Chapter 7. EPrints Digital Library Software Evaluation Introduction

Transcription

1 Chapter 7 EPrints Digital Library Software Evaluation Introduction GNU EPrints is a generic archive software developed by the University of Southampton. It is intended to create a highly configurable web-based repository. EPrints series began in early 2000[1] and EPrints 1.0 was released during November 2000 with OAI 0.2 support. The project was originally sponsored by CogPrints, but is now supported by Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), as part of the Open Citation Project, and by NSF. When first version of EPrints was released it became the first and one of the most widely used free open access, institutional repository software for archiving preprints and postprints of faculty members. EPrints is an open source software for building open access repositories that are compliant with the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. EPrints is primarily used by many organizations for building institutional repositories. The EPrints repository software has been developed to address the growing demands on repositories to accommodate a wider variety of digital objects and metadata, to integrate with a wider range of services and applications and to support higher deposit rates to serve the needs of the whole institution. It is a simple digital library software can be extensively configured to accom- 203

2 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 204 modate the needs of academics and researchers aimed at dissemination and reporting. EPrints version 3 was officially released on 24th January 2007 and was described by its developers as a major leap forward in functionality, giving more control and flexibility to repository managers, depositors, researchers and technical administrators. The latest version of EPrints addresses high metadata quality support by making data entry easier and range of import facility to import objects from other services or data sources[2]. For the present study installation of version was carried out and selected for evaluation study. This version was released on 5th December Current version of EPrints is which was released during April The following sections lists different observations after having installation of version Content Acquisition Which document types can be added in the software (books, reports, journal articles, lecture notes, technical reports, thesis, images, audio/video files, data set files etc.?) EPrints supports to add the following document types in the repository: Article (an article in a journal, magazine, newspaper. May be an electronic-only medium, such as an online journal or news website). Book Section (A chapter or section in a book). Monograph ( A monograph. This may be a technical report, project report, documentation, manual, working paper or discussion paper). Conference or workshop item (A paper, poster, speech, lecture or presentation given at a conference, workshop or other event.) Book (A book or conference volume) Thesis (A thesis or dissertation) Patent (A published patent) Artefact (An artist s artifact or work product). Show/Exhibition (An artist s exhibition or site specific performacebased deposit)

3 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 205 Composition (A musical composition) Performance (Performance of a musical event) Image (A digital photograph or visual image) Video (A digital video) Audio (A sound recording) Dataset (A bounded collection of quantitative data (e. g. spreadsheet or XML data file). Experiment (Experimental data with intermediate analyses and summary results). Teaching Resource (Lecture notes, exercises, exam papers or course syllabuses). Other (Something within the scope of the repository, but not covered by the other categories) Does the software have capability to define the domain/scope of Digital Library for whom it is intended for? Yes, it is possible to define the domain/scope of the digital library If yes, what level of users it is intended for? EPrints is basically intended for creating preprint/postprint archives, but the current version also support adding other type of documents such as audio/video etc Which digital document file formats does the system support(proprietary as well as open source)? All text formats are by default supported by the software, but software also supports to upload JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF file formats, Adobe Postscript, Adobe PDF, HTML file formats, MP3, AVI, MPEG file formats. Software also supports by default MS PowerPoint and MS Word format uploading. Those formats which are not supported by the software are added in the list as an other category Does the system carry out duplicate checking while uploading the data? What happens if the same digital document is submitted multiple times?

4 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 206 Yes, software checks for duplicate entries while uploading the digital documents on the basis of Title How does the system allow to upload digital objects, whether normal digital objects or compressed digital objects? System supports to upload normal digital objects as well as it supports to upload files ending with.zip and.tar.gz Does the software support to upload digital objects from existing URL? Yes, software supports to upload digital objects from existing URL as well Does the system support distributed/community based acquisition? Yes, software has facility to acquire material from network through authorised EPrints user. EPrints user can upload documents through his/her login area from anywhere on Internet Does the software support metadata/content import? In which file format data is required for importing? The software supports to import metadata of items via DOI (via CrossRef), XML, PubMED ID, PubMED XML format. Software supports to import metadata from XML/PubMED and allow end user to separately upload full texts. It is easy to import metadata in EPrints if available in XML or the EPrints supported format Does system supports importing of bulk metadata/contents of digital objects? Yes, system supports to import bulk metadata/contents. Metadata is separately imported and actual contents are separately imported in EPrints Does the software support to import automatic metadata for digital objects that are added into the repository? No Does the software support metadata/content export? In which file format data is exported? Software supports to export content/metadata. While exporting metadata software supports to export individual item in the repository with following file formats ASCII Citation BibTex

