Access Systems to Digital Content Currently in Use
A subgroup of the Mass Digitization Working Group (Tim Cole, Nuala Koetter, Chris Prom, and Sarah Shreeves) is developing a list of access systems to digital content that are currently in use and their capabilities and limitations. This will aid in short term planning for the storage and access of the digital content created through the mass digitization process.
CONTENTdm
General Information
Vendor supported or open source (i.e., customizations developed in house): vendor supported, although PHP API is now available. Some minor customizations made in house to end-user interface.
General types of materials supported (i.e. text, image, etc): mostly used for images, can also be used for text, audio, video, etc. Can include link to Helix server for streaming audio & video.
Format of materials supported: almost all formats
Format of materials not supported: depends on material
Limitations in collection policy for type of content?: Mainly used for digitized Library materials. Could also be used for digitized collections from other groups on campus.
Metadata
Descriptive metadata supported: Yes
Descriptive metadata standards supported: Qualified Dublin Core is the default; VRA Core can be imported if needed for a particular collection.
If more than one descriptive metadata standard supported, alternative metadata views available? VRA Core
Technical / Preservation metadata supported: Must be added manually if it's to be useful at all.
Technical / Preservation standards supported: No
Structural metadata supported: No
Structural metadata standards supported: No
Other Administrative metadata supported No
Administrative standards supported: No
Export mechanism for metadata supported: XML
How is metadata stored (database? File system?): In proprietary system.
If so, how is the metadata exported? XML, Comma delimited?: XML, SGML, tab-delimited text
OAI Capabilities? compliant with OAI-PMH v2.0
Access capabilities
Search and Browse capabilities: yes, with various options for search, e.g. Boolean, etc.
Viewing capabilities (thumbnail/thumbshot, page-by-page, in-context Web views, alternative viewers supported [PDF & DjVu], etc.): Thumbnails are the first point of viewing. Links then to page-by-page of images, PDF documents, etc.
Downloading (Multiple formats available?): No.
Streaming (Multiple formats available?): Linking to Helix server for audio and video options is available.
Other capabilities
Persistent URL? If so, what type?:
Collection organization (i.e. can we organize a set of materials into a collection within the access system)? Yes
Technical issues
Operating system:
Database:
DLXS
General Information
Vendor supported or open source (i.e., customizations developed in house):
General types of materials supported (i.e. text, image, etc):
Format of materials supported:
Format of materials not supported:
Limitations in collection policy for type of content?:
Metadata
Descriptive metadata supported:
Descriptive metadata standards supported:
If more than one descriptive metadata standard supported, alternative metadata views available?
Technical / Preservation metadata supported:
Technical / Preservation standards supported:
Structural metadata supported:
Structural metadata standards supported:
Other Administrative metadata supported
Administrative standards supported:
Export mechanism for metadata supported:
How is metadata stored (database? File system?):
If so, how is the metadata exported? XML, Comma delimited?:
OAI Capabilities?
Access capabilities
Search and Browse capabilities:
Viewing capabilities (thumbnail/thumbshot, page-by-page, in-context Web views, alternative viewers supported [PDF & DjVu], etc.):
Downloading (Multiple formats available?):
Streaming (Multiple formats available?):
Other capabilities
Persistent URL? If so, what type?:
Collection organization (i.e. can we organize a set of materials into a collection within the access system)?
Technical issues
Operating system:
Database:
DSpace
General Information
Vendor supported or open source (i.e., customizations developed in house): Open source, currently supported by Tim Donohue (Dspace Committer); we've already made substantial customizations
General types of materials supported (i.e. text, image, etc): There is really no limit to the type of material that can be uploaded. As noted below, there is not at this moment the ability to stream audio or video content, but that content could be downloaded.
