FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service Pasi Keski-Nisula, The National Library of Health Sciences, Helsinki, Finland LInks: FeedNavigator http://www.terkko.helsinki.fi/feednavigator/ EAHIL 2008 Scientific Programme http://wiki.helsinki.fi/display/EAHILScientificProgramme/Home

1. FeedNavigator – Medical Current
Awareness Service
Pasi Keski-Nisula
It-Specialist
National Library of Health Sciences -Terkko
pasi.keski-nisula@helsinki.fi
National Library of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine

2. The Internet is a mountain size pile
of journals and books where the
best sellers are on the surface
As the library people know best…
National Library of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine

3. What if all web sites would be catalogued into
”one huge library database”?
No unique user interfaces of unique sites.
No unique search functions of unique sites.
No unique addresses and hundreds of bookmarks.
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 3

4. What if all web sites would be catalogued into
”one huge library database”?
One would have to use only a single service.
One would have to learn only a single user interface.
One would not have to learn many different search engine
behaviors.
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 4

5. ”Traditional” search engines try to do this
Search engines collect data (words without meaning)
from sites into a single searchable database.
Search engines have been made for the web 1.0.
-> Very limited semantics
-> Not good enough for current awareness!
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 5

6. Terkko realized back in 2004 that web feeds would
become an important step for semantic web.
TerkkoSiteSummary was a personal customizable web
page.
Collected tens of web feeds into one single web page.
Without any database system. -> No advanced functions
One year later Terkko introduced FeedNavigator.
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 6

7. TerkkoSiteSummary
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 7

8. FeedNavigator does it better
Collects information from web feeds into a single
searchable database.
Web feed is a common text file which includes
”catalogued” information of the latest contents of web
sites.
A number of the sites that have web feeds rises
continuosly.
The most common formats are RSS, ATOM and PodCast
which all are XML-formats.
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 8

9. FeedNavigator collects web feed-data and
allows to use this data in many ways
Data is
downloaded
into
FeedNavigator
database A Client uses
the database
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 9

10. ”Traditional” Search Engines vs. FeedNavigator
Collects data
->Collects information
Very limited personalization.
-> Efficient personalization.
Database updates slowly and irregularly.
->Database updates all the time and regularly.
Search functions are limited.
->Advanced search functions. (boolean,truncation...)
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 10

11. ”Traditional” Search Engines vs. FeedNavigator
Database includes obsolete data.
->No obsolete data.
Multi-field.
-> Single-field.
Spam in search results.
-> No spam in search results. No ads.
One search engine has a monopoly.
-> Uncommercial and free for all.
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 11

12. FeedNavigator’s Sources
2784 journal feeds
73 medical topics (+ library sciences)
58 news feeds
326 blog feeds
477 university of Helsinki feeds
Medical dissertations
Helsinki Medical Publications
Helka library catalogs
Researchers publications
Library evaluates and adds new feeds all the time into the
system.
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 12

13. FeedNavigator’s Data
Almost half of million current references
Source name
Article title
Link to article
Description
Author(s)
DOI
Time of downloading the item
Some information added from other sources because the
data is re-used in Scholar Chart –service.
Impact Factors
SCImago Journal Ranks (SJR)
Hirsch-index
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 13

14. FeedNavigator’s Data Re-use
Data can be recycled in many ways:
Feeds can be read with separate readers.
Data can be exported into other web services:
- Scholar Chart
- DSpace
- Intranet
- LUX
- Branch libraries
- Other web sites…
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 14

15. Some FeedNavigator’s Features
Phrase searching & truncation and boolean operators.
Updates 24/7
SFX-links.
RefWorks-links (bibliographic management program).
An article delivery service.
Mobile interface.
Works with all new mobile devices. It has a very simplified
user interface, but has almost all the same functions as
standard version.
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 15

16. Basic Use of FeedNavigator
User can customize a personal front page feed (MyFeed)
by selecting user’s favorite medical publications and
search keywords:
1. User can click the boxes in front of the source names to
save favorite sources.
2. User can make a query and click a “MyFeed”-button to
save search query.
References can be saved to MyArticles page which is
user’s own article repository.
www.terkko.helsinki.fi/feednavigator
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 16

17. FeedNavigator Ingredients
RSS, ATOM and PodCast -feeds.
Web 2.0 principle of continuous developing.
Open standards and open software.
Hosted and developed by Terkko.
Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, XHTML, JavaScript, CSS…
Dynamic timing of web feed downloads.
The system keeps track how regularly publisher’s web feeds
are updated and based on this data it adjusts dynamically
the download frequencies of individual web feeds. This
assures that there will be always enough network and
computing resources to update all the feeds when new feeds
are added.
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 17

18. Web Feed
Web feed is a XML-formatted text file.
Includes multiple items which are ordered by publication
date.
Most common information:
Link.
Title.
Description.
Date.
Other possible information, for example:
Authors
Language
Category
Etc.
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 18

19. Web Feed
The publisher has a file at the server and updates it
frequently.
The most popular web feed formats at the moment are
different versions of RSS, Atom and Podcast.
Maybe the most important downside is bandwidth
consumption that the frequent downloading involves.
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 19

20. Web Feed
Source
Article
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 20

21. Who is using FeedNavigator?
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 21

22. Who is using FeedNavigator?
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 22

23. Thank You!
www.terkko.helsinki.fi/feednavigator
Pasi Keski-Nisula, FeedNavigator – a Medical Current Awareness Service 27.06.2008 23