The Singapore Infopedia: evolution of an online encyclopedia
The Authors
Bonny Tan, Lee Kong Chian Reference Library, National Library Board, Singapore
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to provide an overview of the development of the Singapore Infopedia since its inception in 1998 as the InfoXpress until its relaunch in 2006. It seeks to look at some of the challenges faced in design, content creation and data migration.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper derives data from unpublished surveys, project papers, user feedback and studies of similar online encyclopedias. It also draws from the author's experience and involvement in the project development between 1998 and 2005.
Findings – The paper is a case study describing the conceptualization and user requirements for an online encyclopedia with guidelines on content management and delivery. The project also involved several surveys which provide invaluable insights to user preferences. Learning lessons gleaned in developing an online encyclopedia on Singapore were derived from early prototype design, studying existing online encyclopedias and user needs surveys of the InfoXpress.
Originality/value – The development, migration and re-establishment of the Singapore Infopedia were followed closely by surveys of users and studies of existing online encyclopedias. Although not all user preferences were incorporated, the survey data and online encyclopedias studied give indication of preferences, design issues and content development strategy that can be applied to similar platforms.
Article Type:
Case study
Keyword(s):
Electronic publishing; Internet; Databases; Content management; Customer surveys; Singapore.
Journal:
The Electronic Library
Volume:
26
Number:
1
Year:
2008
pp:
55-67
Copyright ©
Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN:
0264-0473
1. Introduction
The Singapore Infopedia began as the InfoXpress kiosk, a remote Reference service launched in 1998. Information on Singapore's national history and culture was often difficult to find and was scattered in primary resources such as newspapers, street directories and magazines. Whilst bibliographic tools provided access to some sources, students and new scholars often found these tools tedious particularly if they were new to the subject. Since the 1980s, the Reference staff had manually collated frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Singapore and their respective answers. These formed the initial pool of data for an online encyclopedic database. The InfoXpress database thus began with FAQs on Singapore's history and culture along with their answers. It also offered pointers to relevant sources in the library's holdings. In 1998, the InfoXpress was launched with more than 1,000 Singaporeana FAQs as stand alone kiosks located in selected libraries. Surveys of the database were conducted in the late 1990s of user needs (National Library Board, 1998, 1999). This feedback served to guide the development of InfoXpress into the Singapore Infopedia. Changes included enhancements of the FAQs into encyclopedic articles, the addition of copyright-free images and the incorporation of standards. The contents of the InfoXpress database was migrated into Microsoft SQL and relaunched as the Singapore Infopedia in mid-2006.
2. The predecessor – the InfoXpress
The InfoXpress kiosk was designed as a remote reference desk for lending libraries, providing reference services in locations with limited reference resources.
The InfoXpress prototype had two distinct components – first, a database search and second, a remote reference enquiry service (Figure 1). Users at the InfoXpress kiosks could either search the database for answers or send an enquiry to a remote reference desk service, Reference Point. Answers to queries on the database could be retrieved immediately through a simple search mechanism. Replies to enquiries could be retrieved directly via the kiosk or were sent to the patron's personal e-mail.
The InfoXpress enquiry service had a unique feature. It allowed for relevant FAQs on Singapore to be ported over to the InfoXpress database. So answers crafted for the users could be refined and saved as a database entry, preserving the effort put into the original answers. The InfoXpress prototype also acted as a test bed for developing a content generating community especially among the library staff, building up staff subject expertise on local content and collections.
2.1 The InfoXpress database
This was a content database focused on Singapore – the country's culture, history and people. Initially the entries were presented as questions and answers, with pointers to print and non-print sources for further readings. Besides presenting a backbone of content on Singapore history, the process of content creation was an important secondary function that helped the library staff. Content development was seen as an important part in developing staff knowledge of the Singapore collection holdings, of user needs in this subject field and a deeper understanding of subject knowledge on Singapore.
The InfoXpress database also had a parallel resource in Chinese – the Chinese InfoXpress. The concept of the InfoXpress was thus translated into a Chinese version of the online encyclopedia. Its content reflected the concerns and interests of the Chinese Singapore community. However, the individual English articles in the InfoXpress database were not directly translated into Chinese.
2.2 The InfoXpress enquiry service
This service aimed to address first-tier reference enquiries then handled by the reference counter at lending libraries. It sought to provide a stable and affordable framework to enable a user to obtain relevant responses from an information provider.
