SI 640 - Digital Libraries and Archives

Digital Libraries and Archives – Definitions

The first course module explores various perspectives on the idea of libraries and archives, digital or otherwise, establish a shared definition of a digital library, and frame this definition within the broader notion of “convergence culture,” the functional convergence of libraries, archives, and museums, and the emergence of a worldwide cyberinfrastructure. The module also covers the major sources of information on digital libraries and archives.

Required Readings

Borgman. [2000] “Is It Digital?” Gutenberg to Global Information Infrastructure, Chapter 2, pp. 33‐52. [CTools]

Dempsey. [2006] “The (Digital) Library Environment: Ten Years After.”
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue46/dempsey/

Jenkins. [2006] Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. Introduction, pp. 1‐24. [CTools]

Lagoze. [2005] “What Is a Digital Library Anymore, Anyway? Beyond Search and Access in the NSDL.” http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november05/lagoze/11lagoze.html

Zorich, et al. [2008] “Beyond the Silos of the LAMs: Collaboration among Libraries, Archives, and
Museums.”OCLC, pp. 10‐15. Skim remainder. http://www.oclc.org.proxy.lib.umich.

Resources

Bearman. [2007] “Digital Libraries.” Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 41.
Information Today, Inc. [CTools]

Fox, & Urs. [2002] “Digital Libraries.” Annual Review of Information Science and Technology 36.
Information Today, Inc. [CTools]

PADI: Preserving Access to Digital Information. http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/

What’s New in Digital Preservation: http://www.dpconline.org/newsroom/whats‐new

Required Readings

Garrett & Waters. [1996] Preserving Digital Information. http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub63.html [CTools]

Gilliland‐Swetland. [2000] Enduring Paradigm, New Opportunities: The Value of the Archival Perspective in the Digital Environment. http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub89abst.html

It’s About Time: Research Challenges in Digital Archiving and Long‐term Preservation. [2003] National Science Foundation & Library of Congress., read pp. i‐xix, skim remainder. [CTools]
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/partners/resources/pubs/index.html

Levy. [1998] “Heroic Measures.” http://www.acm.org/pubs/citations/proceedings/dl/276675/p152‐levy/ [CTools]

Ross. [2007] “Digital Preservation, Archival Science and Methodological Foundations for Digital
Libraries” http://www.ecdl2007.org/Keynote_ECDL_SROSS.pdf [CTools]

Resources

Flecker. [2000] “Harvard’s Library Digital Initiative: Building a First Generation Digital Library
Infrastructure.” D‐Lib Magazine 6 (November 2000). http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november00/flecker/11flecker.html

Fox. [1993] Digital Library Sourcebook. http://fox.cs.vt.edu/DLSB.html

JISC: Joint Information Systems Committee. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/

Keller, Reich, and Herkovic. [2003] “What is a library anymore, anyway?”
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_5/keller/index.html

Lavoie and Dempsey. [2004] “Thirteen Ways of Looking at…Digital Preservation.”
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july04/lavoie/07lavoie.html

Lynch. [2000] "Authenticity and Integrity in the Digital Environment."
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub92/lynch.html

National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program.
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/index.html

Rusbridge. [2006] “Excuse Me… Some Digital Preservation Fallacies?”
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue46/rusbridge/

Required Readings

American Council of Learned Societies. [2006] Our Cultural Commonwealth.
http://www.acls.org/cyberinfrastructure/cyber.htm

Berman and Brady [2005] “Final Report: NSF SBE‐CISE Workshop on Cyberinfrastructure and the SocialSciences,” http://vis.sdsc.edu/sbe/

National Science Foundation. [2003] Revolutionizing Science and Engineering Through
Cyberinfrastructure. http://www.nsf.gov/od/oci/reports/toc.jsp

NSF Cyberinfrastructure Council. [2006] NSF’s Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st Century Discovery. http://www.nsf.gov/od/oci/ci‐v7.pdf

Resources

Data Document Initiative. http://www.ddialliance.org/index.html

National Science Foundation. Cyberinfrastructure Office. Reports and Workshops Relating to
Cyberinfrastructure and Its Impacts. http://www.nsf.gov/od/oci/reports.jsp

Digital Content – Creation and Management

In spite of the fact that the manufacture of paper continues unabated, we are living in a digital world. This module explores alternative scenarios for describing the landscape of digital content, using as a point of departure a seminal 2003 (+ 1999 and 2009 versions) study that attempts to measure the volume of information created annually. The module also presents a handful of case studies to demonstrate the variety of digital content and how such content “lives” and is represented in digital libraries and archives.

