Content Creation & Dissemination Team Recommendations for Annual Goals October 17, 2014 Content Creation & Dissemination (CCD) Team Membership Trevor Bond (chair), Washington State University Mark Dahl (Council Liaison), Lewis & Clark College Karen Bjork, Portland State University Eva Guggemos, Pacific University Ann Lally, University of Washington Evviva Weinraub, Oregon State University Friday Valentine, Chemeketa Community College Jodi Allison-Bunnell (staff liaison) Expected process: o October 17, 2014: CCD Team completes report and circulates to the Board of Directors, Council, and Alliance and NWDA program members. Requesting endorsement of report by Board of Directors. o November 13 & 14, 2014 Council Meeting: discuss and act on Board recommendation concerning CCD report Charge (already approved) The Content Creation and Dissemination Team provides broad oversight and leadership for the development, stewardship and dissemination of unique and local content. The Alliance values flexible, scalable approaches in support of new modes of scholarship, publication across the research lifecycle, and traditional and new uses of hidden collections in teaching and learning. As experts for the consortium, the team investigates and implements solutions for unique content needs, recommends consortium-wide practices, and supports an integrated approach for publishing, storing, discovering and preserving resources in our special collections, archives, and digital repositories. Annual Goals After multiple discussions and committee agenda building and Alliance board feedback, we recommend the following: Near term (FY16) initiatives Aggregate unique Alliance digital collections o Adopt Alliance metadata standards for born-digital and cultural heritage objects residing in digital asset management systems and institutional repositories that are CCD Team Annual Goals Page 1 of 7
the lightest possible option to increase interoperability regardless of infrastructure or presentation o Facilitate a coordinated approach to discovery of digital collections in the Alliance Primo environment o Become a Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Service Hub for all Alliance institutions and for non-alliance members who currently have a business relationship with technical assistance from the UO-OSU collaboration, Oregon Digital. Develop digital preservation strategies o Focus on training/education/consultation and practical actions at the institutional level, coordinated by Alliance o Develop sessions devoted to digital preservation at the Alliance s annual meeting. o Explore national-scale solutions including but not limited to Hathi Trust and Archivematica DuraCloud Perform environmental scan of data management issues in order to determine needs, current practices, and an appropriate Alliance role. Share unique collections o Limited scan-on-demand for limited quantities of unique collections at low or no cost o Explore physical collection sharing by connecting with existing collection sharing activities in region. Explore possible Alliance role(s) in creation, discovery, and access to Open Educational Resources (OER)s, including e-textbooks. Engage with other Alliance programs and teams as new structure is clarified and as they are developed and staffed o Discovery & Delivery o Collaborative Workforce o Systems High priority initiatives for a later date (FY17 or beyond, depending on resources) Develop a shared digital repository with multiple functions (or recommend best practices for local implementations) o Institutional repository o Digital asset management o Data management o Online educational resources (OER)s Implement digital preservation solutions/national scale Share physical unique collections o Could be based on Courier infrastructure o Develop new policies and standards for handling and security Collaborate with the Discovery & Delivery Team on disability/accessibility support for unique materials Collaborate with the Collaborative Workforce Team to support unique collections work within a collaborative workforce program. CCD Team Annual Goals Page 2 of 7
Current Initiatives The CCD team also recommends: Continuation of current program offerings for unique content (EAD finding aids database and archives collection management) Endorsement of FY15 initiatives: planned site redesign for EAD finding aids database and finding successor tool for archives collection management. Governance The CCD team recommends the following for the second half of FY15 and FY16: Discontinuation of the current structure and governance of the Northwest Digital Archives program Creation of a new structure and governance under the Alliance s new program and team structure: o Four Working Groups: Digital Content Aggregation, Digital Preservation, Exploration, EAD Database, and Archival Collection Management o Task Forces of specialists for specific initiatives, as needed, reporting to appropriate Working Group o Intersection/coordination with other program areas, as needed Board& Shared&Content& Content& Crea-on&&& Dissemina-on& Discovery&&& Delivery& Collabora-ve& Workforce& Systems& Digital&Content& Aggrega-on& WG& Digital& Preserva-on& WG& Explora-on&WG& EAD&Database& WG& Archival&Coll& Mgmt&WG& Support Model Program areas available only to Alliance members, and supported by all Alliance members: o Digital content aggregation DPLA hub initially only for Alliance members, later explore non-alliance member participation CCD Team Annual Goals Page 3 of 7
