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The Future of Fedora

December 7, 2012

Edwin Shin
Managing Partner
MediaShelf

Tom Cramer
Chief Technology Strategist & Associate Director
Stanford University

Matthias Razum
Head e-Science
FIZ Karlsruhe

Jonathan Markow
Chief Strategy Officer
DuraSpace

Thornton Staples
Director, Office of Research Information Services
Smithsonian Institution

Mark Leggott
President
DiscoveryGarden

 

Fedora (Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture) is an open source system under the stewardship of the DuraSpace not-for-profit organization. Fedora is in use around the world, and has met the goal of becoming a durable repository for hundreds of institutions, with years of proven, production-level software supported by a vibrant community. But the world has changed as Fedora has matured, and new needs are emerging for scaling, performance and ability to integrate into wider ecosystems. Research data management, linked data, and ease of incorporation into frameworks like eSciDoc, Hydra, Islandora and microservice-based architectures have become paramount concerns.

To meet these emerging needs and position Fedora to not just survive but thrive in the face of these challenges, a small set of activist Fedora users has engaged with DuraSpace to develop a “Fedora Futures” strategy, with the goal of dramatically increasing the project’s velocity and level of community investment to address these challenges and expand Fedora into new markets over the next three years. Members of the Fedora community and DuraSpace will discuss planned improvements in this presentation and panel discussion.

 

 http://www.fedora-commons.org/
Presentation (Cramer)

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Project Briefing Pages, Repositories
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The HathiTrust Research Center: Opening Up the Elephant for New Knowledge Creation

December 7, 2012

John Unsworth
Vice Provost for Library & Technology Services and Chief Information Officer
Brandeis University

Beth Sandore Namachchivaya
Associate University Librarian for Information Technology Planning and Policy and Associate Dean of Libraries
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Robert McDonald
Associate Dean of Libraries and Deputy Director of the Data to Insight Center
Indiana University

This panel will feature collaborative partners from the HathiTrust Research Center (HTRC) and will focus on HTRC and its unique cross-institutional partnership (Indiana University/University of Illinois, University of Michigan). Furthermore, the presentation will focus on work that is being accomplished in the first two years of the existence of the HTRC with the mission of enabling computational access to nonprofit and educational users for the mass-scale digital corpus of the HathiTrust Digital Library (13 million volumes and growing).

Following a brief overview of the mission and history of the HTRC, the HTRC partnership will be described, including information on how it is working to deliver computational access to the HathiTrust digital corpus for the research community. Additionally, a detailed view of the work plan over the first two phases of the HTRC towards the evolving long-term plans and sustainability for the center will be discussed. Emphasis will be on:
• HTRC Phase 1 Demonstration and outcomes of the first HathiTrust Research Center UnCamp
• Current status of the HTRC non-consumptive research methodology prototype
• Status of HTRC current research proposal partnerships
• Focus of HTRC Phase 2 and the implementation of the demonstration prototype into a production operations environment

 http://www.hathitrust.org/htrc
Twitter: @hathitrust

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Digital Humanities, Information Access & Retrieval, Project Briefing Pages, Repositories, Scholarly Communication
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HarvardX: Developing Communities of Practice for Innovation in Online Learning

December 7, 2012

Samantha Earp
Managing Director, Academic Technology Services
Harvard University

Susan Fliss
Interim Librarian of Harvard College for Research and Instruction
Harvard University

 

In May of 2012, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced edX, a groundbreaking new partnership in online learning. This session will give an overview of edX and HarvardX, with particular attention to the communities of practice being creating to develop and sustain innovation in online learning, in partnership with faculty, students, instructional designers, librarians, information technologists and other participants within and across edX institutions.

 

http://edx.org

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Project Briefing Pages, Teaching & Learning
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Innovation and the Law: An Analysis of the Barriers and Benefits of Text Mining

December 7, 2012

Torsten Reimer
Program Manager
JISC

 

Text mining and data analytics are of increasing interest to the international scholarly community. They promise to enable researchers to deal with an ever-increasing amount of publication and information, and to develop new research based on existing materials. Despite this promise, wider uptake of text mining is currently hampered by a range of barriers, most notably on the legal side. To assess these barriers as well as the potential benefits of text mining in education, JISC has commissioned the study, “Value and Benefits of Text Mining.” This session will introduce the study, with a particular focus on the potential of text mining for innovation, notable barriers, and the legal context.