Required Readings

Borgman. [2007] “Disciplines, documents, data,” in Scholarship in the Digital Age, Chapter 8, pp. 179‐226. [CTools]

Conway. [2008] “Modeling the Digital Content Landscape in Universities.” Library Hi Tech 26 (3): 342‐358. [CTools]

How Much Information? [2009] Report on American Consumers. Global Information Industry Center, UCSD. http://hmi.ucsd.edu/howmuchinfo_research_report_consum.php

Lyman and Varian. [2003] How much information? 2003.
http://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how‐much‐info‐2003/

O’Toole. [1994] “On the Idea of Uniqueness.” American Archivist

Resources

Digital Library Federation. Registry of Digital Masters. http://www.diglib.org/collections/reg/reg.htm

Digital Library Federation. DLF Aquifer. http://www.diglib.org/aquifer/

Levy. [2003] “Documents and Libraries,” in Bishop, et al. Digital Library Use, Chapter 2, pp. 25‐42.
[CTools]

Required Readings

Bolter & Grusin. [1996] “Remediation.” Configurations 4.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/configurations/v004/4.3bolter.html [CTools]

Chapman. [2003] “Managing Text Digitization.” Online Information Review 27 (1): 17‐28. [CTools]

Cohen. [2006] “Transgenic Deformation: Literary Translation and the Digital Archive.” MLA Convention Presentation. http://www.whitmanarchive.org/about/articles/anc.00165.html

Dalbello. [2004] “Institutional Shaping of Cultural Memory: Digital Library as Environment for Textual Transmission.” Library Quarterly. [CTools]

Holz. [2006] “Technologically Enhanced Archival Collections: Using the Buddy System.” Journal of
Archival Organization 6. [CTools]

Resources

California Digital Library. Online Archive of California. http://www.oac.cdlib.org/

California Digital Library. Online Archive of California. Technical Information.
http://www.cdlib.org/inside/projects/oac/tech.html

Library of Congress. American Memory. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

Library of Congress. American Memory. Technical Information.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/about/techIn.html

Walt Whitman Archive. http://www.whitmanarchive.org/

Walt Whitman Archive. About the Archive. http://www.whitmanarchive.org/about/index.html

Barney et al. [2005] “Ordering Chaos” Library and Linguistic Computing. [Whitman] [CTools]

Chandler. [2002] "Museums in the Online Archive of California (MOAC): Building Digital Collections Across Libraries and Museums," First Monday
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_5/chandler/index.html [OAC]

Crow. [2002] "The Case for Institutional Repositories: A SPARC Position Paper."
http://www.arl.org/sparc/IR/ir.html.

Folsom. [2007] “Database as Genre: The Epic Transformation of Archives.” PMLA 122.5 [CTools]

Lynch. [2003] "Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age." http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/br/br226/br226ir.shtml

Lynch and Lippincott. [2005] “Institutional Repository Deployment in the United States as of Early 2005.” http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september05/lynch/09lynch.html

Markey et al. [2007] Census of Institutional Repositories in the United States: MIRACLE Project Research Findings. CLIR pub 140. See, particularly, Executive Summary and Literature Review.
http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub140abst.html

Rusbridge. [2005] “Information Life Cycle and Curation.” PowerPoint. [CTools]

Smith. [2001] Strategies for Building Digitized Collections.
http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub101abst.html

Waters. [2006] “Managing Digital Assets in Higher Education.”
http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/br/br244.shtml

Required Readings

Gevinson, A. [2010] [Quality Assessment Summary], adjunct to “Ghostlier Demarcations,” in CLIR 2010. http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub147/sumGevinson.pdf [CTools]

Henry and Smith. [2010] “Ghostlier Demarcations.” CLIR [CTools]

Rieger, O. (2008). Preservation in the Age of Large‐Scale Digitization: A White Paper. Washington, DC: Council on Library and Information Resources. http://www.clir.org/pubs/abstract/pub141abst.html

Wheatley. [2004] Institutional Repositories in the Context of Digital Preservation.
http://www.dpconline.org/graphics/reports/index.html

York, J.J. (2010). “Building a Future by Preserving Our Past: The Preservation Infrastructure of HathiTrust.” IFLA paper preprint. [CTools]

Metadata for Digital Libraries and Archives

What you see isn’t necessarily what you get. This module explores the distinction between the user interface and the underlying structure of information used to describe, structure, and administer a digital archive or repository. The module covers the origins and development of METS (Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard), PREMIS (PREservation Metadata Implementation Strategies), and OAI (Open Archives Initiative) and its kin.

Required Readings

EU‐NSF Working Group on Metadata. Metadata for Digital Libraries: a Research Agenda. [1999]
http://www.ercim.org/publication/ws‐proceedings/EU‐NSF/metadata.html

Gartner. [2008]. "Metadata for Digital Libraries: State of the Art and Future Directions.” JISC TechWatch Report, TSW0801. http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/services/techwatch/reports/horizonscannin...