5 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 207 Dublin Core DIDL EP3 XML EP3 XML with Files Embedded EndNote HTML Citation METS MODS OpenURL Content Object OpenURL Dissertation OpenURL Journal Refer Reference Manager Simple Metadata Does the software support export of bulk metadata/content of digital objects? Yes, software supports to export metadata of bulk digital objects. Export command exports metadata. One has to separately export digital objects Does system allow adding past versions of the digital document files? No Does the software support its own accession number for each document that gets added into the repository? EPrints create a unique numeric ID for each document that gets added into the repository It is necessary to know whether software supports weed out policy? Yes, software has weed out policy and it allows to put an embargo data for each item that gets added into the repository as well as it has "Retire Document" option for every item that is added into the repository Does the system support to delete items from the collection/repository, move objects from one collection to other collection, cross-list objects across different collections? System supports to delete items from the repository. But does not support any cross linking of objects from one collection to other because EPrints

6 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 208 does not have any collection based organization. Each item gets added into the repository as an individual object into the repository. It does not have any attached collection identification Which persistent identifier scheme does the system support? EPrints yet does not have any support of persistent unique identifier number for all the documents that are added into the repository but it has an OAI identifier support. Each document that gets added into the repository has OAI identifier Does the system s persistent URL method handle an object s change in location and state in future with same identifier number? No, EPrints does not support any persistent identifier hence this feature is not supported in EPrints. 7.2 Content Management Does the system have proper work flow in place which handles different submission processes? EPrints supports limited submission work flow. It allows to create only user, editor and repository administrator role If the system supports to have proper work flow for all actions into the repository then whether submission supports following options: System allows to create overall system administrator Yes System allows to submit documents by users via web Yes System allows to set up submission rules No System can define accept/reject policy for all documents that gets added into the repository Yes Allows multiple collections within same installation of the system No Home page for each collection/community No Allows to set different policies for different collections No Allows to set different authorization policies for different collection/items added into the repository No Allow to edit metadata submitted by users Yes

7 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Sends notification to users/submitters/authors Yes Sends notification to metadata reviewers No Sends notification to reviewer No Sends notification to administrators Yes Allow users to review completed content Yes Allow users to review uncompleted content Yes Allow content administrator to review submissions Yes View pending content administration tasks Yes Does the system support to upload documents into the repository through Librarian s interface as well? No, EPrints does not have any separate support of Librarian s interface. All functions in EPrints are carried out through web user interface Does the software provide easy way for adding/editing of records for Librarian as well as for the remote user? Are insertion and deletion of records easy? Yes, overall data entry of EPrints is very user friendly with proper help features and user can add/edit records easily. Metadata fields which are added by default in EPrints are well designed as well as proper help features are provided for metadata entry Are the supported file formats well documented in the system? Can new file formats be added or removed by the end user? EPrints supports to upload any MIME file formats and new file formats can be added into the software Does the repository software have any capabilities, such as access control lists, Internet address filters, etc., that limit who is allowed to submit items in the software? Yes, EPrints supports to have access control based on login and password Does the repository software maintains audit logs that identify by whom and when documents are submitted into the repository? No, EPrints does not store any audit logs in its installation directory. It has only apache log files data Does the system support knowledge organization systems such as ontologies,

8 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 210 thesauri, classification systems and taxonomies for users while adding documents via web in the repository? No Does the system support digital objects to be grouped into organized structure (i.e. linear/hierarchical/graphical structure)? Yes, EPrints supports to use Library of Congress subject heading list. Hence it organises all documents under the Library of Congress subject headings Does the system support to generate authority files? No Does the system allow digital object to be a member of multiple collections, i.e. content mapping? No Does the system allow users to modify (add/delete/update) metadata/complete document added within the repository? Yes Does the system support to show strength of each collection? No 7.3 Metadata Submission and Support Does the software support to add descriptive metadata (such as author, title, subject, publisher, copyright, year of publication, etc. ) for each digital object that gets added into the repository? Yes, EPrints supports to add descriptive metadata for all documents that are added into the repository Does the software support to add administrative metadata (such as technical aspects of digital documents, source of information (when and how a digital document was created), rights management, what is file size, in what file format digital document is in, what is needed to view the digital document) for each digital object that gets added into the repository? EPrints supports to add to some extent administrative metadata such as rights management, file size and file format details of every digital document that is added into the repository Does the software support to add structural metadata (such as description, owner, data type, date deposited, version number, date of last revision, how compound objects are put together, how pages are ordered to form chapters)

