Digital and institutional repositories: emerging architectures

1
Digital and institutional repositories emerging
architectures
A short workshop moderated by Steve Hitchcock,
School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS),
Southampton University On 21 and 22 June, 2006,
at the SCONUL Conference 2006,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne
2
The workshop brief

• The question for repositories is not which
  software you should choose, but which
  applications and services you want to support.
  With growing numbers of institutional
  repositories and increasing commitment within
  institutions, alongside an active and growing
  programme of development more broadly in digital
  repositories, notably that sponsored by JISC in
  the UK, this is a picture that could change
  significantly in the next few years. This
  workshop will provide the opportunity to explore
  and discuss, from institutional perspectives,
  some of these developments, with a view to
  anticipating emerging architectures that could
  support expanded repository capabilities.
• For a brief report and follow-up, see this blog
  entry
• http//www.eprints.org/community/blog/index.php?/a
  rchives/89-Emerging-IR-architectures-investigation
  -by-workshop.html

3
What is an IR? Lynch 2003

• a university-based institutional repository is a
  set of services that a university offers to the
  members of its community for the management and
  dissemination of digital materials created by the
  institution and its community members. It is most
  essentially an organizational commitment to the
  stewardship of these digital materials, including
  long-term preservation where appropriate, as well
  as organization and access or distribution. ..
  An institutional repository is not simply a fixed
  set of software and hardware.
• Cliff Lynch, 2003 http//www.arl.org/newsltr/226/i
  r.htm

4
What the workshop is NOT about

• Open access
• Technical interoperability (OAI-PMH, METS,
  Z39.50, SRW, AJAX, Web 2.0, etc., see Augmenting
  interoperability across scholarly repositories,
  New York, April 2006 http//msc.mellon.org/Meeting
  s/Interop/ )
• National repository services (Linking UK
  Repositories)
• Departmental repositories (e.g. Caltech)
• Consortium repositories (e.g. White Rose)

5
Comments on following schematics

• Commentary slide added post-workshop
• The following three slides illustrate the sort of
  components that might be found in an IR
• 1 Schematic, Liz Lyon, UKOLN, for eBank UK
  project
• 2 OCLC 2003 environmental scan
• These are two network-based examples, but dont
  have an institutional perspective
• 3 Chart, RepoMMan project
• This is getting closer to the institutional view
  being investigated here, coordinating data types
  with users

6
Schematic by Liz Lyon, UKOLN, for eBank UK project
Searching , harvesting, embedding
Resource discovery, linking, embedding
Resource discovery, linking, embedding
Data creation / capture / gathering laboratory
experiments, Grids, fieldwork, surveys, media
Data analysis, transformation, mining, modelling
Learning object creation, re-use
Aggregator services eBank UK
Harvestingmetadata
Learning Teaching workflows
Research e-Science workflows
Repositories institutional,
e-prints, subject, data, learning objects
Institutional presentation services portals,
Learning Management Systems, u/g, p/g courses,
modules
Deposit / self-archiving
Deposit / self-archiving
Validation
Validation
Publication
Resource discovery, linking, embedding
Validation
Linking
Peer-reviewed publications journals, conference
proceedings
Quality assurance bodies
Data curation databases databanks
7
OCLC 2003 environmental scan

8
RepoMMan project, Hull
9
What this workshop IS about

• The institutional repository
• The institutional perspective
• The multi-repository institution
• Where does it exist? What does it look like?
  What will it look like?
• Your view

10
Edinburgh example now

• We have at present
• A catalogue repository with records for ejournals
  and ebooks (and some web sites), which we feel
  should be accommodated in separate repositories
• a single repository for 'research outputs'
  (eprints, research papers and reports, and
  theses)
• a proto-research publications repository
  (currently serving as our RAE publications
  repository)
• Separate repositories for image and museum
  collections
• a learning objects repository
• an archives repository
• and a proto-repository for locally digitised
  research collections (with little in it, but
  quite a lot of planning done).
• Thanks to John MacColl for this example

11
Edinburgh example next?

• We wish to develop this into a more efficient
  architecture by
• splitting out the catalogue records by their
  various types
• splitting out the research outputs into separate
  repositories
• introducing an image/musuem management system
  (currently being implemented)
• introducing a licence management system
  (currently being implemented)
• creating a digital records repository (not
  started)
• migrating the locally digitised research
  collections from one system (Endeavor ENCompass)
  to another (probably Dspace).
• We are also seeking to
• apply a federated search engine to the entire
  architecture (WebFeat, currently being
  implemented).

12
Repository data types

• Open Access (published papers. preprints, tech.
  reports, etc.)
• Electronic Theses and Dissertations
• Teaching Learning
• E-science, datasets
• Research Information (CRIS)
• Multimedia (audio, video, images, museum
  collections)
• Digitisation
• Publishing
• Preservation
• Administration

13
Open source software?

• Open source software
• DSpace, EPrints, Fedora, Moodle, Bodington,
  Sakai, Plone .

14
Repository data types

• EPrints
• DSpace
• Moodle, Bodington,
  Sakai, Plone
• EPrints
• Bepress
• Fedora

Open Access
ETDs
TL
Datasets
Multimedia
CRIS
Digitisation
Publishing
Preservation
Administration
Examination papers
Web pages
Structured databases
???
15
Open source or Services?

