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How-Tos: Using the EGEE Digital Library
Boon Low, Mike MineterHandbook/Manual
2006-11-20
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Overview
The EGEE Library provides a set of services for using a range of resources related to the training activities of the EGEE project. It is part the e-learning pilot which aims to create a sharable service-oriented infrastructure underpinning a range of e-learning services. Phase 1 of the pilot has delivered the following digital library services:
- Resource discovery: simple and advanced search, browse
- Authentication: grid certificate
- Metadata and content management: wiki for creating and editing metadata and web content
- Alert and notification: RSS channels
- Peer-reviews and comments of resources (beta)
- Resource list (beta)
The library contains collections of materials about grid computing, curated by the NeSC training team and partners from the EGEE projects. The materials range from articles, courses, tutorials, presentations from training events.
You can use the libraries to discover resources, by searching or browsing, or to share your comments. You can also creating new entries and uploading materials. There are various RSS channels which you could subscribe to keep in touch with the latest additions to the libraries.
Using the library is easy. You do not need to register in any way to browse or search the library and download materials. To create new objects, you will need to log in with a digital certificate from one of the existing grid computing certification authorities. With the certificate, you can also review and edit metadata of existing resources in a wiki manner.
The library also facilitates a set of web services APIs for accessing the content, such that it can be built upon in an interoperable manner by developers to provide federated digital libraries of all or a subset of the library content.
Quick Search
A quick search can be easily conducted by entering one or more search terms(s) in the search box on the front page the digital library, and click the "Go" button. The search is accomplished simultaneously across all available Dublin Core metadata fields: title, author, description, date, identifier, subject, language, type, publisher, source, format (mime type), contributor, relation, coverage.
Browse Resources
You can browse a range of resources using the menu given near the top of the website. The menu is accessible from most top-level library pages except for object details (metadata and content) pages where it will be replaced by a wiki menu for editing metadata and content.
The following is a list of resource types available for browsing:
- Editorial Task Force (ETF) exemplars: these resources are curated by the ETF team
- Articles
- Courses
- Events
- Modules
- Presentations
- Tutorials
- Videos
Advanced Search
The advanced search service can be used to focus the search using various metadata fields (fielded search), to limit the results to a particular aspect
You can limit the search to a specific metadata field by entering one or more search terms in the 'Keywords' box and select a metadata field from the 'Field' drop down menu consisting the following options:
- All: across all metadata as 'quick search'
- Title
- Author
- Description
- Identifier
- Publisher
- Subject
In addition, you can further limit the results from the above fielded search by:
- Type: select a specific type from the 'Resource Type' drop down menu.
- Date or Year: enter a date or year, e.g. '2005' or '2005-12-25' in the Date/Year box.
- Language (forthcoming): select a specific language from the 'Language' drop down menu.
The advanced search page also provides configuration options for specifying:
- The default number of results per page: select a number from the 'Results/page' drop down menu.
- The default results sorting order: select an option from the ' Sort order' drop down menu.
Results, Resource Details
In response to the metadata search and browse services, the library will produce a list of results sorted by the most recent date (by default). For each resource, the list provides a link to full resource details, title, author, type and date information as well as the following indicators (if any):
indicating an editorial exemplar
(quick and advanced search only)
indicating file(s) available for download- forthcoming: grid federations and project indicators
You can opt to sort the results by: title, author (alphabetical). This can be done by selecting an appropriate option from the drop-down menu on the top-right corner of the results page. The library will continue to use the selected sort option in other searches until it is changed by the user.
From the list, you can select a resource to view the following resource details:
- Web content: if there are associating web pages hosted by the library for the resource, the content will be shown first. From this page you can download any available files, access related links, opt to view the full resource metadata (described below) and navigate the web pages via a table of contents.
- Metadata page: showing Dublin Core (DC) metadata of the resources. Only non-empty DC metadata fields will be shown. If there is no web content hosted by the library associated with the resource, this page will be shown by default. From this page you can download any available files, access related links, view existing or create new associated web content.
You can use the wiki options available to edit and manage the content. See the corresponding how-tos for further details.
