Web-Based Collaborative Library Research

Scott Robertson, Sherif Jitan, Kathy Reese U S WEST

{ scottrob,sjitan,kreese} @uswest.com

Abstract

The U S WEST Research & Information Group, the corporate research library, has recently moved many of its resources and services to the company’s intranet. Principle among the group’s functions is conducting information searches and research analyses for employees. This paper describes a web- based system that employees can use to interact with library researchers. The system also automates tracking of research service usage and indexing and archiving of research requests and actions. Library clients initiate research requests using a personal web page. Each request generates its own web page on which interaction between cIient and researcher takes place. Researchers and clients can post comments, record actions, use e-mail, and upload and download files through the request web page. When the interaction is over, the client may record an evaluation using the same web page and all actions are saved for administrative purposes. Research interactions are maintained in a searchable archive which cau be viewed by all employees.

1. Introduction

Digital libraries are often conceived of as electronic repositories of information [l,lO]. In this view, the primary advantage of electronic media and computerization is to find information by using advanced searching and visualization tools [15]. Observations of work in libraries, however, shows that interaction and collaboration are central to information- gathering work and that library users intermingle social, technical, data-gathering, and analytic activities [3,6,7,10,13]. A new vision of a digital library emerges from this perspective [4]. In this vision, the technology affords opportunities for dispersed knowledge workers to discover each other and benefit from each other’s work [2,8,12,14].

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The U S WEST Research &Information Group, which is the corporate library, serves clients in many fields in a work environment that is geographically, organizationnlly, and technically diverse. In order to serve its clients, and in alignment with changes in the delivery of other corporato information services, the library has recently moved toward a web-based model in which all services will ultimately bo available through the company’s in&net.

The Research and Information Group’s intranct services include many traditional services of a digital library, such as book and journal cataloging and information database searching. An innovative aspect of the group’s web services, to be discussed in this paper, is a system designed to support collaboration between research librarians and corporate clients. In addition .to supporting these collaborations, the system also SCOWS to spread knowledge informally throughout the organization [2,3], to foster “communities of interest” based on research activities 1351, and to preserve important research interactions and activities that are otherwise lost [9,11].

2. Requirements

Membership of the developers in the Research and Information Group allowed the research collaboration system to be designed in the context of the Library’s ongoing work and with the participation of the library researchers and their clients. In this section, the researcher’s practices and resulting requirements are described.

2.1. Observations

A significant aspect of the group’s mission is to perform research in response to client questions. Research con involvo anything from finding a reference, to providing statistics about an issue, to analyzing a topic and preparing a report. Rcscarch issues are both business-related, for example requests for financial and executive profiles or analysis of market trends, and technical, relating to the telecommunicntions or computing industries.

Before the collaboration system was implemented, a research question was usually delivered from the client by telephono or e-mail. A researcher quickly followed up the question with n telephone conversation to clarify and elaborate the request. Tho research librarian then began to use professional information sources and research services to get an idea of what kind of information could be obtained and delivered. Mom conversations usually took place with the client about what has

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been found and what the researcher felt could be done. Intermediate results were usually sent to the client for discussion. In subsequent interactions, the client would often provide ideas about the directions he or she needed followed, while the researcher explained what was available and possible. In the end, the client usually received a set of materials from searches of information sources and a summary description of what the researcher had found and what the search results contained.

system was that it be accessible to all clients, on multiple platforms, throughout the company.

These interactions typically go from start to finish in less than a week, and many are “rushed” with deadlines of a day or two. Observation of ongoing research interactions revealed a number of interesting characteristics of researcher-client interactions and, thus, requirements for the new system.

Finally, it was clear from observing research-client interactions that they are often very personal and that close professional relationships were formed between researchers and their clients. Each research staff member has a group of clients with whom he or she interacts frequently. Clients and researchers share a significant history of interaction and gain unique knowledge about each others’ background, interests, capabilities, and habits. This knowledge is useful in understanding client questions and in shaping researchers’ ultimate answers. Any system devised to support collaboration must help to build and maintain these close client-researcher ties.

Research interactions are often highly collaborative. Researchers and clients carry on a dialogue during the entire course of a research interaction. The dialogue consists of descriptions of the client’s needs, clarification questions from the researcher, descriptions of the researcher’s actions and findiigs, further clarification of client interests, etc. Research interactions are highly fluid and seldom take on the simple structure of an initial

2.2. Data Collection and Visibility

In addition to supporting researcher-client interaction, the new system was designed to change some aspects of the existing practices with regard to data collection (for purposes of charging client organizations) and the visibility of the library’s research activities.

question followed by research activity and an answer. Thus, one requirement of the new system was to support ongoing, extended dialogue and collaboration between researcher and client.

