Integration of Library Resources
and Services in Sakai 3
Susan Hollar, Curriculum Integration Coordinator
University of Michigan Library
Jon Dunn, Associate Director for Technology
Indiana University Digital Library Program
Gaurav Bhatnagar, Interaction Designer
University of Michigan Library

Presentation Overview
• Session Goals
• Background
• Project Goals
• Proposed design process
• How to participate
• Discussion

Session Goals
• Review history and status of work of the
Sakaibrary Project
• Discuss potential library functionality in
Sakai 3 and start organizing the
community to design and develop

Sakaibrary: 2006-2008
• Collaborative project of Indiana University
Libraries and the University of Michigan
Library
• Funded in part by the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation
• Project partners
• Northwestern, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins,
Yale, Stanford

Sakaibrary: 2006-2008
• Citations Helper
• Integration of content from licensed library
databases within Sakai
• Part of Sakai 2.4+ distributions
• Subject Research Guide
• Prototype functionality for librarians to
present content in Sakai and students to
discover within Sakai
• No ongoing development work

Citations Helper in 2.6
• Support for new metasearch engine
• Serials Solutions 360 Search
• Can use direct vendor URLs instead of
OpenURLs
• Can configure maximum number of
databases to search
• Miscellaneous UI improvements

Sakai 3
• Opportunity to revisit goals and reinvent
functionality

Goals: Sakai 3 and Library
Integration
• Make library services and resources
accessible and useful to people using
Sakai.
• Organize collaborative effort within the
Sakai community to get input, define
requirements, design, develop, test,…

Allison McCallum
LAST SEMESTER…
"I want to make my courses more engaging for my students
and want to do it faster than I currently can.”
• Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the University of
Michigan for 9 years
• 43 years old

The Library Resources widget
allows Allison to:
•quickly find content relevant to
her
•assess the effectiveness of
scholarly material based on the
collective wisdom of the scholarly
community
•add library content from
anywhere on the web
Based on preliminary user-
centered design, more details at:
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/x/iAC
X

Proposed User-Centered Design
Process

How to participate
• Monthly web meetings
• Discussions on sakai-user
• User Interviews
• July - September (4 hours)
• Design feedback (January)
• Participate in the development process -
write code!

User interviews
• Overview/orientation (1 hour)
• Conducting the interview (1 hour)
• Preparing the transcript (1 hour)
• Debrief w/Gaurav (1 hour)
• Sign-up Sheet

Discussion
• What new functionality is desired?
• How important is interoperability with
other systems?
• Is building functionality that only works in
Sakai desirable or limiting?
• Any feedback on the design process?
• Thoughts on other ways to involve the
community?

More Info & Discussion
• Email: sakai-user@collab.sakaiproject.org
• Confluence
• Sakai 3 + Library Integration
• http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/x/PwCX
• Sakai 3 + Library Integration Design
• Documentation: http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/x/iACX
• Examples: http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/x/BgGX