Full-Text Search
In addition to metadata search supported by the search and browse services, the library offers a full-text search service similar to Google. This involves searching directly inside the content of the resources. The content includes presentations and PDF files, and web sites. This search would be useful for finding specific content fragment such as a particular usage and syntax of a command line in tutorials.
To enable full-text searching:
- Tick the "fulltext" option in the quick search box or the advanced search page
The full-text search will bypass any selected metadata field and delimiters in the advanced search page since the search does not involve metadata.
In response to the full-text search, the library will produce a list of Google like results which provides a direct link to the resources, i.e. files, websites etc.. The list is ranked according to relevance (number of total occurence of keywords). Alternative sorting option is not available.
Search Other Libraries
The cross-search service allows discovery of resources from external libraries using the same search interfaces of the digital library. Simply select the appropriate library from the drop down menu of the quick search box in the front-page or the advanced search page.
List of libraries currently available for cross-searching:
- ICEAGE Digital Library: quick, advanced and full-text search
- General: all library, EGEE Conference, EGEE Editorial Task Force (etf), EGEE User Forum, gLite resources, training event resources
- Resource type: articles, certificate authorities, courses, events, modules, presentations, tutorials, videos
- Creating resource stubs (new entries to the library)
- Editing hosted web content associated with a resource
- Editing metadata of a resource
- Attaching and updating links, files of a resource
- Associating and updating a list to a resource
- Reviewing and rating a resource
- Creating and saving a resource list for later use
- Resource discovery: quick, full-text and advance search, browse
- Accessing and downloading resources
- Subscribing to pre-defined RSS notification services
- Creating custom RSS notification services
- Forthcoming: creating a list of resouces for PDF printing, exporting to e-learning packages
- Log In via the link at the top right menu
- Select the CREATE
option which subsequently
appear on the top menu.
- Enter a title (required)
- Select a type best fit the stub
- Click the "Create" button to complete the process.
- Article
- Assessment
- Audio
- Book
- Code Exemplar (Beware confusion - this is not an ETF exemplar!)
- Course
- Event
- Exercise
- Handbook/Manual
- Journal (a particular issue)
- Module
- Presentation
- Report
- Series (an entire journal series)
- Software
- Tutorial
- Video
- Working paper (unpublished, pre-print, post-print)
- Web service
- Website
- Select the EDIT CONTENT
option from the wiki menu or the 'Edit' links available throughout the
content pages.
Alternatively, use the Create Web Content option from the resource's table of contents (only available if a resource does not have associating web content hosted by the digital library).
- Enter a page title
- Click on 'Edit' and simply enter new or update existing content using HTML tags. forthcoming: WYSIWYG text formatting widgets
- Add or delete pages using the
and 
buttons and repeat the above - Click "Preview" to preview the content without saving
- Click "Save" to make the content persistent and you will be redirect to the resource details page with the content presented along with the system generated table of contents.
- General, e.g. title, data, creator (author), subject
- Descriptions (multiple)
- Educational, e.g. instructional methods, learning objective, pre-requisites, educational level, audience
- Federation: this panel is used to assign the resource to specific collection(s) for content federation. Resources assigned to federations can be searched exclusively from other web sites via the library web services.
- Select the ATTACH
option from the wiki menu of the resource details page
- Select "Create a new link"
- Enter an URL
- Select an appropriate Format (MIME Type) for the link. Note: the library will dynamically provide an automatic format based on the URL you have entered; you can override this selection.
- Click "Create Link" to attach a web link to the resource
- Select "Upload a new file"
- Browse a file from your local drive
- Click "Upload" to attach a file associated with the resource
- Select the ATTACH
option from the wiki menu of the resource details page
- Link: select the "Update" option next to the link, enter a new URL, (override system provided Format/MIME Type if necessary) and click "Update"
- File: select the "Update" option next to the file, browse the updated file from your local drive and click "Update"
- API-A-Lite: URL-based services:
Base URL (http://pub-195.nesc.ed.ac.uk:20200/) | user guide - API-A: SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) services:
Web Service Endpoint (wsdl) | user guide - Search and Retrieve via URL (SRU) standard search services:
Base URL | user guide - Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH):
Base URL | user guide
RSS Notification
If you would like to receive notification on the lastest additions to the digital library resources, you can subscribe to the RSS (Really Simple Syndication) channels. You can use web browsers that support RSS to subscribe and view notifications. There are also dedicated RSS tools which you can use.