Users could send an e-mail through the kiosk, which used the Lotus Notes software, to lodged the query at Reference Point. Answers could be retrieved via the kiosk by user log-in or via e-mail. Queries and answers crafted for the user were saved in an Enquiry database also on Lotus Notes. Useful answers related to Singapore which proved relevant to the InfoXpress database could be ported into the FAQ database directly from the Enquiry database. These FAQs were edited to ensure the anonymity of enquirer and republished so users at the kiosk could access them.
3. User surveys
By the end of 1998, the kiosks had been tested in four selected libraries. The library sites were the National Reference Library (NRL), Tampines Regional Library (TRL), Geylang East Library (GE) and Cheng San Library (CS). These libraries are representative of the range of sizes, locations and services available at NLB libraries at that time.
The NRL focused solely on reference services and did not have lending services. A lending library however was co-located within the premises of the NRL. TRL represented the regional libraries with a range of services that included lending services as well as reference services. GE represented the stand-alone libraries thatprovided information for the general public through its lending services. The CS represented the shopping mall libraries, much smaller in size and staffing which served a community of shoppers.
A quantitative survey was conducted between December 5-31, 1998 – a major school holiday before the start of a new school year. The survey was summative and was conducted to evaluate the usefulness of the InfoXpress kiosk and its respective services, namely the database and the remote enquiry service. Basic questions on the use and usefulness of the services were presented. Walk-in users were asked to test the system and give their feedback. Most were using the kiosks for the first time. At least 100 returns were required from each of the library sites prototyping the service. A total of 548 users responded to the questionnaire from the four specially selected sites. Electronic tracking and log-in analysis between December 1998 and June 1999 helped verify data.
3.1. Evaluation of the content database
On average, at least 27,841 searches were registered a day across the libraries, approximately 1,740 per kiosk per day. Based on electronic and user's feedback, the majority of the users were students constituting 80.6 percent (electronic tracking) and 48.4 percent (manual tabulation) of users respectively, most of whom were searching for information related to their studies. However, at the Reference Library, the bulk of users were in the 26-59 age group constituting 41 percent of users, many of whom were conducting business research or higher level academic research. Using electronic tracking over the a six-month period, the most popular topic searched at all sites was “History” which averaged 2,111 hits per month or 8 percent of all searches. However, at the Reference Library, the most popular topic was “Business and Industries” which averaged 1,145 hits per month or 7 percent of all searches (Figure 2).
Based on the survey, a higher satisfaction level for the database was seen in the predominantly student population between ages 12-19. This is reflective of the fact that the database was derived from FAQs from student projects of the same age group. For users looking for current information or specialized information, the InfoXpress was unable to satisfy their needs. This dissatisfaction was seen mainly in the libraries with existing reference services (55 percent dissatisfied in NRL and 51 percent in TRL) where users were likely to seek out more in-depth enquiries and likely to have had prior experience of receiving personalized assistance through the Reference desk.
A large proportion of the 42 percent that indicated they could not find the information needed had mistaken the kiosk for being an Internet kiosk or an OPAC. Many also used the kiosk to search for general information not realizing that the kiosk only held Singapore content. However, at least 37 percent had indicated that their dissatisfaction was that the InfoXpress presented too little information. This could mean that users found what was required but the information proved insufficient for their needs.
Users had also requested that hyperlinks to related subject sites be associated with the articles. Similarly, images especially of locations, monuments or people are to be included with the articles.
3.2 Evaluation of the Enquiry service
The Enquiry service raised several issues related to process and technical aspects. Initial user surveys of the kiosks showed that the enquiry service had a limited reach and satisfaction level. Added to this, the growing ease of online communication made direct e-mailing a more appropriate form of servicing remote reference enquiries. Also both staff and users preferred a more interactive platform such as the telephone or electronic chat for handling reference enquiries.
On average, 122 enquiries were received daily through the InfoXpress kiosks. This constituted only 0.02 percent of the total enquiries handled at reference point. The majority of users were students comprising 48.4 percent and their requests were related to either studies (49.6 percent) or leisure interests (23 percent). However, at least 48.1 percent were abusive enquiries, constituting obscenities, undecipherable, blanks or repeat enquiries. Also based on electronic tracking of log-ins, 76.6 percent of enquiries sent through the kiosks were not retrieved by the user. This was likely because the process of returning to the kiosk without knowing when the answers were ready for retrieval was perceived as cumbersome and inconvenient.
3.3 Changes implemented
The surveys were summative as well as iterative. Another survey in 1999 was conducted after further changes were made based on the feedback of the earlier survey. This included removing the enquiry service which was not proving popular amongst users. Conversely, as users had requested for more information from the InfoXpress, the content in the database was converted from simple FAQs to short encyclopaedic articles.
As early as 1999, the InfoXpress database began converting all 1,000 entries into encyclopedic articles, each appended with a short bibliography of sources. The kiosks remained popular for its searchable database on Singaporeana whilst the Enquiry database remained as a backend tool for the Reference Point service. Relevant Singaporeana FAQs lodged in the Enquiry database could still be ported into the InfoXpress database. Thus the effort in researching for an enquiry on Singapore helped in populating the InfoXpress with useful articles.
4. Singapore Infopedia
The InfoXpress was enhanced based on the surveys of 1998 and 1999 and renamed the Singapore Infopedia. The Infopedia sought to redefine itself as the premier site for Singapore history by attempting to comprehensively cover topics not yet made available electronically. The content of the database was expanded in 1999 to comprehensively covering key eras in Singapore's history, including personalities, organizations and events during these eras; to expand on documents on culture and customs of Singapore and to develop a skeleton outline of the history of the National Library.
4.1 Target audience for content
The development of the Singapore Infopedia dovetailed with the National Education Programme that was launched on 16 May 1997. The Programme aimed “to develop national cohesion, the instinct for survival and confidence in the future” (www.moe.gov.sg/ne/). National Education is a non-examinable subject implemented in the curriculum from primary level to pre-university level with a strong emphasis on the history of Singapore. National Education however, went beyond school and was also incorporated into training schedules for government officials (www.nexus.gov.sg/).
Concurrently, renewed interest in the historical background of Singapore's places and people was generated from the ground-up by local hobbyists and community activists. Also active were associations such as the Singapore Heritage Society, private walking tours such as The Original Singapore Walks (www.singaporewalks.com/) and private heritage agencies such as The Singapore History Consultants (www.singaporehistoryconsultants.com/). Interest was also encouraged from the top down through key organizations in the National Heritage Board, namely through the museums, the National Archives and related agencies as well as the Singapore Tourism Board.
The target audience for the Singapore Infopedia thus expanded to a larger base, away from the student population of 13-17 year old. The Infopedia was now to target professional bodies in key industries such as the tourism industry, the educational community, the local media as well as research-based communities such as the serious hobbyist, local and foreign researchers, genealogists and academics.
4.2 Framework for Infopedia
As guidelines to develop the content and interface for the Infopedia, both existing print encyclopedias and online encyclopedias were consulted. For print sources, the Britannica Micropedia was examined as it presented information in concise yet informative short articles. For online sources, the Britannica Online (www.britannica.com/) and the electronic Americana were studied for their layout, content, accessibility and value. The Britannica and Americana are established print encyclopedias with a distinguished history. However, as online resource tools, they explored new ways of presenting their wealth of knowledge. The KnoweldgeNet, a local portal with encyclopedic articles on Singapore, was also studied.
In 1974, the Britannica had overhauled its traditionally unified arrangement for a tripartite structure made up of:
- Propedia – a tool revealing the “circle of learning” or known knowledge;
- Macropedia which had long essays detailing ten broad categories of knowledge; and
- Micropedia which initially served as an index to Macropedia, but through its popularity gained greater scope as a miniature encyclopedia (Auchter, 1999).
Furthermore, in 1997, it became the first print encyclopedia to make an online presence. The Americana is the first encyclopedia of magnitude to be published in North America in 1829. Its electronic version was first released in CD format in 1995 before it subsequently went online. Both encyclopedias provide access to its full-text only through subscription, although initial prototypes were offered free-of-charge.
The Americana and Britannica are written for the educated user, including students of higher levels. As such, the language is plain yet not simplistic. The style is concise, with key ideas encapsulated in clear, crisp sentences. However, McHenry (2003), previously the editor-in-chief of Britannica, laments the loss of a lyrical style inherent in earlier editions of the Britannica, particularly the 11th edition. The Britannica Online, however, profiles some articles from its past editions, something not featured in its print format. Through this feature, the changes in knowledge and how the information is expressed can interestingly be surveyed especially when a single subject is examined.
Britannica Online gives multiple approaches toward its content. A user is able to:
- search for content;
- browse through its subject outline which seems based on its tripartite knowledge presentation; or
- browse its alphabetical listing.
The electronic Americana gives options (1) and (2), where (2) is a broad subject listing but does not provide an alphabetical browse listing. The Britannica Online also offers parallel online sources such as websites and related articles associated with the subject searched.
Britannica's entries often start with a summary introduction followed by a table of content if the article can be expanded further (Figure 3). Each subheading is launched as a separate webpage with the content page attached below for easy navigation. Thus despite an often lengthy write-up for article entries, the launch of subsections as independent pages allow for a better read and absorption of knowledge.
