The China Digital Museum Project

1. The China Digital Museum Project Dr. Robert TANSLEY, HP Labs Prof. Xukun SHEN, Beihang University Prof. Yue QI , Beihang University

2. HP Labs and China MoEDigital Museum Project • Many universities in China have a museum • Many objects of historic, cultural, educational and research value • Due to space requirements, and size (geographic and population) of the country, museum contents are not optimally utilised • Additionally, some physical objects are deteriorating • Therefore objects are being digitised • Improve access • Preserve DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

3. China Digital Museum Introduction • Phase I Status • 18 campus museums each with 20k-50k objects. • 4 categories: geoscience, biological, anthropological, science and technology • Plan for Phase II • 50+ campus museums. • Standardisation of platform and metadata. • DSpace-based distributed system. DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

4. Challenges Many objects of various kinds • E.g. Calligraphy, pottery, biological specimens, aircraft • Large amount of digital data will be produced • 100 universities, ~2Tb per university museum • Must be easy to find and access content • Currently distributed over many sites • Content must be preserved DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

5. Approach • Use and enhance DSpace to build a large, distributed digital asset management system • Capture, preserve, enable access • HP Labs, China MoE & universities collaboration • Beihang University main technical collaborator DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

6. Approach overview • Each museum loads content and metadata into local DSpace • Content and metadata are replicated at two large-scale ‘data centres’ • For preservation: multiple copies • Enable access: more bandwidth for end-users • Ease discovery: aggregate ‘virtual museums’ DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

7. ‘Virtual Museums’ DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

8. Standardised Metadata • All objects are categorised according to standard taxonomy • All objects have core metadata (Dublin Core) • Extended metadata for each category of object DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

9. University Museums • Each University Museum runs a DSpace instance • Digitised objects, and associated metadata descriptions, are ingested into local DSpace instance • Including category • Each object given a Handle at this stage • Handle generated by local DSpace; registered with central DM project Handle Server DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

10. University Museums • University museums allow METS to be harvested via OAI-PMH • This METS includes: • Category • Core metadata • Extended metadata per category • URL references to Bitstreams • User access level information • Intended to be compatible with standard DSpace METS profile DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

11. University Museums DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

12. Data Centres • Data Centres hold replicas of digitised objects and metadata from University Museums • Good for robust, long-term preservation • More than one place where digitised objects can be downloaded; enables serving more users • Data Centres use OAI-PMH protocol to obtain objects from University Museums • Replicated items retain same Handle • Data Centre copy added to Handle record DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

13. Data Centres using OAI-PMH DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

14. Overall system architecture DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

15. Enhancements to DSpace • Chinese language translation of user interface • Search of Chinese metadata and text • OAI-PMH harvester/client • Build on existing client from Old Dominion University • Supporting extended metadata • “Pretend” its Dublin Core to start; build on metadata support extension proposed by HP Labs, under development at Eduworks • METS Importer tool • Various specific needs, but common core to contribute to OSS DSpace • Create Handles using remote Handle Server DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

16. Challenges and research questions • Managing a federated DSpace: • Handle resolution: One Handle, multiple objects • Updating objects: • Lifecycle of university museums: Registration, when there are problems • Metadata standardisation • Ensuring metadata is valid: XML Schema validation on METS and metadata within it • Distributed authorisation • Role-based approach: User access levels • Many deployments • Version control, release processes DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

17. Challenges and research questions • Mapping Digital Museum model to DSpace model • University Museums free to organise as desired, but must specify category in metadata • At Data Centres, capitalise on community scope browse/search tools DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

18. Project plan • Three-phase approach • Phase 1: One data centre, 1-2 university museums • Phase 2: One data centre, 10-18 university museums • Phase 3: Full deployment, two data centres, 100 university museums DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

19. Project status • Phase 1 nearly complete • Single university museum, data centre replicating content • Chinese metadata searchable • Currently testing and consolidating • Metadata standardisation in progress DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

20. Summary • Many Chinese university museums are digitising contents • These digital objects and metadata are loaded into DSpace instances • Content and metadata from university museum DSpace instances replicated in two data centres • Building large-scale distributed DSpace system DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

21. China Digital Museum Project Technical Team DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK

22. DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK