[Asis-l] "List of Portal Application Functionalities" Public Comment Period ends 9/30/03

[Richard Hill]

The Library of Congress Portals Applications Issues Group (LCPAIG) is still 
interested in receiving comments from individuals, libraries, professional 
organizations, and vendors on its "List of Portal Application 
Functionalities for the Library of Congress."  The comment period will 
continue through September 30, 2003.   The document is available at: 
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/lcpaig/portalfunctionalitieslist4publiccomment1st7-22-03revcomp.pdf

The LCPAIG welcomes feedback on its statement of proposed mandatory and 
desirable functionalities.  Positive criticism will be gratefully 
received.  Please send your comments via eMail to:<lcpaig at loc.gov>.

After September the LCPAIG will review the List to revise it, taking into 
account comments received as a result of this announcement.

The List of Portal Application Functionalities represents the results of 
nearly one year of market analysis to study portal functionality of 
particular products in order to identify existing features of such 
products. The functionalities are organized under  broad headings: General 
Requirements, Client Requirements, Searching and Search Results, Knowledge 
Database, Patron Authentication, and Portal Administration and Vendor 
Support.  All of the functionalities designated as "M" for "mandatory" were 
present in one or more of the three applications (ZPORTAL*, MetaLib/SFX, 
ENCompass/LinkFinderPlus) that were tested during  market analysis.  In 
addition, for a high performing portal application, the LCPAIG identified 
several highly desirable functionalities not yet present in some or all the 
products tested  These  functionalities, designated as "D" (for 
"desirable") are offered to vendors for consideration as they enhance their 
products.

The LCPAIG recognizes that the List may not include applications that other 
kinds of libraries might specify as either required or desirable.  For 
example, academic libraries are likely to want portal products that can 
interface with courseware.  In short, the list produced by the LCPAIG is 
that for a general research library of a large and complex nature, such as 
a national library.  Additions or subtractions may be appropriate according 
to the needs of other kinds of libraries.

The study that produced the List resulted from Work Item 2.1 within the 
Action Plan that grew out of the Library of Congress Cataloging 
Directorate's Bicentennial Conference on Bibliographic Control for the New 
Millennium.  For further information about the Conference and its outcomes, 
visit: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/bibcontrol/

For further information about the LCPAIG, links to portal and OpenURL 
products and vendors, standards and articles on portals, visit its Web page 
at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/lcpaig/paig.html

Executive Director
American Society for Information Science and Technology
1320 Fenwick Lane, Suite 510
Silver Spring, MD  20910
FAX: (301) 495-0810
PHONE: (301) 495-0900

http://www.asis.org