The Association for Information Science and Technology
Pacific Northwest Chapter Annual Meeting
Building Bridges: Overcoming the Barriers To Data Interoperability
May
14, 2005
University
of Washington, Husky Union Building (HUB), Room 310
Seattle, Wash.
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Keynote speaker: Jeremy Frumkin, The Gray Family Chair for Innovative Library Services, Oregon State University
THEME: We live in a time where more information is available in digital formats than every before. However, it seems that as more information becomes available in digital formats, the tools that we use to locate and find this information become more and more isolated from these new data sources. How do we build systems that allow for transparent interoperability? How do we share metadata across systems, given the wide range of metadata formats and standards? How do we build “smart systems” that learn from previous user queries to provide better sources for different types of users?
Conference at a Glance:
Saturday May 14th, 2004
8:30 -- 9:00 AM
Checkin
9:00 -- 9:30 AM
Introduction and Opening Remarks
9:30 -- 10:30 AM
Session 1:
Linnaeus, Mendeleev, Dewey, and Ranganathan: What can they tell us about
the organization of information today?
10:30 -- 10:45 AM
Break
10:50 -- 11:50 AM
Session 2:
Building the System for Electronic Recommendation Filtering (SERF)
12:00 -- 1:30 PM
Lunch (Keynote 1 -- 1:30)
1:45 -- 2:45 PM
Session 3:
A System for frontline notification of emerging infectious disease
2:45 -- 3:45 PM
Session 4:
Information Visualization for Library Collection Development, Reference and
Research Session Format
3:45 -- 4:00 PM
Break
4:00 -- 5:00 PM
Session 5: Lingua Franca: How do we facilitate *human* interoperability?
5:00 -- 5:15 PM
Closing Remarks
5:20 -- 6:00 PM
Business Meeting
Detailed Full Conference Program Schedule:
Saturday 14th, 2005
8:30
-- 9:00 AM
Check-in
9:00 --
9:30 AM
Introductions and Opening Remarks
9:30 -- 10:30 AM
Session 1: Linnaeus, Mendeleev, Dewey, and Ranganathan: What can they tell
us about the organization of information today?
Glenda B. Claborne is a student in the distance MLIS program
of the Information School, University of Washington, and will be graduating
in June 2005. The focus of her program is organization of information especially
in online environments. Her student website is at http://students.washington.edu/gbc2/
The classification schemes that are in use today to organize information had their beginnings. They had a history including places, events, and people. What prompted their development? How did their creators put them together? What can they tell us about what it means to have a good organization of information?
This presentation goes back to four classification schemes developed in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries but are still widely used today or are recognized as having contributed to the growth of knowledge in their respective domains. Two classification schemes are chosen from domains that study natural objects: the sexual classification system and binomial nomenclature for living things developed by the Swedish doctor/botanist Carolus Linnaeus in the 18th century and the periodic table of elements that has gained its mature form through the work of the Russian chemist Dmitrii Mendeleev in the mid 19th century. The other two are from a domain that studies information about information resources: the Dewey Decimal Classification developed by the American librarian Melvil Dewey in the late 19th century and the Colon Classification by the Indian librarian S. R. Ranganathan in the 20th century. Linneaus' and Mendeleev's are contrasting schemes as are Dewey's and Ranganathan's. The presentation is based on an independent study supervised by William Jones
10:30 -- 10:45 AM
Break
10:50 -- 11:50 AM
Session 2: Building the System for Electronic Recommendation
Filtering (SERF)
Seikyung Jung is a Ph.D candidate from Oregon State University.
She received B.S. from Sookmyung University, Seoul Korea, and M.S. from Oregon
State University. Her research area is in Collaborative Filtering based Recommender
System to improve human-computer interaction.
Today's university library has many digitally accessible resources, both indexes to content and considerable original content. Using off-the-shelf search technology provides a single point of access into library resources, but we have found that such full-text indexing technology is not entirely satisfactory for library searching.
In response to this, we report initial usage results from a prototype of an entirely new type of search engine - The System for Electronic Recommendation Filtering (SERF) - that we have designed and deployed for the Oregon State University (OSU) Libraries. SERF encourages users to enter longer and more informative queries, and collects ratings from users as to whether search results meet their information need or not. These ratings are used to make recommendations to later users with similar needs. Over time, SERF learns from the users what documents are valuable for what information needs.
