Activities in the field of Research and Technical Development
"Telematics Applications Programme"
Sector: Libraries
FROM 1 OCTOBER 1997 TO 30 SEPTEMBER 1998
Project Number:`LIB-4032/B Project Acronym: UNIverse
Project title: Large Scale Demonstrators for Global, Open Distributed Library Services
Project Co-ordinator:
This report covers the second year of the UNIverse project. The initial duration of the project was 30 months but, for a number of reasons which will be explained in detail later in this report, the Commission has agreed to extend this to 33 months. Also during the period of this report a revised technical annex for the project was prepared. At the time of writing this is still being considered by the Commission.
The UNIverse project aims to deliver a pan-European 'Virtual Union Catalogue' providing a single point of access to physically distributed information resources. The project addresses the technical difficulties of presenting this information to users in such a way that they perceive it as a single homogeneous resource. These include issues relating to access methods, record syntax, character set and language.
Based on this Virtual Union Catalogue, the UNIverse consortium, through a number of User Groups, will deliver, beginning on 1 October 1998, a number of advanced library services aimed at both the end-user and the librarian. These services, which were listed in the original Technical Annex and in the Annual Project Review report for year 1, are:
The composition of the User Groups has changed slightly from that proposed in the the original Technical Annex and the first Annual Project Review Report. This is a direct result of changes to the funding mechanism originally agreed. Despite these changes, the project will still provide a platform for evaluating the Virtual Union Catalogue on a very large scale and for examining the scalability of the model.
The revised Technical Annex shows 5 User Groups of Libraries who will be actively using the system during the demonstration phase starting on 1 October 1998. These comprise 2 subject groups - Environmental and Technological - and 3 geographic groupings - Great Britain, Ireland (including Northern Ireland) and Greece). In addition two Spanish Libraries will join the project, connecting to a UNIverse server hosted by Fretwell-Downing. Negotiations are continuing with a number of other libraries, including 2 in France, which may result in additional User Group members being recruited during the demonstration phase on a non-costed basis.
The User Groups will concentrate on different services with all using Search and Retrieve functions. For example, the Greek User Group will concentrate on Collaborative Cataloguing whilst the Technological User Group will make significant use of Document Delivery.
During the first year of the project, the focus was on analysing the state of the art, identifying requirements (user, technical legal and commercial) and producing design specifications. The design specifications were produced based on an overall system architecture. The design is based on a number of sub-system components, central to which is the UNIverse Kernel. Each of the other sub-system components interfaces with the kernel. By the end of the first year all sub-system specifications had been completed, although some were up to 1 month late. As a result of the first Annual Project Review the Collaborative Cataloguing and Inter-Library Loans sub-system specifications were revised along with the Project Critical Success Factors. These are re-submitted for review.
Another change to the work plan which resulted from comments raised at the first Annual Project Review was the introduction of a new task within Work Package 9 (Impact Assessment & Exploitation Plans) to consider the business and economic issues surrounding the introduction of UNIverse-type solutions from the perspective of service providers, server sites and user organisations.
The work of the project in the period covered by this report can be briefly summarised as:
In response to the issues raised by reviewers at the first annual review, a number of system components were reviewed and revised. As stated in section 1.1, the following revised deliverables are re-submitted for review:
D4.6.1 Inter-Library Loans Sub-system Design
D4.8.1 Collaborative Cataloguing Sub-system Design
It was also agreed, following the first annual review, that the Project Critical Success Factors (D3.1.2) would be reviewed on a regular basis throughout the project. The updated deliverable which is submitted for review was updated in July 1998 to include a detailed beta test schedule.
This activity has been the major concern of the technical partners within the project during the period covered by this report. Whereas the original project plan showed integration and alpha testing of software components being completed in March 1998, some critical components were not completed by this deadline. The original work plan was also too simplistic in its representation of the process of building, integrating and testing software, representing these as sequential activities instead of an iterative process.
Whilst the 'core' software components, including the UNIverse kernel, were completed and integrated with each other according to the original schedule, some components were delayed. An initial attempt was made to contain the slippage within the original plan by phasing beta testing activity but further delays, particularly to the WWW client and server - in effect the end user interface to the entire system - made this impossible without compromising the quality of the software. It was therefore decided to request a 3 month delay in the start of the demonstration phase and a subsequent 3 month extension to the project duration. This was accepted by the Commission.
