The future-proof research database
By Frank Jung,
Software AG
 To prepare for the
exchange of research findings with other universities and to improve the use and
maintenance of its research databases at the university and university hospital, the University of Freiburg
in southern Germany recently migrated the data from its research database to a native XML
database. The results are: standard storage of research findings, rapid scientific
searches and efficient access to research results via the Web.
In the future, research findings will not only be important for a university’s
reputation, but also for the allocation of research funds. This means that research
findings need to be stored in databases in a format that is suitable not only for the
research requirements of students and researchers, but also as a basis for research
management and resource allocation. In the future, such information will naturally also
have to be made available for public access and to other universities over the
Internet.
In view of these requirements, the university hospital in Freiburg, Germany has converted its existing
database to the XML (Extensible Markup Language) Web standard and is using Software
AG’s Tamino information server for storing research findings structured in XML.
Universities are being judged more critically by the public with regard to the
effectiveness of their research projects. This is why it is necessary to include all
information on research activities in a single database, including publications, findings
and descriptions of research projects, commemorative volumes, patents, dissertations and
postdoctoral theses.
The university hospital in Freiburg has been using a research database since the
beginning of the 1990s. Every year, between 8,000 and 10,000 items of information relating
to the whole university, and classified according to field, author, title, description,
etc. are recorded in the database. Administration of this database had become too costly.
And now there is a completely new challenge: Until now, the university’s research
report, a major work which is published periodically, was sent to all departments within
the university. However, few people actually read it. In the future, in order to save
paper and so that it can be kept more up to date, it will be stored in the research
database and will also be available via the Internet. This way it is hoped that far more
people will have access to, and use, the report.
XML, the new technological base
"In the long term, the information contained in the database needs to be exchanged
with other universities. As an open Web standard, XML is ideal for this. We chose Tamino as our information server because it provides
efficient XML support and made the migration from our previous database
straightforward,” declares project manager Ulrich Lickert. The XML solution for the
research database was implemented as part of a pilot project which has been running since
the spring of 1999. This pilot project proved that convincing, inexpensive solutions could
be produced using XML. "XML and Tamino won us over right away,” declares
Lickert. "After we had gotten used to XML, we had our solution ready within a
very short time. A
particular advantage of the XML solution is its speed: it has very fast response
times.”
XML as a general exchange format
IT manager Timmermann sees the Tamino project against the background of the new
direction in which information systems in the university hospital are going. "In the
long term, the old client/server structures will be phased out,” he says. "The
browser is the user interface of the future and will be installed on every desktop.”
In order to ensure optimal performance from the communication servers, the university
hospital is using another standard, namely HL-7
(Health Level 7) for exchanging data between its systems. International standardization
committees are currently working on the conversion of HL-7 to XML. With its Tamino XML
solution, the university hospital in Freiburg is well prepared to use XML as a general
structure for the exchange of data in a broader context than the new research
database.
The University of Freiburg Research Database will be available on
the Internet beginning fourth quarter 2000. View it under http://www.verwaltung.uni-freiburg.de/forschung/
For more information on this application, contact the author at frank.jung@softwareag.com.
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