Unit 13 - in retrospect

I learned a great deal this semester about configuring open source software to create a functional digital repository. I also learned more about managing repositories (both on the people and technology sides), while I learned a great deal about why it is important to digitize our cultural collections. I appreciated how many server configurations we were assigned to do, and I feel pretty confident now in maneuvering through the command line. I’m still struggling to find how everything fits together, and specifically with trying to grasp the overall management components necessary to effectively curate digital collections.

One of my favorite management readings of the course was the British Library’s vision statement. Yes, I know it is a study in careful marketing, but this document made me realize again why it is that I want to be involved in digitizing cultural collections. Specifically that the immediacy and accessibility of historical digitized content may have a profound impact on content creators via the ability to "revisit" history through such artifacts.

Another part of the course that I really enjoyed was exploring the larger federated repositories of Trove & Europeana. Both of these search engines mine the “deep web” and I was able to find new information from collections that I’ve visited before. I also enjoyed the faceted searching and the variety of ways in which to search for information that both of these sites offered. I especially appreciated the exhibits that were available through Europeana, particularly the Art Noveau exhibit.

Best of all was configuring Dspace & Omeka. Eprints was probably the most painful for me to configure (lots of troubleshooting), however I was quite pleased with the end product. I encountered few issues in configuring Drupal, however the interface was my least favorite; the high customization in creating the taxonomy (combined with a higher possibility of typos or less standardized terms) seemed less secure in anticipation of migration.

Unit 12 (or unit 11, part 2)

I think the time involved in the standard install has at this point become an extra two hours or less in the overall unit exercises. When considering this exercise in light of the fact that a repository will be around for a while (theoretically), I can’t see how it is that much more time consuming than something ‘off the shelf’ in the short run. In the long run, I’m guessing it’s better to build your repository from scratch as we’ve been doing. Because if you know how something is put together, you’re far more likely to know where to look when it breaks. More than a few times when I was unable to utilize Fugu for transferring files, I had to instead utilize the command line. This was a great learning experience, and I understood the server better after having gone into the files. Once, I could not see an xml file that I had uploaded, and I was able to see the entire XML file when using the command line at the terminal. I was able to practice some of the commands to get inside a particular directory, and this was really helpful.

I have far more confidence in my abilities than I once did, but I know that I have a lot more to learn, and that some of this will be learned on the job. I'm already concerned that next semester I won’t have many opportunities to go into the command line, and I guess that I'm already somewhat wistful for this dark screen:) I do think it would have been better if 675 was right before my capstone project, because I know that in some way I would like to be involved in repository configuration. One thing I’m curious about, do you have the same ability to create snapshots outside of a VM. I’m guessing this would be the typical server backups that most institutions have. Ultimately being able to take snapshots gave me much more confidence through both 672 & 675.

Unit 11 - Omeka

I have enjoyed the end product of all the repositories so far, however I would have to say that the user interface for Drupal is my least favorite. Dspace was at the top of my list until this week following the installation of Omeka. Omeka is by far the most superior in terms of the graphical interface, as well as in the flexibility of the configuration. Its presentation piece seems to suit my collection very well, especially since the collection consists of a variety of file types, including MOV, MP3, PDF & JPEG. I also appreciated the ease with which I could add metadata fields, as well as on the presentation side how easy it was to access and play my files, especially my film & music files.

I still appreciate Dspace and its communities and collections, however I believe that for my final project I will be utilizing Omeka. I appreciate JHOVE for all the technical metadata it revealed about my objects, and I liked the interface and searching capabilities of Eprints. I also loved harvesting Metadata by utilizing the base url and the OAI harvester.

To date this has been my most challenging semester, based in part on the advanced command line configuration we’ve had to do (and the subsequent troubleshooting that has had me pulling my hair out at times☺ , as well as the more challenging, analytical and critical management discussions that we’ve had this semester in evaluating larger federated repositories. I’m starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, and I’m really starting to think seriously about my capstone project.

Unit 10 - an effective federated repository

I looked at the OAIster database sponsored by the University of Michigan digital library. I couldn’t get a sense of what the collections were. All the landing page states is that it provides access to millions of digital objects from thousands of contributors. It wasn’t like the Europeana federated repository, where the first thing you see on the landing page is a featured Art Noveau exhibit. This was a great way to be introduced to the site. I’m not too excited to search a federated repository that features nothing. Of course, if I know something already about this repository then I guess I wouldn’t need a polished looking landing page, but really, how many people will the site lose by not highlighting one or more of its partner collections?

