Developing a Quality Culture For Digital Library Programmes

Author & Presenter

Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath

Co-Authors

Marieke Guy UKOLN Hamish James AHDS Email: [email protected]

URL: < http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/ > UKOLN is supported by: A centre of expertise in digital information management

Contents

• • • • •

Background The QA Focus Project Work to date Future Activities Links with the Wider Community

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Background

In many digital library programmes there has been a philosophy based on use of

open standards

to: • Avoid application lock-in and platform dependencies • Minimise migration costs • Provide long-term access to scholarly resources But: • Little policing of compliance with open standards • Adoption of "let a thousand flowers bloom" This approach: • Probably sensible approach in mid 1990s (Gopher?) • Not desirable now:  Web is the killer application; XML is killer format  Need to maximise access; support M2M apps; ...

QA Focus

JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) has funded

QA Focus

project to: • Support its

Information Environment

programmes digital library • To development a QA (quality assurance) methodology which can be applied to future programmes QA Focus: • • Provided by UKOLN and AHDS Project manager is

Marieke Guy Brian Kelly

(both UKOLN) and and

Gareth Knight

(AHDS) ; team members are

Hamish James

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Developmental Culture

Possible approaches towards QA and compliance with standards: • • Policing approach Developmental approach QA Focus takes a developmental approach: • Explains reasons for standards & best practices • Provides lightweight methodology for supporting use of standards and best practices • • Encourages community to share its approaches Seeks to encourages uptake of its methodology within institutions as well as by projects A centre of expertise in digital information management

QA Focus Methodology

The developmental approach being taken includes: • Surveying community to identify areas of best practices & in which improvements can be made • • Providing advice in appropriate areas Commissioning cases studies which describe the approaches projects have taken in complying with standards and best practices • Documenting tools and architectures for:  Implementing standards & best practices  Monitoring compliance • Providing examples of policies • Advising funders on approaches for future programmes A centre of expertise in digital information management

Areas

QA Focus is addressed the following areas:

• Web • • • • Digitisation Metadata Software development Service deployment A centre of expertise in digital information management

Surveying the Community

Initial set of findings available from A centre of expertise in digital information management

Documentation: Advice

Advisory briefing documents are being produced These are: • Brief, focussed documents • Informed by findings of the surveys A centre of expertise in digital information management

Documentation: Case Studies

A centre of expertise in digital information management Case Studies are being commissioned These are: • Written by projects themselves • Describe the solution adopted to a particular problem • Include details of lessons learnt – not just a press release!

Self Assessment Toolkit

Further Deliverables

We are developing a self-assessment toolkit The toolkit will consist of: • Examples of QA procedures • Documented examples of use of testing tools • Self-assessment questionnaires • Advice on standards and best practices • • • Case studies FAQs … A centre of expertise in digital information management

Promoting Use Of Compliance Checking Tools

As an example of approach which provides easier access to testing tools, see the ,tools approach deployed on UKOLN Web site.

This approach: • Applies to all resources on Web site • Covers HTML and CSS validation and various other tests • Some recursive apps ( ,rvalidate ) • Easily implemented with single line redirect A centre of expertise in digital information management

Policies

How do you know what you should do if you don't have documented polices?

Policy example Policy

: Web Standards

Standard

: XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0

Architecture

: Use of SSIs and text editor

Exceptions

: Automatically-derived files

Checking

: Use ,validate after update

Audit Trail

: Use ,rvalidate monthly and document findings You may find it useful to develop similar policies yourself – for example, a policy of the accessibility of your Web site A centre of expertise in digital information management

Next Work Areas (1) Metadata

• Is the metadata format syntactically correct?

• • • • Do cataloguing rules exist?

Does the metadata comply with cataloguing rules?

Have default values been left?

Does the project have an appropriate architecture for creating and managing metadata?

• What mechanisms are in place for checking metadata?

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Next Work Areas (2) Software Development

• What is the purpose of the software?

• • What documentation exists?

Does the output from the software comply with appropriate standards?

• • How will the software deliverable be deployed?

What steps have been taken to ensure that the software can be easily deployed in the delivery environment?

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Next Work Areas (3) Service Deployment

• Where will the project deliverables be deployed in a service environment?

• • What steps have been taken to ensure that the service delivery environment matches the development environment?

What legal, IPR, … issues are there in moving from a project to a service environment?

• What funding issues may there be in deploying the project deliverables?

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The QA Focus Methodology

The QA Focus methodology we will be recommending: • Projects should provide

policies

which document standards they will use, the architecture used to implement the standards and the approach to checking compliance •

Advice

should be provided which explains the standards, approaches to checking compliance and implementation architectures •

Case studies

should be provided which describe examples of implementation • Projects should make use of a

toolkit self-assessment

to validate their QA procedures • This methodology should be embedded in

Working With The Wider Community

We feel the methodology we propose: • Is lightweight and easy-to-understand • Can benefit a wide range of communities, and not just project developers in the IE programme We also feel: • Our approach will benefit by working with the wider community We therefore: • Are making our resources freely available • Welcome contributions from the wider community A centre of expertise in digital information management

Conclusions

To conclude:

• There is a clear need for QA in order to  Develop interoperable digital library services  Obtain value-for-money from investment from public funds • QA needs to be addressed from the start of project work • QA therefore needs to form part of contractual agreements between project developers & funders • The QA Focus methodology provides an approach to supporting QA in digital library programmes • We welcome feedback and the opportunity to talk with possible collaborators A centre of expertise in digital information management