Transforming Current Awareness Through RSS

Lisa RogersResearch AssociateInstitute for Computer Based LearningHeriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, ScotlandticTOCs and Gold Dust Projects

Can RSS really transform current awareness?

• RSS Current Situation

• ticTOCs Project

• Gold Dust Project

• The way forward?

Current Situation?

• RSS for Sharing Information.

• What are the uses in research?

• RSS adoption.

• What should information professionals do?

• Information Overload: Is RSS contributing or easing the situation?

ticTOCs Project

• Journal Tables of Contents Service• Aggregates TOC feeds.• Find, Save, Display and Export latest

Tables of Contents from over 12,000 journals ~430 publishers

• Accommodates both users of RSS and non users

• http://www.tictocs.ac.uk

ticTOCs Demonstration

Guidelines for Publishers of TOCs

• Use RSS 1.0 specification • Use RSS 1.0 Modules (dc, prism, content)• Don’t include HTML in the standard RSS

elements• Use the RSS Content Module to present HTML

marked up content.• Ensure feeds are valid• Include abstracts• Understand the purpose of each feed• Do not restrict access to TOC RSS feeds.• Provide up-to-date OPML file(s)

ticTOCs Data Set

• tiCTOCS text file http://www.tictocs.ac.uk/text.php

• Tab Delimmited File with ticTOCs ID, Journal Title, Feed URL, ISSN, eISSN

1 Nature http://www.nature.com/nature/current_issue/rss 0028-0836 1476-46792 Nature Biotechnology http://www.nature.com/nbt/current_issue/rss 1087-0156 1546-1696 3 19th-Century Music http://caliber.ucpress.net/action/showFeed?ui=0&mi=0&ai=s2&jc=ncm&type=etoc&feed=rss 0148-2076 1533-8606

Using tiCTOCs data set

Gold Dust

Tracking

• ticTOCs usage: Articles viewed, exported or clicked on in ticTOCs are collected.

• User Submitted Documents: Journal articles written by or of interest to user.

Profiling

• Collated Articles are fed into NaCTeMs TerMine Web Service

• Personal Interest Profiles (PIPs) are produced

• Also trialled ExtMiner: Open Source tool combining structured search and document clustering techniques.

compressive strength, 3crack initiation, 6shear stress, 4critical shear stress, 9.50978threshold value, 4microcrack initiation, 2martensitic steel, 2impact response, 3composite laminate, 3structural variation, 2health monitoring, 2composite structure, 2failure mode, 2damage detection, 3unified approach, 2

Matching

• The Users profile is matched to items from the various categories of RSS Feeds

Calls for PapersNew Items in Institutional Repositories and Subject RepositoriesFunding Opportunity NewsPatentsPress ReleasesProfessional Society NewsEngineering News FeedsComponent AnnouncementsTeaching and Learning ResourcesForthcoming Conferences and EventsTheses and DissertationsNews from JISC Services and ProjectsSuppliersNew Book AnnouncementsStandardsOthersJournal Articles

Delivery

Results

• Item considered ‘Gold Dust’ if rated 8-10

• Tested 4 Methods in two Iterations

• 2nd Iteration was better 15% and 14%

• Best Categories were:– Journal Articles

– Items from IR and SRs,

– Theses and Dissertations

– Engineering News Feeds

• Best Results for a User was 63% ‘Gold Dust’

Observations

• Need more and better initial usage data

• Require method of stopping generic terms

• Matching against items of a similar style to input data gives better results

• If a user’s research area is more specific results are likely to be better

Conclusions

• What should Information Professionals do?

• What about RSS feed providers?

• What about using RSS and text mining as a recommender system?

Questions?

• Questions?

• Email L.J.Rogers@hw.ac.uk

• Twitter @lisajrogers