What is valuable in Americana that is not available in Britannica is the bibliographic listing of sources under it section “Further Reading”. This section links to the Online Computer Library Center's (OCLC) WorldCat® bibliographic database (OCLC), a data resource which links the catalogue details of libraries worldwide. Although Britannica does not list the sources used in developing the article, it does provide an exhaustive reading list for its key articles. Britannica also provides intext links to related encyclopedic articles as does Americana through tabs. Finally, the electronic Americana takes pains to credit the authors of each article although this is not done in Britannica Online.
An existing online Singapore encyclopedic resource entitled KnowledgeNet, funded by the National Archives also served as a learning experience for developing the Singapore Infopedia. Created in the late 1990s, entries covered aspects of Singapore's history and communities, written by a range of experts from academics to journalist. They were accompanied by original digitized photographs from the National Archives' holdings. The web portal also had links to related academic papers on Singapore history as well as an online student newsletter, videos from old newsreels and a discussion list. Unfortunately, developing new content and maintaining the platform proved costly.
The Britannica Online, the electronic Americana and KnowledgeNet were chosen for study as they served a similar target audience as the planned Singapore Infopedia – that is, a wide age spectrum yet having a special focus on students and the larger educational community such as teachers and other educationist. Besides studying the content structure, layout, search capabilities and help functions, aspects of subscription and funding were also explored.
Although the Wikipedia was already online by the early 2000s, its value and standing had yet to be tested. Added to this was the question of propriety or ownership rights to the database. Other issues included the copyrights of final articles and images, the authority and reliability of the article, and the sources used for creating the article. The Wikipedia however provided useful insights to the content creation processes and the design of the content creator's interface which usually remain hidden from online encyclopedias such as Britannica Online and the electronic Americana.
4.3 Standards and templates
Beginning in 1998, the FAQs were rewritten as short encyclopedic articles between 300 to 800 words. The articles had to be clear and succinct, yet accurate. Thus each was stringently edited for both language and content. To assist in the editing process, an in-house style guide was compiled, based on the following sources:
- The Britannica Encyclopedia;
- Copy-editing: the Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Authors and Publishers (Butcher, 1992);
- The Economist Style Guide (1991);
- Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (American Psychological Association, 1994); and
- Fowler's Modern English Usage (Fowler, 1996).
Besides addressing aspects such as spelling, punctuation and citation format, the style guide also defined key elements for generic types of articles. Thematic templates for key categories in the Singapore Infopedia such as people, places, organizations and events were defined, following the structure of articles in Britannica Micropedia (Figure 4). These templates helped retain a measure of consistency over a wide range of topics. Each template defined the key data required such as the personal life as well as accomplishments of a famed or infamous individual. The first paragraph of each article was also important as it served as the abstract and the searchable entry point into the article.
Following each article were references used in writing the article and a brief bibliography for further readings. The references and bibliography pointed to materials available in the National Library's holdings or from online sources such as databases and the internet. These included print and non-print materials from books, journals, newspapers, audiovisual materials and websites.
The subjects and themes of the articles followed aspects of the National Education curriculum including areas such as Singapore Pioneers, Vanishing Trades and events of national importance such as the Japanese Occupation.
Rather than standard library subject headings, keywords had been used to categorize documents in the initial stage of creating InfoXpress. These subject subdivisions such as Architecture, Pioneers and Places were used as they allowed for a simple drop-text for browsing by the user.
Copyright issues made existing images available in public and private collections difficult to adopt for the project. To obtain copyright-free images, staff sought to generate their own images as they had done with the content. Thus in 2003, staff began photographing key sites and events to accompany the articles. The Singapore Pictures project therefore began as an appended image project supported by volunteer untrained staff with a keen interest in photography. An island-wide mapping of required images was drafted based on existing and potential InfoXpress articles. These included artifacts, buildings, monuments, cultural events and disaster sites. The images were saved by dates and broad topics, and assigned a simple title which had the photographer's name appended so a search and due credit could be made.
Creating original articles for the database required writing skills and editorial expertise. Researchers engaged in the project were required to have the essential skills for research, concise writing and data-trawling. Most were tertiary level students rather than scholars as the entries were written at an introductory level with little analytical insights. Librarians who edited the work of the researchers were also required to be proficient in the language and have some knowledge of the subject. Figure 5 provides an overview of the workflow incorporated into the design of the Infopedia database showing the document flow through various contributors and document status.
