Transcript Digital Archives and Institutional Repositories A Sabbatical Report Dorothy Byers

Digital Archives and
Institutional Repositories
A Sabbatical Report
Dorothy Byers
Engineering Library
July 20, 2005
Three purposes
Investigate USC Digital Archives and use
of Documentum, contemplated for use at
OhioLINK’s Digital Resource Commons
(DRC)
2. Prepare a pilot engineering repository
with state-wide potential on DRC
3. Set the story straight on Joseph B.
Strauss, Chief Engineer of Golden Gate
Bridge and UC graduate
1.
1. USC and Documentum

Worked in metadata group at USC
October-December 2004
 Prepared metadata for photo archives
 Attended meetings of teams working on
migration from home-grown legacy system
to Documentum
 Reported difficulties with the migration to
OhioLINK
2. Institutional repositories





Studied MIT’s DSpace in depth October 04
and February 05
Visited CalTech and CODA team in
December 04
Prepared proposal for OhioLINK’s DRC to
house tech reports of UC’s Electrical and
Computer Engineering Department
Now waiting while OhioLINK develops the
DRC using Fedora in lieu of Documentum
Will advise DRC during development
3. Joseph B. Strauss

Conducted research about Strauss
–
Cincinnati Historical Society
– American Jewish Archive
– Stanford Archives
– Berkeley Archives (Water Resources
and also Environmental Design)

Began web site about Strauss
3. Strauss cont.

Web site about Strauss
–
Correct false information recently
published (re credentials)
 PBS American
Experience DVD Golden
Gate Bridge
 “Case of the missing engineer” article
–
Shed light on Strauss separate from the
Golden Gate Bridge
What was learned?

Digital archives
–
–

takes VERY sophisticated staff and equipment
open access software may be worth the effort
Institutional repositories (IR)
–
Simple systems lack




searching across collections
ability to manage wide variety of media
object-to-object relationship definitions
Harvesting capabilities
What was learned cont.

Institutional repositories cont.
–
Complex systems
 Require
manpower
 Are costly, especially if proprietary
 Open access seems most promising
–
Metadata are all-important
– Require some PR
 For
departments to participate
 For patrons to benefit
What was learned cont.

Joseph B. Strauss web site
–
–
–
–
Initial attempt to use Dreamweaver
How to mount various types of materials
Tricks of the trade in doing archival research
and documenting findings
Facts about Strauss


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Civil Engineering curriculum verified in UC course
bulletins
Taught at UC, verified in UC Board minutes
Was active during time he was reported “missing”
from the GGB site
What next?

Institutional repository
–
–

Build engineering repository at OhioLINK’s
DRC
Encourage engineering colleagues state-wide
to participate
Strauss research
–
–
Expand web site
DREAM: get grant to create digital archive of
primary materials relating to Strauss, requiring
collaboration among many institutions
Sites to view

USC Digital Archive
–

http://digarc.usc.edu:8089/
Institutional repositories
–
MIT’s Dspace

–
CalTech’s CODA

–
http://library.caltech.edu/digital/
OhioLINK’s DMC (existing Digital Media Center)

–
http://libraries.mit.edu/dspace-mit/index.html
http://dmc.ohiolink.edu/
OhioLINK’s DRC development pages (expansion of the
DMC)

http://drc-dev.ohiolink.edu/wiki
Sites to view cont

Fedora, IR open access software
–

Strauss web site (under construction)
–

http://www.fedora.info/
http://www.engrlib.uc.edu/strauss/
My sabbatical blog
–
http://dfbdas.blogspot.com/