 

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/reports/2012/value-and-benefits-of-text-mining.aspx

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Digital Humanities, Digital Libraries, Information Access & Retrieval, Project Briefing Pages
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Internet2 Net+ Services

December 7, 2012

Khalil Yazdi
Internet2 Business Development
Internet2

Dana Voss
Program Manager, Internet2 Net+ Services
Internet2

Leveraging the Internet2 Network and enabling services like InCommon federated identity management, the Internet2 NET+ Services team is developing a portfolio of service offerings that bring value to Internet2 members. The goal of the program is to create services that are cost-effective, easy to access, simple to administer, and tailored to the unique needs of our community. This session will offer an overview of the Net+ program, including the eContent pilot, which is sponsored jointly by Internet2 and EDUCAUSE.

 

http://www.internet2.edu/netplus/
Presentation

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, E-Books, Economic Models, Project Briefing Pages, Teaching & Learning
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Ithaka S+R’s Research Support Services: Recommendations for Addressing the Needs of Chemists and Historians

December 7, 2012

Roger Schonfeld
Program Director, Ithaka S+R
Ithaka

Deanna Marcum
Managing Director, Ithaka S+R
Ithaka

 

Over the past year, Ithaka S+R has conducted studies of the changing research methods and practices of scholars in two major fields: history and chemistry. At the spring 2012 Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) meeting, researchers shared background information about this new program of work. This presentation will include the comprehensive findings regarding the needs of scholars in these fields to facilitate discussion about implications for the CNI community.

For history, even when research methods remain fairly traditional, new practices are transforming the needs of historians. For chemistry, thinking about the needs of the laboratory group and not just the individual chemist may open up new avenues for research support. This session will include recommendations for possible service models to address these needs, and it will also include extended discussion about the feasibility of these service models and others that may build on our findings.

Presentation

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Digital Humanities, E-Science, Project Briefing Pages, Scholarly Communication, User Services
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Leveraging Digital Library Infrastructure to Support New Roles of the 21st Century Research Library

December 7, 2012

Mark Phillips
Assistant Dean for Digital Libraries
University of North Texas

Declan Fleming
Chief Technology Strategist
University of California, San Diego

Lois Widmer
Chair, Digital Services and Shared Collections
University of Florida

 

Libraries around the country have evolved digital library infrastructure, workflows, and service from startup, grant-funded initiatives into core functions that define a research library in the 21st century. This shift has challenged our thinking about offering new services, moving projects into programs, and evaluating initiatives which may or may not deliver the expected outcomes. At the same time, researchers and other campus entities are looking to libraries as supporters and collaborators for research in the age of “big” research (meaning distributed, collaborative, and resource intensive research, and often referred to as e-research, e-science, research cyberinfrastructure, digital humanities, big humanities, digital scholarship, data science, etc.). Libraries now have many opportunities to leverage the infrastructure and programmatic support for digital libraries to serve also as a core component of the larger scholarly cyberinfrastructure.

This panel will discuss the challenges that three university libraries have experienced with institutionalizing digital library infrastructure and how they continue to adapt their services to meet a changing set of requests and needs from across their institutions. Each member of the panel will present a brief background of their institution and the unique collections and services which have shaped their institution’s thinking about digital library services. An overview of new initiatives each library has chosen to support and how they fit into the overall strategic direction of the institution will also be presented. Finally, all speakers will discuss challenges and opportunities in areas such as technical infrastructure, scaling of services, training and retention of professional staff to support both technical and nontechnical aspects of running repository infrastructure and services at scale.

 

http://ufdc.ufl.edu
http://digital.library.unt.edu
http://libraries.ucsd.edu/digital
http://rci.ucsd.edu/data-curation/index.html

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Digital Humanities, Digital Libraries, E-Science, Project Briefing Pages, User Services
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Library Innovation: Initiatives to Support Content Discovery and eResearch

December 7, 2012

Jim Hahn
Orientation Services and Environments Librarian
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Bill Mischo
Head, Grainger Engineering Library Information Center
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Beth Sandore Namachchivya
Associate University Librarian for Information Technology
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

Tyler Walters
Dean, University Libraries
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Julie Speer
Associate Dean, Research and Informatics, University Libraries
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Technology Innovation in Support of Institutional Priorities: Exemplars at the University of Illinois Library (Hahn, Mischo, Namachchivya)

This briefing describes two innovative approaches to developing discovery and access tools in a library. The two programs featured are:
• A program focused on design and implementation of federated search and discovery systems that incorporates research and mentoring of librarians, information professionals, and graduate students in library and information science (LIS) and computer science.
• A library technology prototyping service that employs and mentors undergraduate computer science minors from diverse backgrounds.