There is seldom a “final product” such as a report or stack of search results that is presented to the client. Rather, the researcher provides a stream of products that the client can examine and use to help guide the search activity and clarify the question. Thus, another requirement of the system was that it support incremental delivery of research results, preferably in electronic form with drop off and pick up being accomplished through the web.

Each researcher handles several requests simultaneously. Researchers have no control over when clients will make requests, so part of the researchers’ skill is to organize their time over multiple activities and try to solve several problems at once. Thus another requirement of the new system was to help researchers organize multiple requests and track their progress.

Behind the scenes, and usually hidden from clients, was a complex administrative process for tracking researcher time and research service usage. Various client organizations ultimately pay for the library’s subscriptions to research services and information vendors. This requires a reasonable record of usage and value broken down by client organization. In order to do this, researchers followed up each research request with a recollected accounting of their activities, including estimates of the time spent using diierent research services. Researchers recorded this data using database system which is accessible only to library staff. Because of the diiculty in using the system, and the complexity of their own schedules, researchers typically wait to enter a batch of information about several requests into the system when they can allocate the time. The new system had to collect and maintain the same information, but it was preferred that the data be collected as “automatically” as possible, preferably as soon as a research service was used or an action taken. This would minimize errors due to recollection long after the fact.

Technologically, these intense interactions usually occur by telephone (in many cases the researchers and clients are not co- located). Research material from professional research services is usually obtained electronically using software on the researchers’ desktop computers or other computers located in the library. However, delivery of this information to the client is made in many different ways. Research material is often printed and faxed or mailed to the client. Some client organizations are capable of receiving e-mail attachments, but this method is not reliable. Only recently has the company adopted a standard e-mail addressing system and provided a directory service, so many clients are unaccustomed to using e- mail for file transfer. Thus, a major requirement of the new

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The research activity of the library is not seen by many people and this creates several problems. First, upper management of client organizations are often unaware that their employees make use of the library research services and can thus be reluctant to provide funds to the library. At intervals, the library produces summary reports Tom its research usage database. However, client organizations view this data as aggregate information at decision-making times, and do not get a sense of the “flow of usage” over time. Also, the client organizations often can not see how research done by the library actually influenced decisions of their employees. Thus, the new system was designed to give immediate access to usage information at any time via the web. It should also be possible to move from summary information to a more detailed account of the individual research interactions.

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Another problem of low visibiity is that researches and clients often do not know if a research question has already been asked and dealt with. Thii results in researchers sometimes duplicating effort, and also blocks clients from finding out who else in the company might be interested in similar issues. Thus, another goal of the system was to make research interactions visible to everyone on the web in order to take advantage of work already done and in order to encourage discovery of related interests across organizational units. Ultimately, the system should promote the development of interest groups which otherwise might not form.

3. Description of the New System

It was determined from the outset that the system would be web- based. ‘There is no standardization of platforms or software systems across the corporation, so interaction using a web browser interface was a clear solution. Additionally, many other types of corporate information were moved to the web, and all other services of the library were moved to the web. The research collaboration system became just another aspect of the Research & Information Group web site.

Figure 1, tbe top of the Research & Information Group’s home page, shows tbe web site context in which the collaborative research system is embedded. The book icons provide entrances

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to different parts of the web site. The relevant portions of the site for the collaborative research system are the “Research Requests,” ‘Clients,” and “Staff” icons. Clicking on the “Research Requests” icon takes users to an area where they can get a list of all pending collaborative research requests, and where they can get to the archive of previous questions.

Staff members and library clients both have their own areas on the website which they can get to by clicking the “Staff” or “Clients” book icons. Each staff member and each client has his or her own page. Researchers and clients can get to a list of ongoing research from their individual pages. They can also get from their pages to details of their research usage to date. Clients can use their pages to initiate research requests.

Clicking on the “Clients” book brings up the Clients page shown in Figure 2. From the Clients page a user may look at a

to find other Gents, access their personal page,

list of clients (with hotliuks to each client’s page), look at a list of clients whose names begin with a particular letter, add themselves (or someone else) as a client, view research in progress, and access an archive of completed research requests.

