Unit 8 EPrints week 1

Comment on how this installation compared with the Drupal and DSpace installation. Indicate what configuration/branding changes you made and how easy or difficult you think customizing the look and feel of the installation is, compared with Drupal and DSpace.

I found the customization of EPrints to be very arcane. While I tried to read and comprehend the EPrints documentation, the only instructions about branding that I found helpful were the code lines on page 5 of the Unit 8 Tech Assignment that describe how to customize the index.xpage file to reflect some unique text descriptive of my digital collection. Things like replacing the default EPrint logo with a logo emblematic of my digital collection require the admin to have previously set up the necessary linux permissions through the CLI. I just didn't know how to do that , however I hope somebody in the class will share their knowledge soon so I can get to the next level . Until then, I'll have to stop and wait for more infromation. I'll need a lot more help before I can undestand and execute the branding process.

It seems that both Drupal and DSpace allow for a lot of customization without having to go back to the CLI and set up permissions. As long as the user is signed on as the admin the Drupal and DSpace GUI enables one to go about doing a lot of things that in EPrints require many CLI preliminary steps.

Another cumbersome thing about EPrints is that before changes may take effect the software requires the admin to perform additional steps also executed from the CLI like $ bin/generate_static yourarchivename. These so called housekeeping chores complicate EPrints adminstration and the bin/generate command or some variation on it is required after every EPrints reconfiguration or it won't work. On some level I guess this is similar to making changes to a website and then having to refresh the browser to display the changes.

The EPrints install was a difficult process for me, with lots of missteps and returns to prior states of the VM. In fact things got so bad for me, that I had to delete the VM from my physical disk, and then somehow I lost my Ubuntu iso file, which forced me to download a new Ubuntu iso and then install a new VM before proceeding to the install and configure the EPrints repository software. Ugh!

The 23 steps on pages 11, 12, 13 that must be performed in order to properly configure EPrints were problematic for me. I wasn't always clear whether I needed to type yes , y or hit enter. I got it wrong lots of times, but I took the precaution of saving a prior VM state so I was usually able to recover. I also encountered instances where I needed to type su user1 before I could use sudo privileges, that was confusing and I am not entirely clear as to why, and it is something I had not observed using the other repository software products.

In conclusion I found EPrints to be very unforgiving and not at all intuitive. Experimenting with EPrints isn't an option since the EPrints indexer is very finicky and liable to crash the VM if the configuration isn't perfect.

Unit 7 Problem searching digital collections

Each of the digital repository platforms we have read about and or installed recently, including Omeka, DSpace, and Drupal, are among other things, designed to make digital collections more accessible and or more sustainable. I'm a little concerned that the proliferation of digital repository software might be creating a profusion of digital information silos, that subverts interoperability and introduces a new layer of complexity for scholarly communications. Put another way are all of these repositories sufficiently standardized to enable interoperability and effective search and retrieval across collections? I am prompted to write this because of my experience trying to search for a digital repository similar to my Saratoga Springs, NY local history collection that is also using DSpace. It sounded like a simple assignment, but I found it really isn't. The DSpace.org website while it has a linked listing of all institutions using DSpace doesn't have a search engine that searches and retrieves the deep content from those same DSpace collections. Nor apparently is there a comprehensive DSpace repository directory similar to those constructed by Google or Yahoo that permits finding content by browsing and drilling down from Broader Term to Narrower Term or Related Terms. Even if there were such a directory it would for the most part only facilitate search at the collection level rather than at the object level.

The “Digital Library” article from Wikipedia makes this point when it reveals that "Most digital libraries provide a search interface which allows resources to be found. These resources are typically deep web (or invisible web) resources since they frequently cannot be located by search engine crawlers. Some digital libraries create special pages or sitemaps to allow search engines to find all their resources.”

The same point is made in our reading this week "Digital Repositories" by Nancy John, she writes: "One thing is certain, despite the protocols and technologies, original unscientific, non-standard Web-based exhibitions published by the world’s libraries remain far more accessible to the average user than the content-rich digital repositories they are creating. This is because they are part of the indexed, spidered, crawled open Web that is accessed via search engines. Digital repositories, for the time being, belong to the vast hidden Web,found through published citations, links and personal recommendations."

Bottom line: generally at the individual digital object level, items or nodes are largely invisible to popular search engines. True the OAI-PMH is supposed to gather sufficient metadata to allow popular search engines to provide some degree of federated searching across numerous digital repositories, but that depends entirely on the richness and depth of the metadata created for each object. At best OAI-PMH only gathers the metadata associated with each digital item, making it searchable; directly searching the full text of each individual item in the digital collection is beyond the capabilites of popular search engines. Since we are far away from anything like the semantic web, images, audio and video files remain totally dependent on metadata for discovery.