By the end of the reporting period (and the start of the demonstration phase) all sub-systems have now been integrated and tested with the exception of the WWW client and server and the Character Set Conversion implementation. The reasons for these delays and the response of the project to them are outlined in section 1.3 below.
Completion of two other deliverables - national language variants of the user interface (D5.13.1) and User Documentation (D5.1.2) have been delayed pending release of the WWW interface. The beta release of the user documentation is submitted for review.
Despite these delays the major components of the system have been subject to comprehensive beta testing (see below) based on 2 beta releases of the software and incorporating a WWW user interface produced by Fretwell-Downing outside the scope of the project.
Beta testing took place over an extended period with partners being involved in testing of agreed system components in line with the schedule included in D3.1.2. Two Beta releases of software were provided to the following beta test sites:
NTUB in Trondheim only received the first beta release of the system and were involved in beta testing of system the administration components contained within it. Beta testing was successful with only minor errors being reported, all of which have been addressed to make the Production release of the UNIverse system (D6.2.2) available in time for the start of the Demonstration phase on 1 October 1998. This software deliverable will be demonstrated during the Annual Project Review Meeting.
Of the eventual UNIverse server sites, Neither Forbairt (due to problems with their firewall) or the National Library of Greece installed beta test server software although both had access to client software. It is still planned for these sites to host operational UNIverse servers from 1 October 1998.
The changes to the funding regime for User Group activities (see 1.2.6) resulted in considerable changes being made to the proposed composition of the user groups. Much effort has been expended on this and there is still uncertainty surrounding the combined user group meeting scheduled for mid-October 1998 in Delft as the revised technical annex has not yet been approved by the Commission. Despite this the five User Groups outlined in section 1.1 above have recruited members using a variety of funding mechanisms. The resulting composition of the User groups is as follows:
Library Role in Project
Freshwater Biological Association UNIverse Server
Southampton Oceanography Centre UNIverse Server
National Centre for Marine Research, Z39.50 server
Greece
CEMARE, University of Portsmouth Client
National Marine Biological Laboratory, Client
UK
Swedish Environment Protection Agency Client
BSH Library, Hamburg, Germany Client
TOTAL 7
Library Role in Project
Danish Technical Knowledge Centre UNIverse Server
University Library of Trondheim UNIverse Server
Technical University of Delft Z39.50 server
Chalmers Univesity Client
Cranfield University Client
Copenhagen University Client
University of Leuven Client
University of Oslo Client
ITNA, Madrid Client
University of Ljubjana Client (not funded)
TOTAL 10
Library Role in Project
National Library of Greece UNIverse Server
Athens College Library Z39.50 server
Panteio University Z39.50 server
Technical University of Crete Z39.50 server
Technical Chamber of Greece Z39.50 server
TOTAL 5
Library Role in Project
University of Sheffield UNIverse Server
British Library Z39.50 server
London & South East Library Region Z39.50 server
(LASER)
University of Leeds Z39.50 server
University of Bradford Z39.50 server
University of Hull Z39.50 server
Sheffield Hallam University Client
University of Huddersfield Client
University of Sunderland Client
University of York Client
TOTAL 10
Library Role in Project
Enterprise Ireland (Forbairt) UNIverse Server
University College Dublin Z39.50 server
National University of Ireland, Galway Z39.50 server
Queens University, Belfast Z39.50 server
University of Ulster Z39.50 server
Clare County Library Z39.50 server
Cork County Library Client
Cork City Library Client
Roscommon County Library Client
Mayo County Library Client
Limerick City Library Client
Longford County Library Client
TOTAL 12
In addition 2 Spanish Libraries (University of Cadiz - Z39.50 server and CSIC Madrid - client) have joined the project and will connect to a UNIverse server hosted by Fretwell-Downing. It is hoped to recruit further libraries in France and Spain on a non-costed basis.
A questionnaire has been developed for use within the evaluation and detailed discussions have taken place with all user group leaders and most user group participants regarding their responsibilities with respect to evaluation. A resourcing plan has also been produced for the new activity (WP9.4) introduced in response to the first Annual Project Review and a verbal report on this will be made at the Annual Review meeting.
A revised technical annex was required for a number of reasons, viz.:
The revised Technical Annex has been produced in consultation with all the partners and the Commission to address these. Producing the revised TA was a complex procedure including the introduction of 17 new Associate Partners to the Consortium. The revised Technical Annex is divided into 2 periods, this first representing the first 18 months of the project for which detailed information was available at the time of preparation. For work packages which were completed at that time, the resource estimate has been adjusted to reflect the resource actually utilised. For all other work packages, estimates of resourcing were amended to reflect resource already utilised and current estimates of resource required to completion. As the resource figures in this report cover the first 22 months of the project, there is little scope for variation to date between the actual resource used and the estimates in the revised Technical Annex.
