York Digital Library
Roadmap July 2009 – Mar 2011
Version 0.5
2010-01-04
Julie Allinson, Digital Library Manager
with the Digital Library team, Library & Archives
Part-funded by JISC under the Repositories and Preservation Programme, Start-up and Enhancement Strand
Digital Library : roadmap
Introduction
This document presents a roadmap for the Digital Library project.
The overarching aim is:
 Representative suite of cross-disciplinary content from the following Departments
available in YODL by July 2010, moving to a service by March 2011:
o History of Art
o Archaeology
o Language and Linguistics
o Music
o Theatre, Film and Television
o Borthwick Institute for Archives
o Library, King’s Manor Collections
The document is structured into a series of work areas.
Work Areas
1. Access Control
Responsibility: Julie Allinson, Frank Feng
Aim: Rich, multi-faceted access control for the Digital Library.
Outputs:
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Ability to apply access control to collections of resources and to individual resources.
Ability to restrict access to defined groups, such as University usernames,
Departments, staff, students and those enrolled on specific modules.
Ability to restrict access to specific ‘datastreams’, eg. restricting access to archival
quality images whilst enabling access to smaller resolution files.
Authentication and authorization by University of York username/password (via
Shibboleth); with external access for.ac.uk users at least.
An enhanced, scalable solution for applying policy management to enable
interrogation and management of large numbers of policies. A solution which is inline with Fedora developments.
A procedure for applying, administering and documenting access control.
2. Ingest and Workflow
Responsibility: Frank Feng
Aim: Tools for the upload, ingest and description of resources targeted at different user
groups
Outputs:
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An administrative workflow, including metadata creation forms, automatic
extraction of metadata and data/resource transformation for images, video, music,
audio and text resources to be extensible as new resource types are identified.
Self-deposit workflow for non-administrative users to deposit to YODL, WRRO and
other targets as appropriate.
Bulk ingest tools and procedures, to include a desktop deposit tool.
3. Access and Interfaces
Responsibility: Nigel Thomas
Aim: Interfaces for accessing resources within the Digital Library and integration with other
interfaces and services.
Outputs:
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An enhanced interface for searching and browsing rich metadata; bespoke
interfaces for different content types.
Additional interface features, such as personalisation.
Integration with other access and deposit points, in particular the VLE, streaming
service and RIIS.
A Digital Library data source for Yorsearch (AquaBrowser).
Format-specific tools and viewers for specific resource types.
An OAI_PMH target to expose metadata to external services.
RSS/ATOM feeds as appropriate to better expose content.
Cross-searching of other systems, in particular ArtStor.
4. System
Responsibility: Peri Stracchino
Aim: A robust, scalable and secure Digital Library architecture
Outputs:
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Documented systems administration procedures for linux and solaris machines.
An issue tracking system.
Software installation, maintenance and application of scheduled system upgrades.
Appropriate system security, resilience, failover and backup procedures in place.
Performance monitoring and performance improvements as necessary.
Usage statistics and reporting tools.
Appropriate indexing configurations, eg. solr/risearch.
5. Content Models, Metadata, Submission
Responsibility: Julie Allinson; Matthew Herring
Aim(s): A range of content models and metadata profiles. Metadata and resource
submission
Outputs:
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Digital Library : roadmap
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Content models and metadata profiles for images, music, video, collections and
other resource types.
Metadata creation and resource deposit into the Digital Library.
Training and guidelines for metadata creation and deposit.
WRRO submission and support for WRRO.
6. Digitisation and Photographic
Responsibility: Julie Allinson, Paul Shields
Aim: To deliver a photographic service for external customers whilst undertaking internal
digitisation projects to a high image quality.
Outputs:
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Digitisation for specific projects.
Provision of photographic services.
Income generation through the photographic service.
Provision of guidance and advice on photography and digitization.
7. Rights/Policy
Responsibility: Julie Allinson
Aim: To ensure that the Digital Library is managed in a way which adheres to copyright,
licence and other rights; to provide clear guidance to users.
Outputs:
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Digital library policies.
Support for provision of user guidelines and advice.
