The Collections UofT Repository and Enterprise Content

Management2014.05.06 - 11:20 AM - 12:00 PM

Toronto/Ryerson/York (TRY) ConferenceCarr Hall, Room 406

Sara Allain, Special Collections Librarian, UTSC LibraryKelli Babcock, Digital Initiatives Librarian, UTL ITSDanielle Robichaud, Archives Assistant, John M. Kelly Library, USMCKaren Suurtamm, Archivist, UTARMSKen Yang, Digital Humanities Application Programmer, UTL ITS

Presentation Overview

1. Introducing the Collections UofT platform (Kelli)

2. Use case: UTARMS (Karen)

3. Use case: Nouwen family photograph albums (Danielle)

4. Use case: using OAI-PMH to share metadata (Sara)

What is Collections UofT?

http://collections.library.utoronto.ca/

What is Collections UofT?

Enterprise Content Management Approach

● Problem: How best to manage our digital projects/digital assets while leveraging limited resources?

● One possibility: a repository inspired by the “enterprise content management” framework

● An enterprise content management approach offers guidelines for the architecture and management behind a repository, rather than simply a technical solution

Enterprise Content Management

Enterprise Content Management comprises the strategies, processes, methods, systems, and technologies that are necessary for capturing, creating, managing, using,

publishing, storing, preserving, and disposing content within and between organizations.

ECMs and Institutional Repositories: The Case for a Unified Enterprise Approach to Content ManagementMalcolm Wolski, Natasha Simons and Joanna Richardson, 2013 http://eprints.utas.edu.au/16317/1/THETA_2013_Wolski.pdf

Enterprise Content Management

http://eprints.utas.edu.au/16317/1/THETA_2013_Wolski.pdf

Collections UofT: the system

http://islandora.ca/

Collections UofT:an Islandora sandwich

Top layer: Drupal

Middle bits: Islandora tools

Bottom layer: Fedora commons

Collaborator Multi-Sites

http://collections.library.utoronto.ca/

● http://ealcollections.library.utoronto.ca/

● http://govinfocollections.library.utoronto.ca/

● http://usmccollections.library.utoronto.ca/

● http://fishercollections.library.utoronto.ca/

● http://utarmscollections.library.utoronto.ca/

● etc...

Metadata Conundrum

Enabling collaboration

Islandora and the U of T Archives

Karen Suurtamm, ArchivistU of T Archives & Records Management Services (UTARMS)

Our digitized content● Lansdale fonds

o Total: 50,000o Digitized: 27,000 o Online: 3,500

● Photoso Total: 250,000+o Online: 2000

● Published materialo Total: 2400+ titleso Online: 14 titles;

57,000 pages

● Textual recordso Total: 11,000+ mo Online: barely anything

Heritage site● Initiated by President’s office● Created by ITS; launched 2012● Scope: U of T history● Material from repositories across U of T

o UTARMSo Fishero UTSCo UTM

Benefits of Heritage Site● Increased exposure● Search and browse across repositories● Easy browsing/searching for internal use● Faceted browsing● Multimedia: photographs, documents, maps, drawings,

films, books● Increased collaboration

Exhibits

Chronology

Social media

Limitations of Heritage● Strict mandate/scope● Another ‘place’ to look for things● Not linked back to our website and archival descriptions● Little control over how our material displays

Collections: U of T Archives multi-site

● Central space : decentralized workflow● More control over collection display● Own look/feel for our page● Can build our own menu items: About, Contact, How to

cite, etc.● Content is unlimited in scope

Islandora for Archives: Benefits● Supports multiple formats● Open source

o Can build/add/adapto Room to grow/changeo community/collaboration

● Pairing with other softwareo Exhibits (Timeline etc)o Preservation (Archivematica)o Description (AtoM)

Islandora for Archives: Challenges● Communicating that ‘this isn’t everything’● Use of the term ‘collections’● Metadata: balancing cohesion and autonomy with other

professions/sectors● Preserving/communicating context ● Preserving/communicating hierarchical arrangement

Nouwen Family Photograph Albums

Page 38 of Album 16

Danielle RobichaudArchives AssistantJohn M. Kelly Library USMC

Meet the Nouwens

Maria and Laurent J.M. Nouwen’s 25th wedding anniversary (April 1956)

P6133Page 28 of Album 1

Project Overview

● 18 photograph albums donated in 2012● 650 pages with more than 4000 photographs● Funding was provided for the digitization and

description of the albums● Online access key component of agreement ● Albums compiled by the Nouwen family and

Henri Nouwen

Page 12 of

Album 18

Page 6 of

Album 12

Page 20 of

Album 5

Page 21 of

Album 3

Why Collections U of T?

● Higher profile for USMC Collections● Allows for centralized online dissemination

with built-in IT support ● Access to academic audience● Collections U of T collaborators as built-in

community of practice

Challenges

● Photograph albums don’t align with the Book or Large Image Content models

● Resources, time and knowledge required for site customization and configuration

● Archival descriptive standards vs Dublin Core basic elements

Solution: Thinking Out Loud

How Do You Solve a Problem Like UTSC?

● The DSU at UTSC has its own Islandorao We use it in different ways than ITSo Not an institutional repository but an organic digital

scholarship tool that we need to be able to experiment with

● But we think it’s important to contribute!

Learn to Share!

● Create a search interface that will find our stuff via Collections UofT without the effort of ingesting it twice

● OAI-PMH: Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting

Metadata Harvesting via OAI-PMH

UTSC metadata

available via Islandora OAI

module

Collections UofT

harvester

Request made via HTTP

Dublin Core XML gatheredvia OAI-PMH

Metadata made available via Collections UofT site

Pros and Cons of OAI-PMH

Advantages:● Relatively easy● Minimal duplication of

ingest effort● No loss if UTSC decides

to change how we use Collections UofT

Issues:● User interface changes● Only harvests simple

Dublin Core● Out of date - ATOM,

ResourceSync, or LOD could do this better

Questions?

Contact usSara: sallain@utsc.utoronto.ca, @archivalisticKelli: kelli.babcock@utoronto.ca, @kelllibDanielle: danielle.robichaud@utoronto.ca, @danielleganzaKaren:karen.suurtamm@utoronto.ca, @UTArchivesKen: ken.yang@utoronto.ca, @kenyangzj