Web Advisory Group Home > Minutes > 5 April 2006

Minutes - 5 April 2006

Members present: Hennig (chair), Duke, Skuce, Quirion (minutes)
Guests: Wolfe, Wenger, Gabridge

1. Podcasting at MIT

Nicole got a copy of an mp3 file of the most recent Authors@MIT event. We discussed whether we should we have a separate podcast just for Authors@MIT events, or anything related to the MIT Libraries that happens to have an audio or video file. Nicole has spoken to Music Library staff about the concerts that the music library hosts as another possibility. Since we don't have many audio/video files yet, perhaps we could have a general feed at first, and later split them into different topics when we have enough for that to make sense.

Rob Wolfe joined us to speak about the project teams that Metadata Services is involved in related to Podcasts. Metadata Services is involved in an IS& T project from the Client Services group, where they have a mandate to let the world know that MIT is podcasting, and how to get the word out. The Podcasts@MIT site is the result of their project. http://web.mit.edu/ist/podcasts The group discovered that Podcasting requires a variety of support from IS&T, help from AMPS, and Metadata Services. There's a wiki that's attempting to aggregate podcasts as a listing. http://istwiki.mit.edu/istwiki/Podcasts Rob produced the "Introduction to Tagging and Podcasts" guidelines which detail how to generate an RSS feeds and how to make podcasts available for discovery with tagging. It includes metadata recommendations of elements that should be included in every RSS feed, with samples of different feeds.

Rob is also involved in evaluating some tools to create the RSS feeds for podcasting. IS&T is working to develop a web service that will help people to generate feeds and RSS for podcasts. AMPS staff are providing support for generating podcasts from existing audio and visual work that AMPS does in recording lectures and courses AMPS will be following the guidelines created by Metadata Services. Rob has also created documents on how to create ID3 tags, which relate not only to the RSS feed, but how to tag the file itself.

Rob is involved in a second project for the iTunes University pilot. iTunes is expanding the Stanford iTunes program into iTunes University pilot which will include MIT, Duke, and others. AMPS, IS& T, MIT World, Visualizing Cultures, and OCW are participants in the MIT pilot. Rob showed a prototype, which included video lectures. Rob's specifications for ID3 tags influence the metadata that's included in the iTunes U. prototype. Content in iTunes U. will be free. Eventually, users will be able to subscribe to podcasts. The ID3 tags are added via a software application.

The same 10 elements for podcasts are recommended for ID3 tags. iTunes U does not present or display the copyright ID3 tags, it has to be added to the comments field. Rob's recommendations endorse metadata standards where the tagging will be valid outside iTunes, and compatible to other platforms in the future. AMPS is trying to build a piece of software which will generate and store ID3 tags that live outside of iTunes.

Rob also reported that there's a new version of the Google Search Appliance which governs the MIT search engine. Metadata services has been contracted to evaluate the specs and make recommendations about configuring it to search ID3 tags and other multimedia tags that aren't currently indexed by MIT Google (XML files in OCW, etc.).

Official vs. unofficial MIT Podcasts: Some groups at MIT, such as MIT World, may not want their official MIT podcasts grouped together with personal or more general MIT podcasts. It's a topic under discussion. The iTunes U implementation should be live in June. IS&T will turn the Podcast metadata guidelines into HTML pages, Rob will send links for the MIT Libraries Blog. Rob will come to another meeting in the future.

After Rob left, we returned to the podcast discussion. Technically, we are podcasting because we already have on MP3 file linked from the news blog, which was an interview with MacKenzie on the Educause site. We could use applications like the Podcaster RSS Buddy, or Feedburner, which help to enter metadata or generate RSS feeds in multiple flavors (atom, RSS1, Rss2, etc.). We need to make some decisions about where to store the audio files, and perhaps have a general MIT Libraries podcast feed (concerts, talks, instruction, etc.) which could go into the iTunes University store. Nicole and Christine will work on this, and we'll have Rob back at a future meeting to keep in touch with his podcast projects.

2. SFX items

IEEE

Looked at the test version, and the IEEE conference proceedings customizations to map the PU numbers. In some cases, two targets may display, since Ex Libris has worked on some of their own customizations, and there is some overlap between the two. There is some maintenance involved for staff to add new titles, and we're not sure how often the Ex Libris version is updated. Our own solution has an option to select the dates, as well.

Rich will investigate the overlap, and determine which one is more complete, and if we should use just one, or both, or control the display of each one via a threshold in the SFX knowledge base. Change the names in the SFX menu so that they are the same, Rich is going to compare and maybe implement a threshold to make only one display, and remove the link about "this link may not go directly..." Rich will also remove the boxes for year, volume, etc.

LSA Items

When something has an SFX link in the Availability/Holdings display and is also available via the LSA, they see an "Request this Item" link as well as the "Electronic Access" link. The "Request this Item" is also used for holds and recalls and could eventually also be used for a paging service if we ever implement one.

Things for Rich to find out:

- Can the "Request this item" be changed to "request from storage" for just LSA items or do all the requests have to use the same text?
- Currently, the "Electronic Access" button shows for all volumes. Can this be made conditional based on our coverage? This would require SFX to check the knowledge base before displaying the button (shoulder-tabbing SFX).

[Rich just confirmed that the SFX botton on the brief screen will only show in version 17.]

MARC IT!

Stephen talked to Rebecca, and was told that the possibility of implementing Marc It! to get bib records for aggregator items hinges on Verde. For aggregator titles without print equivalents (Factiva & Lexis Nexis db's) MARC IT! could be a big improvement. Web Group feels strongly that the MARC IT! project shouldn't wait for Verde. More URL's in Barton mean that people could get the impression that we don't have items electronically if they don't see them in Barton. Nicole will have a conversation with Rebecca Lubas about this, and see if she needs to come from a future meeting.

Stripping out See URL text

McGill has set up their catalog to withhold the holdings if the SFX button displays. They accomplished this through loading Marc It records. Darcy will bring this to BAG, to make the location field go away, and to see if it's possible.

CogNet

A request came through Ellen from the Brain and Cognitive Sciences department to make CogNet searchable from metasearch tools. Since we don't yet have a metasearch tool, It's possible that CogNet could become an SFX source. The BCS department is in discussion with Ex libris. There may be other similar resources around campus that are discipline focused where we could provide library access.

Next meeting:

Monday, April 24th, 9:30 am, Cubespace.

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