The National Library’s role in the The National Library’s role in the Australian Research Information Australian Research Information

Infrastructure projectsInfrastructure projects

Warwick CathroWarwick CathroNational Library of AustraliaNational Library of Australia

Coalition for Networked InformationCoalition for Networked Information15 April 200415 April 2004

Why might you want to hear Why might you want to hear this?this?

Why might you want to hear Why might you want to hear this?this?

An attempt to support research information infrastructure on a national scale

An attempt to kick-start or accelerate deployment of repositories, extend nationally if possible

An example where policy area of government is actively collaborating with university stakeholders

An example of collaboration between a national library and groups of universities

OutlineOutlineOutlineOutline

The Australian Research Information Infrastructure Projects

The National Library’s digital services activities

Project ARROW

Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories

Meta Access Management System (MAMS) Project

Conclusions

The Australian RII ProjectsThe Australian RII ProjectsThe Australian RII ProjectsThe Australian RII Projects

Scope of federal government’s research funding activities

“Backing Australia’s Ability” (2001)

Report of the Higher Education Information Infrastructure Implementation Steering Committee

Institutional repositories seen as a key strategy for improved management of research information

Funds (A$12M) allocated to four projects in October 2003

Future policy and funding Future policy and funding issuesissues

Future policy and funding Future policy and funding issuesissues

Australian Research Information Infrastructure Committee (ARIIC)

Examination of middleware issues and future funding needs

Report of National Research Infrastructure Task Force (March 2004)

NLA digital services activitiesNLA digital services activities

NLA’s digital collections

NLA’s digital services architecture

Resource discovery layer

Persistent identifiers and the resolver service

Digital object management layer

Web delivery systems

NLA’s Digital CollectionsNLA’s Digital CollectionsPANDORA (5 000+ web sites, 10 000+ snapshots)

Digitised pictures (70 000+ pictures)

Digitised sheet music (5 000+ multi-page items)

Digitised maps (2 500+ maps)

Digitised manuscript collections (10 collections, 6 500+ items)

Oral history and folklore audio recordings converted to digital form (7000+ hours out of 35000)

Examples of principlesExamples of principlesSupport entire activity cycle for digital collectionsSupport integrated access to print and digital resourcesEnsure every item is citable and accessible in a persistent mannerSupport hierarchical digital library data model

The ArchitectureThe Architecture

Resource DiscoveryResource DiscoveryDigital collection items will be discovered through multiple entry points

Prime institutional entry point is the catalogue

Public search engines (eg Google)

Federated and specialised discovery services

Metadata Repository and Search System

Based on TeraText Database System

Z39.50 compliant

Persistent identifiersPersistent identifiers

Consultancy on PI frameworkSee Reference [5] in the handout

PI assigned to every digital collection item and every deliverable component of each item

These citations will never break

Resolver serviceResolver serviceSimple Java servlet application parses the PI and re-directs user to current web location

All requests in the form http://nla.gov.au/<pi> are passed to the resolver application

Requires that the PI contains some intelligence

Digital Object ManagementDigital Object ManagementNot possible to source suitable products in the marketplace

Digital Archiving System (PANDAS)See Reference [7] in handout

Digital Collections Manager (DCM)See Reference [4] in handout

Digital Archiving SystemDigital Archiving SystemFunctions:

controls harvesting of web sitesmanages metadata about harvested sitesgenerates title entry pagesmanages access restrictions

Metadata includes:descriptive metadatapermission statusrestriction informationgathering schedule

Digital Collections ManagerDigital Collections ManagerFunctions:

supports digitisation workflowcreates web derivativesmanages storage of metadata and digital files

Metadata types supported:descriptive metadataadministrative metadata (including technical data such as image resolution)structural metadata

Web Delivery SystemsWeb Delivery SystemsWeb delivery systems developed for pictures, maps, sheet music, manuscripts