It seems to me that repositories using DSpace and other digital repository software are most effectively searched one at a time at the web site level, sometimes using the browse function or the sitemap feature. This approach is not very scalable and can hardly be said to be the best solution for improving scholarly communications. Some libraries expose their IR content to the campus through the OPAC but usually that solution is limited to that campus IR and it searches only the metadata not the full text.

This problem may grow in complexity and become even more intractable as the number of digital collections and digital objects in each digital collection continues to increase. Another problem with using digital repositories as tools of interdisciplinary communiction is that the content in many digital repositories is open only to authenticated users. We recently explored permissions and authentication at the OS and repository administration level and there are of course valid reasons for this security, not the least of which is ensuring that digital content remains authentic and unaltered. But securing content by employing user id's and passwords does prevent open access to those digital collections. The use of Captchas technology by digital collections curators is another instance of placing speed bumps in the way of automatic or robotic harvesting of metadata and content by popular search engines, which are the tool of choice for content discovery by many students and even scholars.

For now, one way to search the many thousands of Drupal, DSpace and Omeka digital collections is to first search what is already thoroughly and professionally indexed, namely scholarly peer reviewed published journals and studies found in traditional proprietary databases and then to locate by perserverance and serendipity among the embedded persistent URI footnotes and references in each relevant article those links to individual digital objects that are otherwise secured behind the high walls of specific digital collections. Of course this approach turns the digital collections movement on its head, as the digital repository is in part a response to the unacceptably high prices charged by publishers for access to journals. Using references embedded in the high priced journal article to find the "free" digital object in the IR is paradoxical at best.

Unit 6 DSpace install on new Ubuntu Server VM

Unit 6 My Blog the DSpace install experience.

The install was really amazing, there were so many steps and so much text went flying by on the VM window that I found myself hypnotized by the complexity of the process. Users just see a pdf or jpg but the install configuration and administration of DSpace underscores the magnitude of the work, planning and precise execution needed to render digital objects. As I followed the install steps, my brain was focused only on the discrete task before it, and not upon the how or why a specific step was being performed. It was only after the successful installation of DSpace on my Ubuntu Server VM that I could take a breadth and look up and see the trail of virtual bread crumbs that traced the path that had just taken me so far.

As to the question could I have figured this out on my own or would I need help from a systems specialist? Despite how far I may have come from where I started way back at the first week of 672, it still would be necessary for me to consult with a specialist before I would try installing DSpace in a production environment. However, the install documentation is detailed enough so that with the DSpace technical community forum as a resource, I might only need to consult with a specialist to get over just a few speed bumps.

While I somehow initially went down the wrong path on page 6 of the install fortunately I had taken the precaution, per the advice inserted in the DSpace install document, to take snapshots of previous states of the VM so I just reverted and went forward. As I look back I am now very comfortable with the steps on pages 1 and 2 that create a new VM and install the Ubuntu Server. Many of the commands and steps after page 2 are also pretty familiar to me, for example using the linux sudo aptitude command to download code from partner repositories. I also know enough about the linux file structure to have a good idea of where all that code was deposited. These individual pieces of knowledge like the modules we added during the Drupal install have provided me with tools to better understand the DSpace install and other tasks I might confront in curating a digial collection.

Unit 5 The benefits of TinyMCE

Here is an example of the way cool things TinyMCE can do. I copied some html code automatically generated by TinyMCE into my blog just to give the reader a flavor for the amazing functionality made possible by numerous third party modules installed and configured into Drupal. The professional looking text descriptive of Congress Park from a Wikipedia article that follows below is an example of how TinyMCE can help make blogs look better.

Congress Park is a 17-acre (6.9 ha) site in Saratoga Springs, New York, United States. It was the site of the former Congress Spring Bottling Plant and the former Congress Hall, a large resort hotel, which together brought Saratoga Springs international fame as a health spa and gambling site. At the peak of its popularity it was a place where the wealthy, major gamblers and stars of the entertainment world mingled. The park's artwork includes a statue by Daniel Chester French and a landscape design by Frederick Law Olmsted, among others.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987^[2][3] after having originally been submitted and listed as the Casino-Congress Park-Circular Street Historic District in 1972. The later listing excluded some of the property outside the park and halved the overall size of the district.

Congress Park is currently operated by the City of Saratoga Springs as a park, bounded by Broadway, Spring Street, and Circular Street in Saratoga Springs.

Select and install a Drupal module of your choice.