Format of materials supported: All formats are supported though with varying levels of preservation support. See https://www.ideals.uiuc.edu/wiki/bin/view/IDEALS/FormatSupport and https://www.ideals.uiuc.edu/wiki/bin/viewfile/IDEALS/Preservation?filename=FormatSupportMatrix.xls
Format of materials not supported: None
Limitations in collection policy for type of content?: Yes, IDEALS - our current implementation of DSpace - is limited to the scholarly and research output of the university.
Metadata
Descriptive metadata supported: Yes.
Descriptive metadata standards supported: Essentially the Dublin Core Library Application Profile.
If more than one descriptive metadata standard supported, alternative metadata views available? No.
Technical / Preservation metadata supported: A minimal amount of technical metadata is supported. Also, DSpace regularly updates provenance information (when metadata was updated, items moved), but not in a particularly useful way.
Technical / Preservation standards supported: none.
Structural metadata supported: No
Structural metadata standards supported: No
Other Administrative metadata supported Some of the provenance information might be considered administrative metadata. Also, the deposit agreement is stored alongside the items with a record of who submitted, Net ID, and date.
Administrative standards supported: None
Export mechanism for metadata supported: Yes.
How is metadata stored (database? File system?): Database (Postgres SQL)
If so, how is the metadata exported? XML, Comma delimited?: XML via OAI, also can do other exports if needed.
OAI Capabilities? OAI data provider included. As of Oct 2006, only exporting in simple Dublin Core.
Access capabilities
Search and Browse capabilities: Provides full text indexing of a lot of textual content so search covers both the metadata, collection and community descriptions, and the items themselves. Can browse by title, author, date, subject keyword, or by community and collection.
The next version of DSpace (1.5 due out in January) will have a much improved user interface (Manakin) - see http://wiki.dspace.org/index.php/Manakin for the technical details and http://labs.di.tamu.edu:8080/geofolios/handle/123456789/2 for a cool demo.
Viewing capabilities (thumbnail/thumbshot, page-by-page, in-context Web views, alternative viewers supported [PDF & DjVu], etc.): Will display thumbnails of images deposited; could potentially do some page by page views depending on how items were uploaded (i.e. if uploaded page by page, can display page by page). Again the next version will have a better capabilities for this (see above).
Downloading (Multiple formats available?): Yes, downloading is supported in whatever format is updated.
Streaming (Multiple formats available?): Not at this time, though this is under some discussion now.
Other capabilities
Persistent URL? If so, what type?: Yes, handles (see http://www.handle.net/ )
Collection organization (i.e. can we organize a set of materials into a collection within the access system)? Yes.
Technical issues
Operating system: Currently operating on Red Hat Linux
Database: Postgres SQL
Olive
General Information
Vendor supported or open source (i.e., customizations developed in house): vendor supported. User interface can be customized to an extent.
General types of materials supported (i.e. text, image, etc): images
Format of materials supported: Active paper: bitonal tiffs (after Olive's distillation process); Active Magazine: tiffs, pdfs (after Olive's distillation process) More info
Format of materials not supported:
Limitations in collection policy for type of content?: Designed specifically for historical newspapers
Metadata
Descriptive metadata supported:
Descriptive metadata standards supported: Olive's distillation process results in XML (PrXML) files.
If more than one descriptive metadata standard supported, alternative metadata views available?
Technical / Preservation metadata supported:
Technical / Preservation standards supported:
Structural metadata supported:
Structural metadata standards supported:
Other Administrative metadata supported
Administrative standards supported:
Export mechanism for metadata supported: Olive currently has output XML channels for the NITF (Newspaper Industry Tag Format), OAI, S1000D, and more.
How is metadata stored (database? File system?): XML repository
If so, how is the metadata exported? XML, Comma delimited?:
OAI Capabilities? yes
From Olive document, "OAI Admin Guide" : Making your repository OAI compliant requires adding Dublin Core standard metadata
into articles using Olive Softwares Enterprise Publisher Librarian application. After
metadata has been added, each article must be indexed.
