Browsing by Author "Stevenson, Alison"

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Ambient Findability and Structured Serendipity: Enhanced Resource Discovery for Full Text Collections
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2008) Stevenson, Alison; Tuohy, Conal; Norrish, Jamie
University Libraries manage increasingly large collections of full text digital resources. These might be repositories of born digital research outputs, e-reserves collections or online libraries of material digitised to provide open access to significant texts. Whatever the content of the material, the structured data of full text resources can be exploited to enhance research discovery. The implicit connections and cross-references between books and papers, which occur in all print collections, can be made explicit in a collection of electronic texts. Correctly encoded and exposed they create a framework to support resource discovery and navigation both within and between texts by following links between topics. Using this approach the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC) at Victoria University of Wellington has developed a delivery system for its growing online digital library using the ISO Topic Map technology. Like a simple back-of-book index or a library classification system, a topic map aggregates information to provide binding points from which everything that is known about a given subject can be reached. Topics in the NZETC digital library represent authors and publishers, texts, and images, as well as people and places mentioned or depicted in those texts and images. Importantly, the Topic Map extends beyond the NZETC collection to incorporate relevant external resources which expose structured metadata about their collection. Innovative entity authority records management enables, for example, the topic page for William Colenso to automatically provide access not only to the full text of his works in the NZETC collection but out to another book-length work in the Auckland University’s “Early NZ Books Collection” and to several essays in the National Library’s archive of the Royal Society Journals. It also enables links to externally provided services providing information on Library holdings of print copies of the text. The NZETC system is based on international standards for the representation and interchange of knowledge including TEI XML, XTM, XSL and the CIDOC CRM. The NZETC collection currently includes over 2500 texts covering 110,000 topics.
Open Access
Digitisation and Matauranga Maori
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2008) Stevenson, Alison; Callaghan, Samantha
In 2007 the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre undertook the digitisation of H. G. Robley's 'Moko; or Maori Tattooing' along with associated contextual material. This project prompted much thought and debate within the Centre about the propriety of making such material freely available online and highlighted a number of issues which are likely common to most cultural and heritage organisations looking to undertake the digitisation of Maori-based material. Throughout periods of colonisation indigenous knowledge has been collected by ethnographers, anthropologists, and others, and much of this has found its way into the collections of libraries and archives. This is true in New Zealand as it is overseas. However, despite the existence of this material and a national digital strategy that promotes the benefits of online access to cultural and heritage material, the numbers of organisations who have digitised representations of Matauranga Maori are few. Within the contexts of both international discourse on indigenous knowledge and the NZETC project this paper addresses these issues which fall into the categories of ownership, control, access, and consultation which we also attempt to frame using the corresponding Te Ao Marama concepts of rangatiratanga and kaitiakitanga, mana and putanga, and korerorero whanui. Questions arise in terms of ownership of not just the physical objects themselves but also the knowledge encoded within them, issues of who has the right to control that knowledge and determine who may access it and who may not, as well as discovering who it is appropriate to consult with and how institutions may respond to the results of consultation. We ask whether these issues act as barriers to digitisation of Matauranga Maori material and consequently whether they provide an explanation for the relative scarcity of these types of projects. Finally we identify opportunities that organisations can gain from undertaking such projects.
Open Access
Going Beyond Google: Representation and Retrieval of Information Using Topic Maps
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2006) Stevenson, Alison; Darwin, Jason; Tuohy, Conal
Library collections include increasingly large amounts of digital material. Libraries are digitising parts of their collection to provide wider access to important resources, and born-digital material is being added to collections. Basic text string searching and linear chapter-by-chapter browsing functionality is usually provided but so much more is possible. The implicit linkages and cross-references between books, which occur in all print collections, can be made explicit in a collection of electronic texts. Correctly encoded, they create a framework to provide users with the ability to move horizontally between books and collections by following links between topics. Using this approach the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC) has explored and developed an improved means of navigation for its growing online digital library using Topic Map technology. Like a simple back-of book index or a library classification system, a topic map aggregates information to provide binding points from which everything that is known about a given subject can be reached.
Open Access
Library Services for the Future: engaging with our customers to determine wants and needs
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2012) Esson, Rachel Margaret; Stevenson, Alison; Gildea, Maureen; Roberts, Sue
The future-focussed academic library “must be distinguished by the scope and quality of its service programs in the same way it has long been by the breadth and depth of its locally-held collections.” (Walker, 2011). To be successful the design and development of those services have to be shaped and informed by the customers. Services must also be under continual evaluation to measure impact on customers, assess customer satisfaction, and encourage the modification of service in response to evaluation. Like any other customer-centred organisation, the library has a variety of methods at its disposal to gather information from and about their customer, such as usage data, survey results, focus groups, and face to face opportunistic encounters. Few techniques provide the wealth of information gained from a conversation but provision and popularity of online resource access and self-service options mean that there are now reduced opportunities for face to face contact with customers. Furthermore as all the different parts of the university are expected to be accountable for funding by demonstrating their value students are repeatedly surveyed - as many as 10 times each year according to some estimates (August 2011, Chronicle of Higher Education) Survey fatigue means that both the quantity and quality of responses can be low. This paper examines the ways in which academic libraries can seek to understand the expectations of their customers, particularly those in minority groups, in order to be able to plan for the future. It does this firstly through a discussion of successful methods for engaging customers, both online and in person, in conversation with particular reference to new generation learners, and the need to demonstrate to participants that their opinions are heard and have an impact. Secondly the paper attempts to through two case studies of work undertaken at Victoria University of Wellington Library. In the first case the Library sought student participation and input to Te Rōpū Whakamanawa, a working group convened to address the needs of Māori and Pasifika academic staff and students. In the second case the Library undertook a larger process of gathering client and stakeholder feedback as part of a wider ranging “Library Services for the Future” review. The customer engagement was extensive and robust, including 32 focus group sessions with a diverse range of people, and additional online feedback channels for wider University engagement.
