besser--lita dig imaging preconference 7/7/00 1 creating working digital libraries howard besser...

Besser--LITA Dig Imaging Preconference 7/7/00 1

Creating WorkingDigital Libraries

Howard Besser

UCLA School of Education & Information

http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/~howard


Creating WorkingDigital Libraries-

_ Moving from Digital Collections to Digital Libraries

_ Interoperability_ Importance of Standards_ Longevity_ Best Practices for Managing Digital Projects_ Some Wild Musings


Moving from Digital Collections to Digital Libraries

_ What’s the difference?_ Recent history of Library Automation-


Developmental Stages

_ Experiment with methods_ Build real operational systems_ Build interoperable operational systems


Traditional Digital Library Model

DL

DL

DL

DL

useruser

search & presentation





Ideal Digital Library Model

DL

DL

DL

DL

useruser



Developmental Stages

_ Experiment with methods_ Build real operational systems_ Build interoperable operational systems

– For DL Initiatives

– For OPACs

– For I & A Services

– For Image Retrieval


Key problems we’re facing

Discovery Interoperability- Longevity-


For Interoperability Digital Libraries Need Standards

Descriptive Metadata for consistent description

Discovery Metadata for finding Administrative Metadata for viewing and

maintaining Structural Metadata for navigation ... Terms & Conditions Metadata for

controlling access...


Metadata is not just indexing terms

_ CBIR attributes used for retrieval on color, shape, texture, etc._ Structural attributes used for page-turning_ Administrative attributes used for managing a digital work

over time_ IPR attributes to limit unauthorized use_ Identification attributes to determine what application software

is needed to view a particular digital work

_ Can be located anywhere


Why are Standards and Metadata consensus

important? Managing digital files over time Longevity Interoperability Veracity Recording in a consistent manner Will give vendors incentive to create

applications that support this


Why Standards? Why do we need standards?

– To make information universally available to users– facilitate sharing and interchange of information– To preserve information (make it safe from

changes in hardware and software) Standards only work if communities widely

accept them, but they’re necessary for communities to work together


Serious Longevity Problems

What we know from prior widespread digital file formats

Images separating from their metadata Inaccessibility of software needed to view

an image Inability to even decode the file format of

an image


Journal Archiving

_ License, don’t own; may not be even able to obtain right to make archival copy

_ Increasingly no paper back-up at all_ Usually we don’t have the important

redundancy factor_ Stanford’s LOCKSS Project (Lots of Copies

Keeps Stuff Safe) and its problems (http://lockss.stanford.edu)


The Short Life of Digital Info: Digital Longevity Problems-

Disappearing Information The Viewing Problem The Scrambling Problem The Inter-relation Problem The Custodial Problem The Translation Problem


The Viewing Problem

Digital Info requires a whole infrastructure to view it

Each piece of that infrastructure is changing at an incredibly rapid rate

How can we ever hope to deal with all the permutations and combinations


The Scrambling Problem

Dangers from: Compression to ease storage & delivery Container Architecture to enhance digital

commerce


The Inter-relation Problem

-Info is increasingly inter-related to other info

-How do we make our own Info persist when it points to and integrates with Info owned by others?

-What is the boundary of a set of information (or even of a digital object)?


The Custodial Problem

How do we decide what to save? Who should save it? How should they save it?

– -methods for later access: emulation, migration, etc.

– -issues of authenticity and evidence


The Translation Problem

Content translated into new delivery devices changes meaning– -A photo vs. a painting– -If Info is produced originally in digital form in

one encoded format, will it be the same when translated into another format?

– Behaviors


Pieces of the Solution (1/2)

-We need to insist upon clearly readable standardized ways for digital objects to self-identify their formats

-We should discourage scrambling -We need to better understand information

inter-relates to other Info, and what constitutes “boundaries” of Info objects


Pieces of the Solution (2/2)

-People and organizations wishing to make information persist need guidelines of how to go about doing it

-We need to better understand how translating from one storage or display format to another affects the meaning of a work

-We need to save the “behaviors” of a digital object, not just it’s “contents”


Metadata can be the first line of defense

Can tell you– where the file is (if you can’t find the file)– where more info about the file is (if you have the

file but most other metadata has become separated)

– what the file format is– what the compression scheme is– what application program and version is needed

for the file


Groups Working onthe Big Longevity Problem

http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Imaging/Databases/Longevity/

CPA Task Force Getty “Time & Bits” Conference & follow-

up NEDLIB, CURL, Michigan Internet Archive Long Now


Migration/Refreshing

Impact on evidential value


Best Practices for Managing Digital Projects-

_ Who will your users be?_ Best Practices Guidelines_ Workflow and Management Issues


Why are you Managing this Information?

