Digital Production and Integration Program (DPIP)
Production and Content Integration Working Group
Minutes of February 7, 2006 Meeting
10:00 - 11:00, Room 409 SML

Present: Bauer, Beacom, Bergstrom, Gallagher, Irwin, Kupiec, Martz, Nellhaus, Ouellette,

Reardon, Smalley, Walls, Weintraub

Absent: Merleaux

Discussion at this meeting focused on three initiatives that DPIP proposes to pursue in the coming year.

Classics Department Slides (Karen Reardon)

The Classics Department has approached the library seeking assistance in digitizing their collection of lantern and 35mm slides. Classics faculty are interested in a permanent, reusable collection accessible through both the Insight and the DL interfaces. The department has funding available to begin the work (amount unknown at this point). An initial project would focus on 10,000 35mm slides identified as most useful for teaching. This collection complements the VRC holdings nicely since there is limited overlap. Karen Reardon is drafting an outline of tasks and costs which will be presented to the Classics faculty this month. This is an ideal first DPIP project since the scope is well defined, the Classics department is eager to provide both funding and assistance, there is good metadata available, and the content is valuable to the wider Yale community. Ultimately the project might expand to include other similar subject-specific slide collections (in the library’s African collection for instance).

World War I Project – Collections Collaborative Grant Proposal (Martha Smalley)

This project proposes to identify and digitize a variety of non-standard published World War I material (pamphlets, posters, sound recordings, art works) from several library and university collections (stacks, MSSA, HSR, Beinecke, Divinity, YUAG, BAC). An important focus of the project will be the development of cost effective metadata practices suitable for each type of material. The project also intends to investigate appropriate delivery mechanisms for its diverse content, including full-text searching capability for text-based documents. The plan calls for digitizing a small sampling of material (perhaps 1000 objects initially) as a proof of concept that will attract further funding for the expansion of the collection. DPIP group members (Karen, Jen, Matthew, David Walls, Martha, and Katie) are named in the grant proposal as participants, along with representatives from the galleries and several library units. This project is attractive to DPIP because its subject-based approach to mixed content provides an opportunity for DPIP to develop new expertise in partnership with the Collections Collaborative.

Content Management and Delivery System for Text-Based Material (Jen Weintraub)

The draft DPIP report recommends strongly that the library establish a repository capable of supporting storage and delivery of electronic text by September 2006 – Fedora/VITAL if practical, otherwise DLXS, DigiTool, or Greenstone as a functional alternative. The fundamental issue is whether DPIP should take responsibility for leading this investigation and implementation or rely upon other groups in the library such as ILTS or the group evaluating VITAL/Fedora. If DPIP undertakes such an evaluation, the scope will be narrow (focus on text) and the timeframe will be short (rapid assessment of a limited number of candidate systems over three months), so that the system can be installed with a high likelihood of success in the Fall of 2006. In parallel, another group in the library could conduct a more extensive evaluation of systems with a wider scope and a longer time horizon in order to provide support for additional formats, preservation archiving, and institutional repository objectives. The outcome of the VITAL/Fedora trial will undoubtedly influence the direction taken by the library and by DPIP.

The need for a text delivery system is urgent. The four-year, grant-funded AMEEL project (Arabic and Middle Eastern Electronic Library) must have a home for its full-text material by the end of 2006 (approximately 100,000 pages). If there is no prospect of a centrally supported library platform for text, AMEEL staff will be forced to proceed with their own solution. There is an opportunity for collaboration between DPIP and AMEEL for the benefit of the library as a whole, not only in the pursuit of a text repository but also in development of on-site scanning facilities and expertise. The same is true for the Finding Aids group pursuing a replacement for the aging and limited software currently supporting the Yale Finding Aids database. They will need to proceed independently if there is no common solution forthcoming. The World War I proposal and the Yale Daily News digitization project are other examples of imminent text-based initiatives in need of a home for their content. Clearly an infrastructure solution for electronic text can benefit numerous different library projects immediately and lay the groundwork for an integrated approach to more sophisticated future repositories.