The panel takes an in-depth look at key products that have emerged from this work, what has fueled their success, and how lessons learned can shape future technology innovations that support the important organizational themes of effective discovery and growing diversity in technology design and development.

The Future is Now: Capacity Building and Partnership Development to Advance eResearch Programs (Walters, Speer)

Research universities are adapting to a changing environment where networked open research, cyberinfrastructure, and cyberlearning approaches are transforming them. Organizational change is inevitable and the pace of this change moves more quickly with each new disruptive development in the economic, policy, technological, and social realms. This milieu calls for entrepreneurial approaches and intra-organizational strategies that produce new technological and organizational platforms through which new partnerships of information and technology professionals with researchers, instructors, and learners are created. The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VT) Libraries has developed two sets of strategies for advancing eResearch partnerships and programs within the university: 1) Internal strategy: developing new positions such as the Associate Dean for Research and Informatics, Research Environments Librarian, and other specialty positions such as the Engineering Informatics and Data Librarian and Art & Design Informatics Librarian; designing work units with a new, flexible model: the hub. The library-based hub fosters capacity-building to support eResearch and digital scholarship practices, processes, and technologies; 2) External strategy: establishing a research center (the VT Center for Digital Research and Scholarship [CDRS]) that also serves as a services center for mapping and integrating the Libraries into the research enterprise. The Center monitors and assesses changes in the university environments in which research and scholarly knowledge is produced. It offers tools and services that address the many research and scholarly environment needs of VT researchers. The Center partners with researchers and others to solve information/data/content-related academic problems and serves as a consultant on digital curation processes.

 

 http://minrvaproject.org/
https://github.com/minrva
http://minrvaproject.tumblr.com/
http://goo.gl/BxCuu
http://goo.gl/r7pyY
http://uofi-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com:1701/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?&vid=UIU
http://search.grainger.uiuc.edu/linker/
http://hades.grainger.uiuc.edu/guy/pip3.asp?geology

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Digital Humanities, E-Science, Information Access & Retrieval, Project Briefing Pages, User Services
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Library Publishing Coalition Project: Advancing the Emerging Library Publishing Field

December 7, 2012

Katherine Skinner
Executive Director
Educopia

Tyler Walters
Dean
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Julie Speer
Associate Dean, Research and Informatics
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Martin Halbert
Dean of Libraries
University of North Texas

Spencer Keralis
Director, Digital Scholarship Co-Operative
University of North Texas

This briefing will discuss a recently launched project to create a Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) dedicated to advancing the emerging field of library publishing, defined as the set of activities undertaken by college and university libraries to support the creation and dissemination of scholarly works.

The project is hosted by the Educopia Institute, and has been designed in collaboration with a large number of academic libraries, including Purdue University, the University of North Texas, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Project participants currently number well over 40 institutions, all of which are providing seed support for this initiative at one of two participation levels: Founding and Contributing Institutions.

This briefing will review the initiative and several concrete project deliverables:
• A concentrated study that will document the current range of library publishing activities (including costs, staffing, and how libraries are financing these ventures); refine justification and positioning for library-based publishing activities; align library activities in this area with university needs and goals; and help additional libraries to envision and develop publishing services programs.
• A forum for networking and sharing communications about library publishing services, including an annual event and ongoing virtual training and community-building activities.
• The design and implementation of the LPC.

 

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Project Briefing Pages, Publishing, Scholarly Communication
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Massive Open Online Courses as Drivers for Change

December 7, 2012

Lynne O’Brien
Director, Academic Technology & Instructional Services
Duke University

Since announcing a partnership with Coursera in July 2012, Duke has launched two Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and has eight more in development. Spanning humanities, social sciences and science topics, these courses have over 320,000 enrollments as of October 2012. Duke’s goals in experimenting with MOOCs are to drive teaching innovation in both campus-based and online courses, to extend Duke’s commitment to knowledge in service to society, and to expand Duke’s reach and reputation in a global environment.

This presentation will:
• Describe how the Coursera partnership has shaped campus discussions about higher education and teaching
• Discuss the impact of MOOCs on library planning and academic technology support
• Share early feedback from students and faculty about the MOOC teaching and learning experience

The session also will explore the rapidly evolving format of MOOC courses and consider what the implications may be for campus-based courses in the near future.

http://cit.duke.edu
Presentation

Filed Under: CNI Fall 2012 Project Briefings, Project Briefing Pages, Teaching & Learning
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