All Things to All People

Combining Resources to Build an Integrated Digital Repository

Preservation and Access for
Electronic College and University Records
Arizona State University
March 2, 2004

Gregory Colati, Director, Digital Collections and Archives and University Archivist Eliot Wilczek, University Records Manager David Kahle, Director, Academic Technology

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Repository Project Goal

Develop a central digital repository that can manage and deliver multiple types of permanently valuable content created by multiple people and departments at the university

Jumbo, Tufts' mascot, is loved by everyone...

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Benefits of a Central Repository and Services

Institutional

• Avoid duplication
• Better service
• Tools

User

• Sustainability
• Support
• Lower cost

...and lovingly cared for by university personnel

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Meeting Institutional Goals for Content

• Identify and collect
• Organize and manage
• Provide common tools

The repository must be integrated into the framework of content management...

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Meeting User Needs

• Insuring access
• Providing standards
• Helping users create sustainable content

All work as part of a team...

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Common user concerns

• Flexibility
• Ease of use
• Ease of participation

Some users may want a special look...

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Institutional Concerns

• Meet standards
• Critical mass of participation
• Avoid disaster

Institutions must protect intellectual capital...

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Characteristics of the Repository

• Easy to use and join
• Managed content
• General delivery tools
• Specialized tools

A pleasant experience for all...

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Digital Information and Service Providers

• Records Management program
• University Archives
• Academic Technology

Working together to build the repository...

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Tufts' Principles of Digital Content

• Interoperability
• Reusability
• Sustainability
• Authenticity
• Scalability

Without these attributes your content may come to an untimely end...

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Our Solution: FEDORA

• Flexible: Interoperability, Reusability
• Extensible: Scalability
• Digital
• Object: Reusability
• Repository: Sustainability, Authenticity
• Architecture: Reusability

The framework for the repository...

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FEDORA in Action

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Tufts is a small, complex university with several existing digital libraries.

Creators of these digital libraries wish to maintain and extend their applications while sharing content and leveraging university resources for data storage and management.

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FEDORA is proving to be a flexible application development platform.

Developers may dedicate more time toward building audience specific DL and educational applications.

Content tools and digital resources are more easily shared among DL applications.

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Digital object identifier

Severice Perspective:
methods for disseminating views of content

Item Perspective:
Set of content or metadata items

Internal: key metadata necessary to manage the object

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The End

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