I then visited the Sheet Music Consortium. The funny thing is that I entered a keyword search for Swan Songs. The first two records that came up for memorium songs to Bert Williams, an African American vaudeville performer who was active during the early 20th century. There were no results for swan songs in quotations.

I also looked at Nora (Noreweigian Open Resource Archive), and thought it was interesting how you could limit the topic by what appears to be a Mac file structure. All of the results were listed in Norweigian. I thought this was an interesting interface, especially the way in which the topics were divided according to the file structure.

The interface with the best design was by far the Sheet Music Consortium, but it was the only site that seemed to have made an attempt at creating a visually appealing landing page. This is where a federated repository such as Europeana is far and away a more appealing interface, regardless of Erway’s measured criticisms.

Unit 9: cataloging my Sutro District collection

I have two journal articles in my collection, and I think it can be helpful to try to find the abstracts in a noted database such as Ebsco, and then see the subject terms listed in the record. Additionally, I have two films that are part of the Library of Congress’ American Memory Project. Subject terms are quite explicit in these records and have been helpful in focusing subject listings of my collection.

I believe that I’ve been the most consistent with Dspace regarding my collection, as with Dspace I was able to utilize both ATT & LCSH – additionally, my LCSH listings were fairly granular in Dspace. With Eprints, I could not achieve the granularity with my subject listings that I could with Dspace. For instance, with Eprints I could only choose Psychology for some of my objects when what I really wanted to choose was ghosts, a subheading under Psychology. Additionally, I like using ATTs definition of ruins vs. LCSH definition of ruins, the latter being specific to ruins in antiquity. The ATT definition of ruins is broader, encompassing contemporary ruins as well. Obviously the Sutro Baths ruins cannot be described as ruins from antiquity.

Overall I’m enjoying cataloging my collection, but I can see how good, detailed cataloging can be very time-consuming and thus very expensive in a real working environment. But I can also understand how you wouldn't want to cut any corners when it comes to cataloging, as the metadata is key to access; if no one can find your collection, it may as well not exist.

Unit 8 & the perils of Eprints

So far I prefer Dspace over Drupal & Eprints. It has been helpful to have to do the standard install now for the 5th time. I think I’m just starting to get the hang of it:) I still had some problems this time with connectivity, but I think that’s because I configured the static IP before doing the sudo aptitude updates.

I should have read Emily’s post earlier about mixing up the primary user password with the necessary mysql password, as I had to repeat this step 3 times before realizing that it needed my unique mysql password.

Another issue that came up was when trying to configure eprints with two repositories. Here I changed my hostname to eprints324, the name of my new vm. I really appreciate all the help that the tech activity has offered, and when I find the solution through either Bruce’s or another classmate’s assistance, I’m trying to add as much detail as possible to the posts in the event that others run into the same issue.

I had a heck of a time finding private/etc/hosts on my actual host machine. This was a very interesting exercise in patience and I must admit that I learned quite a bit about changing permissions for these files on my host machine. I had little time to configure my Eprints site by the time I actually got it up and running, but alas both repositories are ready to have collection items added. I’m still very much partial to Dspace. I appreciate its user-end appearance over that of either Drupal or Dspace.

Unit 7: Capstone Project Musings

Since our blog discussion this week is a subject of our own choosing, I thought I would discuss my dream capstone project. While I wouldn’t mind working on a project at my home institution of the UCM Library, my dream collection would be the Adolph Sutro Collection at UC Berkeley. This collection to my knowledge has not as of yet been digitized. I know a few of the librarians at Berkeley, and I’m thinking that I need to start putting my feelers out there to see if there is any chance that I would be able to participate is such a project.

The finding aid on OAC shows that this collection is not currently available in digital format. I know this is a pipe-dream project more than likely, and I’m not even sure if there are any plans to digitize the collection in the near future.

Another possible project might involve a digital-humanities collaboration with the writing program here at UC Merced. I am involved in a group of mostly writing professors here on campus called the “Critical Theory Reading Group.” This group meets every few weeks to discuss readings by philosophers and cultural critics such as Jacques Derrida, Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer. I think that it would be really interesting to prepare an archive of digital objects related to seminars and projects sponsored by the group.