NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release:  Denver, CO.  March 13, 2008

 
GOLD RUSH XML GATEWAY WEB SERVICES LAYER (GRX)

 
The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries is pleased to announce the release of an XML gateway Web services layer to the Gold Rush public interface.  As libraries move into greater integration and display of their different Web-based offerings, there is an increasing call for greater flexibility in the way Gold Rush can be queried and result-sets displayed for integration into local Web sites.   The traditional Gold Rush public interface has some customization options but a site must work within the confines of its table-driven result sets.  The Gold Rush XML Gateway (GRX) is a new service that will take Gold Rush “out-of-the-box” so that interaction with it is completely customizable by a library. 

GRX Gold Rush is a Web service, accepting XML requests and returning XML responses.  This new services oriented architecture uses the SOAP (simple object access protocol) standard which handles the transfer of the XML data.  With this functionality, you will be able to make Gold Rush look like almost anything desired since each local site can create and control their own templates and style sheets.  The original Gold Rush Web interface will continue to be fully supported for those sites what do not want to use the new Web service.

Since XML result sets can range from an individual record to the extraction of a site’s entire Gold Rush set of holdings, the possibilities for its use are endless.  Examples of some applications might include:

• Create an entirely new starting interface for Gold Rush that is tailored to your exact needs.
• Create mash-ups or integrate Gold Rush more fully into other library applications or services including many new Web 2.0 projects
• Present the Gold Rush result sets with different data than are currently displayed.  For example, you may want to have the initial results of a browse to show elements that do not currently appear to limit the need to go to a full record. 
• Extract an XML representation of a site’s full set of Gold Rush data to import into a next generation library interface or share with another vendor.

As always, full documentation for these new features is available by clicking on the question mark within the GR Staff Toolbox.  A copy can also be found at http://grweb.coalliance.org/images/stories/GRV4/grx_documentation.pdf. 

About Gold Rush

Gold Rush is Web-based central digital registry of databases and electronic journals including both stand-alone and titles embedded within aggregated services. Gold Rush Complete offers a suite of tools for public access and staff management.   Gold Rush Complete offers openURL link resolution, subscription management (ERM), a public search interface (A-Z) with an additional Web services layer and content comparison.

About The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries

The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (http://www.coalliance.org)  is a non-profit consortium of eleven libraries in Colorado and Wyoming.  It is a 32 year old partnership of academic, special and public libraries with a history of working in concert to share resources through cooperative purchasing, special projects, systems management and consulting services.