EKS.WING.LIB.INTERLIBRARY · LIBRARY OPERATIONS · ACTIVE

Interlibrary Discovery & Crosswalk Wing

A serious library does not pretend that all useful knowledge lives on its own shelves. This wing finds the collection, institution and source best suited to the question, translates between different catalogue systems, preserves authority and provenance, and returns the resulting knowledge to the eduKateAI job that asked for it.

The job is not to search everywhere. The job is to know which collection is most likely to own the answer, then preserve the path back to it.

INTERLIBRARY_DISCOVERY_V1
QUESTION
  → LOCAL_HOLDINGS_CHECK
  → COLLECTION_GAP
  → EXTERNAL_COLLECTION_CANDIDATES
  → AUTHORITY_RESOLUTION
  → ITEM_OR_RECORD
  → ACCESS_AND_RIGHTS
  → PROVENANCE
  → METADATA_NORMALISATION
  → CROSSWALK
  → KNOWLEDGE_PAYLOAD
  → RETURN_TO_CALLING_OWNER

The agent team

Agent	Identity	Primary job
Reference Desk Agent	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.REFERENCE_DESK`	Turns a user or eduKateAI request into a precise information need.
Local Holdings Agent	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.LOCAL_HOLDINGS`	Checks existing eduKate collections first and prevents unnecessary reacquisition.
Collection Crosswalk Agent	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.COLLECTION_CROSSWALK`	Maps equivalent ideas, subjects, identifiers and collection structures across libraries.
External Library Scout	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.EXTERNAL_SCOUT`	Finds libraries, archives, museums, universities, repositories and specialist databases likely to hold the needed evidence.
Authority Resolver	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.AUTHORITY_RESOLVER`	Identifies the source of record and separates authority from commentary.
Interlibrary Request Broker	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.REQUEST_BROKER`	Locates the exact item, catalogue record, dataset, document or collection needed.
Bibliography Chaser	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.BIBLIOGRAPHY_CHASER`	Walks citations backward and forward to stronger or more primary evidence.
Live-State Scout	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.LIVE_STATE`	Handles facts whose truth depends on clock, jurisdiction, version or current authority.
Access & Rights Agent	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.ACCESS_RIGHTS`	Classifies open, public-domain, licensed, restricted, citation-only and inaccessible material.
Metadata Normaliser	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.METADATA_NORMALISER`	Normalises titles, creators, identifiers, dates, subjects and collection metadata without erasing the source system.
Provenance Agent	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.PROVENANCE`	Records where information came from, which version was used and how it supports the claim.
Contradiction Agent	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.CONTRADICTION`	Preserves disagreement, competing cataloguing and incompatible claims instead of flattening them.
Cross-Library Cartographer	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.CARTOGRAPHER`	Maintains the map of external collections, institutional strengths and known routes.
eduKateAI Return Router	`EKS.AGENT.LIB.RETURN_ROUTER`	Returns the evidence package to the originating owner without transferring that owner’s job to the Library.

What a cross-library collection record must contain

Identity	Institution, collection, catalogue/database name and stable source identifiers where available.
Scope	Subjects, geography, time span, formats and collection strengths.
Best question types	What this collection is unusually good at answering.
Authority	Official, primary, institutional, scholarly, specialist, reference or discovery role.
Access	Open web, catalogue only, digitised item, on-site, subscription, request or restricted.
Rights	Public domain, open licence, permission required, quotation/citation only or unknown.
Identifiers	ISBN, DOI, archival reference, accession number, catalogue ID, authority ID or local identifier as applicable.
Crosswalks	How the source’s terminology and classification map into eduKate collections, curriculum or world-knowledge identities.
Freshness	Last checked, version, expiry/revalidation rule and live-state owner where relevant.
Provenance	The recoverable route from question → collection → item → claim/evidence → eduKateAI return.

