Repository development at the BPL: September update

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Over the last month or so, the development of the new Digital Commonwealth repository currently ongoing at BPL has focused on refining the batch upload process. The repository developers have been working closely with the BPL Digital Services metadata team to create a standardized spreadsheet format for ingest that will offer institutions the ability to provide rich metadata about their digital objects, while also being flexible, intuitive, and simple to use. This work has brought the goal of allowing institutions to do self-mediated batch uploads much closer, though there are still several issues to tackle before this functionality is ready to roll out.

Meanwhile, the beta testing phase of both the “Search” and “Admin” applications is ongoing and has received quite a bit of helpful feedback from a number of institutions/individuals that have taken the system for a test-drive.

The URLs are:
Search (public discovery): http://search.digitalcommonwealth.org/
Admin (ingest & management): http://admin.digitalcommonwealth.org/

In late September, development of the workflow for ingesting material into the repository via OAI-PMH will begin in order to aggregate records from the numerous institutions around the state that provide access to digital objects through their own repository systems. The BPL will be reaching out to institutions that currently contribute material to Digital Commonwealth via OAI-PMH feed to learn a more about existing data structures, preferred metadata formats for harvesting, back-end systems being used, and other details that will help this phase of the project move forward more smoothly.

Lastly, the BPL has set up a public Google Group email list for institutions and users to provide feedback or report issues with the new repository system. Anyone may read content posted to the group; membership is required to send messages to the list. See https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/digitalcommonwealth for details.

 

August 2013 Newsletter

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All the latest news from the Digital Commonwealth of Massachusetts!

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Updates for August, 2013

New Officers to serve on the Digital Commonwealth Board of Directors

The acceptance by the DC Board of Ellen Dubinsky (Bridgewater) to serve as Secretary for the current fiscal year, now rounds out the officer positions for the Board of Directors. Karen Cariani (WGBH) has stepped up to fill the President’s position while Anne Sauer (Tufts) will serve as Vice-President. Ryan Hanson (Newton) will continue another year as Treasurer. Joseph Fisher (UMass Lowell) now serves as Past-President.

Be on the lookout soon for an email voting process to begin, since it requires majority approval by the membership to ratify the new office appointments.

Information about and links to the new Digital Commonwealth Fedora Repository

The BPL has now moved into the “beta launch” phase of the the Hydra-based Digital Commonwealth repository platform. Information about the functionality available and links to the front and back end are explained in this recent blog post:  http://digitalcommonwealth.org/blog/?p=117

Amy Benson hired to advise members on Metadata procedures

For the remainder of this calendar year, Amy Benson will be providing metadata production support and quality control assistance for collections digitized under the BPL/Digital Commonwealth LSTA-funded statewide digitization program.

LSTA funding has also enabled the hiring the Amy.

Many members should recognize Amy through the numerous digital-production workshops she has given in the area, often in association with the NEDCC. Amy also served on the original Executive Committee of Digital Commonwealth. She currently works as the Librarian/Archivist for Digital Projects at Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library.

For more information and instructions on how to request assistance from Amy, please read this Digital Commonwealth blog post: http://digitalcommonwealth.org/blog/?p=104

Vote for new officers and By-law changes

With the new fiscal year and the change in the Digital Commonwealth board of directors membership also comes a change in officer positions. Now that Joseph Fisher (UMass Lowell) has completed his year of service as president of the board, Karen Cariani (WGBH) has moved up from serving as vice-president to president for the next 12 months. Anne Sauer (Tufts) has accepted to serve as the new vice-president. Since Anne has been serving as secretary this past year, that position is now vacant.

At the next board meeting in late July, open officer and committee positions will be filled. The slate of officers will require ratification by the membership. In addition, further adjustments to the By-laws are being prepared that will also require ratification. Be on the lookout for an email coming later this summer announcing the voting procedure.

C/W MARS members meet to learn about Digital Commonwealth

The C/W MARS network arranged for a members  meeting at the Palmer Public Library on June 27th to discuss the future of digitizing and the Digital Treasures service.  Danny Pucci, Lead Digital Projects Librarian at the Boston Public Library, presented a power point presentation on the Digital Commonwealth and current partnership with the BPL that has provided LSTA-funded scanning services to members within the past two years.

There were many questions about the future plans for digitization at the state-wide level and clarification was sought on the role of Digital Commonwealth. Margaret Morrissey, public library director in Southbridge and Digital Commonwealth board member, spoke about the evolving partnership between the BPL and Digital Commonwealth.

The general consensus from the meeting was that C/W MARS would let the status quo prevail for now and take a vote on the continuation of the service at a future date.

Lesson Plan Workshop

On Monday, June 24, 2013, Digital Commonwealth of Massachusetts held a free half-day workshop focusing on developing lesson plans featuring digital content. Kim Cochrane, Curriculum Librarian, Framingham State University, and Nancy Heywood, Digital Projects Coordinator, Massachusetts Historical Society, led the workshop. For more information please view this Digital Commonwealth blog post: http://digitalcommonwwealth/blog/?p=108

Sincerely, Digital Commonwealth
Copyright © 2013 Digital Commonwealth. All rights reserved.
Contact email: digitalcommonwealth@gmail.com

Online Summaries about the recent Digital Preservation 2013 Meeting

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Digital preservation is an issue of interest to many Digital Commonwealth member institutions and virtually all organizations that are responsible for managing and preserving digital content.  One of the keynote speakers at the 2013 Digital Commonwealth conference was Butch Lazorchak, Digital Archivist, Library of Congress.  Butch is involved with the National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA).

The NDSA along with NDIIPP (National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program) held an annual meeting (Digital Preservation 2013) on July 23-24, 2013 in Alexandria, Virginia.  (NDSA and NDIIPP are both programs of the Library of Congress.)

Even if you missed the meeting focused on issues and some solutions relating to the challenges of caring for digital content over the long-term, thanks to two different blog posts you can read informative summaries and even view video clips of some of the speakers including Hilary Mason, the chief scientist at bit.ly;  Emily Gore of the Digital Public Library of America; and Cal Lee of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who is involved with BitCurator.

One blog, “Preserving Our World,” (link: http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/NewsBreaks/Preserving-Our-Digital-World-digpres2013-91060.asp), written by Barbie E. Keiser, an information resources management consultant, provides summaries about the talks and links to some of the speakers’ slides and/or institutional websites.

Another post, “Digital Preservation 2013 Trip Report,” (link:  http://ws-dl.blogspot.com/2013/07/2012-07-25-digital-preservation-2013.html), by Mat Kelly, includes summaries and embedded YouTube videos.  Kelly’s piece is posted on the blog of Web Science and Digital Libraries Research Group (a department of Old Dominion University).

Some of Digital Commonwealth’s member institutions are also members of NDSA and a few attended the meeting.  Karen Cariani, WGBH (and also President of Digital Commonwealth), spoke on a panel at the Digital Preservation 2013 meeting about her workplace during the “Digital Preservation Tools” session.    Digital Commonwealth will explore ways (other blogs and/or a future conference panel) for its members to hear more about NDSA and digital preservation activities.