Technically Speaking

By David Dorman
American Libraries Columnist
ddorma@ltnet.ltls.org

Library consultant for the Lincoln Trail Libraries System in Champaign, Illinois.

Column for November 2002

To Identify an Online Object, Just DOI It

The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) has been much discussed and extensively endorsed over the past five years. In the past couple of years, its use has been increasing dramatically. From the early days of the Web it was apparent that a protocol was needed to positively identify digital objects such as photographs, articles, and sound recordings. URLs are not sufficient because they are merely addresses that can, and often do, change, and they do not represent anything other than the temporary location of an object.

While the effort to develop a DOI system was one that all stakeholders in the information-technology business could unite behind, the effort has proved to be a complex and difficult undertaking. Along the way, the nature of the DOI and the uses it can be put to have been clarified.

Recently I received this upbeat assessment of a DOI in a press release from Corbis and Content Directions:

“The DOI is a system for identifying and exchanging intellectual property in the digital environment. The DOI is like the UPC [universal product code] bar code in the physical world, but for Internet-based resources such as digital content published online. It uniquely identifies digital objects and provides permanent links to the publisher and/or to any related services the publisher wants to enable, thus facilitating online transactions of all kinds including e-commerce, rights management, and digital distribution. Created by the primary architect of the Internet itself (Dr. Robert Kahn), the DOI can be thought of as ‘The Next-Generation URL,’ or ‘a URL on steroids,’ because it is:

• unbreakable
• multi-linkable
• dynamic
• industry standard
• scalable
• low cost.”

Now that’s salesmanship. Makes me want to get one right away.

The press release itself announced a DOI pilot project whereby Corbis, the world’s largest provider of digital media that was founded by Bill Gates in 1989, will begin registering Digital Object Identifiers across a limited product line. The company will be assisted in the pilot project by Content Directions, a DOI registration agency that also promotes and consults on DOI implementation.

It won’t be long before DOIs become as familiar to librarians as URLs and ISBNs (of which they are a superset). The Digital Object Identifier Foundation has a nice introduction to DOIs.

Md. Librarians Get E-Learning

“We are breathing new life into a course that we have been giving and evolving over the last 20 years,” said Gail Griffith, deputy director of the Carroll County (Md.) Public Library, in describing the e-learning course that will be used to help refresh the communication skills of Maryland public librarians. The course is being developed by the Maryland Library Partnership, a nonprofit cooperative of Maryland public libraries, and IsoDynamic, a developer of e-learning courseware. Continued Griffith, “It will provide great preparation for the classroom training, where we can spend our time practicing and developing customer service and communication skills in live situations with real people.”

Contracts and Agreements

• Innovative Interfaces—Millennium systems for the following libraries: with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, combining the libraries of San Jose State University and the San Jose Public Library in California, to replace an Epixtech Dynix system at the public library (the university library is currently using Millennium); with the Cuyahoga County Public Library, headquartered in Parma, Ohio, for the library’s 29 locations, to replace a Sirsi DRA Classic system; with the Lakeland Library Cooperative, headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for the consortium’s 41 libraries in 81 locations, to replace its Epixtech Dynix system; with the Greene County Public Library, headquartered in Xenia, Ohio, for the library’s seven locations, to replace a Sirsi DRA system; and with the Carver County Library, headquartered in Chaska, Minnesota, for its five public libraries, to replace a Sirsi Atlas system.
• Sirsi—with Heritage Trail Library System, headquartered in Shorewood, Illinois, for a UnicornConsortia system for its 38 member libraries that are using the shared automation system, replacing a GeacPLUS system; and with the Lakeshores Library System, headquar-tered in Waterford, Wisconsin, for UnicornConsortia for its 15 member libraries, replacing a variety of standalone systems including Follett, Dynix, and Library.Solution.
• Epixtech—with the Winnipeg (Manitoba) Public Library, for a Horizon Sunrise system along with the Epixtech Resource Sharing System ILL software to replace the library’s Dynix system.
• Endeavor Information Systems—with Queensland Health, a government agency headquartered in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, for a Voyager system for its 19 libraries located throughout the state, to replace seven diverse systems.
• Ex Libris—with the University of Camerino, Italy, for an Aleph 500 system for the school’s 11 libraries, to replace a TINLIB system.
• TLC—with the Newberry County (S.C.) Public Library for Library.Solution and Secure.Solution, to replace a Gaylord system; with the Bay Shore–Brightwaters (N.Y.) Public Library, for Library.Solution, SIPII, Library.Serial, YouSeeMore, and the Kids Catalog Web, to replace a Gaylord system; with the Henry County Library in Eminence, Kentucky, for Library.Solution to upgrade from BiblioFile; with Silver Consolidated Schools in Silver City, New Mexico, for SchoolLibrary.Solution and the Kids Catalog Web, to replace an Auto-Graphics SLiMS system; and with the Academy School District #20 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for SchoolLibrary.Solution, Library.Bookings, and the Kids Catalog Web, to replace an Epixtech Dynix Scholar system.
• Brodart—with the SAILS Library Network in Middleboro, Massachusetts, for the DartClix MARC record subscription service for Web sites.
• Auto-Graphics—with the Capcon Library Network in Washington, D.C., for Capcon to serve as a distributor for Auto-Graphics’ AGent broadcast search and retrieve service to its member libraries; and with the Sturgis (Mich.) Public Library, for a Verso library management system to replace the library’s EOSi GLAS system.

Announcements

• The School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University has announced that it will use LSSI’s Virtual Reference ToolKit to revamp its reference curriculum, allowing students to gain familiarity with the techniques of live online reference, and will partner with LSSI on joint research projects involving online reference.
• The National Library of the Netherlands followed up its preservation arrangement with Elsevier with a September 2002 agreement with OCLC and OCLC PICA to jointly operate a center to digitize and preserve historically valuable European library collections. The new center, Strata Preservation, will focus on microfilming and digitizing vulnerable and unique collections throughout Europe.
• Auto-Graphic’s AGent broadcast search and retrieve software can now access the EBSCOhost service.
• Ebrary will make more than 7,000 classical sheet music and educational titles from Byron Hoyt available to libraries as a standalone collection.

Standards News

• The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative has made the DC Metadata Registry available. A one-site-has-it-all for newbies and experts alike.
• The European Commission is funding a project to create a Multilingual European DOI Registration Agency (MEDRA). The project is sponsored by the Italian Publishers Association and involves as partners representatives of the publishing community in France, Germany, and Spain.