RaPIDS: Rapid Prototyping of Intuitive Discovery at Stanford

About RaPIDS

Effective and intuitive ways of discovering the information scholars want, when they want it, is a growing challenge in the age of the digital library. With the sheer abundance of resources present to any scholar, the issue is no longer finding related resources, but rather finding the most relevant and the right resources to further his/her insights and work.

In May of 2007, SULAIR launched a skunkworks effort to push the envelope of the Libraries’ information discovery tools, services and environments. This effort is known as RaPIDS, for Rapid Prototyping of Intuitive Discovery at Stanford.

The RaPIDS initiative is designed to be a sustained process of identifying new discovery tools and interfaces, and quickly implementing them in prototype environments. The purpose of these tools and discovery environments is to improve the ability of both non-expert and expert searchers alike to discover information through intuitive and useful interfaces.

The focus of this team is on experimentation and demonstration of novel tools and interfaces. The team members have the authority and accountability to determine, then deploy, new technologies and interfaces to the level of usable prototypes. These prototypes may in turn lead to the development and deployment of more polished, library-wide, production discovery tools and environments under the aegis of other initiatives and bodies.

In short, the primary objectives of the RaPIDS effort are to:

1. Illustrate the features and functions of a cybrary, and
2. Increase access to library resources.

And this will be accomplished by:

3. Rapidly deploying prototypes and gathering feedback, generating demonstrable results and tangible benefits, quickly,
4. Focusing on delivering systems that meet patrons’ needs, and
5. Helping catalyze the development of new library services.

Team Members

The effort will be led by representatives from each of the major units of SUL: Collections & Services, Technical Services and Academic Computing/Digital Library Systems & Services.

• Grace Baysinger, Head Librarian & Bibliographer, Swain Chem. & Chem. Engin. Library
• Tom Cramer, Associate Director, Digital Library Systems and Services
• Adan Griego, Curator for Latin American, Mexican American & Iberian Collections
• Philip Scheur, Head, Cataloging and Metadata Services

This core team will enlist colleagues throughout the Libraries at appropriate points throughout the process for their expertise, ideas, content, technical know-how, and reviews.

Areas of Focus

In Fall of 2006, the Asilomar group (comprising senior librarians and administrators from across SUL) held a day-long retreat focused on improving discovery for the novice user. Many common themes emerged from the discussions that day; the RaPIDS team distilled these to seven major categories. Each RaPIDS prototype will explore ways to improve discovery of library resources by demonstrating advances in one or more of each of the seven categories listed below along with specific possibilities for experimentation.

1. Better search,
   E.g.: federated search, associative search, and/or semantic searching with new engines like Primo, Endeca, WorldCat Local
2. Flexible browsing,
   E.g.: via taxonomies, ontologies, classifications,
3. Results manipulation,
   E.g.: FRBR, filtering & extensions results by facets, relevance and ranking methods, “find more like this” features, datamining & visualization tools
4. Better user interfaces,
   E.g.: simplified and streamlined UI’s vetted through user testing,
5. Editorial decisions by subject & reference specialists,
   E.g.: creation of tailored knowledge environments, easy to create and maintain subject guides, identification of ‘best bets’, etc.
6. Web 2.0 features,
   E.g.: tagging, ratings, reviews, RSS feeds
7. Personalization
   E.g.: enabling alerts, recommendations, persistent preferences

Approach

The point is to demo (or die trying), and not to create fully polished tools & environments that work equally well for all library subject domains and functions. Accordingly, the first priority will be to create sandbox environments, isolated from the public, production Library service pages, that demonstrate these functions. In addition to deploying discrete prototypes in multiple places, the RaPIDS team will also seek, where possible, to bundle together multiple prototypes to create a more holistic, integrated discovery environment.

Demonstration environments and tools produced via the RaPIDS process will be circulated both to SULAIR staff and to patrons. Gathering feedback from the latter will be a key focus, as a critical success factor for this initiative will be to produce tools that are both usable and useful. While very important, internal feedback alone is insufficient to fully gauge the success of any prototype.

Projects

To be successful, RaPIDS will be engaged in a sustained process of experimentation and progress, rather than the implementation of any single product. The initiatives planned and underway are:

1. Federated search
2. Enriched Bibliographic Records
3. Associative search and “find more like this” (powered by GETA)
4. Taxonomic browsing