Web Junction

A Community-Based Portal for the

Israeli Information Specialists and
Library Experts
Ami Salant and Sigalit Adani
November 21 2007

WWW.I-ZM.INFO
The Need
In the rapidly evolving research Web 1.0
Website
scene of today, a vast diversity Portal
Vortal
of information is becoming
electronically available.

?
The information environment is
highly distributed, highly
dynamic, and extremely Web 2.0
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Community
The Need and constraints

 One of the great research challenges posed by this

environment is finding useful information relevant and
practical for information specialists.

 Dissemination of reliable and up-to-date research-based

information is shaped by a perpetual cycle of time constraints
and limited access to published resources.
The Solution

 Established and resourceful journals are scattered around with

no single entry of access.

 Because of the dispersal of the professional information

among various factors and documenting systems, a global
integrative content portal in the field of information science
has been set up in Israel.

 The aim of the portal is to cover contents that are relevant to

this field to be dealt with in greater depth.
Seeking a solution -1

 In recent years, we have witnessed the development of

information centers on the Internet whose objective is to
present the users with a more complete picture of the
information.
Seeking a solution – 2

 Portals - these information centers are known as portals, and

are sometimes called vertical portals or content portals.

 Content - the portal is not simply a technological solution to the

problem of the dispersal and fragmenting of information, but
also a systematic perception that filters, distills, and unifies the
information sources.
Seeking a solution- 2

 A portal can now be viewed

as a thin layer that
aggregates, integrates,
digests and presents
information, to the users in a
manner independent of
browser platform or location.
Here comes Web Junction

 The Web Junction portal complements the existing repositories

by providing a unified user interface to the content.

 This kind of resource discovery is deemed most essential for

the information specialists who want to see all research findings
and resources that are relevant and available for their subject.

 The objective of the Web Junction portal is to permit the

coordinated collection, processing, and distribution of
information sources into one integrative “reservoir”.
The WEB JUNCTION coordinated
solution

 The WEB JUNCTION content portal

enables information sources to be
constructed.
 In other words, the information is
consolidated according to defined
templates, meaningful categories are
created, and contents that are scattered
throughout various technological websites
are channeled into a unified web-based
platform according to defined and agreed
categories.
Why is it a community-based portal?

 We encourage information
specialist in Israel and abroad
to deposit data, results, reports
and publications in a unified
platform of global repositories
available to them via the
internet .
 This platform includes a
possibility to create your own
blog and publish it on the Web
Junction platform
Why a community-based solution?

 The Web Junction project

entails the close connection to
a Community of Practice
through the establishment and
maintenance of information
specialists networks of
interested stakeholders that
discuss, share ideas, find
solutions relating to retrieval
process (search engines) and
available databases .
How do we operate?

 Digest of various articles

and research papers are
prepared and then
distributed through the
subject categories of the
WEB JUNCTION portal .
Web Junction subject categories
 Subject categories included in portal
– Business information and markets
– Internet news
– Information management
– Knowledge management
– Competitive intelligence
– Library and information centers
– Search engines and strategies
– Online databases
– Conferences and in-service training
– Books and book reviews
– Technology corner
– Web 2.0
Dynamic keywords relation

 Besides main headings and

categories each record
includes controlled keywords
from a controlled list.
 The keyword list is dynamic in
each record namely it is fully
linked to other keywords in
similar subjects. The keyword
list is also presented in the front
page of the Web Junction
portal.
Information distribution
 We have created a coordinated
software program to distribute
selected abstracts and articles
to those information specialists
in Israel who subscribe to the
WEB JUNCTION PORTAL.
 Every second week or every
month the receive a newsletter
covering the new updates within
the WEB JUNCTION content
categories. Each category is
actually represented in the
newsletter.
Future plans -1

 The Web Junction portal will

eventually provide a rapidly
deployed and easily adopted
Web-based collaborative
workspace that enables
distributed teams to work
together more efficiently.
Future plans -2

 We are lately probing and

researching various
technologies for this end such
as the eRoom technological
solution, allowing information
specialists to customize and use
their collaborative workspaces to
support a wide range of research
processes .
See you in Web Junction

 Thank you and do not forget Web 1.0

Portal
to join our distribution list at
the Web Junction Portal

Web
Junction
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