portion from being rendered if the item in question does not have an identified ISSN (for example - if it were a book, or other work).

One could certainly that the portions - removing the <TMPL> portions that are specific to SFX, and insert this code anywhere.  In most cases, if the ISSN image is not available, it will display px.gif (which is a 1 pixel white image).  In Firefox it's totally transparent - but in IE, it will show a broken image if the ISSN image is not found - and the user has disabled JavaScript.  I hope to resolve that problem eventually.

Some examples:

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3 (No cover available)

Change

We've recently released a new website for CISTI - reorganizing some things in conjunction with the CISTI Transformation and the changes in document delivery services.

Externally, the website has changed it's structure - and is still transitioning as the rollout of the new partnership for document delivery proceeds.  That said, essentially the same services and content remain available.  We've added a new metasearch function - that we hope will simplify things - particularly hoping to simplify the answer to the question "Does CISTI have this?"   Now you should be able to find out - in one place.

Internally, things have changed significantly.  In the past, CISTI provided a separate portal dubbed the "Virtual Library" for the exclusive use of NRC.   We have merged the functionality of this portal with our main website - http://cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca - such that IP recognized persons (or those using our NRC proxy server) will see many more options including the ability to browse and search licensed and free e-journals, databases and other resources, librarian authored subject guides, and have an assortment of federated search options.  Integrating the ILS/Catalogue, metasearch, and CISTI-hosted databases (Discover and NPArC) is CISTI's link resolution service Find@CISTI - now finally being used essentially EVERYWHERE there's a bibliographic citation presented on the website.

Presently, we're working to improve the site, and to release (finally) a version of the LibX Toolbar for NRC Staff - that I hope will bring the capabilities of the library more readily available for researchers in their work.

It's been a busy time.

SFX and JavaScript

I'd been hunting around for a means to have our local SFX implementation (Find@CISTI) run without requiring JavaScript.  I'd done the requisite Google search, and submitted a request - to no avail.  The solution turned out to be rather trivial - and seems to have been implemented in subsequent releases of the SFX templates.

In your SFX instance, at /templates/sfxmenu/target_list.tmpl, add the following noscript line:

<!-- end extra comments --> <tr> <td height="0"> <noscript><input title="Navigate to target in new window" type="submit" value="<TMPL_VAR NAME='SERVICE_NAME'>&nbsp; <TMPL_VAR ESCAPE=HTML NAME='TARGET_NAME'>"></noscript> </td> </tr>

Our line had been removed or was missing... problem solved.  The buttons presented with JavaScript off are not particularly pretty - but they are functional. 

OpenURL and COInS at CISTI

CISTI has just released OpenURL links and COInS in CISTI Discover and NPArc (the NRC Publications Archive, NRC's Institutional Repository).

OpenURL in CISTI Discover and NPArc permit recognized users to connect with their libraries link resolver to get a list of appropriate full text content and other information services.  In the case of NRC staff, they will be recognized and directed to the NRC-CISTI link resolver to be directed to electronic content held or licensed on their behalf, or alternately to the means to search for and procure that content.  Others (not NRC) are presently directed to a default link resolver that provides a wide variety of choices and options. 

COInS (ContextObjects in SPANS) help applications, such as the browser plug-ins LibX and Zotero, to recognize the citation information and to provide users options such as saving/bookmarking the references.

NRC-CISTI's announces new public-private partnership with Infotrieve

Disclaimer:  I work for NRC-CISTI, and was asked if I could be so kind as to spread the word on CISTI's recent partnership initiative as part of CISTI's transformation process this year.  The following is an excerpt from the recent email notice to clients.  Please send your questions to the contact listed below:

Today, we are pleased to announce that Infotrieve, Inc., a leader in information center technology development and document delivery for more than 20 years, will be collaborating with NRC-CISTI on providing document delivery services for our clients and business partners. Infotrieve will be acting on NRC-CISTI’s behalf within Canada and will be providing exclusive services to our US and International clients. The transition will begin immediately and the process will be completed by March 31, 2010.

Over the next three to four months NRC-CISTI and Infotrieve will work closely together to transition all clients, starting with US clients, to Infotrieve’s world-class document delivery services using award winning technology for sourcing and delivering document orders. You will be able to recognize these orders by the accompanying coversheet or e-mail, which will reference Infotrieve. It is important to note that during this transition you should continue to use the same ordering methods you have been using to find and order documents, and you will be billed for services according to the identical price list currently used by NRC-CISTI. There will not be any changes to your current workflow for finding, ordering, or receiving document. NRC-CISTI will also continue to offer licensed access to information content and information services to the National Research Council. More details on what to expect can be found in the NRC-CISTI and Infotrieve Collaboration Question & Answer Guide.

Infotrieve has the fastest document delivery turnaround time in the industry which is achieved by leveraging over 40 million citations available within their own database and Infotrieve’s STM Library™ of managed print collections. Add to that the world renowned NRC-CISTI Canadian national science library collection with more than 50,000 serial titles, 800,000 books, conference proceedings, plus 2 million technical reports, and indexed journals in many languages and you’ve got an enormous collection of scientific, technical and medical (STM) content literally at your fingertips. This combination of content, expertise and technology will enable us to provide NRC-CISTI clients with improved services including faster turnaround times and higher document quality.

We will be providing you with regular updates as we progress through this transition. You can also consult our website or contact us at 613-998-8544 or 1-800-668-1222 (toll-free) or info.cisti@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca.

Pics of the CISTI Stacks

For the second time in my life I actually visited CISTI's stacks today - the areas on the 4th floor and above where CISTI keeps the dead trees.  I snapped a few pics for my personal enjoyment that others might like.  It's hard to get a feel for how large the space actually is, partly because it's divided over 4 floors, but also because there's no place on any of the floors to get a full pic of the entire area due to the building design.  Anyway, I thought some others might be interested, hence the set is on flickr.

I particularly liked this item, carefully shelved amongst the extensive collection of scientific works.  I may have to borrow it:

 

NRC Publications Archive (NPArC) Launched

CISTI has launched the NRC Publications Archive (NPArC) providing access to a large portion of the research output of the National Research Council.  Already there is a significant set of documents available.  From the notice:

"NPArC (pronounced N-Park) houses research papers for refereed journals, peer-reviewed conferences and technical reports that NRC researchers produce each year. It also guarantees long-term access to this research — serving as a valuable resource for NRC researchers, collaborators and the public. NPArC currently includes 35,000 publication records from 17 NRC institutes, along with 5,000 full-text publications from four of these institutes. And, over the course of this year, CISTI will be translating all new abstracts into both official languages."

To support the initiative, NRC has established a policy effective January 2009 making it mandatory to deposit copies of all peer-reviewed, NRC-authored publications and technical reports in NPARC.  The NRC License to Publish (Crown Copyright) form has been updated to support this requirement.

The NPArC web interface supports searching by a wide variety of criteria, and also supports browsing by subject, author or NRC Institute.

For those interested, NPArC metadata is also harvestable via OAI-PMH at:  https://accs.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/oai/ctrl?verb=Identify

NPArC is based upon CISTI's Trusted Digital Repository infrastructure that I've mentioned previously.