Operating rules

Local first, not local only. Check eduKate holdings before going outward, but never force an internal source to answer a question it does not own.
Collection before item. Identify the institution or collection that is structurally suited to the question before chasing individual pages.
Primary where the job requires primary. Prefer the issuing authority, original record, primary dataset or archival object when the claim depends on it.
Do not flatten catalogues. Preserve external identifiers and source vocabulary, then crosswalk them into eduKate.
Rights are separate from truth. A reliable source may still be unavailable for copying or ingestion.
Disagreement is data. Contradictions, changes of terminology and competing classifications remain visible.
Stop when the information need is met. Discovery is not a licence for unbounded crawling.

eduKateAI interface

Input: information need, calling owner, receiver, required authority level, time/jurisdiction constraints and acceptable evidence types.

Output: collection candidates, selected authority, item/source records, provenance, rights state, crosswalks, uncertainty/contradiction notes and a bounded knowledge payload.

Failure states: LOCAL_GAP, COLLECTION_UNKNOWN, AUTHORITY_CONFLICT, ACCESS_BLOCKED, RIGHTS_BLOCKED, VERSION_UNCERTAIN, EVIDENCE_INSUFFICIENT and NO_JUSTIFIED_SOURCE. A failure state is returned honestly rather than replaced with a weak source.

Existing Library plumbing

World Library Atlas — the external collection landscape this wing operationalises.
World Knowledge Research Library — the wider authority/evidence graph.
Research Collections Directory — public research collection routing.
eduKateSingapore Runtime Manifest — the local Library call/return contract.
World Sources, Evidence & Provenance Crosswalk — claim support and provenance.
World Institutions & Authority Crosswalk — ownership of questions.

Ownership boundary: this wing finds and crosswalks knowledge. It does not automatically acquire material, commission articles, teach a learner, diagnose a learner state or transfer ownership away from the calling eduKate programme.

Explore the connected learning guides

Choose the question that brought you here. Open one useful guide, try a small task, and stop when you have what you need.

Enter Here — Find a useful first step for your family.
Hub — Choose the kind of information or help you need.
Learning Library — Find a focused learning guide and use it.
Vocabulary — Find vocabulary by level and learn to use words.
English — Explore reading, writing, creative writing and literature.
Mathematics — Find mathematical explanations, practice and checking routes.
Science — Connect observations, scientific ideas and explanations.
World — Explore places, institutions, evidence and connected systems.
Parents — Choose a manageable next step in family learning support.
Tuition — Find programme, subject, stage and location information.
Contact — Ask a question or enquire about a suitable class.

Take one question further

The same learning habit can travel across subjects, while each subject keeps its own methods. These routes help you notice a difficulty, understand one part of it, and return to something you can do.

A word is familiar, but using it is difficult.

Move from recognising a word to retrieving it in a new context. Understand vocabulary plateaus.

Try it without the guide: Choose one word you already know. Close the guide and use it in a new sentence. Explain why it fits; try another context tomorrow.

A piece of writing has ideas, but the reader loses the thread.

Make the order of events and the links between sentences clear. Explore composition writing.

Try it without the guide: Choose one short paragraph. Read the relevant explanation, close it, and revise the paragraph. Ask someone to tell you what happened and why.

The Mathematics seems familiar, but marks still disappear.

Find the first point where the working stops being reliable. Find Secondary 4 A-Math mark leakage.

Try it without the guide: For a Secondary 4 A-Math question you have attempted, locate the first uncertain line. Repair that step, then try a comparable question without the worked answer.

A Science fact is remembered, but the explanation is incomplete.

Connect the evidence to a scientific idea and the resulting change. Follow the Primary Science learning route.

Try it without the guide: Choose a familiar Primary Science example. Explain the evidence, the idea and the result without notes. Then change one condition and explain your prediction.

Two accounts of the world seem to disagree.

Check the question, source, date and evidence before combining claims. Explore the World Knowledge research library.

Try it without the guide: Take one claim. Find the source best placed to support it, note its date, and state what remains uncertain. Return to your original question.

There is plenty of help, but independence is hard to see.

Check what the learner can understand and do after support is removed. Understand how education works.

Try it without the guide: Choose one small task the child has practised. Agree on a calm, brief attempt without prompts. Use what happens to choose one next step, then stop.

For the structure behind these connections, read the eduKateSingapore runtime manifest and the eduKate ecosystem boot contract. The reader map describes public navigation; those manifests preserve the wider ownership and return rules.

eduKate Singapore

Interlibrary Discovery & Crosswalk Wing | eduKateSingapore