modern libraries have to build integrated websites

MODERN LIBRARIES HAVE TO BUILD INTEGRATED WEBSITES Interview with Martin Blenkle Martin Blenkle studied chemistry and library science. Currently he is head of the digital services department of the State and University Library Bremen, Germany. The IT group at Bremen had been working with the project of the catalogue E-LIB Bremen since 1999 and is interested in user-orientated design and integration of online library services.

Liliana Moldovan (L.M.): - The appearance of the Internet has changed the relationship between the library and its customers. What was the impact of social media on library catalogs? Can, in our days, modern library survive without an online library catalog? Martin Blenkle (M.B.): - Modern internet search engines like Google definitely have the strongest influence on how customers expect the process of searching to be in general. Compared to easy searching with Google, library systems seemed inadequate in the last decade, old fashioned in their visual appearance and very limited in their index capacity. In most scientific libraries it was impossible to search e-journal articles and ebooks via the classic OPAC, because links to electronic media were mainly offered via separated lists on the libraries websites. Now best match relevance ranking methods seem to be superior in meeting the untrained user's needs compared to the old exact match boolean procedure and chronological ranking. Statistical analysis of user searching in scientific context showed that many people don’t use library OPACs for subject search and discovery any more. So Simone Kortekaas from Utrecht University Library has made the straightforward assumption that Google could provide all the information about title availability at the local library. This means that the library search engine might be obsolete in the near future. However our own user analysis shows that clients will still use library catalogues in case integrated and convenient ways of accessing both printed and electronic information are provided. In my opinion modern libraries have to build integrated websites (including the catalogue) that offer easy to use services that generate a real value for users and show the expertise of the library staff in fields of information and data management. L.M.: - How does the E-Lib Bremen Catalog respond to the total quality management requirements? M.B.: - Metadata quality of classic catalogue records is usually very good because it results from a cataloguing process by librarians from the German Common Library Network (GBV). We get all other metadata from very different data providers in very

different quality. Metadata records from publishers are usually quite good, but records from open access data providers in context with the Open Archive community vary in quality on a large scale. So we have to handle this metadata mixture with a bit of care. For example, problems can result building up drill down options from non-standardized subject indexing within the global metadata domain. L.M.: - What is the history of this catalog? In what context (year) has the State and University Library Bremen decided to use an open media catalog? M.B.: - The E-LIB system was developed during the last 15 years together with a friend from the University of Osnabrück, Hartmut Zillmann who has done the major parts of code development. In 1999 the E-LIB Bremen was an early marketing tool for electronic library resources without indexing any printed books. Five years later we decided to mix both electronic and printed material metadata to build up an integrated catalogue for the whole library content and service portfolio. Similar library search engines were later called "next generation catalogues" or "discovery systems". During that period we have gradually increased the metadata index up to around 60 million records and done a lot of experiments with computer-linguistic search assistance, ranking methods and recommendation services to support patrons while searching. (Martin Blenkle, Rachel Ellis and Elmar Haake: Next-generation library catalogues: review of E-LIB Bremen, Serials – 22(2), July 2009 - http://www.metapress.com /content/040q4504p2565519/fulltext.pdf). In 2009 the E-LIB system replaced the commercial catalogue that was used before providing one single entry point to all library content. During the last 4 years we spent a lot of time building a new library website and a reconstructed search engine record display with respect to modern methods of user experience design. We were able to integrate the E-LIB catalogue into the website in a very seamless way. So our catalogue and the library website are now virtually one and the same. Another focus of development is relevance ranking. In 2011 we introduced the idea of Google's page rank method to a library catalogue (I guess the first implementation in a library catalogue worldwide). E-LIB ranking on a text-statistical basis is now modified further by means of usage data. Records with typical characteristics, that reflect higher user demand, will receive an additional boost of the calculated relevance parameter. Currently such properties in the E-LIB search engine are: - a large number of user clicks - a high number of editions (eg. 11th edition of a title) - a large number of title holdings in the library As a result, records with the same text-statistical relevance parameter can be differentiated by user feedback and thus the display position of a title in the E-LIB's short list presentation of results.

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L.M.: - Could you, please, give us some basic information about the State and University Library Bremen? M.B.: - Serving 42,000 users the State and University Library Bremen (SuUB) is the city's largest and oldest academic library. As the designated central library of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, the SuUB supplies literature to universities and colleges across Bremen and Bremerhaven, while also acting as the state library. Centrally located on the university campus, the SuUB is the main provider of library services to the University of Bremen. The SuUB's integrated library system is comprised of a central library and a number of decentralized departmental and branch libraries located in close proximity to individual departments and higher educational institutions in Bremen and Bremerhaven. The library’s entire holdings are catalogued and indexed in a common circulation system, which operates across all nine sites. L.M.: - In conclusion, how will the next generations of the online library catalogs look like? M.B.: - This is an interesting but very difficult question, because all previous attempts to predict future developments in the field of web and information infrastructure almost failed to my knowledge. I think future catalogues have to generate a positive user experience, should reflect the library's image as a modern institution and should help users to find suitable information, personal contacts (library staff), distinctive services and expertise in a convenient way. Using future catalogues (and the library) should be much more straightforward and intuitive. Clients will be able to use the catalogue without the need of having successfully completed a special seminar for library search techniques. Relevance ranking algorithms are working properly and in a user orientated way. Context sensitive help is available during every step of the search process. On the campus future catalogues will be one part of each scientist's personal metadata management chain and are fully integrated with the local references management and the university's campus management tool (and perhaps the virtual research environment tool). There will be much more open source catalogues in use and people working in the Library or simply the librarians will need a much stronger knowledge in the techniques of web based application development. I expect that librarians will be much more directly attached to catalogue development and I suppose this task will be much easier to be performed within a strong library community.

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