The document outlines the development of a new scientific information integration and discovery service aimed at enhancing resource accessibility and promoting social networking within the academic community. It discusses survey findings that inform the design of the service, which features automatic recommendation of resources, user-generated content, and a user-friendly interface. The ultimate goal is to create a dynamic social network that empowers users by integrating their needs and preferences into the discovery process.

1. Scientific Information Integration & Discovery Service:
Getting the most relevant resources and their network,
powered socially by its users and metadata crosswalk
Filipe M. dos Santos Bento, Lídia J. Oliveira L. Silva
Department of Communication and Art, CETAC.MEDIA, University of Aveiro
Abstract Introduction Initial survey (by questionnaire) Sources and Social Networking features
to promote Discovery and Sharing
The scientific community is undergoing Tired of looking for relevant Scientific The main key points advanced for this
one of the most dynamic and demanding Information you really need, access different innovative service were evaluated in an From the initial survey responses and
times of its existence. Never in its history, sources and interfaces to get it? initial survey on the habits of search and several comments and the perceived value
the community was so extensive, never Stop searching, start finding; the proposed information sharing within the academic to each community, the most relevant
published as much as today, never the Service allows Discovery, get activities / resources or services valued, sources were selected to achieve an above
knowledge life cycle was so short. New Recommendations of relevant resources within UA’s users community (Teachers, average information “diet” coverage of UA’s
data, new interpretations, new theories and Access their full text, anytime, Researchers Students and Staff - about overall community, most common areas of
and new members emerge every day: the anywhere. Found them useful? Store, Export, 15,000), in February 2010. From the study and research.
number of publications is immense and it Comment, Tag or Share them! And all it 4.228 full responses (máx/ 26 questions), .
is not always clear how to construct a takes’ a couple of clicks within a single site: it was possible to withdraw some solid
search strategy that proves to be effective (code name) iia. conclusions and consequent implications in
and efficient, so to obtain relevant and the reformulation of the first draft of the
significant information. conceptual model for the Discovery Portal.
It is in this context that a new service is
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Automatic recommendation of documents or related
31% 52% 9% 2%
resources
being developed aiming to aggregate Faceted browsing (subjects, authors, year, etc.). 41% 44% 6%
significant sets of resources and services List of tags placed by users to records in the results list 14% 41% 29% 4%
Subscription of updates (RSS feed of new records)
that until now were dispersed, powering
13% 38% 27% 7%
Interface for mobile phones / PDAs 10% 26% 35% 16%
Fig.12 Integration: some of the relevant sources, with
them with innovative features, some of Receive notifications / SMS alerts (reserves, end of loan,
etc.).
29% 33% 20% 10%
the focus in UA Libraries' resources integration.
them a mashup made of data obtained in Other features, including possible new ones 3%
real time from external services, but more
Very Important Important No opinion Not selected Little relevance Irrelevant
Fig.7 Relevance given to features in the Results List. For its Open Graphs protocol’s features to
than that, to promote the logic store & retrieve information, embedded
cooperation of users of such resources, 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
features from facebookTM were the elected
whom can take advantage of comments
Summary 51% 39% 3%
Table of Contents 44% 44% 4% ones for the the Community tab within
from those have used then before, but Fig.1 Initial mind-map (2009) of the desired interactions Expert reviews
Cover (books) 15%
34%
43%
46%
30%
12%
5% records, not only, but also, because of
also can add value and see the local and fluxes that conceptual model should bear at its roots. Rating (stars) 12% 39% 34% 6%
facebook’s universality, resources, ease of
indexed resources’ social network. From the conceptual model to a fully Classification (keywords assigned to the document, tagging)
Comments (from users) 12%
27%
43%
45%
32%
17% 3%
6%
integration and the perceived high social
functional implementation Export to other systems such as blogs, facebook, twitter,… 12%
Other features, including possible new ones 0%
1%
32% 31% 12%
capital level that it holds and enables users
Thus, it advanced the term "Search 4.0" Very Important Important No opinion Not selected Little relevance Irrelevant
to have themselves. Sharing is also native
for this new paradigm of search, Fig.8 Relevance given to Information contents
to Google+TM, PinterestTM and others.
aggregation to records (contents).
discovery, access, recommendation and Please refer to Fig. 9 for the full list.
sharing of resources, resulting from a
natural social dynamic amongst the four All of these results and feedback given were
key elements – user, resources, semantic Fig.2 Initial page (cropped capture): an unique taken into account in re-shaping the initial
mapping of metadata (several million search box, possibility of browsing by area or source conceptual model and its implementation.
records indexed locally) and user’s and multi-language User Interface (UI) support.
communities (their peers, users with
,
common interests). In full interaction
enhanced by the system, these four
elements generate a dynamic social
network, self-sustainable and with
guarantee of future preservation, a social
network not only of human actors as of
resources themselves taking the role of
actors.
Fig.3 Results page, with a filter to show only UA Fig.9 Implemented Service: full record view with
Libraries’ resources. information gathered in real-time from external
This poster exposes some core concepts sources.
and solutions adopted for this innovative
bibliographic information search system
model, where not only the document is
the point of reference, but to a new extent,
the user himself and all his surroundings.
Keywords: Information, integration, search, Fig.13 The importance of being facebookTM
discovery, participatory media, collective Fig.4 Results page: when searching for a subject [insert: the Community tab allows, above all, discussion around resources].
intelligence, social networks, user or author, suggestions of related searches are given.
communities. Conclusion
Fig.10 Information Literacy includes evermore a In the proposed and being implemented
technological component and computer mediated Service, resources do resemble other objects
communication; so to fully achieve Declaration of in the “Internet of Things” and the main
Bologna’s advocated learning model, characterized in feature of “Web 4.0”, an increased real-time
its essence by promoting greater flexibility in training,
being the student their selves in lead of their learning
integration between individuals and objects,
path, this was highly taken into account. with each they interact through virtual worlds
picture source: http://otterbein.libguides.com/content.php?pid=127135 or Services as the proposed in this project.
The final intended result: a social network
Fig.5 Author’s Module shows his/her records and a list with superior cultural and social capital, with
of related subjects from his/her resources provided by
the System. mutual benefits for the human actors but also
for the resources themselves. All of this in a
"one stop search" point, rich in content, for
being not only an aggregator of multiple
sources, but also for its participatory /
collaborative component, with possible gains
in communities of users with common study
or research interests’ creation and
identification.
PhD Research grant by
Fig.6 Expand: reaching for universal access (time & Fig.11 Standing on the shoulders of giants… and Note: References, documentation and features’
space: external platforms, etc.). riding for free: the supporting Open Source solutions. previews are publically available at http://cc.doc.ua.pt/iia/