5. Content migration – the Singapore Infopedia
In 2003, the InfoXpress was redesigned as the Singapore Infopedia in preparations for the launch of the new National Library building that was planned for 2005. About 100 articles continue to be added annually to the database. Due to limited resources, the database remained exclusively an onsite service available to users at the library. For a limited period between 1999 and 2003, the InfoXpress was made available on the Student's Virtual Community, a prototype portal that schools could subscribe to. By the end of 2004, the InfoXpress was no longer an FAQ database but instead held 970 published articles in short encyclopedic format and had gained credibility as a resource for student heritage research for the secondary school level. By its launch in mid-2006, the Singapore Infopedia held more than 1,000 articles on Singapore.
5.1 Content management tools
Besides the technical redesign of the database and the migration of data from Lotus Notes to Microsoft SQL, major developments included the development of a staff interface that incorporated administrative functions of assigning, creating, editing and publishing a document. The migration process also entailed mapping fields in the existing InfoXpress database to Dublin Core metadata terms.
The content management tool (Figure 6) was designed for tabulation of completed documents by date, status and contributor so staff could be assessed based on their deliverables. Versioning was not incorporated into the design, so changes in the article is not monitored. However, an audit trail kept track of document movement and status. A document could be withdrawn, updated or made obsolete. A withdrawn document could be worked on although users will not be able to access it. Updated documents however, are immediately accessible after changes are made. An obsolete document will inevitably be deleted.
Staff can assign images to a document, picking from a pool of pre-selected images. However, meta-tagging of the documents and images are conducted by a separate team skilled in cataloguing. The cataloguers use the abstract created as a means to define the subject and metadata for the document and images.
6. Conclusion
The database was launched in 2006 and was well-received by both the educational community and the general public. Today, the Singapore Infopedia is accessible through the Library's portal (www.nlb.gov.sg) or directly from its own site (http://infopedia.nlb.gov.sg). The learning lessons derived from surveys and early online examples of encyclopedias proved instructive in developing a robust platform. It was important to look beyond the technical structure of the online encyclopedia and explore both user needs as well as content structure in constructing the Infopedia. Although there were existing platforms such as the Wikipedia which provided free shareware and a framework for an online encyclopedia, aspects such as rights issues and content authority made it unwieldy to adopt the Wikipedia platform at that time. In developing an internal platform for the encyclopedia, there was greater control over information creation, information access and rights. Limitations to this approach also meant that data could not be built through community participation and versatility in the platform design was limited to staff input rather than inherent in the software.
However, technical developments and similar concerns have led to further developments which now allow for the setting up of an online encyclopedia such as the Singapore Infopedia with limited effort. Even so, the lessons of crafting an encyclopedia and establishing standards can still prove useful in ensuring consistency and an informative tool.
Figure 1The database function and enquiry service in the InfoXpress Prototype (1998)
Figure 3Article entry for the Britannica Online
Figure 4Infopedia template for articles on People
Figure 5Document workflow chart incorporated into the design of the Infopedia database
Figure 6The Singapore Infopedia (2004) – content manager
References
American Psychological Association (1994), Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, .
Auchter, D. (1999), "The evolution of the Encyclopedia Britannica: from the Macropedia to Britannica Online", Reference Services Review, Vol. 27 No.3, pp.291-9.
Butcher, J. (1992), Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Authors and Publishers, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, .
(The) Economist Style Guide (1991), Economist Books, London, .
Fowler, H.W. (1996), The New Fowler's Modern English Usage, Clarendon Press and Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, NY, .
McHenry, R. (2003), "Whatever happened to encyclopedic style?", Chronicle of Higher Education, February 28, Vol. 49 No.25, pp.B13-B14.
National Library Board (1998), “Infopedia survey”, unpublished, National Library Board, Singapore, .
National Library Board (1999), “Infopedia survey”, unpublished, National Library Board, Singapore, .
Further Reading
Kister, K.F. (1994), Kister's Best Encyclopedias: A Comparative Guide to General and Specialized Encyclopedias, The Oryx Press, Phoenix, AZ, .
Ministry of Education, Singapore (1997), “Launch of national education”, May 16, available at: www.moe.gov.sg:80/press/1997/pr01797.htm, .
Tan, B. (2006), “A user needs assessment of a cultural heritage portal: the Singapore Infopedia”, unpublished MSc. dissertation, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, .
About the author
Bonny Tan joined the National Library in 1997 as a Reference Librarian. One of her earliest tasks was the setting up of the FAQ database, which was named the InXpress. She was also involved in evaluating the database through surveys in 1997 and 1998. Her contributions continued as she provided user requirements for the Singapore Infopedia, which culminated in the migration of the InfoXpress database to its new platform in 2005 and a dissertation paper on the subject. Currently Bonny resides in Vietnam although she works part-time for the National Library Board on projects related to heritage. Bonny Tan can be contacted at: tanbonny@gmail.com
