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The IMesh Toolkit
[ Work In Hand > Components > Reading Lists]
Reading lists
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| Use Cases | Domain modelling | IMesh Toolkit Module | Download |
Traditionally, Subject Gateways have acted as the main point of access to high quality resources and their descriptions. However it is now recognised that subject gateways do not operate in isolation but rather within the wider educational environment and particularly educational institutions. RDN-Include is an example of a facility used to embed subject gateway services into other Web sites. When records are presented to users through frameworks external to the gateway, they become accessible in alternative ways, adding value through re-use.
In this component we have explored the integration of subject gateway resources into reading lists, thus supporting the re-use of resource descriptions.
We have provided a module written in Perl that uses the URLs of resource descriptons and generates an RSS file containing the title, description and link to the full resource, for each of the resource descriptions. The RSS file can then be delivered as a channel (or news feed) to a learning environment such as a portal. A title and description for the reading list (or channel) can also be provided. This provides a simple mechanism for creating a reading list within an external environment . Read More and Download
In practice, the above model is simplistic since a reading list is unlikely to be limited to resources described by subject gateways, and tools to edit and view lists may not all support RSS.
We take a wider look at the use of reading lists by using UML use cases to explore the functionality of reading list tools, relating these use cases to the JISC Information Environment.
The functionality of external systems that can be used to support the user's actions are identified in the domain model and we describe some examples of tools that implement this functionality.
The IMesh toolkit module links the interfaces between the subject gateway and a presentation system by using two standards, OAI and RSS. The domain model helps us to identify the interfaces between the subsystems that are required to work together to link the items in a reading list to access to the resources themselves. This is a summary of the interfaces and the standards which provide the basis for interoperation.
A short description of this work item as submitted to JISC is available.