Library & Information Technology Publications & Articles
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Articles and vendor news about portals may be found in a number of online journal sources, including the titles listed below. Note that some of these sources require a paid subscription in order to gain access to an article:
This is a definitive article
which constructs an ideal model of portals in an academic environment. It
provides a summary of desirable features in a portal system: integrated searching
across varied online resources, delivery of information to the searcher, the
ability to collaborate with colleagues and integration with other information
management systems in the learning institution. A list of "Selected Vendors
with Portal Products" with Web links, and a description of the "The ARL Scholars
Portal Initiative" are also included.
Summarizes presentations made at the "RMG (Rob McGee) Presidents' Seminar" meeting by the principals of commercial firms that offer portal products. It includes a list of features and definitions of portals offered at this meeting, and describes about a dozen portal products with links to the firms' Web sites.
Summarizes the reasons and expectations of the Monash University Library, Victoria, Australia, in selecting a portal and OpenURL resolver for trial use, the aims and outcomes of the trial and outcome and maintenance challenges.
Abstract available online; full-text available through publisher's subscription or purchase article online.
A basic article which explains the techniques of the OpenURL metadata syntax which permits the operation of a complex system which takes an item's specific identity (metadata) and links a user to where this item is located. A useful reading bibliography and links to associated initiatives and projects are also given.
This author who built his own OpenURL resolver explains the details of OpenURL.
[Note: Requires a subscription for online access or order back issue from the publisher, Information Today, Inc.]
This article reviews federated searching portals currently in the marketplace--Chameleon iPortal, CPORTAL, ENCompass, Find-It-All, MetaFind, MetaLib, MuseSearch, Single Search, Site Search, WebFeat, and ZPORTAL. These products were evaluated by comparing a specific list of seventy-nine features that were established by the authors through analysis of the products; the products are then given a score through this comparison. In addition to federated searching features, many products were found to offer desirable customization and personalization features for the institutions and individuals using them.
Gives an overview of the characteristics and features of "cross-database" searching services, including the California Digital Library's "Searchlight", the "NLM Gateway" and some commercial products.
This column raises important questions about "information literacy" in an age where library users are often satisfied with just what they find from Google and libraries are looking at metasearching products to provide patrons with a Google-like interface to provide a "'good enough' answer."
A quick summary of developments and challenges relating to federated search portals as reported from various meetings on portals held at the ALA/CLA Annual Conference in Toronto, June 19–25, 2003.
A general article summarizing the main features of and current issues with federated searching products: authentication of users accessing not only free, but paid-for subscription databases, the searching interface, and the ability to de-dupe and organize searching results. Pinpoints both the strengths and weaknesses of federated search technologies.
[Note: Requires a subscription for online access or order back issue from the publisher, Information Today, Inc.]
Outlines points of contact and information links for those interested in the development of portals at higher institutions in the UK, especially the use of the product uPortal.
Review of the core components of iVia, a set of open source software programs which are used to develop and manage an Internet portal and virtual library system. iVia supports INFOMINE, a collection of human and machine-created records which link to Internet resources of academic interest.
Dicusses personalized Web portal services in academic libraries where users may customize their Web interface with the Internet and institution-supplied digital information.
Presents a wide-range of library "database advisors" and multi-database searching tools which assist users in finding various kinds of electronic resources and information. Among several library-produced systems, this article describes the California Digital Library's SearchLight and the Los Alamos National Laboratory's FlashPoint and a few commercial portal products. It includes extensive references on these topics with electronic links, when available.
This report is part of the Technology and Standards Watch (TSW) Reports series of the Joint Information
Systems Committee (JISC), Bristol, England. This report describes and reviews a range of "Library Management Systems (LMS)" products or "library portal systems."
Library Web Portals / prepared by Richard W. Boss, Tech Notes [series] / Public Library Association (Feb. 2002).
This Web-based paper provides a basic introduction to portals and portal server products and their characteristics and features. It also describes some current portal vendors and products, and includes a list of desired portal features.
This article discusses new trends in reference linking between one source to many other sources using OpenURL standards and technology. It describes Ex Libris' SFX, Endeavor's LinkFinderPlus, Openly Informatic's 1Cate, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro's Journal Finder. Includes references and footnotes with some active electronic Web links.
The Lure of Linking by John McDonald and Eric F. Van de Velde, Library Journal™ (4/1/2004).
A straight-forward article about OpenURL and link resolvers which take users from a citation to full-text and beyond to obtain the information they are seeking. Provides background on link resolvers and the experiences at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Library System in testing and implementing the link resolver SFX. It also contains a basic explanation of OpenURL and link resolvers in "Link Resolver 101" and a list of questions a library needs to ask when evaluating link resolver products in "Considering a Link Resolver?".
Putting definitions of metasearching aside (cross-database search and retrieval is one), this general column concludes that the features offered to libraries and users by the array of portal products and vendors "aren’t trivial tricks. They are worthwhile goals."
