Project Name: UCSB Campus Long-term
Digital Information Archive Study.
Project Sponsors: UCSB
Library, Letters and Science, and the Social Science
Survey Center
Context: For
at least last two decades, UCSB faculty have been generating and acquiring
unique research and teaching materials in digital formats – texts, images,
datasets, analytical software tools, and more.
These materials are an important part of the total mix of academic
resources from which faculty and students benefit. Across campus, practices vary widely as to whether these are
stored in any secure, reliable and long-term way, and if so, by whom, where,
for how long and with what forms of direct or indirect discovery and
access. Selected faculty, librarians
and IT staff have expressed interest in building some form of “archive server”
for such locally created electronic information, either to ensure digital
preservation in the true archival sense, or simply to coordinate storage,
“cataloging,” and access mechanisms for better service to and use by the campus
community.
What
is meant by a campus digital archive?
Perhaps a start would be to identify some of the collections and
services that such an archive might support.
In research as well as instruction, many information objects are
acquired. Some have a short life,
news-clips; some may be used repeatedly in support of teaching or
interdisciplinary projects and research.
All have varied and changing distribution formats. Known local examples include an art-slide
collection, selections from musical scores, statistics and demographics over
time, or a seismic database of California earthquakes and their
distribution. Other information objects
might include personal publications and research. They are at risk of surviving
over the long term. A plan is needed on
how we should address these information content concerns over time and how to
prepare flexible and scalable technologies supporting future campus information
needs.
Issues to be explored:
The
campus would seem to be of reasonable size and scope for such a project. If an archive was successfully implemented,
links to other content and services would most likely be considered so “good
practices” and system architectures should be part of a design.
Proposal:
The
project sponsors suggest that both a workshop to expose current campus
activities and a working group be convened to construct a high-level white
paper on how to proceed. The working
group should consist of content holders; system developers, and decision makers
who would be responsible for doing the initial research and preparing a draft
recommendation. It helps that some
existing campus projects can be used as models such as the Alexandria Digital
Library and ADEPT research initiatives. We should draw on relevant models
and projects elsewhere in UC and key research libraries, for example, the CDL
eScholarship project, the Berkeley SUNSite, MIT’s Dspace project, the UVA
Electronic Text Center, NASA’s Open Archives standards, Gary King’s NSF funded
Virtual Data Center Project: An Operational Social Science Digital Data
Library, and
projects showcased through the Coalition for Networked Information to which
UCSB belongs.
How this Project Supports the Academic Mission:
Enhance digital scholarly
communities some of which already exist and others of which are under
development at UCSB (e.g., CITS, Microcosms, social science data groups,
Alexandria, and numerous ORUs with major electronic products).
Funding Source: The library is willing to host a workshop but would
ask that some of the cost be defrayed by campus funds. A small amount of travel might be required
for the working group for assessing technologies and successful implementations
of like projects. Existing library
infrastructures, staff and technology, can be used for developing a test-bed
and prototype.
Costs:
$7,500 +/- (Workshop and Travel)
Matching Opportunities:
After
the initial workshop is held and a specific pilot project designed, additional
development and funding could reasonably be pursued with such organizations as
the CDL, private foundations, and government agencies such as the NSF.
Staff Support Required:
Existing Resources to be Used: Library technology and staff, overhead, and
existing digital library programs as described above.
Project Timeline: Six Months or so.
Life Cycle of Result: Endless
Pre-proposal group: Larry Carver, Sarah Pritchard, Bob Sugar, Alan
Moses, Paolo Gardinali