I decided to install the SiteMap module site_map-6.x-2.1.tar.gz to my Drupal, since the site map feature is something I have always found useful on other web sites as a way to discover the contents of a web site. The install and configuration went well, and I configured it so even non-authenticated users/visitors to my collection web site will be able to use the site map feature. I inserted it into the navigation menu using Administer>Site building>Menus>Navigation

I believe the SiteMap module will make my collection easier to navigate but also in a real world context more discoverable by researchers as Site maps can improve search engine optimization of a site by making sure that all the pages can be found by search engine bots.

Unit Drupal suitable to my collection?

Drupal seems to be very suitable to my collection of Saratoga Springs digital objects. Because my collection is specific to one small geographic area, it is important that tags descriptive of specific persons, places and things be used to enable discovery. LCSH or other controlled vocabularly might be too high level to provide the specificity I would like to describe the digital objects in my collection. I like the flexibility that Drupal provides and its dynamic features, for example the way I can add a tag, hyperlink it, and then by clicking the hyperlink a new page is launched headed by that tag.

I could describe the songs or photographs in my collection with tags derived from the text of the song or some element descriptive of the photographic subject that likely would not be available in a controlled vocabularly like LCSH. For example I might add the word gambling as a tag to the word musical which might be more expressive than the LCSH heading Musical revues, comedies, etc.

The images of the many instances of mineral waters in and around Saratoga Springs might be tagged with words like geyser, spouter, fountain, springs each of which might be more expressive than labeling each photograph Springs--New York (State)--Saratoga Springs


As explained in the Unit 5 tech assignment “we will expand on this problem over the semester”

The data deluge continues, or I need a CMS to handle all this stuff

Please don't speed it up. I feel like someone trying to catch successively faster and more numerous tossed bean bags. It is all I can do to keep up. I understand there is much to cover and each activity and reading does add to my knowledge, but I don't think I'm retaining it too well.

The Drupal install was complicated but as time consuming and detailed as it was it was only the start of the tech activities this week. After that came the draft? construction of the Drupal website. Learning some introductory concepts about Drupal vocabulary and the associated hierachical arrangement of terms and subterms while it does reinforce and place in context our earlier readings by Shirky and Zeng, it is all becoming somewhat overwhelming. Layering all this on top of hours of tech readings, together with what amounts to a second class in digital collections management, plus numerous writing assignments, listening to podcasts and replying to the seemingly endless discussion posts from classmates, well ...

Despite the deluge of material and assignments, I'll continue to give it my best effort. The connection between MySQL and Drupal was the most instructive concept learned this week. Trying to locate my initial page and then grasping that rather than being located in a familiar static directory and subdirectory structure that Drupal instead dynamically recalls content from a database was a very important lesson.

Unit 2 CMS at Kent State

Library Hi Tech Vol 24 No. 1, 2006 “Building a local CMS at Kent State” by Rick Wiggins, Jeph Remley and Tom Klingler p69 -101

I selected the article cited above to read in full because I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to learn the operational details of a library CMS (Content Management System). I wasn't disappointed. The authors take the reader through a step by step process of building a CMS for library web development. The fundamental reason for implementing a CMS in the library environment is the recognition that a library's web site is a core service and that web development and maintenance is as equally important, complex and challenging as the work involved in operating the library's OPAC and ILS

The Kent State Libraries and Media Services web site team (LMS) found that there was a profound need to improve the structure and the integrity of the KS web site. The increasing number of pages, links, e-resources and user expectations made old processes and workflows obsolete. The old methods of updating and maintaining the web site were no longer sustainable. Scalability issues had overwhelmed web development and a radically different methodology was required to automate library web page content and metadata. Hence the need for a CMS.

To their credit, the LMS team included their core users , university staff, faculty and students as key participants in crafting a new web site which would be administered through the CMS. Focus groups and participant surveys generated feedback so that the KS LMS team didn't fall into the trap on relying exclusively upon the expertise and expectations of librarians.

A key moment in the development process was the conclusion by the LMS team that no open source or commercial CMS was available that would meet all the project's requirements. So the KS team developed their own CMS.

The largest part of the article provides in extraordinary detail the features and workflows of the KS CMS. I will spare the reader these details. However, as I reflected on this article, it became obvious to me that the KS CMS as described by the authors is very much a top down expert system. That is the CMS is completely dependent upon the expertise of the library staff. After its launch, the KS CMS doesn't include end users as active participants in the generation of content. A lot of what is described in the KS CMS project, while it would delight many librarians, I think generally runs counter to the philosophy articulated in last week's Clay Shirky reading.

To be fair the article was written in 2005 and published in 2006, light years ago in digital time, (yet Shirky's remarkable article was also written in 2005), well before social media became the dominant factor it is today. The KS article describes a CMS process that is a triumph of taxonomy and professional expertise. Folksonomy, and crowd sourcing are never mentioned as considerations, and personalization is only a vague hope requiring a new centralized authentication system. I think the authors would write a radically different article today.