CNI: Coalition for Networked Information

Development of a Small Data Collections Archiving Service Option at Johns Hopkins University

Betsy Gunia
Data Management Consultant
Johns Hopkins University

Barbara Pralle
Head, Entrepreneurial Library Program
Johns Hopkins University

Since our inception in July 2011, Johns Hopkins University Data Management Services has been offering a single data archiving service focused on support for data collections of any size and number of files from a single grant. As we listened to our research community, we recognized that some researchers desired us to offer an additional service that was more tightly coupled with the publication process. We began offering this new service, “Small Collections Archiving Service,” starting in July 2014. During this project briefing we will elaborate on the work involved in developing this new service, including how we scoped the service, assessed the required human effort, and considered the different types of data collections and researchers’ needs this model would accommodate. In addition, we will discuss how we came up with a cost for this service, vetted it with various stakeholders within our community, and marketed it. Although we have not yet completed a data deposit using this new service, we have archived data sets for other researchers under our other service model, which is similar in scope to the Small Data Collections Archiving Service.

 

http://dmp.data.jhu.edu/preserve-share-research-data/archiving-services-we-offer/

http://dmp.data.jhu.edu/

 


 

 

 

 


Developments in Digital Repositories

Tracy Seneca
Head of Digital Programs and Services
University of Illinois at Chicago

Charles Blair
Director, Digital Library Development Center
University of Chicago

Glen Robson
Head of Systems Unit
National Library of Wales

 

E Pluribus Unum: Melding Manifold Metadata for Use in a Consortial Setting (Seneca, Blair)

The Chicago Collections Consortium (CCC) consists of over a dozen Chicago-area libraries, archives, and museums, small and large, public and private, special and academic. In April 2014 the CCC received funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to build a research portal that provides in-depth discovery of Chicago-focused materials at member institutions. The CCC portal, scheduled for release in August 2015, will integrate the discovery of thousands of archival and digital collections for researchers studying Chicago history and culture. This will include the full text of EAD finding aids, MARC records for archival collections and thousands of digital images in various metadata formats. The portal will be built using the XTF digital library platform and the Django Web framework. As part of this work, the CCC is building the Metadata Hopper, an open-source application that will support on-demand deposit and management of metadata contributed to a consortial research portal. The central challenge of the CCC portal project has been to provide integrated and user-friendly access to disparate implementations of EAD and MARC across its member institutions, together with scores of image collections with no single metadata standard. The same degree of variation exists in the descriptive terms used by member libraries: rarely are the same subject terms used by member libraries to describe similar topics. The Metadata Hopper will allow member libraries to map their local metadata standards, deposit records that rely on those standards, and tag those materials using a shared vocabulary. This will allow member libraries to contribute to an integrated, user-friendly portal without disrupting local practices. This session will include a demonstration of the Metadata Hopper, which currently supports metadata mapping, record deposit and both automated and manual tagging of records using a shared vocabulary.

  Presentation (Seneca)

Cynefin: A Sense of Place (Robson)

The National Library of Wales has developed a large number of digital resources (including newspapers, archives, manuscripts and photographs) that are freely available as a national digital public library for Wales. Development of this material has involved research and innovation in all aspects of the digital life cycle, and development of an underlying digital infrastructure, to support the creation of open and sustainable digital collections that can be used, and re-used, by the widest range of stakeholders. Central to this has been the development of digital content in collaboration with national and international partners. This presentation will discuss this national context for Cynefin, a recent project developed in collaboration with the Archives and Records Council Wales (ARCW) and funded by the UK’s Heritage Lottery Fund. The project will digitize over a thousand tithe maps covering 95% of Wales between the period 1838 and 1947. The project has explored new approaches to crowd sourcing to geo locate the tithe maps and transcribe related apportionments, and also to develop links between content in the collections, linking location, ownership, land use and value. The project has also had to find innovative ways to digitize large tithe maps, including the use of an automated tripod head originally developed to capture panoramic landscapes and the construction of a specifically designed wall to ensure a consistent horizontal distance from the camera. The digital images have been ingested into a Fedora repository and shared using the IIIF standard. The crowd-sourcing element will be released to the public at the beginning of November 2014 and the initial results of the uptake and engagement of volunteers will be discussed in the presentation. The digital preservation of the tithe maps, apportionments and the crowd-sourced data will present future challenges, and approaches to these issues will also be discussed. This project is a potential model for other institutions to leverage the resources of the crowd to produce a useful and enduring digital humanities resource.