Organizational mission & type Users Uses


Scanning Best Practices

_ Think about users (and potential users), uses, and type of material/collection

_ Scan at the highest quality that does not exceed the likely potential users/uses/material

_ Do not let today’s delivery limitations influence your scanning file sizes; understand the difference between digital masters and derivative files used for delivery

_ Many documents which appear to be bitonal actually are better represented with greyscale scans

_ Include color bar and ruler in the scan

_ Use objective measurements to determine scanner settings (do NOT attempt to make the image good on your particular monitor or use image processing to color correct)

_ Don’t use lossy compression_ Store in a common (standardized)

file format_ Capture as much metadata as is

reasonably possible (including metadata about the scanning process itself)


Why Scale is important


Digital Object Behaviors

_ Book example


Metadata Standards(from MOA2)

_ Administrative Metadata– for enhancing resource management

_ Structural Metadata– for reflecting internal hierarchies and

relationships btwn parts

_ Raw/Seared/Cooked


Workflow and Management Issues-

_ Managing multiple image files_ Persistent Identification_ Making your works accessible throughout

the Net


The number of variant forms of a work can be enormous

different views of the same object different scans of the same photo different resolutions different compression schemes different compression ratios different file storage formats different details of the same image ...

Image Families


Identification/Provenance

how to deal with different versions (browse, hi-res, medium res) derived from the same scan or different encoding schemes (TIFF, PICT, JFIF)

Vocabulary Standards to express this– VRA Surrogate Categories– CIMI's "Image Elements”


Persistent IDs--the Problem

_ Need to separate work ID from work location

_ URNs probably won’t be ready until 2003_ Becomes a business process issue when one

organization maintains the resource and another organization references it (ie. licensed from vendors or managed by separate administrative structures)


More Persistent IDs--the Approach for today

_ PURLs_ Handles_ HTTP redirects

_ And worry about costs now and conversion costs when URNs become feasible


Data Set ManagementMore issues with referencing IDs

_ References for mirror sites_ References for back-up sites when main site

is down or bottle-necked_ References for off-site copies and archival

copies


Making your works accessible throughout the Net

_ The DLF/Mellon meeting_ An administrative and political issue as

much as a a technical one


Some Wild Musings-

_ Movement towards packages and away from MARC

_ The disappearance of OPACs


Containers and Packages of Metadata

Warwick, not MARC

_ modular_ overlapping_ extensible_ community-based_ designed for a networked world to aid

commonality btwn communities while still providing full functionality within each community


DC Qualifiers

_ allows one community to express important nuances and qualifications, while still making the basic importance available to communities with simple needs

_ our community can reflect alternate title, transliterated title, and main title, yet they will all be found under a simple Web search under “title”


Crosswalks

mapping btwn differing metadata structures eliminate the need for monolithic,

universally adopted standards focus on flexibility and interoperatiblity RDF-based metadata registries


Crosswalk ExampleCDWA Object ID

CIMISchema

FDAVRA CoreCategories

USMARCDUBLINCORE

OBJECT/WORK (core)

DocumentClassification-CatalogLevel (core)DocumentClassification-Group Type

Object/Work-Type (core)

Type ofObject

objectNAME DocumentClassification- DocumentType (core)Purpose-Purpose(Broad) (core)Purpose-Purpose(Narrow)

W1. WorkType

655 Genre-Form

Type

Object/Work-Components

quantity DocumentClassification-Extent

300a PhysicalDescription-Extent

ORIENTATION/ARRANGEMENT

Description

TITLES ORNAMES(core)

Title objectTitlebibliographicTitle

Group/ItemIdentification-RepositoryTitleGroup/ItemIdentification-DescriptiveTitle (core)Group/ItemIdentification-InscribedTitle

W2. Title 24Xa Titleand Title-RelatedInformation

Title


Do we still need OPACs?

_ Why repeat almost identical bibliographic descriptions in each local system?

_ Why not store only local information locally, and link to bibliographic descriptions stored in the major utilities?

_ Could our acquisition systems for monographs begin to use the acquisition systems imposed on us by our parent organizations (like those for supplies)?


Creating WorkingDigital Libraries-

_ Moving from Digital Collections to Digital Libraries

_ Interoperability_ Importance of Standards_ Longevity_ Best Practices for Managing Digital Projects_ Some Wild Musings


Creating Working Digital LibrariesHoward Besser

UCLA School of Education & Information

http://www.getty.edu/gri/standard/intrometadata/

http://www.ifla.org/II/metadata.htm

http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Imaging/Databases/#standards

http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/moa2/

http://sunsite.Berkeley.EDU/Longevity/

http://purl.oclc.org/metadata/dublin_core/

http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/~howard/image-meta.html

http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/~howard/Metadata/UC-May00/

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Metadata/sp2000.html

http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/~howard/

besser--lita dig imaging preconference 7/7/00 1 creating working digital libraries howard besser...

Documents