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21 April 20151
Enhancing life-long learning, teaching and research through information resources and services
21 April 20152
Open information in need of liberation: Aspire and the conundrum of linked data
Richard Cross, Nottingham Trent University
Talis Aspire User Group – Talis Insights 2015 - Birmingham
21 April 20153
Abstract
Talis Aspire's applications are built on the foundation of open linked data (a widely
heralded 'public good' in the information realm) and cloud hosted SaaS (the increasing
norm in the information industry sector). But the ability to open up, share, link and
compare resource list information on the open web is far less well reflected when it comes
to the needs of librarians attempting to 'resource the resource lists'. The ability to
repurpose list data outside of the Aspire interfaces is limited; and independent reporting
access to item information is even more constrained. This presentation will outline some
of issues raised by the difficulty of extracting tailored management information from
Aspire; explain some of the steps which Nottingham Trent University's library service
have introduced in response; and suggest other developments which might extend the
availability of enticingly inaccessible (but hugely powerful) resource list information which
currently exists just beyond the librarian's reach.
21 April 20154
Agenda
• Talis, linked data and open data
• Talis Aspire: the openness conundrum
• Open information: lists and items on the web
• Accessing Aspire information through APIs
• Tracking activity and usage within Aspire
• Leveraging reportable data from Aspire
• The data beyond the library’s easy reach
• What might be done to improve things?
21 April 20155
Talis: linked data and openness
• Talis Aspire as ground-breaking, sector leading design, especially in
terms of HE software development
• Built on principles of openness and linked data
• Prescient, in many respects – ahead of the curve
• Advocacy and projection of openness and linked data as clear ‘public
goods’
• Focus on the ability to compare, identify patterns, traverse
relationships between entities, build recommendation trails: an eco-
system which supports cross-organisational comparison and which
opens up resource list data on the open web
21 April 20156
Linked data
• But if linked open data is the language of the semantic web…
21 April 20157
Resource lists
• … resource list services are primarily institutional service offers
21 April 20158
Talis: linked data and openness
• Key challenge remains that linked data enthusiasm has not yet
become popularised – or commonly understood
• Aspire customers have not necessarily recognised intrinsic value in
linked data for an institutionally-focused service
• Talis have yet to identify a irrefutable use case to demonstrate the
utility of Aspire linked-data
• Talis has made some organisational and strategy changes as a
result of the lack of widespread take-up
21 April 20159
Talis Aspire: open data
• If the linked data
component of Talis Aspire
is less visible and less
strongly projected – the
openness of Aspire data
remains decisive
• Although opt-outs exist
(and some academic
anxieties about IP retain
their currency), openness
of item and list data
remains the Aspire
default
21 April 201510
Talis Aspire: openness
• Aspire made available through software-as-a-service (SaaS)
• Not built upon a traditional relational database; but upon a linked
data triple store
21 April 201511
Talis Aspire: the openness conundrum
• So Aspire data is held remotely (in the cloud) and Aspire data is
structured and stored in a way (while completely standards-
based) remains atypical amongst library applications and services
• The openness, the permeability, of the data of list data available in
the Aspire user interface is not matched by and equal degree
accessibility ‘in the back-end’ for the library
21 April 201512Open information in need of liberation: Aspire and the conundrum of linked data
Open information: lists and items on the web
21 April 201513
Talis Aspire: tenancy openness
• Guest visitors can view list data in an open Talis Aspire tenancy
21 April 201514
Talis Aspire: tenancy openness
• Guest visitors can view a history of list changes in an open Talis
Aspire tenancy
21 April 201515
Talis Aspire: tenancy openness
• Guest visitors can
review, in detail, list item
changes
• Guests an grab (and
manipulate) an RSS feed
21 April 201516
Talis Aspire: cross-tenancy openness
• Guest visitors can export list and item data from an Aspire Tenancy
21 April 201517
Talis Aspire: cross-tenancy openness
• Guest visitors can export list and item data from an Aspire Tenancy
21 April 201518
Talis Aspire: Google
21 April 201519
Talis Aspire: Google
21 April 201520Open information in need of liberation: Aspire and the conundrum of linked data
Accessing Aspire information through APIs
21 April 201521
Using the Aspire APIs
• Possible to use the limited Aspire APIs (Application Programming
Interfaces) to request data outside of the main Aspire interface
• This allows Aspire data to be requested and mixed-in or merged
with other data streams or services – most obviously on a single-
item, single-request basis
21 April 201522
Talis Aspire: local tools
• Relic as a single item look-up
21 April 201523
Talis Aspire: local tools
• Relic as a single item look-up – returns items specific information
21 April 201524
Talis Aspire: local tools
• Experiments with multi-value look-ups, but process does not scale
• Nature of the linked data structure makes it hard to carry out look-
ups in bulk
• APIs remain read-only: no facility to make data changes
21 April 201525Open information in need of liberation: Aspire and the conundrum of linked data
Tracking activity and usage within Aspire
21 April 201526
Usage and management information
• No expectation that usage and management information in Aspire
should be open data – or freely published on the web
• Issue is that it is data which is fragmented, not easily accessible
and not easy to interrogate
• So while list content is freely accessible, information to help
libraries support and resource lists is not
21 April 201527
Talis Aspire: Google Analytics
• Wealth of information about access to, navigation through, and
views of lists
21 April 201528
Talis Aspire: Dashboard
• List and item access figures, viewable by academic and librarian
21 April 201529
Talis Aspire: Reports
• Report information – access managed by Aspire permissions
21 April 201530
Talis Aspire: Reports
• All item report: the most wide-ranging and re-purposable
21 April 201531Open information in need of liberation: Aspire and the conundrum of linked data
Leveraging reportable data from Aspire
21 April 201532
What questions might the library want to be able to answer?
