Cover Sheet for Proposals Rapid Innovation Programme Name of JISC Initiative: JISC Rapid Innovation Grants Name of Lead Institution: London School of Economics & Political Science Name of Proposed Project: Library Social Widget Toolkit (LSWT) Name(s) of Project Partner(s): (none) Full Contact Details for Primary Contact: Name: Position: Email: Tel: Fax: Address: Tim Green Library IT Manager [email protected] 020 7955 6140 020 7955 7454 LSE Library 10 Portugal Street London WC2A 2HD Length of Project: 6 Months Project Start Date: 1st Jun 2009 Total Funding Requested from JISC: Project End Date: 30th Nov 2009 £40,000 Funding Broken Down over Academic Years (Aug-July): Aug08 – July09 £13,333 Aug09 – July10 £26,667 £39,555 Total Institutional Contributions: Outline Project Description This project will develop lightweight modular middleware, which will interface between library applications and a range of social widgets designed as part of the project. The widgets will be designed to plug into a variety of targets, including institutional portals and social networks. These will form the core of a library services widget repository, available to all members of the library community. The project will be of interest to all libraries interested in making self-service functionality available from within Virtual Learning Environments (Moodle, Blackboard), open source library applications (VuFind), and online social spaces (iGoogle, Facebook). List of priority areas, highlight each that applies: Mashups of open data Lightweight Shared Infrastructure Service User Interface Design I have looked at the example FOI form at YES Appendix A and included an FOI form in the attached bid (Tick Box) I have read the Funding Grant and YES associated Terms and Conditions of Grant at Appendix B (Tick Box) NO NO Library Social Widget Toolkit: Proposal to JISC Information Environment Rapid Innovation Grants / JISCRI FOI Withheld Information Form We would like JISC to consider withholding the following sections or paragraphs from disclosure, should the contents of this proposal be requested under the Freedom of Information Act, or if we are successful in our bid for funding and our project proposal is made available on JISC’s website. We acknowledge that the FOI Withheld Information Form is of indicative value only and that JISC may nevertheless be obliged to disclose this information in accordance with the requirements of the Act. We acknowledge that the final decision on disclosure rests with JISC. Section / Paragraph No. NONE Page 2 of 8 Relevant exemption from disclosure under FOI Justification Library Social Widget Toolkit: Proposal to JISC Information Environment Rapid Innovation Grants / JISCRI Appropriateness and Fit to Programme Objectives and Overall Value to the JISC Community Summary of proposal 1) This project will develop lightweight modular middleware which can act as an interface between both standard and bespoke library applications and social widgets. A range of such widgets will be developed, to perform services such as book renewals, online fine payment, and display of reading list materials. As far as possible standard protocols and APIs will be used, maximizing the potential user base of the software developed. 2) The project will make these deliverables available as free software, and use the widgets developed as the foundation for a 'Library Services widget repository' available to, and accepting contributions from, the rest of the library community. The repository will allow libraries, from UK HEIs and globally, to look for widgets to use and adapt for their own services, as well to upload their own widgets for use and adaptation by others. Outcomes and benefits 3) This distributed approach will provide an adjunct to centralised library services supporting the integration of access to those services within a range of social software and VLEs, simplifying access and enabling social aspects of library use. 4) The widget approach maximizes use of existing software assets by leveraging the browser as display mechanism, and minimizes development time through the use of cross-platform libraries (OpenSocial, OAuth). It builds on prior investment by the LSE in proprietary products based on open standards (SIP2) and in the creation of RESTful interfaces to new software, such as a bespoke reading list application. 5) While the services provided through the middleware will be accessible under the same conditions as the centralised library services (that is, primarily available to LSE students and staff and authorised external users) the use of a modular architecture and standard protocols combined with release as free software should make the result replicable across the sector. With this in mind, the project will be developed with two target user groups: firstly students and staff within the LSE, and then library personnel at University of Plymouth and Open University. This second group will be involved in testing ease of installation on their own systems and in their own environments and commenting on desirable functionality. 