9 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 211 for each digital object that gets added into the repository? Yes, EPrints supports to add structural metadata for every digital object that is added into the repository Does the software support adding/editing deleting metadata fields? Yes Are help messages given in each metadata field while entering data? Yes, For each metadata field proper help is provided for entering data along with examples Does the metadata entry field has one field mandatory? What are the mandatory fields in each software? Yes The following are the mandatory metadata fields Item Type Title Creator Reference Subject Does the software support Unicode character set for metadata entry? Yes, EPrints supports UTF Does the software allow to create and manage variety of different metadata schemas to meet different needs across the subject disciplines? No, current version of EPrints I.e. Version supports only Dublin Core metadata schema Can the metadata fields or formats be customized? Yes, EPrints supports to add any metadata fields What type of Metadata Schemas are supported by the software as a default? EPrints supports by default Dublin Core metadata schema Does the software have default metadata entry templates? Yes, EPrints have default metadata entry template Are the metadata formats documented? Yes Does the software support different interface for metadata entry and whether customized data gets added into the system? Yes How does the software verify that submitted objects and metadata are correct?

10 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 212 There are no ways by which it is possible to verify submitted objects and metadata Are there automated checks of the metadata, such as verifying that a date entered into a field is really a date string? No Does the repository software have any means to verify that objects or metadata have not been tampered with, such as checksums or digitally signed checksums? No Does the software support real time updating and indexing of accepted contents? Yes, as soon as data is uploaded it is available for searching Does the software allow for metadata extensibility and complexity? No Does the software support metadata versioning? What happens to old versions of metadata or content objects when they are replaced by new versions or modified in some way? No Does the repository software support provenance metadata? What is included in the provenance? No, EPrints does not support provenance metadata Does the software support metadata crosswalk? No Does the software support thesaurus building? Does it specify which thesaurus standard is used? Which subject heading DDC, DC or LC is used for thesaurus building? Software supports thesaurus building and it uses LC subject headings Does software have ontology support? No How does the repository verify file types, for example, if a JPEG images are submitted to the repository, does the software verify that it is really a valid JPEG, or does it just blindly take the submitters word? Yes, software verifies the submitted file and uploads the respective plugin for that file while uploading any file into the repository While exporting metadata whether software support checksums? No It is necessary to know whether the software support RAP protocol? Yes, EPrints supports RAP protocol.

11 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Classification Does the system allow digital objects to be grouped into classification/subjects? EPrints allow to group digital objects into different subject groups as per Library of Congress Subject heading lists Which classification system does the software support? EPrints does not support any classification system Does it allow to group documents as per the class number? No It is also necessary to know whether system supports hierarchical browsing of collections through class number? No, software does not allow to brows collections through class number but it allow to browse collections through Library of Congress subject headings list. 7.5 Information Search & Retrieval Browsing Author/Creator/Contributor Yes Title of the document/title of the book/title of the article etc. Yes Issue Date/Date of Publication Yes Collection No Communities No Subject browsing Yes Publisher wise browsing No Table of Contents browsing No EPrints by default supports browsing by Date and Publication but it is possible to configure browse function by adding other Dublin Core fields in browsing Multi-Dimensional Browsing No In EPrints it is also possible to construct a view using the combined values of two or more fields (eg. group records by author and editor), or even

12 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 214 using a sequence of two or more fields (eg. group records by journal title and then by volume number). Additionally EPrints supports browsing by Journal Title/Volume Number as well as type of document Searching Searching content via different metadata fields such as author, title, subject, publisher etc. The software supports to search via the following metadata fields Title Creator Abstract Uncontrolled keyword Subjects Item Type Department Editors Status Referred Journal or Publication Title Date Full text searching Yes Boolean (AND, OR, NOT) searching Yes Basic search Yes Advanced search Yes, EPrints advance search feature has different fields through which data can be searched such as Full text, title, creator, abstract, uncontrolled keywords, subject, item type, Department, Editors, Status, Referred, Journal/Publication Title, Date, Retrieved Records, Search order all these fields can be combined with other fields and data can be searched.