Based on Digital Collections Manager

Contextual display allows user to navigate pages, zoom, view metadata

For manuscripts, closely tied to finding aid

For maps, MrSID technology provides powerful zoom capability

To be extended to support delivery of audio files

Project ARROWProject ARROW

Led by Monash UniversityThree other management partners, including NLAARROW will identify, test and develop an

institutional repository solutionAll four partners will commit to using the solutionARROW will also develop a discovery service

with a potential nationwide scope

Project ARROW: business Project ARROW: business contextcontext

Desire to integrate support for electronic press, e-print repository and e-theses

Potential future inclusion of learning objects, research resources (not just output)

Potential to utilise annual DEST returns to systematically build repository and showcase institutional output

Potential to drive cultural change

Longer term potential of providing alternatives to current scholarly publishing outlets

Project ARROW: deliverablesProject ARROW: deliverables

Software platforms and storage solutions at four sites

NLA will use its repository to complement its digital services architecture

Representative clusters of contentDocumentationAvailability of repositories for metadata harvestingAssistance to other institutions with repositories

Project ARROW: stagesProject ARROW: stages

Demonstration (2004)Developing architecture, selecting, testing and developing software

Deployment (late 2004 – end 2005)Populating the repositories

Distribution (mid 2005 – end 2006)Enabling others to participate

Project ARROW: resource Project ARROW: resource discoverydiscovery

Metadata will be harvested from ARROW and other repositories using OAI protocol

NLA will build a metadata repository and search service based on TeraText platform

Resource discovery service will support a range of logical views, branded interfaces, alerting services

Discovery service will expose its own metadata for harvesting by international and disciplinary services

Progress to dateProgress to date

Management Committee and Technical Committee formed

Project Manager appointed2003 study tour (UK and USA)NLA had already developed “proof of concept”

discovery serviceProcess of selecting repository software is

underway

Australian Partnership for Australian Partnership for Sustainable RepositoriesSustainable Repositories

Led by the Australian National UniversityFour other partners, including NLAWill develop demonstrator repositoriesWill support continuity and sustainability of

digital collectionsResearch data sets are in scope

Digital Sustainability ProgramDigital Sustainability Program

Will be led by NLAWill establish links with the UK Digital Curation

CentreWill develop a national centre of excellenceWill provide advice, documentation, tools to assist

the university community to sustain and preserve repository content

NLA experienceNLA experience

Development of PANDORA archiveDevelopment of the PADI serviceWork on standards for preservation metadataMembership of International Internet Preservation

Consortium

Practices and Testbeds ProgramPractices and Testbeds Program

Further development of DSpace repository at Australian National University

Development of a physically distributed repository at University of Sydney supporting text, images, spatial data sets, audio files

Development of a repository at University of Queensland

Outreach activitiesOutreach activities

National Services Program will provide technical advisory services, consultation and educational services

International Linkages program will contribute to standards development, maintain a technology watching brief

Meta Access Management Meta Access Management System (MAMS)System (MAMS)

Led by Macquarie UniversityWill investigate and test integrated solutions for

authentication and authorisation

Middleware componentsMiddleware components

An “umbrella” system for intra-institutional authentication and authorisation that recognises realities of legacy environments

An inter-institutional regime based on attribute exchange

Automated decision making using machine readable policy

Extensible, federated identity system

NLA role in MAMSNLA role in MAMS

Access policy description schemaWill build on the Library’s work in online

directories, including standards for describing services and access policies

Examples: policies on categories of users served, service levels, types of service provided, charging policies

ConclusionsConclusionsConclusionsConclusionsImportance of robust research infrastructure has

been recognised by Australian Government

Institutional repositories recognised as part of the solution

Further middleware services need to be identified and developed

Four projects are underway

NLA is a supporting partner in three of them

Questions?Questions?Questions?Questions?

Contact: Warwick CathroAssistant Director-General, InnovationNational Library of Australiawcathro@nla.gov.au