DIY is for IT Guys

When asked to weigh the various pedagogical and learning objectives involved in experimenting with a pre-install virtual machine as opposed to building my own, I can look back on my own experience and say I have benefited from a combination of the two. I certainly learned a lot in IRLS 671 and IRLS 675 about the nuts-and-bolts of technology. I feel much more comfortable with working at the command line interface. I understand more about my wireless network at my home (although not well enough in some instances). I grasp the fundamentals of using virtual machines.

However, I still am not and probably never will become an “IT guy.” More importantly, I am thankful that I probably never be asked to fill the role of an IT guy. There are plenty of other folks in the IT industry who will probably find themselves migrating to the library and cultural heritage sectors in the future. As libraries and archives continue to evolve in the 21st century, they will inevitably adopt more technologies and undergo a rapid cycle of upgrading. I accept that. I feel relatively comfortable as an end-user of new software programs. I cannot say that I would ever feel comfortable installing and configuring sophisticated new software programs—like the virtual machines and content management software packages we have been experimenting with—in a production environment. In addition to lacking the technical skills, I think I also lack some necessary character traits—the resiliency to troubleshoot complex bugs or the determination to pour over system documentation.

On several of the practice installations of our IR systems, I had to sacrifice a lot of time troubleshooting the configurations and achieving basic functionality, instead of exploring the software features and refining my collection. For future iterations of IRLS 675 I would recommend limiting the number of virtual machine installs to one or two—perhaps Drupal and Omeka since they had the most modular plug-in applications and the installs were easier. Since EPrints and DSpace are the main contenders for most students’ final project platforms, I think students should be able to concentrate more on evaluating all the features of the systems as opposed to getting hung up on troubleshooting the installation and configuration. Personally, I have had to completely rule out using DSpace for my final project because I spent so much time troubleshooting and still didn’t get it right—even after I got it to work briefly once; I was never able to get it to work again. It’s unfortunate too, because many of my classmates feel it is the strongest IR software package.

Working from the per-installed VM was much easier than building my own VM. I experienced no serious problems with the Omeka install. The only problem I ran into was configuring the themes because of the version change.

OAI Services Registry Reviews

I chose the following OAI Services to review:

1) OAIster http://www.oaister.org/
I think that OAIster is one of the largest OAI Services with 1034 contributing members.

2) Sheet Music Consortium
http://digital.library.ucla.edu/sheetmusic/
The Sheet Music Consortium is a collaboration between UC Los Angeles, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University and Duke University.

3) Australasian Digital Theses Program http://leven.comp.utas.edu.au/AuseAccess/pmwiki.php?n=Activity.ADTP
"The majority of Australian universities are signed up and deliver thesis metadata to the [[http://adt-beta.library.unsw.edu.au/|ADT Program gateway]] at the University of New South Wales, while in late 2005 New Zealand also agreed inter-nationally to feed theses to the Program, making it the ''Australasian'' Digital Theses Program.The gateway (holding e-thesis metadata) is harvested by Google, Google Scholar, etc."

The primary criteria for a "good" federated collection is a clear scope and useful purpose. I feel these are important qualities for both the back-end institutions so that they can maintain a manageable and practical project as well as for end-users who desire quality over quantity. I am definitely a novice in the world of harvesting, but "quality over quantity" strikes me as a adage with near universal applicability. On the other hand, OAIster is a mega-service registry. I suppose that it serves a useful function in the harvesting world as the biggest, broadest federated collection. However, I think that for every one OAIster, there should be many more digital theses and specialized format or topic collections that feed into a meta-harvester; otherwise, the balance of expertise, quality control and project management might be tipped toward a circular, 6 degrees of seperation-type phenomenon with much redundancy and little value added.

Cataloging with EPrints

Well first of all, I must say that I enjoyed entering items into a digital repository using EPrints. The process was pretty straightforward and user-friendly. I especially enjoyed the automatic-fill feature that remembered previous field entries. I also liked the built-in LCSH feature for the subject headings. Overall, as I discussed in more detail in my discussion post for this week, EPrints mapped well to my application profile for my digital collection.