13 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Does the system allow to search the database putting boolean operators such as!,, &,, +,, etc. as well as must contain, should contain may contain, not contain, as operators in place of AND, OR, and AND NOT Boolean operators respectively. No, the software does not support any additional search via different search strings Truncation/Wild card searching No Exact words/phrases searching No Proximity searching No Stemming No Fuzzy searching No Phonetic searching No Case sensitive or case insensitive while searching No System should support term weighting No System should support search history option, reuse of query, query save option. No Boosting the term No Range searching No Use of thesaurus or permuted index for searching No Expand search No Lateral searching No Search support for special collections No Searching via table of content and classification codes No Ability to browse subject/author authority files No PIC variant searching (plurals, international spelling variants, and compound words) No Support multilingual search and retrieval Yes Allow refinement of searches with qualifiers No Ability to group: prior to search, user can delimit pending results listings, and group results by item characteristics (type, format) No

14 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Spell checker support No Refine searches: Once results are retrieved, users have the ability to focus and reduce number of items retrieved No Sorting The system should support sorting results by Author Yes Title Yes Issue Date Yes Relevance No Which search engine tool kit is used for searching the database? No information about search engine tool kit used in EPrints is found anywhere How is the recall and precision ratio while searching the documents? Since the system support searching via metadata fields and full text searching the recall is high via word searching and precision is high if the metadata fields are used for searching the database How is the speed of the retrieval of the documents? The speed of the retrieval of the documents is very fast in EPrints but it does not show how many documents are retrieved within how many seconds Does the system provide help for the users while searching digital documents? No, EPrints does not provide any help for searching the documents from EPrints How the results are displayed to the users? Whether users can download contents after searching? How are results displayed such as metadata, filetype, file size? Results are displayed with minimum metadata fields such as author, title, publisher and access restrictions. Yes, after searching users can download/export contents into different formats such as ASCII Citation, BibTeX, Dublin Core, BP3 XML, EndNote, HTML Citation, METS, MODS, Open URL Context Object, Refer, Reference Manager While viewing the results does the system provide access control? Yes, EPrints provide access control while viewing the results.

15 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Does system support streaming audio/video option? Or it allows only to download documents? Whether browser can support any other document viewing? Does the end user need to have plugins and software for viewing particular documents? System shows the contents of the video directly on the screen but it first downloads the document and then shows the video through browser. No mention about streaming server connection with EPrints was found. Software is basically meant for organising preprints/reprints collections. If the browser plugins are installed system supports to show all documents which are added into the repository Does the system support advanced features such as my binders, virtual bag, shelving etc. No, EPrints yet does not have any such advanced feature support Whether system supports unified search? (Unified search is the support for finding items that are scattered among a distributed collection of information sources or services, typically involving sending queries to a number of servers and then merging the results to present in an integrated, consistent, coordinated format)? No Whether system support federated search? ( Federated search allow users to search multiple digital libraries with a single query from a single user interface. The user enters a search query in the portal interface s search box and the query is sent to every other digital library software)? No 7.6 Access Control, Privacy and Management How users are managed in the software? System keeps proper information of each user registered in the repository. For every user, the following information is stored into the repository Type of User - User, Editor, Repository Administrator address Name Department Organization

16 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 218 Address Country Homepage URL User Preferences Does the system support to add/edit/delete user profiles? Yes Does the system support to define different roles for different users? System supports to have only three roles such as User, Editor and Repository Administrator Does the system keep detailed information of each user that registers in the repository such as name, , phone number, address, etc.? Yes How the permissions are given to users who have registered into the repository? Registered user in the repository can be either user, editor or repository administrator Does the system have provision to identify active and inactive members and take necessary action against inactive members? No User Roles Does system allow to create different groups for different users No Does system allow to create different groups of users No Does system allow definition of different user groups No Does system limit access by role No Does system allow collection to be customized for each role/group No Does the system allow access limits at different levels? i. File/object level Yes ii. Collection level No iii. User/Group level No How passwords are administered in the system? EPrints stores passwords in MySQL tables Does the system assign passwords for each user? Yes Does the system allow users to select passwords? Yes

17 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Does the system have mechanism to retrieve forgotten password? Yes How is the level of access for Inside/outside users (such as outside users can access only metadata and abstract level access and internal members can access full texts as well as metadata)? The system allow to give access to metadata level information to all. The full text view can be controlled by the following access levels Anyone Registered Users Repository staff only Does the system have any mechanism to provide access to the digital library via i. IP source address filtering No ii. Proxy filtering No iii. Credential-based access Yes Are access denials flagged in any special manner by the software? Does the software keep access logs and how accessible are the logs to either human or machine processing and interpretation? Yes, software gives a flag such as "Request a copy" if full text is not allowed to be viewed by end user. The logs of the system are accessible to only root user where access log is kept Does the system support access to the collection for a specific period? EPrints supports to keep the items added into the repository for a specific period. One can add embargo date for each item that gets added into the repository. 7.7 Authentication and Authorization Does the system support to provide setting different authorization policies? Yes System should support restricting access to contents through password authentication/ip filtering/proxy filtering. Yes, EPrints supports to restrict access based on login and password.

