Where to house the digital library

  Digital Resources Librarian at Asbury Theological Seminary Thad Horner

  Control  Wow Factor  Cost  Libraries must be willing to rank or reorient priorities based on these three factors 3 Competing Concepts

  What Does Control Mean?  The ability to shape the digital library to meet your desires and needs.  The level of responsibility placed on the institution Control

  Generally, More Control Exists When Libraries Host Their Own Content  But Control Can Be Limited by the Software Chosen  DSpace  Fedora  Greenstone  Digital Commons Control

  Branding  Making the digital library “fit” with institutional criteria  Metadata  How much and what data to add  Technological  Who is responsible for maintaining the servers?  Who has ultimate administrative power?  Legality  If we get sued, do we have protection? Types of Control

  What is the Wow Factor?  Everything besides control  Stunning visual presence  Extra capabilities  Journal publishing  Streaming of media  Searching Wow Factor

  Nothing is Free!  Questions to ask  Which is cheaper now, doing it ourselves or paying someone else?  Where do we plan to be as an institution and a digital library in 3 years?  Which will be cheaper in 3 years? Cost

  Must have physical resources to support (cost)  Must have staff to support (cost)  Support response time  Backup  Copyright insurance  Google  Be sure to purchase Handle  How the system searches Host

  Must have the money  Must be willing to give up some control  Contract  Persistent URLs  24/7 Support  Uptime  Speed  Backup  Copyright Insurance Hosted

  Training  3 rd party access to material  Increasing Costs  Google  How the system searches Hosted

  This: Asbury’s Experience

  To this: ePlaceePlace Asbury’s Experience

  Originally Hosted Dspace in-house  IT and Library were one department  No money was to be spent  Handle was not purchased  1/3 programmer time  “Too many hands in the cookie jar” Asbury’s Experience

  Redesign  Cleaned up the structure  Fewer admins  Updated to XML interface  Looked prettier  Searching did NOT work  Needs for classes Asbury’s Experience

  Move to a hosted platform  Consultation with other libraries  Conference attendance  Examined hosted DSpace and BePress (Digital Commons)  Contract Asbury’s Experience

  Findings  Loss of control in administrative power  Slower download speeds  Improved searching  Improved design and “wow factor”  Able to support classes better  Customer support mostly good Asbury’s Experience

  Do we have the in-house capabilities to run a digital library?  What content do we want in the digital library?  Can the platform meet the needs of our classes?  Do we have the budget to move to a hosted solution?  What will happen in 3 years?  Will we have persistent URLs?  Can we get an agreeable contract? Making a Decision

 In the end the choice is yours… Making a Decision