ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 84 / C&RL News ■ February 2004 J o b of a D a n ia n n e M iz z y Lifetime Scouting out the best of the ’net D avid Sleasman, m e ta d a ta and c a ta lo g in g c o o rd in a to r fo r the Scout Project. If th e prospect o f having the Internet as your spe­ cial collection a n d th e w o rld as y o u r au d ie n c e exhilarates rather than intimidates, th en w orking for tire Internet Scout Project (ISP) might b e your jo b o f lifetim e. Since 1994, th e Scout Project, h o u sed in th e C om puter Sciences D epartm ent of th e University o f W isconsin-M adison, has p ro ­ duced one o f the oldest and best re sp e c te d free In tern et current a w a re n e s s p u b lic a tio n s , th e In te rn e t S cout R eport. D avid Sleasman has b een metadata and catalo g in g c o o rd in a to r for th e past three years. Sites and s o ftw a re W h e n I a sk e d Sleasm an to d e ­ scrib e w h a t his job e n tailed , I ex p e c te d to h e a r all ab o u t cata­ lo g in g th e b e s t In te rn e t sites. W h at I d id n ’t k n o w w as th a t fro m its in c e p tio n , th e Scout Project has also b een developing its o w n o p e n source softw are tools, notably the Scout Portal T oolkit (SPT), and, m o st recently, th e Collection W orkflow a n d Integration System (CWIS), and Sleasman has w o rk ed o n both. “Tire Scout Portal Toolkit (SPT) w as a project fu n d ed by the Mellon Foundation to develop a complete, o p e n source package for W eb portals. It is meant to Ire easily turnkey and customizable and is shipped w ith standards com pliant metadata, OAI harvest­ ing, etc. Currently there is a grow ing com m unity o f users in th e U nited States, E urope, a n d Asia. CWIS w a s d e v e lo p e d for th e N ational Science Digital Library (NSDL) project a n d is a tw eaking o f the Scout Portal Toolkit software for th e NSDL environment. They w ant to connect research sci­ entists to the education community. Research sci­ entists d o n ’t necessarily k n o w a b o u t organizing inform ation e x c e p t for their o w n p u rp o se s, let alone for exchange, aggregation, and building ser­ vices across all that aggregation. This package is to h elp th em bridge that gap. G roups o r organiza­ tions c a n u se this tu rn k e y softw are to p u t n e w collections online. It provides a basic W eb site th a t th e y c a n custom ize, so th e y d o n ’t h a v e to rein v en t th e w h eel. O n c e they set u p th e d ata, it c a n b e h a r­ vested into the central NSDL re­ p o sitory. B o th p a c k a g e s are available to do w n lo ad from the Scout site.” A v e ry librarian-like skill Sleasman’s major contribution to the CWIS project has b e e n p e r­ form ing quality assurance (QA) testin g as p a rt o f th e so ftw are developm ent process. “A librar­ ian is actually very g ood at doing QA (b u g ) testing. It’s a v ery li­ b rarian -lik e skill. E very tim e som ething changes, y o u have to go th rough the entire software package again an d again, b u t it’s n o t a ro te process. You have to b e able to think ab o u t the implications o f changing th e format of the data, o r all the valiants o f h o w som eone might u se this package. You also have to consider the w orkflow process. All these ideas have to b e run­ ning through your h ead as you’re testing.” I asked if h e h a d a background in this prior to jo ining th e Scout Project. “No. C ataloging w as comfortable. I h a d d o n e that. QA testing w as to ­ tally n e w to me, especially o n this level w ith the im portance that’s placed o n it. There w as a shaip learning curve, a n apprenticeship during w hich the software engineers helped. I’m not a program­ m er by training b u t even though this is very tech­ nical, soft skills are im portant. It help s to under- D anianne M izzy is assistant head o f the Engineering Library a t the University o f Pennsylvania. Have an idea fo ra "Job o f a L ife tim e "s to ry? E-m ail:danianne@seas.upenn.edu mailto:danianne@seas.upenn.edu C&RL News ■ February 2004 / 85 stan d h o w the creators think a n d getting to k n o w th e m as p e o p le is a big p a rt o f th a t.” C a ta lo g in g th e In te r n e t D uring a presen tatio n to a library school catalog­ ing class, S leasm an w a s o n c e asked, “A re y o u a n o rm a l librarian?” His rep ly w as, “Yes, v e ry n o r­ m al, v e ry trad itio n al, b u t it to o k a le a p o f faith th a t m y skills w e re in d e e d applicable h e re in this en v iro n m en t. Cataloging th e Internet is a leap o f faith, e sp ecially w h e n y o u k n o w th a t w h a te v e r y o u d o is n o w going to b e viewable b y n ot only by y o u r entire readership, a n d an y o n e that com es to your W eb page, b ut also anyone [who] uses Google. W e estim ate th a t w ith subscribers