18 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION System should be able to support access based on browsing/viewing metadata, preferred records, full text item or collections through different authorizations with different privileges for different communities or individuals. EPrints supports authorization privileges based on item full view with following authorizations such as full text can be viewed by anyone, registered users only and repository staff only System should also be able to allow different roles for different members for different items/collections. EPrints supports only three roles such as users, editor and repository administrator Does the system support to have a super user/admin user who is overall manager/administrator of the software? Yes Does the system use authorization to support different roles within the system (for e. g. submit user, metadata editor, reviewer, approver, overall administrator etc.) No Does the system use an external authentication mechanism (e. g., Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)? No Does the system display only those pages that are pertinent to each user for which he/she is able to see? No Does the system support the feature that groups are assigned to one or more roles? No Does the system support the feature that users are assigned to one or more groups or collections? No Does the system support the following roles: i. Content Developer Role: must be able to create/add/edit/delete metadata and content in defined (not ALL) collections in addition No ii. Administrator Role: must be able to add/delete/create users and groups Yes iii. Contributor Role: must be able to submit metadata and content, in addition to general users role No

19 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 221 iv. General User Yes v. Submitter Yes vi. Metadata Reviewer No vii. Max Role: must be able to do ANYTHING within the system Yes Does the system use authorization to verify users with campus security systems (NetID) No 7.8 Interoperability It is necessary to know whether the software supports Z39.50 protocol and OAI- PMH protocol? EPrints supports OAI-PMH protocol Which harvesting software is used by the Digital Library Software for metadata harvesting? The software uses PKP harvesting software SRU/SRW Support No Does the software have openurl support? Yes, the software has openurl support. 7.9 Ease of Deployment of each software Software Installation Packaging and installation steps The installation instruction of EPrints is added in Appendix D of this document Automatic installation script There is no automatic installation script available for installing EPrints. One has to follow all the steps that are provided on wiki page of the EPrints. wiki.eprints.org Disk space used Around 130 MB disk space is used for installation of the software.

20 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Time required to install each software It is easy to install the software. It took around two to four hours to completely configure the software to make it run live Documentation help available and useful for installation The wiki.eprints.org page provides documentation help and installation help step by step Environments needed to set for installation of each software There is no requirement of settings any environment for installation of the software Operating systems (Linux/Windows/Solaris/MacOS/GNU/AIX) on which software can be installed EPrints can be installed on UNIX like platform: Linux, Solaris, BSD etc. even OSX as well as Windows Programming languages used EPrints is written in PERL and runs as an apache module (using mod_perl) Database supported at back end EPrints uses MySQL to store the metadata about records and users. The actual full text files are stored in the archive directory stored in the UNIX file-system Web Server used EPrints uses Apache Web Server Java servlet engine needed EPrints does not need any Java servlet engine System Support/Maintenance Documentation/manuals The documentation of EPrints is now available only from wiki page such as Mailing lists/discussion forums EPrints has only technical mailing lists which is available at /tech.php/

21 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Wiki pages EPrints has its wiki page and it is available at Help desk support No Ease of system administration (ability to configure for different users) EPrints is available for different users for different roles through web user interface Hardware/Software Requirements What are the minimum hardware requirements for the repository software? 1 GHz or more PC running GNU/Linux, or equivalent UNIX server 512Mb or more of RAM 40Gb or more of disk space with possibility of adding more if your archive gets big How actively is the software maintained by its owners or contributors? Since EPrints has been widely used all over the world it is actively maintained by its owners and contributors while bringing new versions often Does the software have procedures in place to monitor and receive notifications when hardware technology changes are needed? No Does the software creators have a process to stay current with the latest operating system security fixes? Yes Security Does the system have security methods such as i. Data encryption No ii. Digital signatures No Server security (Does software has secure database connection?) Yes, the database in EPrints is stored in MySQL where mysql has username and password for EPrints database.

