UVa's Digital Library

CSG - September 2005

Slides courtesy of: Leslie Johnston

Director, Digital Access Services, UVA Library

Tim SigmonUniversity of Virginia

Assumptions

• All media and all content types will be integrated into one repository collection.

• Any given resource can be presented in any number of contexts.

• Increasingly, we will be faced with born-digital materials.• Searching and browsing are equally important.• We will provide to tools to give access and make use of our

collections.• The repository will be a part of a global information network

that will be built by libraries, governments, and corporations.

s e a rc h ing

u s e rc o lle c tio ns

re so u rc e sc re a te d b y

u se rs

re s o u rc e sw e

c re a te

re s o u rc e sw e

a c q u ire

c e n tra l re p o s ito ry

u s e r a c c e s s s e rv ic e s

o th e r re p o s ito rie s

in fo rm a tio n c o m m u n ity s e rv ic e s

re trie v a l

o u r re s o u rc e so u ts id e re s o u rc e s

w e re g is te r

L ib ra rys e le c tio n

L ib ra ryp ro c e s s in g

Digital Library Management

A Unit of Content is a Digital Object

PI D

B e h a v io r

B e h a v io r

B e h a v io r

B e h a v io r

D a ta s tre a m

D a ta s tre a m

D a ta s tre a mUs e rs

File

File

H TTPS e rv e r

A pplica t io n s

B e h a v io rD e f in in t io n

B e h a v io rM e ch a n is m

Pro ce s s

T e x t s

M o d e r n E n g l i s h C o l l e c t i o n

P a g eI m a g e s

Electronic Texts

C a v a lie r D a ily

D a ily I s s u eD a ily I s s u e

M o d e r n E n g l i s h C o l l e c t i on

Serial Electronic Texts

W o rkO bje c ts

Art a nd Arc hite c ture C o lle c tio n

Ima g eO bje c ts

Art and Architecture Images

D a ta s e tD e s c riptio n

O bje c ts

Q ua ntita tive D a ta C o lle c tio n

D a ta ba s eO bje c ts

Quantitative Data

UVa Digital Library Interface Architecture

I n te g ra te dS e a rch

I n te rfa ce(R o o m s )

V irg oO n lin e

C a ta lo g

D ig ita l D is co v e ryI n de x

P ID

D isse m in a to rs

S y ste m M e ta d a ta

D e s c M e ta d a ta

Ad m in M e ta d a ta

G D M S F ile

P ID

D isse m in a to rs

S y ste m M e ta d a ta

D e s c M e ta d a ta

Ad m in M e ta d a ta

TE I F ile

P ID

D isse m in a to rs

S y ste m M e ta d a ta

D e s c M e ta d a ta

Ad m in M e ta d a ta

E AD F ile

A rt a n d A rch .S e a rch

I n te rfa ce

Te x tS e a rch

I n te rfa ce

Fin din g A idsS e a rch

I n te rfa ce

P ID

D isse m in a to rs

S y ste m M e ta d a ta

D e s c M e ta d a ta

Ad m in M e ta d a ta

Ima g eD a ta s t r e a m s

P ID

D isse m in a to rs

S y ste m M e ta d a ta

D e s c M e ta d a ta

Ad m in M e ta d a ta

Ima g eD a ta s t r e a m s

Ele ctro n icJ o u n a ls a n dD a ta ba s e s

P ID

D isse m in a to rs

S y ste m M e ta d a ta

D e s c M e ta d a ta

Ad m in M e ta d a ta

F in d in g a id sIn d e x

P ID

D isse m in a to rs

S y ste m M e ta d a ta

D e s c M e ta d a ta

Ad m in M e ta d a ta

Ar t a n dAr c h ite c tu r e

In d e x

P ID

D isse m in a to rs

S y ste m M e ta d a ta

D e s c M e ta d a ta

Ad m in M e ta d a ta

Te x t In d e x

What was Needed for Development?

• The creation and documentation of new holistic standards for production.

• Functional requirements for discovery and delivery.

• Analysis of collections and the development of content models describing various configurations of media and metadata files coupled with required behaviors for administrative purposes and in an end-user interface.

• A new unified interface design across collections.

• The implementation of new software tools and scripts for all aspects of production and delivery.

