UNC’s Digital Library Project:Current Initiatives, Future Plans

Megan WingetAcademic Technology Specialist Office of Arts & Sciences Information ServicesUNC- Chapel Hill

winget@email.unc.edu

Copyright Megan Winget, 2003. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission

from the author.

History of the Project

Why have a digital library?– Address increasing demand for access– Improve access to institutional materials– Publish individual or departmental collections

Collections Information

10 Major collections, and 15,000 images, including:– Ackland Art Museum– The Visual Resources Library (Art Department)

Bodman Collection (Islamic Art) Crusader Art and Architecture

– Country / Western Collection Includes video and audio objects

Login Screen

Welcome Screen

Personal Space: Demo Folder

Courses

CLAR 20 – Organization

CLAR 20 – Chapter 1, viewing options

CLAR 20 – Contact Sheet

CLAR 20 - Slideshow

CLAR 20 – Study Guide

ART 030 - Organization

Language: Audio

Audio – Retrieval Options

Who’s Using the Digital Library

Average of 15 courses per semester covering 7 departments – approximately 500 students per semester.

Student Reactions

Summary of Student Satisfaction Survey Spring 2002 (250 Respondents, 7 Courses)– 85% used the service throughout the semester– 96% agreed that it was important to have web

access to media files for media-intense courses– 81% said that unlimited access to these materials

via the web increased understanding of concepts and ideas presented in the course

Faculty Reactions

More qualitative – we haven’t done a survey. However, we do have more and more faculty

and instructors using the service, so the word of mouth is good.

Collaboration / Co-Operation

Copyright:– Work closely with University’s legal counsel– Working with their interpretation of ‘fair-use’

Password protectedAccess is linked to a specific courseAccess ends when the course ends‘Use agreement’ in the works

Process of Adding Collections / Growing the System

Currently Digital Library is in a pilot phase – very ‘support-intensive.’

With the help and collaboration of the University’s central computer support (ITS) We’re moving towards a production model, where the faculty can have a little more control of the process / We can be more ‘hands off’

– Integration with SIS: Registered students given automatic access to classes

– Administrative interface: We can input data more efficiently– Rights management: Faculty can give access to colleagues,

TA’s – currently we’re doing that.

Moving Forward

Arts Departments– Art & Art History: Course template: additional

function of integrating the system into the departmental curriculum. For courses that have different faculty teaching each semester, provide course folder that includes core images

Ancient World Mapping Center

Moving Forward (2 of 3)

Science Departments– Integration of more science departments

Biology tends to have a lot of images, although we don’t often think of it that way

Interactive lab books They also have different kinds of images (radio

spectrometry, X-rays…)

Moving Forward (3 of 3)

Institutional Repository– D-Space / Eprints.org (open source models)– Content DM / Luna (commercial models)– ArtSTOR (Mellon Foundation – subscription

services for images in large collections / integration with existing image databases)

Conclusions

Difference between true collaboration and co-ordination and co-operation. All are good and necessary, but if you can get some true collaboration, the project will have greater chances of long-term success.