Subject Gateways

Subject gateways as the name suggests typically focus on a particular subject area. These are online services and sites that provide that catalogues the Internet based resources available in a specific field of study. The libraries have an important role in the building of subject gateway in the area it specializes.

Building such kind of services demanded high level of technical adeptness in the past. But with availability of good quality public domain OSS tools has removed that fear. Most of these tools comply with well-accepted metadata standards like Dublin Core, MARC, etc.

3.1 ROADS

Description: ROADS (Resource Organization And Discovery in Subject-based Services) is a set of software tools to enable the set up and maintenance of Web based subject gateways.

Special Features: ROADS is a software tool-kit allowing gateway managers to pick and choose what parts of the software they require whilst allowing the integration of other software according to requirement. ROADS include advanced features for linking distributed cooperative databases together using the IETF's

WHOIS++ search and retrieval protocol, and their Common Indexing Protocol (CIP).

History: ROADS was originally developed as part of the UK Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) by a consortium including the Institute of Learning and Research Technology at the University of Bristol, and the UK Office of Library and Information Networking at the University of Bath, with the bulk of the development being done by the Department of Computer Science at Loughborough University. Although this project itself has finished, the software continues to be developed and used all over the world.

Project Sponsors/Administrators: The ROADS project has three partners:

• The Department of Computer Science at Loughborough University of Technology

• The ILRT (Institute for Learning and Research Technology) at Bristol University

• UKOLN (the UK Office for Library and Information Networking) at the University of Bath

Dependency: Apache, Perl

Supported Platforms: POSIX (UNIX, Linux) License: Artistic License, GNU GPL

Availability: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=6936 Further Information: Project Home Page: http://roads.sourceforge.net/

3.2 iVia

Description: iVia is an open source Internet subject portal or virtual library system. As a hybrid expert and machine built collection creation and management system, it supports a primary, expert-created, first-tier collection that is augmented by a

large, second-tier collection of significant Internet resources that are automatically gathered and described.

Special Features: Some of the major features of the iVia system include:

• A core system that is fast, robust, reliable and scalable to millions of records and users.

• An array of Web crawlers capable of fully- to semi-automating the identification of significant Internet resources.

• Classifiers that enable semi-automated metadata content creation providing expert/machine interaction throughout the record building process.

• Search/browse interface options that provide users with great flexibility in finding resources and which support all levels of user search skills.

• Support for single or multiple subject virtual library projects which can share data and efforts on any of several levels of cooperation.

• Support for the following standards: OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), Dublin Core, MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloging), Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH), and Library of Congress Classifications (LCC).

History: The iVia system is an INFOMINE creation generously funded by the National Leadership Grant Program of the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education of the U.S. Department of Education and the Library of the University of California, Riverside. Project Sponsors/Administrators: INFOMINE, The Regents of the University of California

Dependency: Apache, MySQL, Berkeley DB Supported Platforms: Linux

License: Affero General Public License (http://www.affero.org/oagpl.html) Availability: http://infomine.ucr.edu/iVia/ivia.php?section=2

Further Information:

1. Project Home Page: http://infomine.ucr.edu/iVia/ 2. iVia Open Source Virtual Library System:

http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january03/mitchell/01mitchell.html

3.3 IMesh Toolkit

Description: The IMesh Toolkit is a coherent set of tools and standards being developed for use by subject gateway software developers and technically savvy subject gateway implementers. These tools and standards will make use of established open protocols and interfaces wherever possible to insure interoperability. The toolkit will include reference implementations for all standards.

Special Features: It has many components such as metadata exchange tools, RDF query tools, OAI normalization tools, Reading Lists, etc.

History: The IMesh Toolkit Project is a joint effort by groups funded by JISC and the NSF to develop the IMesh Toolkit. The major participants in this effort include the UK Office for Library and Information Networking (UKOLN) and the University of Bath in the UK, the Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT) at the University of Bristol in the UK, and the Internet Scout Project (ISP) at the University of Wisconsin - Madison in the United States.

Project Sponsors/Administrators: UKOLN, ILRT, Internet Scout Project.

The IMesh Toolkit project was funded under the NSF/JISC International Digital Libraries Initiative from September 1999 to July 2003.

Dependency: Perl

Supported Platforms: Unknown License: GNU GPL

Further Information:

1. Project Home Page: http://www.imesh.org/toolkit/work/components/ME/ 2. Internet Scout Portal Project: http://scout.wisc.edu/research/imeshtk/