22 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Ability to restrict access repository at item level (For e. g., to view metadata but not content) Yes, In EPrints by default metadata is visible to all but the full text visibility has different options such as visible to all Registered users only Repository staff members After having a look at the metadata an end user can request for a full text copy of the article if it is not visible System Level Security Fixity - such as checksums or digests Yes, Md5 checksum supported Management of users accounts and rights to specified locations within the DL No Logging and auditing events No Does the software support any security if OS does not have any firewall implemented? No, EPrints uses Apache server s security General features related to technical aspect Does the software have any back end maintenance? No Does the software have RSS support? Yes Does the software have easy mechanisms to upgrade the software from old versions to new versions? Yes, Upgrading EPrints is very easy for its subsequent versions. An upgrade of EPrints from version 3 to version was carried out and it was found that only following procedure is required to upgrade download latest upgrade version untar the tar.gz file then run./configure /opt/eprints3 eprints eprints localhost then run epaadmin upgrade repositoryid

23 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Does the software support migration of data from one repository software to another repository software? EPrints can be migrated to another repository Does the system support any ranking algorithms for the documents added in the repository? No Are there any known issues/bugs in the system? No Whether a novice user can easily publish content? Yes, an end user can easily submit the contents to the repository and finally the item is made available after review process to all. The software has very few steps while uploading any document How often user needs to use database schema for making any change? No, end user does not have to use database schema for making any changes Whether user can reorganize database? No Does the system support automated content acquisition, harvesting and automatic metadata generation, including named entity recognition, automatic subject indexing/classification? No Does the system support to store metadata records separately from actual contents? Yes, metadata records are stored in backend database and actual contents are stored in archive directory of EPrints installation Does the software support storing varied file formats? EPrints software by default supports to store the following file formats HTML PDF Postscript Plain Text MS Powerpoint MS Word Image (JPEG) Image (PNG)

24 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 226 Image (GIF) Image (BMP) Image (TIFF) Video (MPEG) Video (QuickTime) Video (AVI) Other Does the system keep the original file s name, size and created date? Yes, software keeps original file s size and name as it is While using the software if there are any errors occur, does the system allow to submit the error report? No How many developers are working for the software? There are currently six members developing the software as well as providing the support to EPrints How many users are using the software/strength of the community? There are 251 installations of EPrints as on 26th March The total number of items using EPrints repositories all over the world are 4,43,788 items in all these repositories[3] Does the software provide its history on the web page for evidence of sustainability and vitality? Yes Total number of downloads of the software? No information about total number of downloads of the software is maintained on EPrints website. EPrints is not available through SourceForge hence this data is not available Is the software really under Open Source License terms and conditions? EPrints is available under GPL license terms and conditions Are there any costs involved for using OSS-DL? No Does the repository software have a clear policy regarding software upgrades? No Whether the software has a long-term leadership and consulting services?

25 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 227 Since EPrints user base and collection strength all over world is very large it has long-term leadership and consulting services After releasing the software whether it was tested and whether it has integrated new features or not? Yes beta testing of the software is done regularly How is the mailing list used by the users? EPrints is available since 2001, the mailing list is heavily used by users. The following table (as observed on 26th March 2008) provide number of requests sent on EPrints tech list which is available since The following table shows that more number of users are using EPrints. Since EPrints has only one mailing list it is heavily used by users. Table 7.1: EPrints Tech Mailing List Data Year Number of Requests Sent on EPrints Technology Mailing List March 26th Whether software has conducted any workshops, training sessions on local, regional, national and international levels? EPrints workshops are conducted regularly at local, regional, national and international levels. The announcements of the workshops are sent through EPrints mailing lists as well as available through web site Whether software is built according to open standards? Yes Architecture of the Software How is the architecture and design of the software whether it is simple or complex?

26 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 228 The EPrints software has several data objects within the PERL modules to represent runtime entities such as users, e-prints, sessions, subjects and the metadata fields. The work flow in EPrints is based upon a web interface that handles the submission process. The Depositor submits an e-print into the user workspace. Approved e-prints are moved to a public location where they are accessible by the repository s user community. Subsequent processing may be performed upon the e-print and the accompanying metadata record. This includes migration of the e-print file format, enhancement of the metadata record, or deletion from the public archive. Figure 7.1: EPrints Architecture Does the architecture supports separation between different local parts and put into different machines ( e. g. centralised/distributed database, relational/objectoriented database management system, different components of the directory to distribute to different machines) and the transport model (protocols for communication between the system and the user interface or between system components). EPrints can be configured as centralised/distributed database Does system support grid architecture? How grids can help to disaster recovery of data? There is no mention anywhere about support of grid architecture in EPrints software.

