Delivering Library Services to Distant Users

the End User Desktop at the UA libraries

Jan CorthoutsUniversity of Antwerp

Library focus

• Primary focus is on published materials– Print– Licensed material

• Abstract and Index databases• Electronic journals

• Goal– Make resources available over the network– Creating additional layer of services – Sustainable and open systems– Primary audience: distant users

Services to distant users

• New services– Reference linking (see earlier paper A. Jacobs)

• Link to holdings from local library catalogue • Link to electronic copy of journal article• Link to photocopy request and e-delivery

– E-learning environment– Institutional repositories

• Traditional services– Awareness– Loan and Interlibrary loan

What we need

• Common platform for end user services– Library

• Publish the services dynamically• Maintain the services

– Easy– Sustainable– Shared responsibility

– End User• Easy to use • Integrated within the institutional web environment• Integrated within the e-learning environment

End User Desktop

• Part of library system Brocade – Multiple desktops– Publish

• Brocade applications• Non-Brocade applications/services

• Driven by– Parameters and attributes – CSS (Cascading Style Sheets )

Destop attributes

• Authentication– Against userid/password held within Brocade

application– Against other combinations (e.g. birth date

and barcode)– Against insitutional directory (e.g. LDAP

server): in development

• Automatic logout after periode of inactivity• Menu (and submenus) for navigation

Desktop services

• Brocade applications– Personal data– Documents on loan – Documents on hold– Self renewal– Circulation lists

Desktop services

• In development• Stack requests• ILL requests• Place hold on documents in loan• Suggestions for new acquisitions• Alerting service

Demonstration

Destop services

• Brocade catalogues– General catalogue– Specialised subsets

• Electronic resources• Abstract and Index databases

– Available over the Web– Available through Windows terminal service (Citrix)

Electronic resources

• Catalogued in the database

• Special attributes– Source (Elsevier, Swets Blackwell, Ingenta,

…)– Location (URL)– Access code

• Audience for which the link needs to be displayed

– Caption

Electronic resources

• Separate search environment– Dynamically produced from the general

catalogue– Extra features

• List of e-journals by subject

Abstract and Index databases

• Separate navigation menu

• Dynamically produced from Brocade– Catalogue description– Startup parameters especially for Windows

Terminal Services