What is the Rescue Repository?

The Yale University Library Rescue Repository (RR) is a managed storage environment for at risk digital materials owned by collections within the Yale University Library (YUL). It functions as a central storage space, administered by Integrated Systems and Programming (IS&P), where copies of these valuable digital materials may reside. Data will be organized according to owning library, collection, subcollection and CD/DVD/etc:

[Owner>> Collection>> Subcollection>> (CD/DVD/etc.)>> .filename ]

For example:

Beinecke>> Western Americana >> McClintock>> CD 1>> MapofLouisiana.tif

What is considered “digital material?”

Any file held by a collection that is stored electronically.

Digital materials may reside on:

-CDs

-DVDs

-DLT tapes

-a hard drive or a server.

Who will use the Rescue Repository? Who will provide support and answer user's questions?

At least one point person should be assigned to each collection to manage the ingest of materials into the Rescue Repository. This person will be responsible for ensuring that the digital material in their collection is transferred to the proper directory, and also for training those employees who will be physically feeding the material into the RR during the ingest (transfer) process.

A member of IS&P will function as the trainer and support person for the Rescue Repository. Her/his duties will include:

-creating and maintaining documentation about the Rescue Repository (RR),

-creating and maintaining a web page for the RR,

-serving on an advisory committee* to help establish best practices and policy for the RR and coordinate the publishing of documentation on the RR web site,

-organizing a presentation on the RR to interested parties in the Library,

-providing training on the use of the RR for each collection's point person, and

-acting as the support contact for all Library personnel using the RR.

* This committee has not yet been formed.

Additionally, RR service and support is outline here in our Service Agreement.

How does the digital material get moved into the Rescue Repository?

Digital material will be moved into the Rescue Repository via a high-level copying function: the ingest process . This is a high level copying function because it performs several tasks during the copy process to ensure the quality and security of both the Rescue Repository and the data.

What happens during the ingest process?

When the ingest process begins, the file to be copied is first verified and then validated. To verify the file, a program called JHOVE is run against the file to get a checksum of that file; this checksum is a unique number associated with that file- no two files will have the same checksum. Once the file has been verified- the file is indeed the correct file to be loaded- the file must be validated. JHOVE will again check the file; however, this time it will check the file type. Given that different types of files contain different types of information (i.e. a .txt versus a .jpeg), JHOVE will ensure that the file, e.g. ToLangstonHughes.tif, does indeed match the criteria that make a .tif file. These two steps are a safeguard against loading corrupted files into the Rescue Repository.

What other functions are available in the Rescue Repository?

The Rescue Repository has two other functions in addittion to the ingest function: a delete function and a retrieve function. Delete will allow a user to delete a file in the RR; retrieve will allow the user to download a file from the RR server.

UPDATE: Version 2.0 of the Rescue Repository applications now allow for deletion of entire subfolders on the RR server, retrieval of Jhove and log file information, and storage of file object information in a MySQL database.

What security precautions does the Rescue Repository take towards limiting its accessibility?

The Rescue Repository is accessible only to authorized NetIDs. Furthermore, each owning library and each collection has their own list of NetIDs that have access to their files. In other words, someone from the Beinecke cannot access the files from an SML collection, and vice versa. This is evidenced by the different directory options each user has upon login- they will only be able to choose the owner, collection and subcollection for which they are responsible. This limited access ensures that everyone using RR will only be able to ingest, delete and retrieve files in their specific collection's directory.

The Rescue Repository uses the Yale Central Authentication System (CAS).The CAS process occurs when a user logs into the Rescue Repository- the UserID and password are verified and access is granted. The authorization determines what a user, once logged in, has permission to do. Authorization affects a user's directory options and their permissions to ingest, delete and retrieve files. It also requires a user to log out of and then back into the RR in order to back out of a directory.

How may I monitor my progress with the Rescue Repository?

Each night a script will run that will email a summary of the previous day's ingest activity to those staff members specified in the RR Startup Form They will receive a summary of these logs each day. The logs will  assist users in determining errors during RR processing.

In addition, complete details of all log files may be viewed online at http://gemini1.library.yale.edu/RR_logfiles. This is available only to staff with permissions to these logs. For infomation on interpreting the log file output, please see Reading your Log File.

UPDATE: Logs and Jhove Verification and Validation files are now available in version 2.0 of the Rescue Repository Retreive application.

ITS can generate, by special request, an e-mail that includes a master summary of all log files if such a list is needed. Contact Steve DiSorbo to make this request.