In this research, we focus on understanding whether such recommendations can increase other users' search efficiency and effectiveness in library website searching.
Based on examination of three months of usage as an alternative search interface available to all users of the Oregon State University Libraries website (http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/), we found strong evidence that the recommendations with human evaluation could increase the efficiency as well as effectiveness of the library website search process.
Those users who received recommendations needed to examine fewer results, and recommended documents were rated much higher than documents returned by a traditional search engine.
Recently, we also placed SERF on the OSU-wide website (http://search.oregonstate.edu/serf) for use by all OSU community. In this manner, we can collect a data set from entire OSU community and examine differences from OSU library community.
12:00 --
1:30 PM/1:00 -- 1:30 PM (Keynote: Topic TBA)
Lunch
1:45 -- 2:45
PM
Session 3: A System for frontline notification
of emerging infectious disease
Corprew Reed, Genevieve Williams & Jon Larson are MLIS
students at the University of Washington.
This session presents a system for aggregation and dissemination of information about Emerging Infectious Diseases [EID]. This system is based upon RDF and other Semantic Web Technologies and leverages existing metadata schemes and schemas.
The goal of the system is to answer the changing information needs of those involved in EID response, containment, and research over the course of an outbreak. A measurable objective would be a reduction in the amount of time required to recognize, identify, and contain the infection; this and other objectives would be determined and measured according to the CDC Framework for Program Evaluation.
This system shares information across disciplines, institutions and international boundaries. It connects practitioners, researchers, and clinicians via a common metadata standard. A review of the literature has shown that EID work is highly interdisciplinary, time-dependent, and high in uncertainty. By answering the information needs of these workers, which change over an outbreak period, our system aims to increase interdisciplinary operability while reducing uncertainty.
2:45 -- 3:45 PM
Session 4: Information Visualization for Library Collection Development,
Reference and Research Session Format
Cyril Oberlander is Head of Interlibrary Loan at Portland
State University. Cyril's research and publication interests include: library
service and workflow design, library statistics, information visualization,
user research behaviors and applying mobile technology to library environments.
Information about Cyril’s research is available at: http://www.lib.pdx.edu/about/faculty/oberlander.htm
This presentation covers a suite of information visualization tools and information management techniques for library collection development, reference and research that illustrate the usefulness of information visualization strategies to provide context and navigation with ideas, concepts, content, data sets and research processing
Attendees will be encouraged to discuss applications of information visualization in libraries and needs for applying current research and technologies to various library services and research requirements.
3:45 -- 4:00
PM
Break
4:00 -- 5:00
PM
Session 5: Lingua Franca: How do we facilitate
*human* interoperability?
Aaron Louie was a web developer and information architect
for the UW Program for Educational Transformation Through Technology from 1999
to 2004. He received an MLIS from the University of Washington in 2003, served
as a temporary systems librarian in IT Services at the UW Libraries, and is
beginning a new position as an Information Architect with Ascentium.
Other Panelist:
Richard M. Jost
Assistant Librarian for Technical Services
University of Washington Gallagher Law LibraryMichael Hinnant
Information Architect
AscentiumJennifer Ward
Head, Web Services
University of Washington Libraries
The barriers to data interoperability between information systems are nothing compared to the barriers people associated with those systems build between themselves. This is especially true between non-technical stakeholders and the technical staff who must implement and maintain the information systems. What is the role of information professionals in bridging this gap?
Session will include a panel of 4-6 systems librarians and information architects. Panelists will be invited to discuss how information professionals (especially systems librarians and information architects) can act as translators between non-technical stakeholders, end users, and technical staff throughout the lifecycle of an information system. Focus will be on practical strategies and tools of the trade: visual language (eg. concept maps, flowcharts, ERDs, UML, IA diagrams, wireframes, etc.), documents (eg. prospectuses, business cases, paper prototypes, technical specifications, etc.), and communications technology (eg. groupware, content management systems, etc.).
5:00 -- 5:15
PM
Closing Remarks
5:20 -- 6:00 PM
ASIS&T PNW Business Meeting
Questions
-- Contact:
Terry Reese
ASIS&T PNC Chair, 2005
121 Valley Library
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331
terry.reese@oregonstate.edu
541.737.6384