ViTaL, the Virtual Taxonomic Library is a component of the EDIT infrastructure, being created as part of WP5.3, which is concerned with the provision of Bibliographic tools for the taxonomic community. The services provided by ViTaL have been discussed in detail in previously published project documents. This report documents the completion of the milestone: M5.25 - Journal subscription information provided to the ViTaL team (NHML) by the initial set of actively collaborating institutions.
The services provided by ViTaL have been discussed in detail in previously published project documents. The diagram below has been extracted from document D5.15 ViTaL draft system design. It provides a useful overview of the system architecture. This report documents the pilot launch of the literature metasearch component of ViTaL, hosted at the Natural History Museum (London). The pilot went live on 26 September 2008.
Functionality
ViTaL, the Virtual Taxonomic Library is a component of the EDIT infrastructure, being created as part of WP5.3, which is concerned with the provision of Bibliographic tools for the taxonomic community.
The services provided by ViTaL have been discussed in detail in previously published project documents. The diagram below has been extracted from document D5.15 ViTaL draft system design. It provides a useful overview of the system architecture.
ViTaL, the Virtual Taxonomic Library is a component of the EDIT infrastructure, being created as part of WP5.3, which is
The ViTaL metasearch service uses the standard Z39.50 protocol to send queries to online public access catalogues (OPACs). ViTaL uses this facility to allow the querying of EDIT partner library resources, hence the need for these libraries to supply the relevant connection information to the ViTaL team.
Although Creative Commons Licences do not specifically cover data or databases (and in this they do not address the Database Right), based upon the comparison table above, it is suggested that out of the three licences (see details in the component), Creative Commons Licences are the most suitable of the three. This is primarily because unlike the other two options, Creative Commons licences:
On the 7th of February 2008, EDIT team leaders were contacted with the following call for cooperation for ViTaL (Virtual Taxonomic Library):
Dear EDIT team leader,
I am sure you will be aware that EDIT WP5.3 is currently creating the Virtual Taxonomic Library (ViTaL), which will be a key component of the EDIT platform.
ViTaL will make available three main services to taxonomists.
1. ViTaL's metasearch component will allow searching across a
This document outlines the means of linking search results in the Virtual Taxonomic Library (ViTaL), currently at the initial stages of development at the Natural History Museum (London) with content held in the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), an important and growing repository of freely available taxonomic literature, which will be one of the sources available for searching by ViTaL users.
A draft collections development policy is also included.
The component can be downloaded here.
This document sets out an analysis of the results of the requirements gathering phase carried out by staff at the Natural History Museum (London) for the ViTaL bibliographic data and literature search tools project.
The requirements where collected through a combinations of consultations with taxonomists and library staff, and also though a questionnaire circulated to subscribers of the Taxacom mailing list. The collected responses to the questionnaire and additional comments can be seen in EDIT Component C5.18 ViTaL requirements report.
The component can be downloaded here.