Data, code, services - building discovery systems for a consortium of university libraries
Title: data, code, services - building discovery systems for a consortium of university libraries
About the presenter(s): Leander Seige is Deputy Head of IT at Leipzig University Library and Project Coordinator of a project developing discovery systems for a
consortium of university libraries in Saxony,
finc. Frank Morgner is Assistant Project Manager of the finc project.
Intended audience: Technicians and librarians
Abstract: In October 2011, a consortium of ten university libraries from Saxony (Germany) launched the three-year project finc which aims at building a common discovery
system platform
based on open-source technologies. The project is financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Free State of Saxony. The core team consists of five software engineers,
system administrators and librarians, working together with specialists from the participating university libraries.
The project involves many different aspects of software development and the management of metadata. A wide range of technologies – from customized search engine indices to linked data
triplestores – have been put into operation in order to support and extend
the functionality of the main search engines. An all-purpose processing software for converting, normalizing and combining heterogeneous data sources into one central database has been
developed. This database serves as a preparatory platform for feeding the main search indices. Several real-time services have been built to extend search queries and enhance the web
interfaces. This includes the integration of authority data,
ILS-specific services, full-text repositories, linked open-data sources and other external knowledge pools. The web-interfaces are based on the well-known open-source software vufind
which has been partially modified to meet the specific needs of the participating university libraries. Generally, all data are stored in local indices while an optional aggregated
external index can provide access to additional metadata.
The project management, software development and hosting takes place at Leipzig University Library. This presentation provides an overview of all aspects of the project and gives
details on certain interesting issues involved.
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