6) Typical use cases might be: a) A student is using Moodle-based material in connection with a taught module. The widget pops up an alert reminding her that books she has on loan need to be renewed. The student uses the widget to renew the books and continues, without ever needing to log in to a separate library application. b) A student is working at home using GoogleDocs to access documents he is working on with a group of colleagues from his course. He needs to use the reading list for the course as input to the bibliography, and looks it up using the reading list widget he has added to his iGoogle home page alongside his GoogleDocs widget. c) A postgraduate researcher picks up a book on her subject. While logged in to Facebook she wonders if any other researchers have recently used the book – she uses the Facebook widget to poll others who have signed up to the book discussion service. Leaving a message she shortly receives chat requests from fellow research students who want to discuss the text and the subject area. 7) The project integrates access to teaching and research materials with current social, research, and learning practice based on personalised platforms and social networks. Page 3 of 8 Library Social Widget Toolkit: Proposal to JISC Information Environment Rapid Innovation Grants / JISCRI 8) The deliverables would improve library users’ qualitative experience of services by providing a consistent interface for users – similarly styled widgets would provide an easy learning curve and product recognition for library services. They would also improve convenience of service, with core functionality available from multiple access points. 9) Successful implementation would also bring quantitative benefits to libraries by making a more modular approach to purchase of library systems more feasible and improving access to core library services – widgets would allow the library to plug core functionality into other systems without the need for proprietary front-ends. Online payment facilities would reduce the need for some staffed services (e.g. telephone services for fine payments / renewals). Quality of Proposal and Robustness of Workplan Deliverables 10) Deliverables will consist of: a) A modular lightweight middleware system which communicates with library applications and provides an API for social widgets. Modules to be developed will include: i) A SIP2 module, which communicates with the Integrated Library System (at LSE this is Voyager, from Ex Libris, but the SIP2 standard will work across a range of different ILS) ii) A thin wrapper module which communicates with the web service interface of a locally developed reading list system, which already provides a RESTful API (based on Groovy and Grails). iii) A finance module which can manage payment of fines via a Wallet application managed by the LSE's Management Information Systems department iv) An SQL module capable of querying library management system data not available through SIP2 (e.g. historical book usage). v) An authorisation module, based on OAuth or similar authorisation delegation protocol, which securely maps the user's credentials for the social networking site or VLE to the user's login for the library applications, To achieve this the module will maintain tables of authorised consumers (i.e. incarnations of the user at various social networking sites) for each user (i.e. library application with unique login). b) A set of widgets. The initial set will be based on the OpenSocial standard and be targeted at: i) Moodle, via the Wookie widget engine ii) iGoogle, GoogleDocs, and other Google applications iii) Institutional portals – at LSE this is delivered using uPortal, but it would provide a model for other institutional portal widgets. 11) These initial widgets will include functions such as book renewal, notification of loans about to expire, and notification of reserved books which have become available. These core functions require completion of the SIP2 and SQL middleware modules. 12) Further development will expand both the range of targets and the functions implemented. Additional targets will include VuFind - the open-source catalogue system in beta test at a number of UK sites; Facebook, the social network; and the Reading List Manager system – an in-house system used to manage c.1,000 lists for the Library. Additional functions will include the ability to pay fines for overdue books (dependent on the finance module), notification of books remaining to be read for next week (dependent on the reading list module), and the ability of students and researchers to choose to Page 4 of 8 Library Social Widget Toolkit: Proposal to JISC Information Environment Rapid Innovation Grants / JISCRI receive discussion requests from fellow students about books they have borrowed. 13) In each case, communication between widgets and middleware will be RESTful, and data transport will use JSON. Maximising access 14) Widgets and middleware modules will be released as free software. Middleware will be under the GPL licence with the LSE as licence holder; widgets will be under the (modified) BSD licence. 