These are outlined in sections 1.5 and 1.7 of this report.
The main problems encountered during the period fall into 3 categories:
A number of libraries initially agreed to take part in the project on the basis of a simple funding mechanism as set out in the original TA. When confronted with the prospect of completing detailed Labour and Overheads questionnaires for a small number of days funding, many of these libraries withdrew. It was therefore difficult to recruit new libraries and this had a knock-on effect to the production of the revised Technical Annex.
The two major areas for concern have been with Character Set Conversion and with the WWW server and client implementation.
The Character Set Conversion Software was delivered later than Month 21. Unfortunately, considerable work is required to configure and integrate this software for use with the UNIverse software. Resource has not been available to perform this prior to the Production release of the UNIverse system. It is therefore planned to release this as a system enhancement at some stage during the demonstration phase but this has not yet been planned in detail.
The delay which will have the major impact on end users of the system is the delay to the WWW server and client sub system (D5.3.1) which provides the user interface for all end users involved in search and retrieval. Part of the problem has been in developing against an emerging standard (Java 1.1) which has not yet been widely adopted.
It became apparent that there was no prospect of this interface being available for the start of the demonstration phase and, even if it were available, it would require a web browser of a later version to that in use in the majority of user sites. As a result, it was decided to offer user sites an alternative user interface, based of Fretwell-Downing's existing WebView software. Fretwell-Downing undertook to integrate this with the UNIverse kernel using their own resources, outside the scope of the project. Unfortunately, this took longer that expected due to competing commercial pressures. That software has now been made available and has been subject to limited testing. It is being incorporated into the Production release of the system. A further release of the system will be made available incorporating the Java Web server and client when this is available. The Fretwell-Downing alternative interface will continue to be available as an alternative for users for the duration of the project.
Following criticism from the Commission and Monitoring Officer, Fretwell-Downing took steps to improve project management performance. This included replacing the former Project Manager with the present incumbent. There have been on-going problems with late and poor quality reports from some members of the consortium. these have been pursued and reports have now been received from all Consortium members with the exception of Harper Adams College who have withdrawn from the project. It has also become clear that insufficient attention was paid at the project initiation stage to standardising reporting arrangements and ensuring common interpretation of procedures. these have now been addressed but still cause some problems for consistency of reporting. A new reporting format has been agreed to address some of these problems.
Major changes have been made to the work plan in response to the issues outlined in para 1.2.6 and these have been incorporated in the revised Technical Annex. The main changes have been:
Concertation activities have included:
The impact of UNIverse on the library and information services community is due to be assessed over the remaining period of the project as the demonstration phase of the project begins. The impact assessment, which has been strengthened with the introduction of a new activity focussing on economic and business issues, will directly assess the relevance of UNIverse to both end users and information suppliers.
Dissemination activities have included:
Details of achievements in the areas of dissemination and system deployment are provided in other sections of the report. This section concentrates on the achievements within the technical development work packages of UNIverse. The following is a list of 'technology firsts' delivered by the UNIverse project:
There are a number of areas in which UNIverse has contributed to the state of the art (in particular within the Z39.50 developments). Once fully tested in the production environment the intention is to provide technical papers on the UNIverse design and implementation and to propose the profiles to the standards bodies.
The remaining 9 months of the project will be concerned with the demonstration phase of the project (Work Package 8) and associated user group activities (Work Package 7), commencing with the combined user group meeting scheduled for Delft in mid-October.
In addition, a number of enhancements will be made to the initial release of software, including character set conversion functions and an alternative WWW interface (Work Package 5).
Evaluation and impact assessment activities (Work Package 9) will also take place during the remaining period of the project, in parallel with the demonstration phase. As formative data start to appear, these will be incorporated into dissemination activities (Work Package 10).
Exploitation plans for technical partners remain broadly in line with those set out in the original technical annex and in the first Annual Review Report, viz.:
Library partners' exploitation plans
Technology partners' exploitation plans
In addition, the new task (WP9.4) focussing on Business and Economic Issues will help focus partners' exploitation plans by providing evidence of business drivers for the uptake of UNIverse and similar systems.
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