27 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Scalability: It is necessary to know whether software is scalable in terms of storage and retrieval? EPrints can handle large volume of data and can work satisfactorily with more number of users accessing EPrints..It has capability to handle millions of records Extensibility: Extensible, to allow new elements (collections, data types, services, etc.) to be easily added to the digital library. No information available Storage:Does the system support data compression, For eg, in case of multimedia collections the size of the files (for eg video/audio files) would be very large hence system should support compression/decompression techniques. Does the system support to store compress file formats? Though software supports to store compress file formats it does not have any support of compression/decompression techniques Backup/Restore facility Does software support backup function, which contains metadata associated with access controls, customized files, as well as full texts of the documents added in the repository? No, software does not have any backup facility. EPrints recommends to backup the installation directory of EPrints such as /opt/eprints and mysql EPrints database Does the software explicitly require any particular backup strategy, or does it just rely on system-level backup plans, like periodic disk backups to tape? Software does not have any backup strategy and it just relies on systemlevel backup plans In the event of a disaster, what recovery plans are supported by the software? No 7.10 User Friendly Interface Whether end user can easily customize the user interface look and feel? Whether the end user can change the header, theme, footer, overall web interface of the system?

28 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 230 Yes, it is possible to completely customize EPrints software. There are different.pl files in perl_lib directory of EPrints installation. It is possible to make changes in these files and customize EPrints completely Can user interfaces be localized in their language? Yes, Since EPrints supports UTF8 it is possible to create user interface in any localized language How is user interface for the experienced or non experienced users? EPrints has same user interface for all users How is the user interface designed for the use of librarian or for the use of users? EPrints has same user interface for all users Whether system provide web based interface for all its functionalities? Yes Does the system provide online help? There is no online help provided throughout all the operations that are carried out either by user or librarian Does the system provide multilingual access support? Yes Does the system allow users to submit feedback on system problems? Yes Does the system notify user s current state of the task? Yes 7.11 Usability What user skill levels are expected to use the web interface? EPrints is easy to use for the Librarian as well as for the end user for searching Is the user able to navigate and find his/her ways to information quickly and easily? Yes How are the help features provided with the software? Does help feature allow a user to feel comfortable within a digital library? Does the help feature provide general as well as technical answers to the problems? EPrints provides general help features for end users. No Technical answers are provided with help features.

29 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Does the user need to know which player or viewer is necessary to view multimedia or other digital objects from the system? No, EPrints automatically runs the file with available multimedia plugins installed on the local machine Does the user interface provide facility to give user opinion on the web as well as does the software support user to fill up online user feedback form? No Does the system support to show usage statistics such as: A. Usage patterns B. Use of materials C. Usage statistics D. Who uses what, when E. For what reasons/decisions EPrints supports to generate all the above statistics with the help of "analog" tool which is free software and can provide different statistical data for the end users for advanced reports Transaction Log Analysis Does the system keep error log files? The system keeps all logs in /var/log/httpd such as access.log, error.log, ssl_error.log, sss_access.log etc. which is Apache log area. EPrints uses apache log files for all transactions that are carried out in EPrints. It does not have any separate log files in EPrints area Does the system keep user logs? No Does the system keeps track of query s submitted to the system? Does it store any query log? Yes, EPrints supports to store search history data. It stores all search history requests carried out into the repository as per the user ID number and system administrator has access to this data Copyright/Policy Issues Does the repository software have any means to manage, store, or enforce

30 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 232 contract agreements for all the digital documents that are added into the repository? Yes, Repository supports to allow to pick up from the following list keep licensing conditions for individual digital objects in the repository with different licensing conditions such as : License unspecified Creative Commons Attribution Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike Creative Commons Attribution Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons Attribution GNU GPL (Software) Creative Commons Attribution GNU LGPL (Software) EPrints also supports to add any other third party license in EPrints Does the software have any capabilities, such as access control lists, Internet address filters, etc., that can be used to enforce copyright or access restrictions? Every item that gets added into the repository can be controlled by following default ways supported by the software Visible to anyone Registered users only Repository staff only If repository ingests digital content with unclear ownership/rights, does it have policies addressing liability and challenges to those rights? No 7.13 Advanced Features Whether software has long term leadership and consulting services? Yes, number of installations of EPrints are increasing day by day. Hence it is evident that EPrints will provide service in future. EPrints also has strong suppport of University of Southampton Does the system provide citation data? No, EPrints does not citation data.