o Digital preservation o Exploration Program offerings available to Alliance members as opt-it, opt-out, and available to non- Alliance members: o EAD database o Archival collection management Resources to Accomplish Above Goals Subject to Collaborative Workforce model, FTE at Alliance increased from 0.85 FTE to about 2.0 FTE with a mix of coordination, metadata, and technical/programmer skills, some of which may be drawn from other programs Some consulting costs Some member technology support Subject to Collaborative Workforce model, considerable member expertise contributed to some program areas that involves release time for relevant experts Largely continuity for hardware and software at Alliance Some increase in meeting expenses Some increase in travel costs CCD Team Annual Goals Page 4 of 7
Orbis Cascade Alliance Content Creation & Dissemination Team Overview of Recommendations Related to Digital Content Aggregation. 2014 October 16 Prepared for the CCD Team By Stephanie Beene, Lewis & Clark College Sam Meister, University of Montana Tom Johnson, Oregon State University/Digital Public Library of America Kira Homo, University of Oregon Leigh Grinstead, Metadata Consultant Jodi Allison-Bunnell, Staff Liaison Digital Content Metadata Standards The proposed digital content metadata standards are the lightest possible set of shared standards to facilitate interoperability and discovery without time-intensive metadata massage at the consortium level. They are deliberately general in order to be applicable to content in either digital asset management systems (DAMs) or institutional repositories (IRs). The group further proposes that these standards be used by participating institutions going forward and for any content that they wanted to have included in any aggregation. Metadata cleanup on existing content would need to be done by those institutions and would not be done centrally. For more details on the proposed standards, see Digital Content Metadata Standards at https://www.orbiscascade.org/file_viewer.php?id=2201. Technical Recommendation The first portion of the technical recommendation call for an addition to the existing infrastructure associated with the Northwest Digital Archives researcher site (http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/) and supports a portion of the planned redesign of the site in FY15. It creates a relatively simple and sustainable way to associate finding aids with digital content that allows end users the ability to understand linkages between collection descriptions and content and to limit their searches to collections that include links to digital content. The second portion calls for the creation of a metadata pipeline that makes possible not only enhancement of the NWDA site, but participation in the Digital Public Library of America, or any other aggregation of digital content that may be desired on the Alliance level. The infrastructure will be developed using existing funds between October and December 2014. The group feels strongly that an infrastructure separate from the Shared ILS remains critical at CCD Team Annual Goals Page 5 of 7
this time. This may change with further development with Ex Libris under the Center of Excellence agreement. A schematic and specifications are attached to the Technical Recommendation. For more details on the technical recommendation, see Technical Recommendation at https://www.orbiscascade.org/file_viewer.php?id=2199. EAD Best Practices Revision The existing NWDA Best Practices for Encoded Archival Description (EAD) inadequately proscribes how to create linkages between a finding aid and any associated digital content. Member insitituions have thus taken a variety of approaches or, more commonly, have not invested the time since it is very time consuming and because the researcher site did not present digital content in a useful manner. The proposed addition to the Best Practices is a needed proscriptive approach that will facilitate improved access to digital content through the redesigned researcher site. For more details on the proposed addition to the NWDA Best Practices for EAD, see EAD Best Practices Recommendation at https://www.orbiscascade.org/file_viewer.php?id=2191. Digital Public Library of America The Content Creation & Dissemination Team recommends that the Alliance become a DPLA Service Hub for Alliance members and NWDA program members who have digital content in a system from which we can harvest. Successful implementation of this proposal requires: The adoption and implementation of the proposed digital content metadata standards; The adoption and implementation of the proposed EAD Best Practices revision; Acceptance and implementation of the technical recommendation; Creation of a working group with expertise in digital content metadata to support maintenance of the standards; Acquisition of adequate staff (Alliance, member, and/or contractor) to support training and coordination; Aggregating content for the near term with assistance from the UO-OSU collaboration, Oregon Digital, to provide a single data feed to DPLA; Development by CCD of a business plan that includes financial support by Alliance members and by NWDA program members who are not Alliance members. In addition, the Alliance should also coordinate with other entities in the Northwest to are working or would like to work with DPLA to plan a rational approach in the region. CCD Team Annual Goals Page 6 of 7
For more details on the DPLA proposal, see DPLA Recommendation at https://www.orbiscascade.org/file_viewer.php?id=2189. Staffing Implementing the above requires an investment in staffing that may be met through the collaborative workforce initiative and Alliance member contributions. We anticipate a minimum of 0.25 FTE and maximum of 1.0 FTE. Some minimal level of staffing at the Alliance is required for coordination and integration into governance; options for distribution of other duties to Alliance members and/or contractors may vary depending on the outcomes desired. A portion of this FTE could come from what is currently the NWDA Program Manager s FTE. For more details on the staffing required to be a DPLA Hub, see Staffing Recommendation at https://www.orbiscascade.org/file_viewer.php?id=2185. CCD Team Annual Goals Page 7 of 7