Citation for published version: Day, M, Ardö, A, Dovey, MJ, Hamilton, M, Heikkinen, R, Powell, A & Olsen, AN 2000, Evaluation report of existing broker models in related projects. Renardus Project. Publication date: 2000 Document Version Early version, also known as pre-print Link to publication University of Bath Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 05. Oct. 2021 Deliverable: D1.1 Evaluation report of existing broker models Issue: 1.0 Date of issue: 27 April 2000 RENARDUS: PROJECT DELIVERABLE Project Number: IST-1999-10562 Project Title: Reynard - Academic Subject Gateway Service Europe Deliverable Type: Public Deliverable Number: D1.1 Contractual Date of Delivery: 31 March 2000 Actual Date of Delivery: 27 April 2000 Title of Deliverable: Evaluation report of existing broker models in related projects Workpackage contributing to the Deliverable: WP1 Nature of the Deliverable: Report URL: http://www.renardus.org/deliverables/ Authors: Michael Day, Anders Ardö, Matthew J. Dovey, Martin Hamilton, Risto Heikkinen, Andy Powell and Arthur N. Olsen. Contact Details: Michael Day, UKOLN: the UK Office for Library and Information Networking, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK. Email: [email protected], Phone: +44 1225 323923, Fax: +44 826838, URL: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ Abstract Broker services enable the integration of distributed and heterogeneous information resources. The Renardus project will implement a Europe wide Internet information gateway service based on a generic broker architecture and data model that will allow the integrated searching and browsing of distributed resource collections. This report reviews eighteen broker architectures that have been developed for existing services and projects. An attempt has been made to map the function of each of these architectures (or broker models) onto the generic MODELS Information Architecture (MIA) and more specifically the MIA structure developed to describe services known as DNER Portals. The report concludes with some observations on the broker models reviewed and the protocols and software that they use. Keywords Broker models, Broker architectures, Renardus project, MODELS Information Architecture, MIA, Information gateways, Digital libraries Reynard IST-1999-10562 1 Deliverable: D1.1 Evaluation report of existing broker models Issue: 1.0 Date of issue: 27 April 2000 Distribution List: Public Issue: 1.0 Reference: IST-1999-10562 / D1.1 / 1.0 Total Number of Pages: 90 Reynard IST-1999-10562 2 Deliverable: D1.1 Evaluation report of existing broker models Issue: 1.0 Date of issue: 27 April 2000 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I TITLE PAGE RENARDUS: PROJECT DELIVERABLE........................................................................................................1 PART I Title Page ............................................................................................................................................3 PART II - MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW.........................................................................................................4 Document Control...................................................................................................................................................4 Executive Summary................................................................................................................................................4 Scope Statement......................................................................................................................................................5 PART III - DELIVERABLE CONTENT ...........................................................................................................6 Introduction.............................................................................................................................................................6 Glossary ..................................................................................................................................................................6 1 Introduction...................................................................................................................................................16 1.1 Broker services......................................................................................................................................16 1.2 The MODELS Information Architecture (MIA)...................................................................................17 2 The Broker Review .......................................................................................................................................20 2.1 Agora.....................................................................................................................................................21 2.2 Aquarelle...............................................................................................................................................23 2.3 ASF Freeware .......................................................................................................................................27 2.4 CHIC-Pilot ............................................................................................................................................29 2.5 Cooperative Online Resource Catalog (CORC/Mantis)........................................................................32 2.6 DEF - Denmark's Electronic Research Library.....................................................................................35 2.7 Die Digitale Bibliothek Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW)..........................................................................39 2.8 ETB: the European Schools Treasury Broker .......................................................................................42 2.9 EUropean Libraries and Electronic Resources in Mathematical Sciences (EULER)............................46 2.10 Finnish Virtual Library (FVL) ..............................................................................................................49 2.11 GAIA: Generic Architecture for Information Availability....................................................................53 2.12 Harvest ..................................................................................................................................................58 2.13 ht://Dig ..................................................................................................................................................61 2.14 Isaac Network .......................................................................................................................................63 2.15 Jointly Administered Knowledge Environment (jake)..........................................................................66 2.16 Networked Computer Science Technical Research Library (NCSTRL/Dienst) ...................................68 2.17 Resource Discovery Network: Resource Finder ...................................................................................72 2.18 ROADS .................................................................................................................................................74 2.19 UNIverse ...............................................................................................................................................77 3 Considerations towards determining an architectural model ........................................................................80 3.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................................................80 3.2 Gateway ................................................................................................................................................80 3.3 Search Engine .......................................................................................................................................80 3.4 User interface ........................................................................................................................................82 4 Conclusions...................................................................................................................................................83 4.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................................................83 4.2 Classification of the brokers reviewed ..................................................................................................83 4.3 Protocols ...............................................................................................................................................83 4.4 Software ................................................................................................................................................85 PART IV - REMAINDER..................................................................................................................................87