31 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Does the software have defined road map for the future? There was no information found on web about defined road map for the future of EPrints Does software support indexing of all documents that are added in the repository in a distributed way, without central control? No, The epindexer command creates indexes of all documents that are added into the repository and administrator can run that command or define a cron job to automatically create indexes of new documents added into the repository Virtual Collection Support: Does software support to generate virtual collections /special collections across several content providers? No Load Balancing: Does software have any mention of load balancing? It is necessary to know how the software functions when number of records are more or more number of people try to access the software? EPrints functions well if more number of people try to access the page or more number of records are added into the repository Visualization: Does the software support visualization feature? No Personalization: Does the system support Personalization feature? No Translation Service: Does the system provide translation service? No Community Services: Does the software support to provide community services such as allowing members of the digital library community to exchange ideas, make announcements, write reviews etc. No Page Ranking: Does the software support page ranking such as supported by commercial digital libraries. No 7.14 Digital Preservation The following are some of the criteria which are defined from digital preservation point of view: Does the software support any digital preservation strategy and if yes, does it explicitly support any particular preservation strategy, such as described by

32 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 234 PREMIS like, bit-level preservation, format migration, format normalization, emulation, or restrictions on submission formats EPrints at present does not support any digital preservation strategy Whether system preserves the file s original identities such as its name, size and created date? Yes, software keeps file s original identities such as its name, size and created date Does the system have any data integrity check for a file added into the repository? Yes, EPrints supports checksum with MD Does the software have quality control measures to ensure integrity, and persistent documentation identification for migration purposes? No Does the repository software preserve pre-existing persistent identifiers for submitted packages or objects? Yes Does the software support preservation of metadata? It addresses the following attributes of an archived digital object: provenance - documenting the history of the object. Yes authenticity - validating that the digital object is in fact what it should be, and has not been altered. No preservation activity - documenting the actions taken to preserve the digital object. No technical environment - describing the technical requirements, such as hardware and software, needed to render and use the digital objects. No rights management - recording any binding intellectual property rights that may limit the repository s ability to preserve and disseminate the digital object over time. Yes How does the software manage compound objects (where multiple file formats of same object are linked together)? Yes, EPrints supports to link together compound digital objects Does it have mechanism to keep licensing conditions for individual images/objects in the repository?

33 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 235 Yes. Repository supports to keep licensing conditions for individual digital objects in the repository with different licensing conditions. EPrints also supports to add any other third party license into EPrints Does the software support to track and manage copyrights and restrictions on use as required by contract or license? Yes Where does the repository software store the actual digital files and the metadata? EPrints stores actual files in archive directory of EPrints and metadata is stored in revisions folder of same archive directory Can the repository software automatically validate checksums on a periodic basis? No Are the checksums cryptographically signed to prevent tampering? No Does the repository software have a well documented process by which a submission is ingested into the repository for storage? For example, how and when does the repository software generate fixity data, such as checksums? Yes, details of checksum are recorded into.xsh file How does the repository software verify that archival objects and metadata are correct?are there automated checks of the metadata, such as to verify that a date entered into a field really is a date string? No Does the repository software provide audit logs of all events that have occurred in the life cycle of a package? Yes, EPrints keeps audit logs of all events that have occurred in the life cycle of a package in httpd.log If repository ingests digital content with unclear ownership/rights, does software has policies addressing liability and challenges to those rights? No Does the software have many echanisms to change its preservation plans as a result of its monitoring activities? No Does the system have any mechanism in determining when objects in digital archives should migrate to new hardware and software? No Can the software support scheduled events such that a human can be notified on a preset schedule to manually check for format obsolescence? No Can new file formats be added or removed? Yes

34 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION Does the software have ability to handle variety of file formats and does it also supports file format versioning? Yes Does the software have mechanisms in place for monitoring and notification when format (or other representation information) obsolescence is near/or are no longer viable? No Can the software monitor any standard format registries in order to ascertain format obsolescence? No What standards does the repository software use to describe file formats and does the software record representation information? Does it use Internet MIME Types? EPrints uses MIME type identification of each file format. It does not record any representation information of any file format added into the repository Does it use any format registries? If yes, which format registry is used such as PRONOM or GDFR or DCC to represent format information? No Does the system support automatic format registration, For unknown formats does the system sends any message to the submitter requesting for additional information? No

35 CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 237 Figure 7.2: EPrints Installation Screen