 

http://chicagocollectionsconsortium.org/

http://cynefinblog.archiveswales.org.uk/?p=195

http://welshnewspapers.llgc.org.uk/en/home

http://cymru1914.org/en

 

 

 

Digital Repository Development at Yale Library

Michael Dula
Chief Technology Officer, Library
Yale University

 

In response to a fragmented digital collections environment developed over many years using many systems, in 2012 the Yale Library launched a project to unify its digital collections within a single software framework using Hydra/Fedora. This session will include discussion of:

  • The legacy digital collections environment and why it has to change.
  • The decision to go open source with Hydra and Fedora as the underlying technologies.
  • Some of our initial projects, from small boutique collections to the Henry Kissinger Papers (1.7 million pages).
  • Challenges of scale and security: how do we plan to build a petabyte-sized repository infrastructure and support complex authentication and security requirements?
  • Future development plans.

 

Presentation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Digital Scholarship Centers

Joan Lippincott
Associate Executive Director
Coalition for Networked Information

An increasing number of institutions, from liberal arts colleges to research universities, are creating digital scholarship centers. CNI wanted to understand better the types of projects in which these centers are involved, the skill sets of staff associated with centers, the relationship to teaching and learning as well as to research, and the range of services offered in the centers. We convened a workshop following the spring CNI Membership Meeting in April, 2014, and participants were chosen after reviewing their responses to a call for participation. Twenty-four institutions were represented at the workshop; most participants were library staff with a wide range of titles, and others included information technologists, faculty, academic staff, and a graduate student.

Digital scholarship centers or labs are most frequently located in libraries and usually offer consultation on such topics as digital technologies, preservation/curation, project management, and intellectual property. While many people assume that they provide support for digital humanities projects, most of the centers represented provide support for most if not all disciplines in their institution. The centers host workshops, provide one-on-one assistance, offer specialized hardware and software, participate in grant writing, and offer internships or fellowships. Staff are often involved as partners in faculty research or teaching and learning initiatives. Participants engaged in a lively discussion of what, exactly, constitutes a digital scholarship center, and did not come to a clear conclusion; there were many variations among institutional perspectives.

Participants in this briefing will learn about the findings from these leading programs and then will be asked to suggest topics for a workshop that CNI will offer next year, in partnership with the Association of Research Libraries, for institutions that would like to develop such a center or are in the early planning stages.

https://www.cni.org/go/cni-dsc-workshop-2014

Presentation

“Do More With Less”? See How Four Organizations Translate That Into “Being More Efficient and Effective” Through the Use of Private & Commercial Cloud Services

Steven Escar Smith
Professor and Dean
University of Tennessee

Kevin Kidd
Head of Library Systems & Applications
Boston College

Carl Grant
Associate Dean, Knowledge Services and Chief Technology Officer
University of Oklahoma

Oren Beit-Arie
Chief Strategy Officer
Ex Libris Group

As is true with all higher education today, libraries face large challenges in providing core services while at the same time, offering clear differentiation and distinct value to their organizations. Cloud based infrastructure and services offer a pathway for achieving that result. Many libraries have long relied on private clouds and continue to do so today, but now the commercial cloud offerings have also become a ubiquitous and solid choice. As librarians plan new services, they will want to understand the vision of change behind cloud services and the features and benefits of both types of clouds and what those will mean for the library in terms of being more efficient and effective. They will also want to examine how to best prepare an organization to properly select and implement technologies in the cloud and how best to use that movement as a strategy for managing, or changing, cost models. Other issues to be looked at include: opportunities and challenges that systems departments will face as they push their applications and services into the cloud; what new services will be possible; what considerations should go into using a private vs. commercial cloud; what are the differences between commercial cloud services; how do cloud-based services better support collaboration efforts; what will be the practical effect of implementing a Library Service Platform (LSP) on an organization and its services (on a systems department, for example, including what will be the change in job responsibilities); and what new duties will departments take on and what skills will they need to develop. This presentation looks at all these issues and the answers developed by three separate organizations that are in the process, or have completed it, and one organization that develops these technologies.

Presentation

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