A suite of deposit licenses.
Encouraging best practice.
Feeding into wider work on University policy.
8. Usability, User Testing, Requirements, Accessibility
Responsibility: Julie Allinson
Aim: To gather requirements and undertake testing to ensure that the Digital Library meets
user and accessibility requirements.
Outputs:
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Representation on the University e-Accessibility Forum.
Accessibility testing through the YODL-ING project.
Usability testing and feedback into development.
User requirements gathering.
A commitment to ‘accessibility-aware’ development.
9. Preservation
Responsibility: Julie Allinson
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Digital Library : roadmap
Aim(s): To identify requirements for storing preservation metadata and to implement
techniques for automatic extraction; and to feed into University-level discussions about
long-term preservation.
Outputs:
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Implemented automated extraction of technical & preservation metadata
Documentation of wider requirements for preservation
10. Users and Advocacy
Responsibility: Julie Allinson
Aim: To engage current and potential users and to advocate the Digital Library service both
internally and externally.
Outputs:
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User training and support.
Embedded advocacy and outreach within current staff roles.
Close working with White Rose Research Online to promote repository services.
Academic Advisory Group.
External and internal dissemination.
Reputation building, externally and internally.
11. Project Management and Reporting
Responsibility: Julie Allinson
Aim: To ensure the smooth running of the project and to seek new funding opportunities.
Outputs:
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Digital Library roadmap and work plan.
Documentation and reporting for individual projects, including YODL-ING.
Digital Library project documentation and reporting.
Digital Library Steering Group.
Building depositor relationships.
Budget management.
Acquisition of content, services, software and hardware, e.g. ArtStor.
Project representation, e.g. Distance Learning Forum, Virtual Library and external
activities.
Established and managed relationships with project contractors, White Rose
Research Online, funders and others.
Bids for new sources of funding, as appropriate.
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Content, Collections and Projects
The following is a non-exhaustive list of collections which will be included in the Digital
Library, along with other individual projects in support of the wider digital library service.
History of Art
 History of Art digital image collections (legacy collections ingested, scanning service
ongoing)
 Individual academic collections (Jane Hawkes, Amanda Lillie ongoing)
 ArtStor (external image service to supplement digital image collections)
 Painton Cowen collection of stained glass images (748 images ingested, with an
additional 12,000 awaiting ingest)
Archaeology
 Archaeology Slide Collections (agreed digitisation project for 2009/10)
Music
 York Sound Archive (project ongoing)
Language
 Bill Haddican spoken word audio collection (awaiting ingest)
 Marilyn Vihman video collection (proposed digitisation project for 2009/10; awaiting
testing of a sample by an external digitisation company)
Library
 Library Electronic Key Texts (pilot project to deliver scanned chapters and articles to
academics via the VLE 2008-2010)
 King’s Manor Library IAAS slides (digitisation project 2008/09, awaiting ingest)
 Other King’s Manor Collections (Nigel Morgan collection ongoing)
 Exam Papers (proposed)
 MA Theses (pilot of a self-submission workflow for Management Department;
scheduled for late 2010)
 Library photographic collections (proposed digitisation project 2009/10)
 Items from the Minster Library (digitisation project 2008/09 – items still to be
selected)
 Special Collections (in support of a proposed Special Collections project)
Borthwick
 Tuke Archives (digitisation project 2008/09 ongoing)
 Piers Plowman manuscript (complete)
 Online finding aids (implementation of software for managing archival finding aids;
live release scheduled for early 2010)
 Vickers Instruments (digitisation project 2008/09; for ingest early 2010)
 University Archives image collections (proposed digitisation project 2009/10)
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TFTV
 Collection to be identified
Further capital funding digitisation projects for 2010/11 to be selected.
Project Structure and Governance
The project is under the strategic direction of the Digital Library Steering Group. It also
reports to the University’s Strategic Information Projects Implementation Group (SIPIG) and
to the Library and Archives Senior Management Team.
At the user advocacy level, the project is supported by an Academic Advisory Group.
A diagram showing the project structure is included in Appendix 1.
Appendix 1
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