Managing Digital Initiatives

1. Managing Digital Initiatives Changing University Landscape • Personalized; consumer-driven information culture • Highly competitive • Increasingly cooperative • Continuously innovative • Blurring roles: instructor, learner, publisher Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

2. University Information Model Library Collection Private colls Discovery and Evaluation Intellectual Property Management Digital Persistence - Create Once / Always maintain Collaborative Sharing “Gray Lit” Official docs Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

3. Managing Digital Initiatives Design Principles • Scalable - expansion not replacement, build forward rather than rebuild • Core integration - common service suite • Flexible data architecture - support heterogeneous metadata to support unique needs of information • Interoperable - based on open standards for collaboration and data exchange • Robust and Secure – 24/7 availability, maintaining Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

4. Managing Digital Initiatives Design Principles • Supports Simple, transparent information use • Customized for user roles and information needs • Secure against misuse; intellectual property theft • User-centered - user collaboration Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

5. Managing Digital Initiatives Creating a “Digital Playground”: • Boundaries to create an integrated, rich information space with a multiple common services • Within those boundaries - customization, personalization - “everyone can play.” Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

6. Managing Digital Initiatives The “Hybrid” Library • Goal: Seamless integration of analog and digital information • Building designs that encompass inviting, immersive stacks and analog materials use areas; improving circulation workflow • Core integration of analog and digital through the metadatabase Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

7. Managing Digital Initiatives Build a Common Service Suite • Metasearch engine across collections • METS structure map for defining parts, concatenating into collections, linking descriptive and technical information - database driven design • Multiple display and export formats from structure map • Core intellectual property management - collaboration with Internet2, CNI, ViDe and others Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

8. Managing Digital Initiatives Build an Open-Architecture Repository • Distributed, managed, secure digital storage • Centralized metadatabase with data registry • Security mechanisms for data storage and user access • Treat all information resources as mission-critical with common security infrastructure and peering or failover procedures Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

9. Rutgers Digital Library Initiative Open-Architecture Repository Database Data Ingest Data Export Library repository Digital Object Storage Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

10. Managing Digital Initiatives Moving Forward • Extend core services across the university • Dynamic personalized web spaces to support information discovery and collaboration (AMIA Moving Image Gateway Project) Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

11. Managing Digital Initiatives “Intelligent Information Portal” • Simple search interface (“Google” model) • Blend description with reference evaluation • Intelligent metadata that “self-describes” by portal • Partner with other departments for development • Different results for different user roles (Intenet2 Commons) • Personal portal : create collections, components, search strategies, searchable, standardized dynamic site map Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

12. Managing Digital Initiatives The Metadata Repository • Core registry that maps to reference schema – “RU Core” • Schema, language and character set independent • Enables self-describing of data by portal identifier (e.g. education data elements for education portals, etc. • AMIA MIG model – separate tables for portal ID and for each data element, with extensive attributes (lang, charset, portalID, etc.) Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

13. Managing Digital Initiatives The Role of Metadata: • Bring intelligence, coherence to digital collections and the fragmented web • Selection, organization, preservation, discovery, interpretation • Enable the creator and the customer to make sense of digital information. • Active collaboration with the customer in this enterprise Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

14. Managing Digital Initiatives Metadata Repository Record Structure Data Element Registration Database Population MODEL Repository Design Data interchange (other repositories) Dissemination to Users Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

15. Managing Digital Initiatives Open Standards for Interoperability; Transport • Z39.50Application Service Definition and Protocol Specification • Client/Server computer-to-computer communications protocol that specifies query and retrieval of information: bibliographic data, full-text documents; images, and multimedia in a distributed network environment, across disparate computer systems, databases and search engines. • Current version: 3 • http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/agency/document.html • Resource Description Framework (RDF) Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

16. Managing Digital Initiatives Open Standards for Interoperability; Transport RDF – Resource Description Framework • Enables interoperability among metadata schemes, including the modular use of multiple schemes within a metadata record utilizing the XML namespace facility; • Adds machine-interpretable semantics to the encoding, exchange and reuse of structured metadata; http://www.w3.org/TR/PR-rdf-syntax/ Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

17. Managing Digital Initiatives Open Archives Initiative http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/openarchivesprotocol.htm Service Provider OAI Database ArchiveID RecordID CollectionID DateStamp Access=“open” Metadatabase Data mining – repository to repository; user to repository Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

18. Managing Digital Initiatives Open Standards for Interoperability; Transport SOAP – Simple Object Access Protocol Combines XML envelope with programming layers that are stripped off, as appropriate, at each hop. Potential application – Digital Rights Management www.w3.org/TR/SOAP/ Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

19. Managing Digital Initiatives Open Standards for Interoperability; Transport • XML – Extensible Markup Language • A data exchange and markup language with • inherent semantic meaning for elements • ability to combine programming with data, particularly with XSLT • transport and interoperability protocol www.w3.org/XML/ Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

20. Managing Digital Initiatives Open Standards for Interoperability; Transport • METS – Metadata Encoding & Transmission Standard • Enables concatenation of metadata records and schema for description, administration, rights, etc • Enables interoperable structuring of complex objects (multi-page document, sequential video file, etc., for search and retrieval within structures, across documents http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/ Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

21. Managing Digital Initiatives Open Standards for Interoperability; Transport • SCORM – Shareable Content Object Reference Model • Provides IMS (instructional metadata standard) description for educational objects • Enables SCORM-compliant objects to be imported and exported into compliant instructional management systems (WebCT, Blackboard, etc. • Coming – structuring into lesson plans and syllabi http://www.adlnet.org/Scorm/scorm.cfm Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

22. Managing Digital Initiatives Sustainability • Collections and Services support core mission and primary strategic goals • Build a distributed, shared infrastructure with core standards and technologies – actively partner across the organization Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

23. Managing Digital Initiatives Evaluating Sustainability • Interval and impact of initiative – 1 year, 5 years, 10 years – value to institution as a whole and to key stakeholder groups • Project Evolution Path – initiation, development, maintenance, enhancement, completion. How do we know when the useful life has ended? Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

24. Managing Digital Initiatives Evaluating Sustainability • Coexistence – dependent, neutral, or competitive with other initiatives and ongoing services.1 year, 5 years, 10 years – value to institution as a whole and to key stakeholder groups Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

25. Managing Digital Initiatives The Digital Initiative in Context • Identify core (mission-critical) activities. What percentage of effort/time do they require ---should they require? (workflow analysis • What percentage of time/effort remains for R&D – tomorrow’s core? • Workflow analysis – project development vs. project management. Commonalities between core and R&D Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

26. Managing Digital Initiatives The Digital Initiative in Context • Strategic training • Continuous evaluation – stand alone and in-context Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries

27. Managing Digital Initiatives Customer Support is Key Support for New Roles: Information Seeker Information Publisher Lifelong Learner Grace Agnew, Rutgers University Libraries