Regarding the question of consistency in my approach to cataloging using EPrints, I feel that the tight match between my application profile and the EPrints default categories and features was sufficient to ensure a reasonable degree of consistency among items in my repository The auto-fill feature ensures that I do not have redundant variations of the same name on the creator and publisher fields. I wish the auto-fill functionality could be extended to the keyword field as well, because this is the most vulnerable area of my cataloging approach in terms of consistency. The main problem I encountered in tagging the keywords for my items was the potential for alternate versions of the same word due to hyphenation. For example, I use the prefix "post" for several keyword entries such as "postmodern" and "post-custodial". In the word content of the items I think there is variation between the "post-modern" and "postmodern" spellings of the word. I tried to overcome this problem by entering both version of hyphenated words so that end-users will get the same result regardless of how they search. Another slight problem I encountered was the lack of precision in the built-in LCSH categories. The default EPrints LCSH are very broad--I suspect there might be a way to update EPrints with a module that would expand the LCSH so that I could label my items with more accuracy.

Unit5Assignment5--Drupal module install

After reviewing available modules from Drupal, my experimental content management system, I decided to download the "Avatar Selection" module. I chose this module because, at first glance, it seemed relatively straightforward. It did not have any dependencies with other prerequisite modules. After I installed the module, I discovered otherwise during configuration in the Drupal interface.

I downloaded the module using the VMWare CLI to 1) download the tar file, 2) unpack the tar file, and 3) move the unpacked file to the /var/www/drupal/modules directory. This went well. Afterwards I went to the Drupal GUI and activated the module under Administer >> Site Building >> Modules and checked the "Avatar Selection" box under "Other". After enabling the module, I got a message in green text at the top notifying me that I had to enable the "Picture Support" setting at Administer >> User Management >> User Settings. So after I did that, I needed to create a directory in Ubuntu using VMWare to hold the pictures that users select for their avatars.

I had to look back at the instructions for the Image module installation to create a storage directory. The commands were as follows:

$ sudo mkdir /var/www/drupal/sites/default/files/avatar
$ sudo chmod o+w /var/www/drupal/sites/default/files/avatar

After creating the directory, I tested the avatar selection module by selecting the URL pathway to a default image for users. The image I chose was a JPEG of my Italian Greyhound, Coco. I copied and pasted the URL from the JPEG had posted earlier using the Image module into the "Default picture" box. I also increased the maximum file size and picture dimension settings, just in case. The module seems to have worked because when I click on "My Account" my user profile now has my dog Coco as the avatar image.

The Avatar Selection module does not necessarily enhance the search or retrieval capabilities of my digital collection, but it does add some style and user interaction to the interface. I consider this part of personalizing the collection building process and user interface, which is fitting because my digital collection is inherently personal as it is self-archiving of my own portfolio of graduate work.

Unit 3 comments

So far I feel the tech assignments for 675 (Advanced Digital Collections) are less intense than those of 672 (Introduction to Applied Tech). This is a relief. The assignments are not yet as complex and I have encountered no significant trouble-shooting problems. However, as a whole, 675 is a demanding course because the case management assignments combined with the tech assignments constitute a substantial time commitment. But so far I have been able to keep up with the deadlines. I like the fact that the syllabi for this semester include allowances for several extensions without penalty. I feel like this provides us students taking both courses with some insurance and breathing room to reconcile the challenges of each course should we encounter some difficulties with the material in future modules.

Response to 2006 Hi Tech Library Special Issue article

For this weeks blog assignment I used the U of A library to access an online article from Hi Tech Library journal:

Benzing, Matt. "Luwak: a content management solution." Library Hi Tech 24, no. 1 (2006): 8-13. Emerald. Database on-line. Emerald Publishing Group: accessed 15 September, 2008.