McDonough [2006] “METS: standardized encoding for digital library objects,” International Journal on Digital Libraries 6(2):148‐158. [CTools]

Resources

METS: Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard. http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/

METS Primer. http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/METSPrimerRevised.pdf

METS Overview & Tutorial. http://www.loc.gov/standards/mets/METSOverview.v2.html

Required Readings

Caplan and Guenther. [2005] “Practical Preservation: the PREMIS Experience.” Library Trends
http://www.loc.gov/standards/premis/caplan_guenther‐librarytrends.pdf

Dappert and Enders. [2008] "Using METS, PREMIS and MODS for Archiving eJournals" DLib Magazine, (September/October) http://dlib.org/dlib/september08/dappert/09dappert.html

Guenther. [2008] "Battle of the Buzzwords: Flexibility vs. Interoperability When Implementing PREMIS with METS" DLib Magazine, July. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july08/guenther/07guenther.html

Higgins and Semple. [2006] OAIS Five‐year Review. http://www.dcc.ac.uk/events/oais‐fyr‐2006/.

Lavoie. [2004] Open Archival Information System: Introductory Guide.
http://www.dpconline.org/graphics/reports/index.html

Resources

OAIS. [2002] Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS). CCSDS 650.0‐B‐1, Blue Book (the full ISO standard). http://public.ccsds.org/publications/archive/650x0b1.pdf.

PREMIS: Preservation Metadata Maintenance Activity. http://www.loc.gov/standards/premi

Required Readings

"Repository to Repository Transfer of Enriched Archival Information", Priscilla Caplan, DLib Magazine, November/December 2008 http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november08/caplan/11caplan.html

McDonough, Jerome. “Structural Metadata and the Social Limitation of Interoperability: A
Sociotechnical View of XML and Digital Library Standards Development.” Proceedings of Balisage: The Markup Conference 2008.

OAI for Beginners – Tutorial. http://www.oaforum.org/tutorial/

Lagoze and Van de Sompel. [2007] Compound Information Objects: The OAI‐ORE Perspective. ORE Technical Committee. May 2007. http://www.openarchives.org/ore/documents/CompoundObjects‐200705.html

Resources

Open Archives Initiative. http://www.openarchives.org/

Van De Sompel Briefing (10 min.). [2009] Object Reuse and Exchange (ORE): A Quick Overview [10 min. video]. YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KUgCN2HLL8

The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting.
http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/openarchivesprotocol.html

Implementation Guidelines for the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting.
http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/guidelines.htm

OAIster. http://www.oclc.org/oaister/

User Experience in Digital Libraries

This module is focused on the use of digital libraries and archives, particularly efforts to evaluate their value and impact, the evolution of tools for using, viewing, and manipulating digital content (beyond search and retrieval), and the fundamental role that trust/credibility plays in the viability of the digital library paradigm.

Required Readings

Borgman. [2003] “Designing Digital Libraries for Usability,” in Digital Library Use: Social Practice in Design and Evaluation, pp. 117‐168. [CTools]

Goncalves, et al. [2007] “What is a good digital library? A quality model for digital libraries,” Information Processing and Management 43: 1416‐1437. [CTools]

Saracevic. [2005] “How Were Digital Libraries Evaluated?” [CTools]
Snow, et al. [2008] “Considering the User Perspective: Research into Usage and Communication of Digital Information. D‐Lib Magazine. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/may08/ross/05ross.html

Required Readings

Green & Gutmann. (2007) "Building partnerships among social science researchers, institution‐based repositories and domain specific data archives," OCLC Systems & Services, Vol. 23 (1): 35 – 53. [CTools]

Kelton, et al. [2007] “Trust in Digital Information,” JASIST 59 (3): 363‐374. [CTools]

TRAC: Trustworthy Repositories Audit & Certification: Criteria and Checklist.
http://www.crl.edu/content.asp?l1=13&l2=58&l3=162&l4=91

Van de Sompel, et al. [2004] “Rethinking Scholarly Communication,” D‐Lib Magazine 10 (9).
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september04/vandesompel/09vandesompel.html

This session is an opportunity for demonstration and discussion of digital library tools for viewing,
manipulating, and otherwise making use of digital library content. No required readings this week.

The final week of the course focuses on long‐term sustainability, particularly new attention being given to business models and the economics of sustainability. This week is a final chance to re‐consider some of the archival theories underpinning future digital library development.

Required Readings

Assmann, A. [2008] “Canon and Archive,” in Cultural Memory Studies, edited by Astrid Erll and Ansgar Nunning. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. [CTools]

BRTF. [2010] Sustainable Economics for a Digital Planet: Ensuring Long Term Access to Digital
Information: Final Report of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access. Read Chapter 1, Purpose, and Chapter 5, Recommendations. Skim remainder. [CTools]

Lavoie. [2008] “The Fifth Blackbird: Some Thoughts on Economically Sustainable Digital Preservation.” DLib Magazine 14. http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march08/lavoie/03lavoie.html