Figure 3 shows a client’s personal web page. This page is generated automatically after a client completes the “Add A Client” form. The page contains several links that allow the client to initiate a research request, view pending and archived research requests, and view statistics about their own usage of research services. Each client page also contains a link to a “group page” for news and information relevant to the client’s business unit. Finally, each page contains a “mailto” link that can be used to send e-mail to the client without knowing any details of their e-mail address.

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Figure 3. A client’s personal page. Research can be initiated and tracked using the links on !hk page.

These links bring up personalized views and forms. Personal pages provide a “web presence” for each client.

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When a client selects the ” New Request” link, a form is returned on which the research question can be typed. The form also allows the user to specify a deadline. The form is pre- configured to be specific to the client. When the client submits the form, it creates a web page for the research request, an example of which is shown in Figure 4. The request is also entered in a list of pending research requests.

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All further interaction between client and researcher can take place on the request web page (Figure 4). Also, this page will be used to record all actions and provides information on the progress of each request. The request web page has five main

parts. ‘Ihe left column contains summary information about the request and lii back to personal pages, group pngcs, and research lists. As Iong as the request is in progress, its status is described in this cohmm as “Open.” When it is finished, the researcher presses the “Status” link to bring up a form to C~OSC the request. The due date in this column can be changed in a simihr manner. In the upper right portion of the pngc tho client’s request appears in full. Below that is the interaction area where comments and actions rue recorded, and whcrc files may be uploaded and downloaded. Below that is client and researcher information with “mailto” links and links back to personal, staff, and group pages.

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Figure 5. Comments, actions, files added to a request page. Researchers and clients

use simple fotms to add to the request pages.

Researchers are automatically assigned to requests based on the groups for which they are responsible. Both the researcher and client receive e-maiI notifying them who has been assigned to a request. Researchers and clients may also view lists containing only their requests from personalized links on their client or staff page. Researchers may reassign requests using a link on the request page.

Subsequent interaction takes place using the “Comments,” “Actions,” and “Files” links. Clicking on the “Comments,” “Actions,” or “Files” link causes a form appropriate to that activity to be returned. Appropriate information is entered into the response forms, and when the form is submitted the action appears in a bullet list under the appropriate heading. Figure 5 shows how items appear once they have been added to the interaction area.

Comments appear under the “Comments” heading with a link to each commenter’s personal page. Comments may be entered onto a page by any client or researcher. This encourages

chatting and input from anyone with an intcrcst in the topic or progress of the request. Links to the commmentcr’s personal pages provide informal social networking opportunities (WC [2,5,7,8,13] for the significance of informal soda1 networking). Clarification dialogue that previously took place by phone can appear here. Such dialogues were previously lost, but are now archived [PI. Figure 5 shows three comments added to the example request page.

Each action appears as a new bullet under the “Actions” heading with the time taken for the action appended. The action form allows researchers to describe what they have done, or to sclcct an information service from a dropdown list, and to specify how much time was used. These times are aggregated automatically in the left column of the request page. In this way, a researcher can enter actions at any time and have them automatically recorded. This is also where the system gets data for the usage statistics that are available at any time from client, staff, and group pages. Figure 5 shows hvo actions.

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Note that the time spent with actions aggregates in the left column.

The “Files” form allows a researcher to upload any file from their desktop to the website. Files are listed under the “File” heading with a comment about each one. Each file listing is actually a hyperlink. When a user clicks on a file hyperlink, that file is then downloaded to their computer. Plain text and H’IML files appear directly in the browser. Application files such word processor or spreadsheet documents are downloaded and saved on the client’s local disk. Thus, researchers and clients may transfer files easily using only the request web page. Reports from information services, searches, or original reports written by the researcher may be attached to this part of the web page. Figure 5 shows two files, with annotations about their content, available from the request page.

When a research request is completed, the researcher closes the request by pressing the “Status” link. This results in the return of a form on which the researcher can enter a summary of what was done or a brief description of the answer to the question. When this form is submitted, the “Comment,” “Actions,” and “Files” links are removed from the web page, the answer summary is added, and the page is text-indexed and saved in the research archive. The client is automatically sent e-mail to tell them that the request has been closed and reminding them to complete an on-line evaluation form.

The final action for a request occurs when the client provides feedback on a research request. The “Closed Requests” link on each client page (Figure 3) provides a list of that client’s archived requests. Hyperlinks to web evaluation forms appear next to each request that has not been evaluated. When a client completes and submits an evaluation, the numerical and textual evaluations are saved in a data file that can be viewed only by the appropriate research staff member fmm his or her web page.

