OPAL - Online Personal Academic Librarian

[G.F.Payne at open.ac.uk]

	Since November 2000, the UK Open University Library has been
researching the development of OPAL (Online Personal Academic Librarian), a
fully automated online 24/7 reference service for distance students.  We
thought members of Dig-Ref, WEB4LIB, livereference, lis-bailer and lis-link
might find the project of interest.  Details about the project are posted
below or can be found on the project web site at
http://oulib1.open.ac.uk/wh/research/opal/

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	OPAL (Online Personal Academic Librarian) is an eighteen month
research project based at the UK Open University Library which is exploring
the development of a fully automated online 24/7 reference service for
distance students.  The project began in November 2000 and is a partnership
between the OU Library, the OU Knowledge Media Institute, and the libraries
of Leicester University and the University of London's Birkbeck College.

	The project team is currently developing and testing a prototype
automated reference system designed to answer common questions from OU
distance learners.  The OU has around 200,000 distance students based in the
UK and across the world, and around 50 percent of library enquiries are
received out of office hours from students studying in the evenings, at
weekends, or in different time zones.  Using OPAL, students will be able to
submit their enquiry to the OU Library at anytime and in anyplace, and
expect to receive an immediate automated response.  The system will use
filters to detect and provide answers to common and predictable questions,
while redirecting more complex enquiries to library staff.  

	As a second stage in the project, the team also plan to use agent
based architecture to create a generic "artificial librarian", capable of
answering more complex questions about library resources. This stage of the
project will draw on work into artificial intelligence question-answer
systems carried out at the OU Knowledge Media Institute.  It is planned for
the final system to be integrated with university student authentication
systems, enabling user profiling and the delivery of user specific answers.


Georgina Payne
Research Assistant
OPAL Project
Open University Library
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA
United Kingdom
Tel: (01908) 659277
E-mail: G.F.Payne at open.ac.uk