• Open source software
• DSpace, EPrints, Fedora, Moodle, Bodington,
  Sakai, Plone .
• IR Services
• Open Repository (based on DSpace), EPrints
  Services

16
Multi-repository institution
???

I N T E R OPERAB ILITY
???
Open Access
CRIS
ETDs
Digitisation
TL
Publishing
Datasets
Preservation
Multimedia
Administration
17
An interoperating network?

• Repository deployment is fragmented, and
  repositories tend to exist in isolation rather
  than being embedded into an interoperating
  network of services. We've got bits and pieces
  but it doesn't operate as a whole and there are
  big gaps in provision in some areas. Within
  institutions, repositories tend not to inter-work
  with other applications. Nor are they well
  integrated with other institutional repositories
  (although there are some examples of innovative
  workflows, for example between laboratory
  repository and cross-institutional repository in
  R4L/eBank). R4L Repository for the Laboratory
  http//r4l.eprints.org/
• eBank UK http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/projects/eba
  nk-uk/
• Rachel Heery and Andy Powell, Digital
  Repositories Roadmap looking forward, JISC,
  April 2006 http//www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_document
  s/rep-roadmap-v15.doc

18
The Institutional Repository?

???
Open Access
CRIS
???
ETDs
Digitisation
Publishing
TL
Preservation
Datasets
Multimedia
Administration
19
Open source or Services or LMS?

• Open source software
• DSpace, EPrints, Fedora, Moodle, Bodington,
  Sakai, Plone .
• IR Services
• Open Repository (based on DSpace), EPrints
  Services
• IR Services library management systems
• VTLS VITAL (Fedora), Proquest (Digital Commons),
  Ex Libris (DigiTools)

20
The Digital Library

Library Management System
Institutionally-generated content
Open Access
Library content
Library Services OPAC OpenURL resolver E-journals
Etc.
CRIS
ETDs
Digitisation
TL
Publishing
Datasets
Preservation
Multimedia
???
Administration
???
21
What is an IR? Lynch 2006

• As I've looked more at various institutional
  deployments and planned deployments, I think that
  the distinction between digital libraries,
  digital collection management systems, digital
  archives, and institutional repositories is less
  clear than I might have felt in 2003."
• Cliff Lynch, 2006, quoted in http//poynder.blogsp
  ot.com/2006/03/institutional-repositories-and-litt
  le.html

22
Networkflows

• "Historically, users have built their workflow
  around the services the library provides. As we
  move forward, the reverse will increasingly be
  the case. On the network, the library needs to
  build its services around its users' work- and
  learn-flows (networkflows).
• "one of the discussion points around
  institutional repositories is about which goals
  they support open access, curation of
  institutional intellectual assets, reputation
  management. And which processes? Over time, it is
  clear that what we now call institutional
  repositories will be part of wider research
  process support. What is currently the
  institutional repository will be a component of
  the workflow/curation/disclosure apparatus that
  develops to support research activities."
• Lorcan Dempsey, Networkflows, January 2006
  http//orweblog.oclc.org/archives/000933.html

23
Integration, workflow, portals

• The role of the repository will influence the
  level of integration and interaction required.
• Where a repository is being used for multiple
  content types and as an everyday working tool
  then greater integration is required to allow it
  to take on this role. Integration may also be
  focussed at the presentation level for end-user
  interaction (e.g., presenting a search or deposit
  screen within a portal) or can be at the data
  level for the exchange of information between
  systems.
• Alma Swan and Chris Awre, LINKING UK
  REPOSITORIES, A6.6 Repository integration in
  local infrastructure
• http//www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/Linking_U
  K_repositories_appendix.pdf

24
The Digital Library
Portal

Library Management System
Institutionally-generated content
Open Access
Library content
Library Services OPAC OpenURL resolver
CRIS
ETDs
Digitisation
TL
Publishing
Datasets
Preservation
Multimedia
???
Administration
???
25
Embedding IRs in institutional strategy

• Often institutions are not clear as to their
  strategy for establishing repositories. There are
  real benefits for institutions in effectively
  managing their digital assets (promoting research
  outcomes, fulfilling preservation
  responsibilities, facilitating added value
  services such as overlay journals, data mining,
  etc). Such benefits can be assisted by leveraging
  the open access agenda. Despite this,
  repositories are not yet fully embedded in
  institutional strategy and there is perhaps a
  misplaced confidence that institutions will take
  on the full range of repository business
  functions. Interoperability between institutional
  libraries, repositories, learning management
  systems and MIS is still rare.
• Rachel Heery and Andy Powell, Digital
  Repositories Roadmap looking forward, JISC,
  April 2006 http//www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_document
  s/rep-roadmap-v15.doc

26
Assessing the costs

• From a spreadsheet on the costs of setting up and
  maintaining Open Source repository "There was a
  range, from about 6,886.62 for a set-up cost,
  all the way to over 1 million."
• Rebecca Kemp, list posting, November 2005
• http//www.library.yale.edu/llicense/ListArchives
  /0511/msg00030.html

27
Wider frameworks

• Where do wider services national frameworks and
  services, Web search and other Web services fit
  into the institutional agenda?
• Need for IRs to be visible, searchable and usable
  by local and distant users

28
Summary

• One repository or multi?
• OSS vs Services vs extended LMS
• IR or DL
• Build around workflows
• Embed in institutional strategy