Critical issues in digital repositories

Martin Borchert, manager, flexible learning and access services

m.borchert@griffith.edu.au.nospam (please remove '.nospam' from address)
ph 07 3875 7467

Martin's top 12 critical issues

• Multipurposing vs specialist
• Scalability
• Independence & integration
• Supports metadata schema
• Bulk data importing
• Customisable interfaces
• Copyright management
• Supports workflows
• Sharing and re-use
• Permissions
• Discovery
• Institutional policy

Multipurpose vs specialist

• ePrints
  
  • T&L
  • Images
  • eScience
• Are you better off with a different out of the box solution for each application; or
• Customising one solution to support each application?

Scalability

• Scalable structure
  • Unlimited directories
  • Repeated structures
• Scalable space
  • Large collections
• Scalable usage
  
  • One administrator vs many content owners
  • Distributed load management
• Sufficiently usable to be scalable
  
  • Can you sell it?

Independent yet integrated

• Your digital repository must become a part of a complex network of systems
• Should work with other systems
• Library and flexible learning content should be integrated at the point of need
• Development of standards
• Clients should not be aware of their transition from one system to another

Metadata

• To be multipurpose and usable a DR should support multiple metadata schema
• Should allow for mapping across schema
• Should allow for customising of schema
• Dublin core?
• LOM?
• SCORM?
• VRA?
• Now and into the future?
• What schema will your next collection best use?

Bulk data importing

• Your DR will most likely be replacing existing 'legacy' systems
• Automated import mechanism
• Your DR needs to cope with existing content - not the other way around
• Accepts data imports in customisable format

Customisable interfaces

Internal:

• Suit different collections and metadata schema
• Administrator vs user
• Tab navigation not mouse navigatable data entry screens

Client-side:

• The DR may not have an interface or may mimic another interface eg. LCMS
• Role interfaces - academic vs student interface

Copyright / rights management

• Digitised readings for CAL EUS reporting
• Image collections
• Violation detection and management
• vs
• Reporting

• Sharing and re-use of locally stored objects
• Linking to library databases
• Local hosting of database content

Supports workflows

• Supporting paperless and integrated business processes
• Requires complex sets of permissions across the DR structures
• Include content creators, approvers, users, end users

Example:

• Examinations section
• Academics
• Upload draft exams
• Approval by examinations section
• Master copy exams
• Upload approved exams to DR
• Link exams to LCMS
• Archive / delete exams

Sharing and re-use

• Supports structures that facilitate sharing and re-use of objects
• Permissions to copy, edit, etc
• Supports versioning
• Granularity

Permissions

• Security vs usability
• Cascading permissions
• Archiving

Discovery

• Need multiple means for multiple user groups to discover resources
• Academics need to browse by categories of similar resources
• Thumbnails
• Search metadata and/or fulltext
• Support federated searching across collections and across other resources outside the DR

Institutional policy

• Institution is prepared to support the DR with policy

Examples:

• Centralised approach
• IP, sharing, reuse, granularity
• Copyright management
• Integration