• We’ve completed a small stock review – can we confirm that none
of the 1200 books we’re about to discard are on resource lists?
• We’ve got data on several hundred high reservation stock items –
can we correlate these items with current resource lists in Education
and in Art & Design
• If I can extract the LCNs from Aspire for my target lists, can I track
the circulation figures for the matching items
• I’ve got the ISBNs of 10,000 eBooks in a PDA package. Can I find
out which of these are on which current lists?
• Can I get a comprehensive feed of all new items added to Science
lists this semester?
21 April 201533
Adding an Aspire flag to the LMS
• Based on a bespoke report from Talis; uploaded by LMS batch update
21 April 201534
What it is not possible for the library to do?
• Create original reports (no report writing functionality exists)
• Construct and run queries on the Aspire dataset (‘Let me have all
ISBNs added to Art & Design lists since…’)
• Schedule reporting events (‘Each Tuesday morning, circulate the
following)
• Upload a file of values for batch matching of items (‘Which of these
ISBNs are on which lists’)
• Use APIs to pull item data streams into other services (‘Into our
tracking application load the following Aspire data…’)
• Merge Dashboard and Item reporting information (to augment item
data with click-through counts)
21 April 201535
Clear reasons why these restrictions exist
• Hosted tenancies offered through SaaS –
normal for direct data access to be
constrained
• Aspire is based on a triple-store, not a
traditional relational database –
significant structural and technical
challenges
21 April 201536
Consequences clear as well
• Libraries lack access to management
information, reporting and tracking
metrics which would enable them to better
leverage Aspire data
• Libraries are compelled to use
workarounds and local inventions to
accommodate for (and to try to patch) the
gaps
• A great deal of the rich information that
Aspire holds is unfree
• Libraries’ Aspire data needs to be secure
(where necessary), but the Aspire data
store needs fewer locked gates and far
more helpful gatekeepers
21 April 201537
What is to be done?
Assumptions and expectations
• Talis Aspire will remain a linked-data, open-on-the-web application
• Direct access to the data-store will not be enabled for customers
• Current levels of accessibility to list data is insufficient; and does
not meet the needs of libraries wanting to resource the resource
lists; and to validate their fulfilment practices
• The tension between the openness of linked-data list information on
the web; and the relatively inaccessibility of list data for
management is recognised and acknowledged
21 April 201538
What is to be done?
One approach – extend the permeability of data in Aspire
• Enable APIs for batch data requests
• Extend the ability of librarians to interrogate data in Aspire and to
ask customisable questions
Positioning Aspire as a library reporting engine; expecting to develop functionality to track evolving management information needs
21 April 201539
What is to be done?
Another approach – integrate with a reporting dashboard
• Develop (or integrate a third party) reporting layer, mapping the
Aspire triples to data tables
Positioning Aspire as a data source; outsourcing reporting to a single, supported cloud-based dashboard accessed by all customers
21 April 201540
What is to be done?
Another approach – improve the capability of routine export
• Provide customers with access to a structured data export
• Support the customer community in developing local reporting and
management applications, based on the exported dataset
Positioning Aspire as a source of library reporting information; developing exporting capabilities to match evolving Aspire functionality
21 April 201541
Questions and comments?
Open information in need of liberation:
Aspire and the conundrum of linked data
Richard Cross, Resource Discovery and Innovation Manager
Libraries and Learning Resources, Nottingham Trent University
+44(0)115 848 4878 | [email protected]