15) Some of the applications the middleware will need to communicate with are bespoke or do not use a widely established protocol. Modules communicating with these applications will be released as open source, but will necessarily not be very useful to others except as examples. 16) A widget repository will be set up on the project website once the initial middleware is available for download, and the wider HEI community will be invited to contribute additional widgets. Externally contributed widgets will be required to be under a license complying with the Open Source Definitions. 17) LSE has been in touch with the IE Demonstrator Project, which will capture interim outputs relating to the design/development process and make them available to the IE Demonstrator wiki. This might include screen shots of deployed or packaged prototypes; designs / paper-prototypes; documentation relating to the development process (e.g. evidence of user-testing, requirements, etc); and a roadmap for future development. Project management 18) The Library IT team has been gradually moving to agile development methods over time and core agile methods will be used, in particular: test driven development; maintenance of distributable product through continuous refactoring; and integration of user feedback within the process from the earliest possible moment, resulting in iterative development. 19) Reporting to JISC will be via the project wiki, which will have a separate set of pages for monthly reports, in addition to pages used to discuss minor changes or for less formal communication between participants. Risk assessment 20) As with all projects of this type there are a number of key risks facing the project, including loss of key project staff; organisational refusal to allow experimentation with services; and lack of take-up of widgets by the wider community, although action can be taken to ameliorate these risks. No IPR difficulties are anticipated as the project is collaborating with OSS-Watch over release, as recommended by JISC. a) Staff risks: ensure alternative staff can be made available; encourage health and well being at work b) Organisational risks: maintain involvement of operational infrastructure managers via LSE ICT Managers Group. c) Collaborative risks: establish contact early; release early, release often; maximise use of standard OSS practices. Engagement with the Community Engagement and dissemination Page 5 of 8 Library Social Widget Toolkit: Proposal to JISC Information Environment Rapid Innovation Grants / JISCRI 21) Engagement will be at three levels, with infrastructural support for all: a project website will be hosted on code.google.com, providing wiki, issue tracker, and software distribution. A secondary website will be used to provide any extra functionality needed. 22) The first level consists of a small group of LSE students/researchers with interests in social networks involved in feedback during early development of the widget set. Once roll-out of the widgets begins, larger scale testing will make use of a 'rate this widget' voting option for feedback from a wider pool of users. The voting results will be shown on the project website, where the wiki will allow more detailed comments. 23) The second level will include staff from the University of Plymouth and from the Open University, who will test the alpha versions of the middleware by installing it on their own systems, providing input and feedback from a wider set of users in a different environment. 24) The third level will be external communication about the project to the wider HE community. This will be through a variety of channels, including the project website, regular bulletins to appropriate UK and international email lists (such as lists for developers and implementers of target applications such as Moodle and VuFind), and articles in relevant HE journals and publications. 25) Stakeholders will include LSE ICT providers, and library users and staff within the UK HE sector. In addition the project will work within the OSS-Watch framework and in collaboration with the JISC IE-Demonstrator team. Sustainability 26) Once take-up beyond the LSE has begun, the code.google.com website will also be used to host contributed widgets. This is likely to coincide with the end of the JISC funded work, and advice has been sought from OSS watch about sustainability during this stage. Budget Directly Incurred Staff Project Manager, Step 39; 0.2fte Technical Officer, Step 30; 1.0fte Total Directly Incurred Staff (A) TOTAL £ £2,066 August 09 – November 09 £4,133 £7,929 £15,857 £23,786 £9,995 £19,990 £29,985 Non-Staff June 09 – July 09 TOTAL £ Travel and expenses Hardware/software Dissemination Evaluation Other Total Directly Incurred Non-Staff (B) £83 £333 £333 £333 £0 £1,082 August 09 – November 09 £167 £667 £667 £667 £0 £2,168 £250 £1,000 £1,000 £1,000 £0 £3,250 Directly Incurred Total (C) (A+B=C) £11,077 £22,158 £33,235 Directly Allocated June 09 – July 09 TOTAL £ Staff (Project oversight and contributions from Library and School ICT divisions, 0.2fte) Estates £2,066 August 09 – November 09 £4,132 £2,033 £4,066 £6,099 Page 6 of 8 June 09 – July 09 £6,199 £6,198 Library Social Widget Toolkit: Proposal to JISC Information Environment Rapid Innovation Grants / JISCRI Other Directly Allocated Total (D) £0 £4,099 £0 £8,198 £0 £12,297 Indirect Costs (E) £11,341 £22,682 £34,023 Total Project Cost (C+D+E) Amount Requested from JISC Institutional Contributions £26,517 £13,333 £13,185 £53,038 £26,667 £26,370 £79,555 £40,000 £39,555 Percentage Contributions over the life of the project JISC 50 % Partners 50 % Total 100% No. FTEs used to calculate indirect and estates charges, and staff included 1.4 Technical Officer (1.0fte), Project Manager (0.2fte), contributions from School ICT divisions (0.2fte). Previous Experience of the Project Team 27) The LSE Library was not part of the Startup and Enhancement projects, but has a pool of previous self-funded work which fits within this general approach and on which this project will build. In particular, this includes development of the Reading List Manager system based on Grails/Groovy, and integration of the open source library OPAC, VuFind. Both are currently in a live beta testing stage, and are expected to be fully launched by the start of the 2009/10 academic year. 28) Beyond the Library, the project team will be able to call on the collective experience of LSE’s range of ICT providers, in particular the Centre for Learning Technology, which has expert knowledge of Moodle integration and development. 29) The project will be overseen by Tim Green, Library IT Manager. Tim is a member of the LSE ICT Managers Group, and of the Library Leadership Team. He has first hand experience advising on desirable project deliverables and supporting EU and UK funded projects managed by the Library’s Project Team. Before working at LSE Tim spent four years working at a number of international law firms developing know-how systems, and previously worked at Warwick University where he helped establish the CTI Law Technology Centre, which advised UK Law Schools on the use of technology in research and education. 30) The project manager will be Michael Hallas, Library IT Development Manager. Michael has extensive experience of managing development work, including: project managing LSE’s bespoke Reading List Manager system for the last two years; leading a rapid development project to create a locker booking system; and developing a self-registration system, which involved close collaboration with the School’s MIS department, and has handled 32,000 registrations since it was launched in 2005. 31) The post of Technical Officer will be filled jointly by Graham Seaman and Shiraz Azizali. Graham Seaman is a former Senior Lecturer in Computing, with over 10 years experience in web development and scripting languages (Perl, Php, Java, JavaScript, and Ruby). He has worked for a number of commercial web development agencies; as an independent contractor for the Department of Education; and most recently on the JISCfunded FLAME project at LSE. 32) Shiraz Azizali has 5 years experience in web development, and for the last 2 years has been lead developer for the Library’s web-based Reading List Manager system. He is skilled in a variety of programming and scripting languages including Perl, Groovy, and JavaScript and is an active member of the Grails community. Page 7 of 8 Library British Library of Political and Economic Science 20 April 2009 J l SC Executive Northavon House Coldharbour Lane Bristol BS16 1QD 10 Portugal Street London WC2A 2HD tel: +44 (0)20 7955 7218 fax: +44 (0)20 7955 7454 email: j.sykes8lse.ac.uk Jean Sykes Dear Sirs Librarian and Director of IT Services Re. JISC Rapid Innovation Grants I fully endorse this proposal for a JISC funded rapid innovation project to be carried out at LSE to develop lightweight modular middleware, and provide an API for social widgets which could be plugged into ir~stitutionalportals, VLEs, and online social networks. This project will be of direct benefit to LSE's user community, by providing us with the ability to push our core library services into the online spaces that our users occupy - such as Moodle, Google, and Facebook - meeting their need for simple, consistent access to services across a range of environments. The project will also enable LSE to build the foundations of a "library widget repository" of use to all libraries across the wider UK HE community (and beyond) that have an interest in expanding self-service functionality and facilitating user interactions with their institutions. The Library IT team at LSE is experienced in this sort of innovative development work, as shown ill its development of an online reading list management system and its adoption of agile development methods in its implementation of the VuFind catalogue interface. I recommend this project to JISC. Yours sincerely Jean Sykes Librarian and Director of IT Services INVESTORS IN PEOPLE The London School of Econom~csand Pol~t~cal Science IS a School of the Un~versityof London It IS a char~ty and IS incorporated In England as a company l ~ m ~ t ebyd guarantee under the Compan~esActs (Reg No 70527)