Multivio
Generic browser and visualizer for digital objects
| Project management : | Miguel Moreira, RERO |
| Contact : | miguel.moreira[at]rero.ch |
| Duration : | 01.2008-12.2010 |
Summary
Multivio is a project aimed at conceiving and implementing a graphical user interface for browsing and accessing digital documents in the Internet.
This interface aims at providing a functional and pleasant environment for accessing the ever increasing content made publicly available by digital libraries. It meets an important requirement of the latter that is only partially fulfilled at the moment. The Multivio solution will consist of an application working directly inside the web browser in combination with the source web sites (digital libraries or document servers) and exempting the user from the installation of additional, special-purpose software. Although the initial development will be based on the requirements of the digital library RERO DOC, the tool should nevertheless be largely open and adjustable in order to smoothly integrate with other document servers, no matter which technology they are based on. It will also be sufficiently modular and extensible in order to cope with the continuous evolution of digital formats.
The tool can be built by integrating existing open-source software components and/or by a total or partial in-house development.
Context
The visualization and/or listening of contents that digital libraries and document servers make available in the Internet is in general dependent on particular software tools installed in the computer system of each user, suitable to each kind of content being accessed. These multiple tools offer a scattered view of the available content since they consider the digital files individually without taking into account logical relations between groups of files belonging to specific titles or collections. This situation causes a fracture between the phase where the user searches or navigates the object descriptions and the moment where he/she accesses the objects themselves.
Indeed, the approach applied by most catalogues or document servers allowing access to digital content is to simply provide a hypertext link allowing the corresponding files to be downloaded. Then, on the user's side a suitable tool (that must be installed beforehand) allows the file to be viewed after download.
This approach is relatively satisfying in certain contexts, particularly in the case of single volume monographs, for example in PDF format, given that the large majority of Internet users possesses a PDF-viewing software like Adobe Reader or alike installed in his/her system. The same principle applies for other file types, each relying on a specific and adequate software tool. But it has serious limitations in the presence of documents of higher complex structure demanding navigation capabilities across several files, such as serials, collections, multivolume monographs and other aggregates. In addition, even in the case of plain, single-file documents the simple download option is not always the most appropriate, especially when the document has been found after a query operated by the user in a search engine, in which case the queried expression should be pointed out or highlighted inside the displayed full-text, in order to show the user the places where it appears.
The solution proposed by Multivio responds to an increasing necessity following the current boom of repositories of online documentation, stimulated among other things by the Open Access movement by the OAI-PMH interoperability and by the growing digitization efforts of the libraries. In this way it concerns existing document servers such as RERO DOC, ZORA, Infoscience, SEALS and alike, including long-term archiving repositories allowing public access to their contents.
Goals
Generic
Multivio should allow the user to access different kinds of media, not only textual but also images, audio, video and others, supporting several file types, and particularly those adopted by the Convention on Electronic Theses by the Conference of Swiss University Libraries (CBU) (up-to-date version of the document).
The retrieved documents may be simply structured, such as a book, an image or an audio stream, or otherwise contain a complex structure such as a journal, an image collection, a multi-volume work, a dictionary or encyclopedia, etc. which calls for the possibility of a hierarchical navigation by chapters, sections, years, months, editions, volumes, articles, headings and other kinds of partitioning depending on the nature of the document.
Functional and complete
The user interface should be simple and intuitive yet sufficiently complete in order to allow a nice user experience. It is composed of a set of blocs disposed in the screen each providing a group of functionalities, particularly: main content display area; navigation tree for structured documents (year, month, volume, chapter, section, page...); table of contents; page, image or snapshot thumbnails; navigation commands (next, previous, first, last, play, stop, forwards, backwards…); visualization commands (zoom, panning…).
In cases where the document is retrieved after a query inside a search engine it is important to highlight the queried expression inside the full-text as well as to show the corresponding list of occurrences.
Flexible
The holders or trustees of the available contents should have the possibility, if desired, of preventing the user from downloading the files locally, rather allowing the latter to be displayed inside the Multivio interface exclusively. Or otherwise to allow the files to be downloaded and printed as usual.
Extensible and autonomous
Multivio is an open-source project. It relies on an open and modular architecture based on an appropriate articulation between graphical components (representing the groups of functionalities) and connectors/plug-ins (representing the different kinds of media). This aspect allows the tool to be extensible and adaptable to different contexts, especially by the addition of new features and the possibility of handling new document types and file formats. The open character is reinforced by the use of established standards and open protocols.
Multivio should take the form of an independent and adaptable module capable of working together with different document servers, search engines or catalogues using multiple and varied technologies.
In collaboration with :
- Conseil stratégique du RERO (Réseau des bibliothèques de Suisse occidentale