The research archive consists of closed request pages organized by month. Users browse a list of titles for each month. Anyone may browse questions in the Research Archive list and, if they interested in a title, the title is linked back to the archived request page. Text on the request pages is also text- indexed by the web site search tool, so users can search the archive using keywords, names, dates, etc. Interested users who find the request page may see comments, actions, files, and the answer summary. They also gain access to the contact information for the client, researcher, and anyone who has contributed comments.

4. Requirements Revisited

The new system was designed to support several requirements of the research interaction. Additionally, it was meant to meet some administrative requirements and to make record keeping as automatic as possible. Finally, there was the need to make the library’s research activity more visible and accessible.

The highly collaborative and personal nature of research interactions is supported in several ways. First, clients and researchers both have personal “web presences” by virtue of

their personal pages. These pages are designed to support a number of research activities and web activities in general. A system is currently under development in which clients can put their interests on the web page and search for others with similar interests. Researchers’ pages also allow them access to their research requests, usage statistics, and evaluations. The personal pages also contain contact information, including “mailto” links, so that the pages can be a communications device. The researchers’ pages have their pictures. It has already been the case that a client in a remote location has commented that he felt more like he knew who he was dealing with because he could see the researcher’s picture.

The personal pages are designed to create a personal sense of “place” on the web site for clients and researchers. A personal page is where clients and researchers go first when they want to review the progress of or update their research requests, and when they want to initiate a new request When clients and researchers initiate actions from their personal pages, their personal information is carried automatically into the action, causing the request page to contain their contact information or causing the research request list to show only their research, for example. Thus, the initiation of each research collaboration is designed to feel more “personal” than other methods, e.g. filling out an anonymous form or picking from an unfiltered list, might afford.

When a research interaction is initiated, a web page is generated which is specific to that interaction and to which the researcher and client return again and again for their interaction. In this way, the researcher and client have a “meeting place” on the web, and this meeting place contains all the relevant material necessary for the specific interaction relevant to each research request. ‘Ihe request web pages are designed with client and researcher areas. The client and researcher contact information is repeated on each request page. E-mail or phone contact is thus easy to make when the client or

researcher is on the page. In addition, each page supports several types of interaction and, to some extent, helps to control the flow of interaction. Researcher assignment at the beginning and client feedback at the end are enabled on the page only at the appropriate times. Comments, actions, and file uploads and downloads can be accomplished at any time and in any order: This supports the ongoing discussion and incremental delivery characteristics of the researcher-client collaboration.

Routine administrative activities are automated in the new system. During the course of each research interaction, the researchers enter data concerning the information sources that they use and the time spent on various activities. This informs the client about the progress of their request, but at the same time the data is aggregated and can be accessed at any time from the researchers’ or the clients’ web pages. When service and time usage is accessed, it is shown along with the clients’ organizational information and can be sorted and selected based on this information. Thus, the system provides real-time, open access to usage information for any client or client organization at any time. The researchers have not needed to remember what services they used and have not had to enter

them into any system as a separate activity. Similarly, the feedback information provided by each client is also aggregated and available on the web, although this information is not public. Researchers may view their own evaluations at any time from links on their personal pages. Library management has access to summarized data (e.g. mean ratings).

Since the research pages are visible to anyone and accessible through a list of the questions, the activity of the library is made very public. This solves several problems. First, it simply increases general awareness of the library’s activities and value. Second, it allows people with similar interests to find each other across the organization. Third, it allows researchers and clients to see if questions have already been answered. Finally, it allows client organizations to inform themselves at any time about their usage of library resources and the value of the library. Research activities are always embedded in the context of the clients and researchers. Thus, when users browse the library’s activities they are always exposed to information about who was involved. This means that researchers who specialize in certain topics and clients who have interests in certain topics will begin to learn about each other and, perhaps, form communities of interest

5. Summary

This paper describes a web-based system that supports researcher-client collaboration, makes library research activity highly visible, and collects valuable usage statistics as a background activity. Each research request generates its own interactive web page through which researchers and clients chat, share fries, manage their activities, provide feedback, and learn about one other. Automatic listing and indexing of requests allows others to see and share the research that has taken place throughout the company. In the long run, interest communities may arise as a consequence of this system.

The web-based research collaboration system at U S WEST went into operation in December, 1996. By May, 1997 the system had handled over 450 requests. User evaluations and iterative refinement have begun. It is hoped that the system will provide a model for many types of web-based collaboration systems.

6. References

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