Predefined Channels
The following are the types of channels available from the library:
The predefined channels are listed in the
RSS directory page accessible
from the top of the library web site and from the front page via
links with the RSS icon 
.
Custom Channels
In addition to the pre-defined channels described above, you can also custom make your own notification channel. For example, you may want to only receive notification of a specific type of resource (e.g. article) from a particular author.
Custom RSS channels can be created by using
the library quick search (for tracking a specific keyword)
and advanced search services (for accomplishing
a particular search strategy, e.g. author search).
The custom channel will be provided via the link
with the RSS icon
presented at the top of the search results.
Log In
In addition to resource discovery services, the library provides wiki services for creating, editing and reviewing content. These services require users to log in.
The login system currently accepts a digital certificate issued by a grid computing Certification Authority (CA). See a list of CAs currently supported. You need to have the certificate installed on the web browser you are using to access the digital library. Upon detecting access to the services that requires logging in, the library will attempt to automatically detect the browser certificate. You will be prompted to select and use a particular certificate if you have more than one certificates installed on the browser.
For details on how to obtain and install a digital certificate, see: the Certification Authority Beginner's Guide.
Services (wiki) that require logging in:
Services that does not require logging in:
Create Resource Stub
While the library editors and librarians work to ensure the provision of up to date and relevant content, you can also help to enhance the digital library by creating resource stubs
A resource stub is a piece of resource that you deem useful and essential but doesn't exist in the library. It is incomplete and requires collaborative elaborations. Once created it is available for editing via the library wiki services such as adding metadata, attaching links and files and creating and associating web content to it. And it is subject to the enhancement and auditing and review of the library editors. See stub for further information.
To create a resource stub, you will need to:
You can also click "Check" to see if the resource or similar resource already exists in the library (in this case you simply update the existing resource instead of creating a new one to avoid duplication).
You can currently create stubs of the following type:
Create Web Content
Most of the library resources are linked to external sources such as uploaded files from a training event or distributed web pages. However, you can also create web pages associated with a particular resource or resource stub you have just created, in a wiki manner. The web content will be hosted locally by the digital library and presented first during a search instead of the otherwise default metadata page. You can add and delete content pages which can be navigated via a system-generated table of contents.
This How-Tos guide is an exemplar of web content hosted by the digital library. You can use the service to create web content for various type of resources including web tutorial and working paper.
To create/edit web content for a resource:
You can also add, delete and organise content pages by using the buttons described below at the appropriate juncture
You can access other option from the wiki menu at any stage, including returning to the resource details page (select DETAILS). Note: any unsaved edits will be lost.
Edit Web Content
See 'Create Web Content'
Edit Metadata
You can edit the metadata of existing library resources or provide additional metadata for newly created resource stubs. This can be done via the metadata wiki - a form-based editor based on the W3C XForms specification. The metadata wiki for a particular resource is accessible by selecting the EDIT METADATA option from the wiki menu of the resource details page.
There are four panels of user editable metadata :
You can toggle among the panels while preserving values
already entered. Use the
and
buttons to add or delete multiple metadata instances.
Further details of what the metadata fields represent are given in the metadata wiki. Please refer to the DCMI Metadata Terms document to learn more about the metadata fields.
You can access other option from the wiki menu at any stage, including returning to the resource details page (select DETAILS). Note: any unsaved edits will be lost.
Attach Links and Files
You can associate multiple links and files for a particular resource. To do this:
To create a new link:
To upload a file:
Update Links and Files
You can associate multiple links and files for a particular resource. To edit links and files which have already attached for the resource:
Attach Resource List - beta
Review and Rating - beta
Resource List - beta
creating resource list per library object
create user own resource list
Web Services
The digital library content can be accessed and harvested using the following web services. These services are standards (SRU, OAI-PMH), as well as native to the Fedora digital repository, the service-oriented product underpinning the library infrastructure.
The following web services can be used for content federation use cases such as providing resource discovery services of the library content from other web sites or harvesting metadata for local usage:
FAQ
Glossary of Terms
Glossary of Terms