New Specifications - Metadata

• Holistic metadata standards were needed for all media and metadata formats.

• A Metadata Steering Group was formed to review all the applicable metadata formats, document use guidelines, and provide mappings to UVa DescMeta and UVa AdminMeta, to serve as the crosswalk for use in ingesting and delivering objects.

• UVa DescMeta: <http://www.lib.virginia.edu/digital/metadata/descriptive.html>

•  UVa AdminMeta: <http://www.lib.virginia.edu/digital/metadata/administrative.html>

New Specifications - Images

• Specifications were set for the production of new digital images:– Art, architecture, or cultural documentation images– 24-bit color or grayscale pages images– Bitonal page images

• Three Content Models were developed:– uvaHighRes – preview, screen-sized, and a high quality wavelet large

images are available– uvaLowRes – only preview a screen-sized images are available– uvaBitonal – bitonal TIFFs only

• One content model and production standard were set for image metadata in the local GDMS (General Descriptive Modeling Scheme) format.

• GDMS:<http://www.lib.virginia.edu/digital/metadata/gdms.html> 

New Specifications - Texts

• A local extension of the TEI DTD was developed, along with encoding guidelines.

• Three Content Models were developed to cover variations in types of texts:– uvaGenText – Transcription with no page images– uvaPageBook – Page images with no transcription– uvaBook – Transcription and page images

• The pages images for a TEI-encoded book must adhere to one of the three image content models.

New Specifications - EAD

• Specifications were set for the transition to and use of EAD (Encoded Archival Description) 2002.

• One EAD content model was created – uvaEAD.• The linked images for any special collection objects

must adhere to one of the three image content models, and any linked TEI files must adhere to one of the TEI content models.

• Two default disseminators on every object.– Default access behaviors, e.g., getPreview, getFullView, getLabel,

getDefaultContent, etc.– Administrative and descriptive metadata behaviors e.g., getDC,

viewDC, getDescMeta, getAdminMeta, etc.• Class-specific disseminators for texts (EAD, TEI, and GDMS

image metadata) and images.– Modular mechanisms bound to behaviors to deliver datastream content

directly or transform content into other sizes or formats for delivery, hiding the differences among objects for the interface and end-user. e.g., getPreview, getImageViewer, getScreen, getMax.

• Some deliver XML, some deliver plain text, and some deliver XHTML, depending on the use by applications or in the delivery interface.

Disseminators at UVA

Infrastructure Development Tasks

• Development of the default and class-specific disseminators, using primarily Perl and XSLT. Some call other disseminators or applications.

• Creation of an indexing and delivery infrastructure using XPAT (index), Cocoon (XML pipeline between interface and Repository), Squid (caching), and CSS stylesheets (styling the delivery).

• An ImageViewer that supports zooming, panning, rotation, and other on-the-fly image manipulation.

• A Digital Object Collector Tool for users to create personal portfolios of objects and generate slide shows or electronic reserve websites that include pointers to the images and metadata in the Repository. The slide shows and electronic reserves deliver the images wrapped in the ImageViewer. Later releases will be generalized to support the collection of other object types.

Repository Production & Delivery Development Tasks

• Processes to convert legacy images, electronic texts, and finding aids to current standards.

• Processes and templates for the ingest of images, electronic texts, and finding aids into the Repository.

• A unified interface and graphic design.• A cross-collection search for images, electronic texts, and

finding aids together.• Full-text searches for the electronic texts and the finding aids.

Repository Development Process

• The priorities included:– Cross-collection search across all formats.– A choice of simple or advanced search available across or

within the format types.– The ability to limiting searching to a single virtual

collection.– Multiple formatting options for viewing search results sets,

and multiple sorting options.– The ability to browse all objects in a virtual collection.– Improved on-the-fly viewing and manipulation of images.– A "Shopping Cart" to collect items into personal

portfolios.

Repository Status

• The "Phase 2" Repository is in its beta release year. The Repository is still under development and subject to updates that selectively affect functionality and availability.

• We are evaluating and revising the production workflows, and leading focus groups and usability tests with groups of Library staff, faculty, and students.

• Feedback will inform the development of the production "Phase 3" Repository that will be based on more automated workflows and gradually include additional content models and format types.

Demo: http://www.lib.virginia.edu/digital/collections/