This author argues for uniformity in searching interfaces of electronic resources, decoupling specialized seach interfaces from their electronic content, enhancing these existing, specialized interfaces along with the standardization of database content. Metasearching tools are seen "as an intermediate step on a road to a free market for standardized electronic content...".
[Note: Requires a subscription for online access or order back issue from the publisher, Information Today, Inc.]
Brief summary of a "Metasearch Initiative" by vendors, publishers and librarians united under NISO's umbrella to work out a federated searching standard. "The goal of NISO’s Metasearch Initiative is to enable: metasearch service providers to offer more effective and responsive services, content providers to deliver enhanced content and protect their intellectual property, and libraries to deliver services that distinguish their offerings from Google and other free web services."
Reports on the creation and development of the "open linking framework" by Herbert Van de Sompel at Ghent University, Belgium and at the Los Alamos National Laboratory which led to the SFX server technology later purchased by ExLibris.
"Library users wish to navigate seamlessly between library resources, and librarians wish to provide this capability to them. The OpenURL is a newly emerging standard in the library world that will allow librarians to create their own local links between the resources they choose for their users. Link servers such as SFX help librarians manage upkeep and resolution of links."
Summarizes an eighteen month joint venture project called PORTAL between the University of Hull and UKOLN. This project will demonstrate the use of institutional portals in higher education in the UK which effectively integrate local institutional and external resources.
Portals, PORTALs Everywhere / Ian Dolphin, Paul Miller and Robert Sherratt, Ariadne, Issue 33 (Oct. 10, 2002).
Reports on two institutional portal conferences held in the UK and Canada during the Summer 2002. Summarizes the meeting of the Java in Administration Special Interest Group (JA-SIG) held in Vancouver, Canada which was devoted to the development of the open source portal, uPortal, used by higher institutions of learning. Surveys the important points raised at the University of Nottingham Portals 2002 Conference which included presentations on open source and commerical institutional portal products. Rich references with many hot links to
Web pages on institutional portal products.
Proliferating Portals in "Technically Speaking" [column] / by David Dorman,
American Libraries Online (Dec. 2001).
This short article lists the wide array of services and features which are all called by the same name--"portal"-- by vendors, and illustrates how this term is so difficult to define as a result.
From abtract: "This article explores the design and use of portals in a library environment. It discusses the motivations for building portals, it discusses portal architectures and typology, and it examines the user environment in which portals are being deployed."
Resolving the Links / Sjoerd Vogt. Information Today, v. 20, no. 4 (Apr. 2003).
"Three company representatives talk about their new links resolver systems." Covers EBSCO Publishing's LinkSource™ product.
[Note: Requires a subscription for online access or order back issue from the publisher, Information Today, Inc.]
Reviews several current issues and challenges when implementing library portal products: resource target interfaces, creating institutional resource databases which are searchable by the portal, de-duping results and relevance ranking.
Briefly summarizes the Scholars Portal Project which is a joint venture by seven ARL member libraries in collaboration with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and Fretwell Downing, Inc. The Scholars Portal Project evolved out of the ARL Scholars Portal Working Group's interest in developing an information discovery portal which integrates cross-searching of electronic resources in the higher education community.
Reviews subject-information gateways which "refer to a network resource discovery service which provides database(s) of Internet resource descriptions with a specific subject focus and created according to specific selection and quality criteria."
Describes a three-year Subject Portals Project (SPP) project to develop subject portals to electronic resources available for learning, research and "resource discovery" in higher education institutions in the UK. This project is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) led by the Resource Discovery Network (RDN) for the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER).
With the overuse of the term portal, Paul Miller proposes a way to sort out its various meanings. He offers a scheme which classifies portals into four different groups, which run as a continuum from Web sites to gateways to "thingummies" (or "Deep Searchers") and finally to portals. Portals are defined by their features ("customisable, personalisable, and capable of aggregation, integration).
The writer attests to the wide popularity of Google, and the expectations this raises among users for a metasearch tool when searching for relevant material in library collections. The article explains how federated search portals operate, the challenges portals present to libraries implementing them, and the impact of portals on electronic resource providers, user expectations and libraries.
Five misconceptions about federated searching compiled by
WebFeat, "a provider of federated search technology to more than 900 public, academic, and corporate libraries." The misconceptions and realities examined touch upon authentication management of subscription databases, de-duping search results, relevancy rankings, search query translations into native interface, and searching capability of federated search software.
Short history of the development of SFX and a study of SFX used at Washington State University based on usage statistics.
[Note: The requested document is freely available only to registered users with an online subscription to Library Hi Tech. Article may also be purchased online.]
"Geoff Butters analyses the features found in various types of portal, and includes a comparison with the planned features for the JISC Subject Portals." This article contains a good summary of various portal definitions and analysis of portal features.
