JISC

A key aim of the PALS programmes was to make it easy for publishers and libraries to use relevant standards.  The projects developed a range of tools and guidelines to make it easy.

Below is a list of the most interesting and useful tools the projects created.  The page for each project gives more details about the deliverables and how to get them, and in most cases there are reports to document the experience gained developing and using them.

Tools for Electronic Licensing

The projects on Electronic Expression of Licensing Terms are creating practical tools for drafting publishers-library licences to the new ONIX for Licensing Terms standard.  The project on Specifying Tools is developing an easy to use tool for drafting licences using templates.  The companion project on XML Expression of a Publisher/Library Licence mapped a Wiley licence to the OLT standard and is developing the first templates (for the JISC Model Licences).

Tools for RSS

Engineering Trade Information Metadata in RSS  developed a practical guide to RSS, RSS: A Primer for Publishers & Content Providers.  It is aimed at a non-technical audience who want an overview of RSS so they can decide whether and how to use the technology to support their business.  It explains the concepts, gives examples, and provides links to other useful resources.  It draws on the project’s experience working with three engineering publishers, and separate case studies explain how it worked out for each one.  The Primer was highly praised when it was launched in 2003 and is still a useful guide.

Nature’s ROSA project developed an open source tool called Urchin for aggregating, filtering, and displaying information from RSS feeds.  It allows information providers with no detailed knowledge of RSS to create RSS feeds from a database, XML file, or web page.  More ambitious publishers can aggregate feeds from different sources and create customised feeds.  JISC commissioned an independent review of Urchin from international RSS expert Ben Hammersley who described Urchin as “excellent” and “a milestone in its class”.  Urchin is available from SourceForge.

Emerald’s TOCRoSS project used RSS to place journal tables of contents data into a library catalogue without human intervention.  They extended the RSS 2.0 specification to carry metadata about journal articles in ONIX for Serials SRN (Serials Release Notification) format.  Emerald developed a ‘Publisher Starter Kit’ with associated software to assist other content providers develop services based on TOCRoSS feeds.  The Starter Kit and associated open source software is available from SourceForge.

Tools for OAI-PMH

Publishers may be interested in using OAI-PMH to disclose metadata for their journals to portals and search engines.  Small publishers may be daunted by the prospect of building an OAI-complaint repository, so STARGATE tried out a low tech approach.  The publisher creates an XML file of metadata (a static repository) and a separate gateway does the rest.  STARGATE developed all the tools and guidelines that publishers need to create a static repository and investigated how to set up and run a gateway service.  All the tools and guidelines are on their web site.

Tools for EPrints Repositories

Nature's Dictate project developed a Tagging Tool that enables repositories running EPrints software to integrate with social bookmarking services like del.icio.us and Connotea.  Once the administrator of an EPrints repository has installed the Tagging Tool, users can take advantage of social bookmarking features without leaving the repository environment.  The open source Tagging Tool is available from SourceForge.

Tools for Usage Statistics

The COUNTER Filter project developed a ‘unique article’ filter to compensate for inflation of usage statistics caused by certain vendor interfaces and will recommend that publishers use the filter.  The page on Usage Statistics summarises how the filter was developed, and the project’s final report to JISC gives the full details and specifications.  See the page on COUNTER Filter for details on the report.