NASIG Notes Days 2 & 3

Cross-Provider Search

Jenny Walker of Ex Libris drew a distinction between federated searching (just in case) and metasearch (just in time). Most of her presentation concerned the developments of the NISO Metasearch Initiative, which is working “to identify, develop, and frame the standards and other common understandings that are needed to enable an efficient and robust information environment.” Three task groups are working on the following areas: authentication/authorization, collection description, and search and retrieval. More about the NISO Metasearch Initiative can be found at www.lib.ncsu.edu/niso-mi.

Amy Brand of CrossRef discussed the CrossRef Search pilot, which has been developing since 2002. After working with CrossRef to develop CrossRef Search, Google launched Google Scholar to the surprise of CrossRef and affiliated publishers. As a result, the future of CrossRef Search is somewhat uncertain right now. Brand reviewed Google Scholar and its OpenURL development. There are mixed feelings about Google among publishers–Google drives 20-30% of traffic to publisher sites and Google Print may be a good marketing tool. But publishers are concerned about loss of publisher control (e.g. linking to an article in a repository instead of or in addition to the authorized version of an article) and the repurposing of copyrighted material. Based on recent patent applications filed by Google there is speculation that Google wants to be an e-commerce provider for article purchase.

Institutional Repositories

Carol Hixson of University of Oregon described the University Libraries’ experiences with DSpace. Her presentation is available in DSpace at https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/dspace/handle/1794/843 and includes a number of useful links to materials on repositories and open access.

Some points

• buy-in and interest was slow to develop
• faculty are very concerned about copyright
• clear policies are necessary
• need to do a lot of marketing and education

Painting America Purple: Media Democracy and the Red/Blue Divide

Leif Utne, Associate Editor of Utne Magazine, spoke about the role of the media in overcoming the political divide in the US. The media is not just an objective news provider, but reflects communities back to themselves. It can introduce readers/viewers/listeners to each other, provide opportunities to find common ground, and foster “conversational literacy.”

Utne proposed reasons why much of the media currently divides rather than unites: controversy sells, corporate consolidation, more ads/less program time, eroding journalistic standards. He then reviewed a number of media outlets and projects working to promote conversation, including Utne Magazine’s own salons and Cafe Utne, Let’s Talk America, Council for Excellence in Government, the BothAnd Project, the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, and the Co-Intelligence Institute. He also pointed out the September Project, which fosters civic events in libraries on September 11. (Unfortunately I don’t have these URLs but they should be easily accessible via Google.)