DARIAH-DE Use Case: “Federation Architecture”
The DARIAH-DE Use Case describes a “Federation Architecture” for research data
and collection descriptions of distributed sources at cultural heritage institutions,
such as libraries, archives, research institution, and data centers.
It aims at
•
indexing and listing of research data,
•
providing sustainable and persistent access for further use,
•
technical tools to compare descriptions and contents of digital collections,
•
comprehensive search functionality for heterogeneously structured data collections
and archives.
The following figure illustrates tools and services for searching within distributed
sources/data:
Figure 1: Illustration of search tools and services.
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Within the last three years, we have been developing these search tools and
services:
Collection Registry
The Collection Registry is a service for registering collections of research data and
their interfaces and for making this registration information available via the
Generic Search of DARIAH-DE.
Schema Registry
The Schema Registry allows the storing of different metadata schemas for use by the
Crosswalk Registry and Generic Search. Both the schemas and the underlying
algorithms can be generated with the Crosswalk Registry.
Crosswalk Registry
The Crosswalk Registry is a graphical tool, enabling researchers in the Arts, the
Humanities, and Social Sciences to map different metadata standards stored in the
Schema Registry. This mapping allows automated translation from one data schema
to another, and that, in turn, allows scholars to use just this one tool in order to
search data of different collections.
Figure 2: Crosswalk Registry.
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Generic Search
The Generic Search provides a front end for the data registered in the Collection
Registry. Generic Search can search the registries as well as third party sources. This
tool allows searching in heterogeneous data sets, e.g. data from ZVDD1, HathiTrust2,
or other libraries, repositories and data centers.
DARIAH-DE Repository
The DARIAH-DE Repository enables users to archive data of any kind in a
sustainable and persistent manner. Both the data describing the collection and the
research data itself can be indexed and found by Generic Search.
Figure 3: Form to enter data for publishing.
1 http://www.zvdd.de/startseite/
2 http://www.hathitrust.org
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Summary
These search tools and services form a distributed architecture, all services may be
provided by multiple institutions in various instances. Each service allows access to
heterogeneous data sources of various provenance. New methods of analyzing
existing distributed data collections in a unified way are possible with the “DARIAHDE Federation Architecture” for research data.
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Use Case tables
ID:
Use Case 1: DARIAH-DE-1
Title:
Platform to provide a (federated) search
through heterogeneous digital collections.
Description:
Platform for federated search in research data
and collection descriptions of heterogeneous
digital material in libraries, archives, data
centers and cultural heritage institutions.
Trigger:
-
Preconditions:
A researcher wants to search in various
data/sources/collections pertaining to
her/his current research question and
compare findings from different resources.
Steps for Main
Success Scenario:
1. The researcher identifies the
data/source/collection she/he wants to
search and analyze.
2. The collection is registered with Generic
Search and the interface for accessing is
mapped.
3. The metadata schema describing the source
is selected or newly created.
4. Different related schemas are mapped and
crosswalks are generated.
5. Generic Search indexes the existing source
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material and provides the interface for the
researcher.
Alternate
scenarios:
-
Postconditions:
-
Frequency of Use: Whenever the researcher wants to find research
data relating to her/his current research
question.
Status:
Draft
Author:
DARIAH-DE
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ID:
Use Case 2: DARIAH-DE-2
Title:
Platform for persistent archiving and
publishing of research data.
Description:
Platform for federated search in research data
and collection descriptions of heterogeneous
digital material in libraries, archives, data
centers and culture heritage institutions.
Trigger:
-
Preconditions:
A researcher has some data or source
material along with structured metadata
describing the material in some standardized
way.
It should be published for public reuse.
Steps for Main
Success Scenario:
Alternate
scenarios:
1. The researcher uploads her/his research
data to the DARIAH-DE Repository for
persistent and sustainable archiving.
2. She/He adds the collection and the
metadata schema to the respective
registries of DARIAH-DE-1.
1. The data is never published but still longterm preserved.
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Postconditions: Any researcher can find the published and linked
research data and the connected and related
sources through Generic Search and reuse it for
their own research questions.
Frequency of Use:
Whenever the researcher has some new
research data or wants to add new data and
optionally re-publish (versioning).
Status:
Draft
Author:
DARIAH-DE
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