Open Access
Open Libraries, Open Resources, Open to Change?: Library Organisational Development and Design to Improve and Support the Creation and Open Publication of Research Resources
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2011) Roberts, Sue; Stevenson, Alison
This paper takes a holistic and broad look at introducing and managing change in libraries to improve support for the creation and open publication of digital research resources. It uses a case study approach – the example being Victoria University of Wellington Library, New Zealand – to explore in depth organisational development and design. The case study, supplemented by the literature and other library examples, focuses upon changes initiated at Victoria to create a new Library Strategy, culture and organisational structure. Specifically it highlights the changes required to improve access to open research resources and to ensure ongoing innovation in this space during a period of constraint. The changes illustrated in the paper, and reflections on the global research and educational context, lead to consideration as to whether these particular developments at one university illustrate the maturing of the model of digitisation from special project to digitisation and digital publication as core business. Exploring this idea further the paper argues that the digitisation or creation of the research resource is only one isolated step. Improving access to open research resources requires integrated organisational development and design to ensure the provision and development of the full spectrum of enabling mechanisms and approaches; for example discovery (metadata) and access, supporting users (eg clear copyright, easy integration into learning objects), taking responsibility for long term access (preservation) and facilitating relationship development across library teams and between the library and Faculty. Finally, in considering future-proofing the organisation for further, ongoing and relentless change, the paper emphasises and explores approaches to innovation in this space, crucial if libraries are to remain flexible to meeting the requirements of researchers and students in the open access environment of tomorrow.
Open Access
Pacific Island 'Memory of the World Project'. Report on Initial Research from NZETC
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2006) Stevenson, Alison; Mapplebeck, Georgina
The UNESCO Pacific Island Memory of the World Programme commissioned the NZETC to start Phase One of the Pacific Memory of the World Project. The NZETC was given a limited time frame of 7 weeks in which to create a list of the founding documents of each nation, and to gather information on the location and physical state of the original manuscripts or printed texts. The aims of the Memory of the World Programme more generally are to facilitate the preservation, by the most appropriate techniques, of the world’s documentary heritage; to assist universal access to documentary heritage; and to increase awareness worldwide of the existence and significance of documentary heritage. This part of the project was directed specifically at the Pacific Island nations covered by the UNESCO regional office in Apia: the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. We were asked to give a particular focus on Kiribati, Tuvalu, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu which are on the United Nations list of Least Developed Countries (LDRs).
Open Access
Topic Map Presentation Framework: an Approach to Delivering Newspaper Content Over the Web
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2006) Stevenson, Alison; Styron, Elizabeth
This paper will discuss some of the requirements for the successful online delivery of newspaper archive content to users and examine an innovative approach taken to fulfil those requirements by using a semantic framework. This approach is based on the digital library delivery system configured by the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC), the working name of which is the Topic Map Presentation Framework (TMPF). It has been developed as a production system at the NZETC since 2002 and is currently used to deliver the Centre’s own growing collection of digital resources, a nationally important website containing more than 40,000 pages and over halfamillion hyperlinks. Since 2005 the NZETC has been working with APEX to further develop the TMPF as means of providing sophisticated access to digitised newspaper archives wherein the semantic navigation of online resources greatly enhances the user experience in digital libraries. Using this approach, an ontology codifies an analysis of the structure and relationships in the domain of newspaper publishing and archiving, including publishers, issues, articles, pages, clippings, places, and dates. Metadata is automatically harvested from the source materials into this conceptual framework, producing a map of the content. This map is then used to present the content online in a meaningful structure. This paper will also briefly cover some of the open technologies used, including Topic Maps, the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model, Apache Cocoon, and Apache Lucene.
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Topic Maps and Entity Authority Records: an Effective Cyber Infrastructure for Digital Humanities
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2008) Stevenson, Alison; Norrish, Jamie
The implicit connections and cross-references between and within texts, which occur in all print collections, can be made explicit in a collection of electronic texts. Correctly encoded and exposed they create a framework to support resource discovery and navigation by following links between topics. This framework provides opportunities to visualise dense points of interconnection and, deployed across otherwise separate collections, can reveal unforeseen networks and associations. Thus approached, the creation and online delivery of digital texts moves from a digital library model with its goal as the provision of access, to a digital humanities model directed towards the innovative use of information technologies to derive new knowledge from our cultural inheritance. Using this approach the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre (NZETC) has developed a delivery system for its collection of over 2500 New Zealand and Pacifc Island texts using TEI XML, the ISO Topic Map technology and innovative entity authority management.