Access capabilities
Active Paper Sample
Active Magazine Sample
Search and Browse capabilities: yes both. Search individual title or entire collection. Can limit by date and sort results in various ways.
Viewing capabilities (thumbnail/thumbshot, page-by-page, in-context Web views, alternative viewers supported [PDF & DjVu], etc.): Browse defaults to page-by-page view of individual newspaper issues. Clicking on page brings up article view on new window. Search results display thumnails (cropped images of articles).
Downloading (Multiple formats available?): Can download articles and pages as pdfs. Emailing and printing of articles also supported.
Streaming (Multiple formats available?): n/a
Other capabilities
Persistent URL? If so, what type?: no
Collection organization (i.e. can we organize a set of materials into a collection within the access system)?
Technical issues
Operating system:
Database:
Archon
General Information
Vendor supported or open source (i.e., customizations developed in house): Open source, developed in house by Archives, PHP API
General types of materials supported (i.e. text, image, etc): can hold any mime type, but display is dependent on client side applications except for types natively supported by the browser.
Format of materials supported: Photos, audio, video, text, doc, pdf, etc.
Format of materials not supported:
Limitations in collection policy for type of content?: None.
Metadata
Descriptive metadata supported: YES
Descriptive metadata standards supported: Dublin Core for digital objects, EAD for collections.
If more than one descriptive metadata standard supported, alternative metadata views available? YES
Technical / Preservation metadata supported: mime types
Technical / Preservation standards supported:
Structural metadata supported: None currently, but see below.
Structural metadata standards supported: I am interested in exploring how METS support can be integrated.
Other Administrative metadata supported ??
Administrative standards supported: N/A
Export mechanism for metadata supported: Yes, via PHP templates
How is metadata stored (database? File system?): In relational database.
If so, how is the metadata exported? XML, Comma delimited?: via php scripts, can be exported in whatever format needed.
OAI Capabilities? We are currently building an OAI data provider into the software
Access capabilities
Search and Browse capabilities: Both
Viewing capabilities (thumbnail/thumbshot, page-by-page, in-context Web views, alternative viewers supported [PDF & DjVu], etc.): Supports thumbnail, full size, building in page by page (Page turner) support. Supports all browser plugs in depending on mime type associations on end-user computer.
Downloading (Multiple formats available?): Yes, in source format
Streaming (Multiple formats available?): NO.
Other capabilities
Persistent URL? If so, what type?: Yes, but is not part of handler server. I'd like to investigate this further.
Collection organization (i.e. can we organize a set of materials into a collection within the access system)? Yes, materials are related to other materials with an archival record series or manuscript collection.
Technical issues
Operating system: Needs PHP 5.0 with gd, and mssql or mysql/mysqli library
Database: MySQL or SQL Server
template
General Information
Vendor supported or open source (i.e., customizations developed in house):
General types of materials supported (i.e. text, image, etc):
Format of materials supported:
Format of materials not supported:
Limitations in collection policy for type of content?:
Metadata
Descriptive metadata supported:
Descriptive metadata standards supported:
If more than one descriptive metadata standard supported, alternative metadata views available?
Technical / Preservation metadata supported:
Technical / Preservation standards supported:
Structural metadata supported:
Structural metadata standards supported:
Other Administrative metadata supported
Administrative standards supported:
Export mechanism for metadata supported:
How is metadata stored (database? File system?):
If so, how is the metadata exported? XML, Comma delimited?:
OAI Capabilities?
Access capabilities
Search and Browse capabilities:
Viewing capabilities (thumbnail/thumbshot, page-by-page, in-context Web views, alternative viewers supported [PDF & DjVu], etc.):
Downloading (Multiple formats available?):
Streaming (Multiple formats available?):
Other capabilities
Persistent URL? If so, what type?:
Collection organization (i.e. can we organize a set of materials into a collection within the access system)?
Technical issues
Operating system:
Database:
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