a n d W eb hits, th e S c o u t R e p o rt h a s a b o u t 350,000 r e a d e r s a w e e k .” I a s k e d a b o u t h is role in c a ta lo g in g th e r e ­ s o u r c e s f e a tu r e d in th e fre e w e e k ly S c o u t Re­ ports. “W h e n everything is purring along, I oversee W h rdnatorMetadata andicataloging cooat: T h e S cout P roject W h ere : C o m p u te r S c ie n c e s D e p a r tm e n t o f th e U niversity o f W isconsin-M adison F o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n , v is it : w w w ›sco u t. cs.w isc.edu/ die cataloging. Usually w e h a v e a p ro je c t assistant- s h ip p o sitio n , filled b y a second-year library school s tu d e n t w ith ca ta lo g in g experience. We use LCSH, b u t a highly untraditional application. We break apart the subdivisions a n d u s e it as a b ro w sin g hierarchy. B eing a librarian a n d tradition-bound, at first I w as highly skeptical th a t tìiis w o u ld w ork, b u t it solves several p ro b ­ lem s. It’s a w idely u se d vocabulary a n d it perm its u s to e x c h a n g e d ata w ith o th er projects.” Sleasm an is also responsible for th e Scout Ar­ chives. “T h e A rchives h o u s e s all o f th e a n n o ta ­ tions a n d descriptions from die previous years o f all o f o u r publications. T hey are given controlled nam es, classified, a n d are p u t into a database that is b o tìi b ro w se a b le a n d searchable. T h e original archives, w h ich w as d ien called Signpost, w as just a d e m o n stratio n project th at h a d b e e n p ie c e d to­ gether using hardware and software diat w ere never in te n d e d to last very long. W h e n I first arrived, th a t sy stem w a s still in p la c e b u t it w a s un w o rk ab le. We n e e d e d so m e ­ th in g m o re stab le a n d th at in v o lv ed far less h u ­ m a n labor in terens o f cataloging a n d maintaining. I w o r k e d w ith th e so ftw are e n g in e e rs o n a too l th a t b e c a m e d ie basis o f th e Scout Portal Toolkit (SPT). O n ce w e h a d a stable software package for SPT, w e b e g a n applying that to o u r o w n site. Now, o u r site is c o m p letely ru n b y o u r o w n softw are. Every time w e p u t o ut a n e w version o r en h an ced fe a tu re s to SPT o r CWIS w e c a n ju st a u to m a ti­ cally u p d a te th e so ftw a re . A lo n g th e w ay , I’v e im p ro v e d th e cataloging a n d m a d e it all co n sis­ tent. B ecau se o f th o se things it’s m o re u sa b le in te rm s o f sh a rin g d ata. W e’v e c o m e a v e iy lo n g w ay.” Can yo u m o rp h ? Sleasman reflected diat his job at Scout lias changed a lot o v er tim e, in p art b e c a u se o f d ie sm all staff. “T h e re are o n ly fo u r full-tim e staff p e o p le : m y ­ self, tw o programmers, and anodier librarian. We’re grant-funded so w e have to b e veiy flexible abo u t o u r roles. If o n e o f u s c a n fulfill a c e rtain n ich e, w e ’ll m o v e into diat, so o v e r tim e d ie job slow ly m o rp h s into som ething com pletely different. B e­ cause w e hav e to generate o u r o w n revenue, w e co nstantly h a v e to th in k a b o u t g ra n t w ritin g a n d developing digital library p r o j e c t s t h a t f it o u r s tre n g th s .” A n o th e r dif­ ference h e m entioned was die lack o f hierarchy. “It’s v e r y fr e e f o r m h e r e . T h e r e ’s n o t a h ie ra rc h y th a t w o u ld exist in a tra­ d itio n a l library. F o r e x ­ am ple, softw are w ork-flow is really u p to us. You h a v e to b e a self-starter, b e v e ry m otivated, a n d b e able to k e e p priorities in y o u r h e a d in relation­ ship to other deadlines that are com ing up . So that is a real challenge. My ex p e c ta tio n o f th e rate o f change has b e e n greatiy altered b y w orking here. T h e library profession, in th e aggregate, is tradi­ tio n b o u n d a n d slow ly evolving w h ereas this job is alw ays, ’Next!”’ K eep th o s e e -m a ils an d links co m in g S leasm an m u s e d a b o u t th e c h a lle n g e s a n d r e ­ w a rd s o f W e b publicatio n . “W h e n w e s e n d o u t o u r p u b lic a tio n s , it s o rt o f g o e s in to th e v o id . Y o u w o n d e r, is a n y b o d y th e re , d o e s a n y b o d y care? B u t w e g e t lo ts o f g re a t e -m a il f e e d b a c k a n d th a t’s v e ry re w a rd in g . It’s a lso in te re stin g to se e h o w th e In te rn e t as a w h o le re s p o n d s to u s . W e ’r e th is tin y little p ro je c t, b u t G o o g le , w h ic h is this all-p o w erfu l s e a rc h e n g in e , ran k s u s p re tty h ig h ly in its results. T h a t’s re w a rd in g b e c a u s e it o p e n s u p o u r re s o u rc e s to a w h o le n e w a u d i e n c e . ” L e t’s h o p e th e S cout P ro ject c o n tin u e s to d eliv er its w e e k ly W e b g e m s fo r a lo n g tim e to com e. ■ cs.wisc.edu/