James Simon
System Architect
Stanford University

The Digital Preservation Network (DPN) is a nationwide initiative to create a preservation backbone for digital information of interest to the academy. DPN comprises a handful of large-scale preservation repositories, which together form a heterogeneous network of secure, trustworthy digital archives, each operated under diverse geographical, organizational, financial, and technical regimes. Robust (bit) auditing and repair functions ensure the integrity and security of content over time. Intellectual property agreements among depositors, repositories and the university members of the Network ensure succession of rights to use content in the event of the dissolution of the original depositor or archive. Since late 2012, a technical team from the five initial nodes has been working on an initial implementation of the network. This presentation will present that group’s work, which includes basic design principles, functional requirements and system specifications; the Network’s high level architecture and protocols for content replication and auditing; and framing of detailed service and policy questions that will drive the Network’s overall design and operation. DPN members and digital preservation experts are especially encouraged to attend and participate in this interactive session.

http://www.dpn.org

Presentation

Sean Aery
Digital Projects Developer, Libraries
Duke University

Duke University Libraries has begun embedding structured metadata within the source code of the Web pages that display the Libraries’ digital collections. This practice follows the recommendations of the schema.org initiative, an effort by commercial search engine developers to use structured data to enrich the user’s experience. The initiative has led, for example, to Google’s display of contact information for retail outlets in search results, or its enhanced options for filtering recipe searches. Duke’s objectives in adopting schema.org relate both to the ways that an exterior service like Google might represent the institution’s materials, and how the organization will offer services to researchers. Usage analysis suggests that systems outside of Duke’s library, largely consisting of the commercial search tools, drive traffic to University collections, and the institution wants to increase its own systems’ interoperability with them.

Duke is also piloting a local instance of Google, via its Site Search API, with the potential to enhance and replace the discovery services offered to users. Generally speaking, the library sees embedded structured data as a way to extend the impact of the time and resources spent on discovery tools for the content that we manage. This presentation will show how Duke Libraries is using schema.org, it will include a demonstration of a localized Google experience, and it will include discussion of how this new emphasis on structured data changes how Duke Libraries envisions the future of discovery.

 http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/

Presentation (Sexton)
Presentation (Avery)

In the fall of 2010, Cornell University began implementing a “reimagined” model for delivering information technology (IT) services on campus, based on a set of recommendations developed with significant input from Bain & Co., a global consulting firm. Cornell is now three years into the process of creating a much more integrated and collaborative IT organization, and the university is starting to reap some major benefits from doing things very differently.

This talk will describe the significant changes that have taken place in IT service delivery, IT governance, and providing IT software solutions at Cornell, from the perspective of both the Cornell University Library and the campus as a whole. In some cases, Cornell adopted the recommendations of Bain and the original re-imagining process, and in other cases, it deliberately chose different approaches. The presentation will include an analysis of the organizational, cultural, and operational changes that have taken place in IT over the past three years, outlining both the successes and the remaining challenges. Finally, the talk will include a brief look at Cornell’s recently completed IT Strategic Plan, which seeks to “guide prudent reallocation of our IT investments from utilities to academic differentiators” while providing stable and efficient utility IT services. The IT@Cornell model of “intentional interdependence” within the university and seeking the best services and collaborations available from the outside world should be of significant interest to many educational institutions facing similar IT challenges.

http://www.cni.org/topics/user-services/reimagining-it-at-cornell-university/
http://www.cornell.edu/reimagining/it-review.cfm
http://www.it.cornell.edu/cio/index.cfm

Maurice York
Head of Information Technology
North Carolina State University

Realizing the vision required converging physical and virtual spaces. Unlike library spaces that support undergraduate study, research-focused physical spaces require complementary virtual spaces. Thus, infrastructure is a core enabler. The building’s data center design, IP and AV fiber networks, HPC and high-performance storage (integrated with campus infrastructure), are all designed to support extensible use of spaces and to minimize operational staff support. As the most technologically advanced building on campus, Hunt has quickly become the test bed for new technologies on campus. As the physical infrastructure settles into operation, new service areas are emerging. A core service offering will be “project cloud” space, which will enable students and researchers to easily “check out” computing power and transfer large projects in and out of the library’s environment. Technology staff have been retrained and redeployed to support the new capabilities, and an academic technologist added to consult with researchers and match their needs with the building’s capabilities. Since all library services must be scalable, technology staff effort is focused on identifying good pilot projects that can serve as prototypes to be converted into templates for future projects.

http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/huntlibrary
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/12/18/2553438/ncsus-hyper-modern-new-james-b.html

Presentation Slides (PDF)

 http://network.bepress.com/

Presentation

Stephen Davison
Head, UCLA Digital Library Program
University of California, Los Angeles

http://livingstone.library.ucla.edu
http://livingstone.library.ucla.edu/livingstone_archive/

Presentation

Ryan Shaw
Assistant Professor
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Presentation Slides

http://editorsnotes.org/
http://ecai.org/mellon2010/