Digital Library Center Blog | UF

From the SNAC website:

Leveraging the new standard Encoded Archival Context-Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families (EAC-CPF), the SNAC Project will use digital technology to “unlock” descriptions of people from finding aids and link them together in exciting new ways. We will:

• Create efficient open-source tools that allow archivists to separate the process of describing people from that of records.
• Create a prototype integrated historical resource and access system that will link descriptions of people to one another and to descriptions of resources in archives, libraries and museums; online biographical and historical databases; and other diverse resources.

Europeana just released their first white page, “Knowledge = Information in Context.”

The paper covers the importance of data standards, clean data, linked data, and tools and ways to link data (more standards and APIs). The paper is an excellent paper on the importance of making digitized materials useful by creating context.*

The article as a whole discusses different standards and principles (RDF triples, Linked Data, FOAF, SKOS, semantic connections), all of which are integral parts of the web but which are not necessarily part of many cultural heritage collections. Open Library has been intensively working on issues related to linked data, as has the Library of Congress, and the University of Florida Digital Collections are connecting more metadata in the database for linked subject terms, citation fields, and facets, and much more is in the works.

* The paper appears to have been written for translatability - sometimes odd language usage is necessary for ease of translating, and this is common in technical manuals for ubiquitous software - so some of the wording is a bit unusual, but the overall shape of the argument is accurate.

Open Source METS Metadata Editor: Download

About the Open Source METS Metadata Editor

One of the newest of the continual upgrades to the UF Digital Collections is online metadata editing. To make that fully operational our programmer, Mark Sullivan, revised the current standalone METS Metadata Editor application to ensure it remained in parallel. In doing so, Mark noticed that he could quickly adapt our METS Metadata Editor to serve the needs of all of the State University Libraries in Florida. Mark made those updates and the METS Metadata Editor is now available for download here.

The METS Metadata Editor is an Open Source .NET application and features:

• METS Object and METS Reader
  • Good object-oriented example, plug and play for .NET users
  • METS mappings
  • MARC ? METS/MODS ? MARC
  • METS/MODS ? Greenstone file
  • METS/MODS ? Dublin Core (could easily include Dublin core ? METS/MODS)

The METS Metadata Editor is available as an Open Source download for the Windows application from here.

In the near future, the code for the METS Metadata Editor Web application will also be available for download. The code for the  METS Metadata Editor Web application is already powering online metadata editing for the UF Digital Collections, but it’s still new and we’re gathering and incorporating user feedback to further optimize the interface right now. Once released, the METS Editor Web Application will allow users to enter and edit METS files. It probably will not include a logon system, but will instead save into a folder by IP or session number. Then, users will be able to create an item, view it, edit it, download METS, MARC, etc. A bulk importer from MARC and spreadsheets will also be available as a bundled part of the standalone and web application. The Digital Library Center already uses the importer as part of our production toolkit.

As we release more Open Source tools, please note that we’re revising our documentation but it may have different names for some of the same tools until we finish editing. The different names are all for our production toolkit, which is sometimes referred to as the DLC Toolkit, the UFDC Toolkit, the Digital Library of the Caribbean or dLOC Toolkit, and the SobekCM Toolkit. The SobekCM Toolkit has many names because the coding is brilliantly architected and modular, with the same code powering multiple tools and customized tool sets, multiple production scenarios, and multiple versions of the same applications customized for the different user groups.  Translating among the names our users know for their tools and the system components causes confusion, so we’re now referring to the collections by their names and the system-parts by the name SobekCM. The CM is for collection and content management, and Sobek is the name of an Egyptian crocodile god (because even crocodiles are Gators in Gainesville).

To help aid with any possible confusion on terminology, we have definition pages for general terms and for specific metadata fields. We’re still working on the pages for the metadata fields, because they provide a lot more than just a definition.

Each of the definitional metadata pages includes:

• Definition(s)
• Form Element
• Best Practices
• Examples
• UFDC / MODS Encoding
• Metadata Mapping
• Links to reference materials

Examples in process:

• Main Title
• Other Title
• Type
• Physical Description
• Complex Note
• Complex Abstract
• Complex Creator
• Complex Publisher
• Complex Manufacturer
• Genre
• Holding Location
• Language
• Publication Date
• Subject Scheme
• Complex Temporal
• Coordinate Points
• Spatial
• Target Audience
• Source

Press Release -

The Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative (FADGI) has just released a new planning document, DIGITIZATION ACTIVITIES - Project Planning and Management Outline.

The aim of this document is to define activities relating to the digitization of original cultural materials, and to outline general steps for planning and management of this process. The activities described in this document address library/archival issues, imaging and conversion work, and IT infrastructure issues in particular, and were identified using project management outlines from several organizations with significant experience working with cultural materials. This document defines “digitization” as a complete process, and covers all project components from content selection through delivery of digitized objects into a repository environment.

You can access the document from FADGI website  (digitizationguidelines.gov) or go directly to the document page here.  All comments can be submitted using the online form here.

In practice, development doesn’t stop. Recognise this and deal with it.

“The coolest thing…” The biggest risk is that premature proscription prevents the coolest thing.

Is this a problem? Only if the system is considered as a whole. Decompose system into independent components that are tractable.

- Neil Jefferies, “Persistent IT Architectures: Building Digital Archives That Last” from the Digital Repositories Workshop: Tools and Infrastructure,23 April 2009.

LOC Press Release:

The Library of Congress is among a dozen federal agencies launching an initiative to establish a common set of guidelines for digitizing historical materials. Basing its efforts on a combination of collaborative research and combined experience, the Federal Agencies Digitization Guidelines Initiative will address a variety of issues related to the complex activities involved in the digitization of cultural heritage items.

Two working groups have been formed, one addressing content that can be captured in still images, the other involved with content categorizing sound, video, or motion-picture film. The initiative includes a just-launched Web site, www.digitizationguidelines.gov.

The Federal Agencies Still Image Digitization Working Group will focus its efforts on content such as books, manuscripts, maps, and photographic prints and negatives. Its members include the Library of Congress, the National Agricultural Library, the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Gallery of Art, the National Library of Medicine, the National Technical Information Service, the National Transportation Library, the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Government Printing Office. An Advisory Board of technical experts from industry and academia will also contribute to the initiative.

The Federal Agencies Audio-Visual Working Group, which will address standards and practices for sound, video, and motion picture film, includes the Defense Visual Information Directorate of the Department of Defense, the Library of Congress, the National Agricultural Library, the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Library of Medicine, the Smithsonian Institution, the Government Printing Office and the Voice of America.

The agencies began meeting in 2007 to identify common practices for digitizing cultural heritage materials in a sustainable way. Establishing guidelines is expected to increase the quality and consistency of digitized documents and media that are made available to the public, streamline workflows and reduce costs, promote the exchange of research, and encourage collaboration across agencies. The guidelines will also provide common benchmarks for digitization service providers and manufacturers.

The Web site currently features two documents developed by the Still Image Digitization Working Group that are open for comment until mid-November. The first proposes a minimal set of embedded TIFF metadata for use in historical and cultural heritage digital imaging. The second two-part document presents a taxonomy of digital image characteristics and provides corresponding metrics and criteria to describe and validate imaging performance and quality.

The Web site also provides a glossary of digitization terms and concepts, and presents digitization-related news and events on the subject from the participating agencies.

This collaborative effort initially formed under the auspices of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP), a Library of Congress-led program initiated by Congress in December 2000 to develop a national strategy to collect and preserve digital content. For more information on NDIIPP visit www.digitalpreservation.gov.