Creating a Searchable Media Archive for Modern Language and Culture: The REALIA Project

Jeff Overholtzer, Washington and Lee UniversityScott Siddall, Denison University

Introduction

REALIA: Rich Electronic Archive for Language Instruction Anywhere

Database developed through a collaboration of faculty, librarians and technologists from Global Partners institutions:

Associated Colleges of the South

ACM and GLCA

Associated Colleges of the Midwest1.Beloit College2.Carleton College3.Coe College4.College of the University of Chicago5.Colorado College6.Cornell College7.Grinnell College8.Knox College9.Lake Forest College10.Lawrence University11.Macalester College12.Monmouth College13.Ripon College14.St. Olaf College

Great Lakes Colleges Association 1.Albion College2.Antioch College3.Denison University4.DePauw University5.Earlham College6.Hope College7.Kalamazoo College8.Kenyon College9.Oberlin College10.Ohio Wesleyan University11.The College of Wooster12.Wabash College

Rationale Strong mandate from language faculty Generation of visually-oriented students Authentic materials best promote cultural

literacy Serves a multiplicity of student learners:

images can serve at all levels of language instruction, in culture courses, in preparation for study abroad programs

Our Philosophy

Archive significant images with cultural information and pedagogical suggestions

Ensure quality throughpeer-review and editorial

assistance Capture the present while preserving the past Free for educational use

Organization

Managing Board comprises technologists, librarians, faculty members

Language-specific editorial boards Role of ACS Technology Center

Organization

Annual workshops Student-faculty teams Refine metadata, add images Policy-making, planning

Organization

Cataloging workflow: Faculty contributor (or student-faculty

team) Photographer, Title, Description,

Pedagogical suggestions Librarian

Realia type, LC subject, geographic locations, other… complete list

Partnerships and affiliations MERLOT

Ideas, critiques,cross-promotion

Federated searching Showcase best practices

ARTstor Part of pilot project

OAIster Part of this meta-collection

Technology and standards

Software: CONTENTdm server at ACS Tech Center

Metadata: Standards-based structure Fields mapped to Dublin Core Use of LC Subject Headings OAI metadata harvesting XML export of metadata

Demonstration of web site and database

www.realiaproject.org Browse by language, simple or complex

search, compound objects (multiple views), thematic groupings for searching, showcase contributor collections; teaching tools including comparisons, creating personal, downloadable collection

Demo 1 Demo 2 Demo 3

New image here…

Technologies behind REALIA System selection

Proprietary, homegrown, open source, partnerships

Centralized versus desktop Requirements

Metadata flexibility Avoid data lock-in Distributed management with approval queue Open standards Support and continued R & D

Digital Asset Management Marketplace Scope and size of DAM market

$1.5-3.0 billion annually; $320 million in profits 600+ vendors with 1,200+ applications Ripe for consolidation

The Commercial Players Artesia (publishing) Canto (desktop to small workgroup) eMotion (broadcast) MediaBin by Interwoven (corporate) North Plains ‘Telescope’ (publishing) Webware (corporate) IBM and Stellent (corporate) Extensis (desktop to small workgroup)

Digital asset management in higher ed

Auto-Graphics Digital Asset Management CONTENTdm Documentum DAM Dynix Horizon Digital Library Endeavor ENCompass Ex Libris Digitool Innovative Interfaces Millennium Metasource Luna Imaging Insight SIRSI Hyperion VTLS VITAL

Digital asset management – open source

FEDORA Flexible Extensible Digital Object and Repository

ArchitectureRelease 1.2.1 released April 20, 2004

Digital Library Extension Service from the University of Michigan

Greenstone e.g., Chopin collection at the University of Chicago

Madison Digital Image Database MDID; v2.0 in July

Technologies behind REALIA - CONTENTdm

http://contentdm.comWeb-based presentation

Technologies behind REALIA - CONTENTdm

And web-based administration

Technologies behind REALIA - CONTENTdm

CONTENTdm – export functions Thumbnail, service and full resolution images stored in

directories in standard image formats

CONTENTdm – export functions Metadata exporting

CONTENTdm – OAI harvesting

www.oaister.org

CONTENTdm – support

Distributed and supported by OCLC Predictable costs Continued development

JPEG2000 PowerPoint plug-in Community open source developments

CONTENTdm and open source Proprietary software + open standards has led

to an open source community

Controlled vocabulary analyzer Importable Library of Congress Subject Headings E-commerce extension for ordering images RSS feed generator to subscribe to collections Direct linking to objects XML Gateway for federated searching of CONTENTdm

collections Feedback tool for commenting/reviewing objects OASIS – a web-based tool for organizing and

importing images

Feedback tool

A means to solicit comments or review of CONTENTdm images

Feedback data sent via email to collection administrators

Modified from Oregon State’s e-commerce scripts by Tim Moore (ACS)

OASIS

A substitute for CONTENTdm’s Windows-only image preparation tool

PHP and MySQL Developed by staff at

The Midwest Instructional Technology Center

Associated Colleges of the South Technology Center

Technologies behind REALIA What’s next? Automated metadata creation

Technologies behind REALIA What’s next? OCLC E-learning report: make content

accessible Open standards, open source

Interoperability with other repositoriesSakai, Open Source Portfolio Initiative, Fedora

What’s next

Forming language editorial boards NEH grant

By the numbers Involvement in REALIA Project

Total images: ~1,000 Page accesses: ~2,000/month

Role Number

Faculty contributors 19

Student contributors 2

Student technology assistants 2

Librarians 6

Technologists 2

TOTALDoesn’t include ACS, MITC, CET staff

31(17 ACS, 13 MITC, 2 other)

How you can be involved

Use the resource for teaching; give us feedback

Contribute images Consider how we might collaborate if

you have complementary resource  

Contact information REALIA Project

http://realiaproject.org

This presentation: http://siddall.info/talks/educause2004/http://home.wlu.edu/~joverholtzer/educause04/

Presenters Jeff Overholtzer (joverholtzer@wlu.edu) Scott Siddall (siddall@denison.edu)