This article is a case study that summarizes and analyzes how librarians at the Rensselaer Research Libraries at Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute in Troy, New York implemented a content management system for their library website. The libraries adapted a home-grown XML-based application named "Luwak," which was developed by the Communication & Collaborative Technologies division of their university. The story behind the name was quite interesting. A Luwak, also known as the Palm Civet, is a jungle feline that ingests ripe red coffee beans. The cat's digestive system adds value to the beans and people harvest its excrement to create one of the world's most expensive gourmet coffees. The name seen as a good choice because it is a metaphor for what a content management system does to inputted content--digests it and adds value.

I was intrigued by many aspects of this article, which illuminated for me the real world benefits of a content management system by putting them in the context of a case study. Luwak, like all content management systems, uses XML to separate content from form for dynamic manipulation. The Luwak system had three levels of user permissions--creator, editor, and administrator--each with clearly defined roles in a work process for generating web content. Also Luwak incorporates features for setting and automatically enforcing records retention and disposition functionality for web content, so that content can be assigned a "lifecycle" to avoid becoming outdated and cluttering the system. I think this is a ingenious way to be proactive about records management across an entire enterprise; I suppose that if a records officer had the right user permission they could ensure RM compliance across an organization without having to deal directly with myriad users, a near impossible feat without a content management system. Other obvious benefits to the new system were its open source code and in-house tech support with the developers based out of the same institution.

The case study concluded that the new content management system was mostly well received as a replacement for a distributed, decentralized confederation of individual librarians creating content in Dreamweaver. There is now less risk of catastrophic loss or accidental alterations to the website by less tech-savvy users. Dead links have been largely eliminated thanks to the records management functionality and separation of content from form for easy maintenance. I would really like to implement a content management system in my workplace to organize our digital collections. It would have to be a intranet site as opposed to an internet site, but I think that would be feasible. The records management and user permission levels would be valuable features for my role as archivist of a records center housing active, inactive, and permanent records in electronic and paper formats. However, there is much to learn about content management systems before I could begin trying to negotiate all the red tape involved in launching such an initiative.

Starting Advanced Digital Collections...my proposed collection

The collection I propose to build for uploading to a Drupal content management system (CMS) will consist of academic papers and projects I have written over last four years for various different classes. The files will be mostly in Word format, with perhaps a couple of PowerPoint or XML files for variety's sake. Should we focus on making the files all in one format or are we encouraged to use several different file formats? Once I find out, I'll tailor my pretty extensive body of work accordingly. I think this will be a good collection to work with for several reasons. First, I am familiar with the collection because I am the author. As such, it will give me an opportunity to do a retrospective of what I have written to serve as both a refresher and a confidence booster to encourage myself about what I am capable as I encounter difficult aspects of DigIn assignments. It's been a long road for me to get to where I am now and I feel like I don't always pause to reflect enough.

Another reason why I'm using my own work to build a collection is that this project could become a valuable personal asset. I could possibly see myself building a personal website with representative samples of my work as part of a "virtual" resume or CV complete with links to a digital repository of papers for potential employers or professional colleagues to access. Posting text files to a digital repository should be one of the simplest formats to work with as opposed to something more complex like digital images or audio which have more proprietary and varied formats that could pose problems. In a worst case scenario, I could post the papers as plain text files instead of Word files if I encounter any interoperability problems or something.

Finally, my personal papers can be arranged into a logical taxonomy fairly easily. I envision structuring a hierarchy based mostly on chronology with year composed at the top of the pyramid, then semester (fall, spring or summer) as the next layer, followed by spefic month. Additional links among the hierarchy could be based on instructor, class number and title, subject (e.g. history, archival theory, library science, preservation, applied technology, etc.), topic (e.g. provenance, early railroad development in the South, library preservation planning, etc.) or function (thesis, finding aid, internship overview and analysis, etc.). I could also create separate taxonomies according to educational degree objective such as MLIS, MA Public History or certificate program. For now I will try to select a sample of my best work that also includes a wide selection of different subjects, topics, years, functions, and educational objectives.