Katelyn Buote
Katelyn Buote
ILS 655 Assignment-Digital Library Review01
9-21-14
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Katelyn Buote
Tufts Digital Library
Project Background
Tufts Digital Library (TDL) can be found at the URL: http://dl.tufts.edu/. Tufts Digital
Library was founded in 2003 through a collaborative effort between the library and the
technology services departments of Tufts University [Digital Collections and Archives (DCA)
and Tufts Technology Services Educational and Scholarly Technology Services (ESTS)]. The
digital library was built to provide preservation and digital access to university records, scholarly
works, and historical collections of the university. The Tufts Digital Library collections enhance
and support teaching and research at Tufts University. The digital library is open to the public
but not entirely. Some materials are made unavailable to the public and only available to
members of the Tufts community (TDL, 2014).
The mission statement of the Tufts Digital Library is stated on the TDL homepage. “The
Tufts Digital Library is a place to explore and discover Tufts’ research and teaching online.
Collections include faculty and student scholarship, photography and image collections, oral
histories, student and university publications, and more” (TDL, 2014).
The DCA sets the collection policies and criteria for deposit and provides services and
support to patrons who use the TDL’s materials or contribute content to the digital library. DCA
and ESTS share the responsibility of management of the system’s software, hardware, and
applications.
Organization of Resources
On the Tufts Digital Library’s homepage there are 6 Exhibits and Collections featured,
which include Tufts and local history, E-scholarship, Edward R. Murrow collection, Historical
New England Medical Center Archives, A New Nation Votes, and Dagomba Dance Drumming.
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The DL is organized into a multiple of collections, including University Photography
Photographs (2005-2010), The Tufts Daily (1980-2004), Community Health Program Records
(1980-97), Historical Materials Collection (1852-), Fletcher Forum of World Affairs (19832000), Melville S, Munro Papers (1908-1945), and many more.
The digital library maintains a wide variety of topics in its collection of materials,
including Art History, Music, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Eastern Mediterranean
Studies, Physics, Photography, and many more. The resources accessible on the digital library
are also varied in format, including basic text documents (HTML, PDF, and Word) and audio
files.
Service Features
Tufts Digital Library provides services for the preservation of and access to digital assets
created in support of Tufts’ teaching and research mission. Core services include (TDL, 2014):
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Secure a long-term storage
Manage of digital assets: “Digital asset management refers to the rules and processes an
organization puts in place to manage, retrieve and distribute their digital media, such as
photos, videos, PDFs, presentations, and documents” (Widen, 2014).
Preservation policies and procedures: “Digital preservation is the active management of
digital content over time to ensure ongoing access” (Library of Congress, 2014).
Discovery and retrieval
Development of access tools and interfaces
Consolation on digital assets creation
The Tufts Digital Library has a “google-like” feature/search engine, where users can simply
type in what they are looking for and search the entire digital library. There is an advanced
search feature where users can advance their search and narrow their results. The link to the
contact information is located on the upper right hand corner of the homepage.
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Technology
The TDL is built entirely on FLOSS (Free, Libre, Open Source Software). The
underlying data storage is managed with the Fedora Commons Repository. The user interface is
developed using Blacklight and Hydra, with indexing powered by Soir.
Comments/Suggestions
I would advise a variety of enhancements to the Tufts digital library to create a more user
friendly environment. The digital library now looks like a pretty bare bones collection as far as
design of the site. The search may be OK but the browsing is not very good. For example, when
you click on the Audio under Browse, you get a list of titles that do not mean very much to me. It
would be nice if the audios were grouped into collections.
Furthermore, the link “Learn More About Finding Aids” takes you to a page that
describes the aids but it is not very clear where you would find them and when you do, they are
all together and not connected to any collection. So you have to find the aid and then go find the
collection.
Lastly, this site is really boring and plain looking. There are so many pretty digital
libraries out there today. This one is just the bare minimum of what a digital library could really
be.
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Katelyn Buote
References
Library of Congress. (2014). What is digital preservation. Retrieved September 15, 2014 from:
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/about/.
Tufts Digital Library. (2014). Retrieved September 15, 2014 from: http://dl.tufts.edu/.
Widen. (2014). What is digital asset management (DAM)?. Retrieved September 15, 2014 from:
http://www.widen.com/the-dam-basics/.
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