Digital Library Program Forum March 31, 2003

Introductions/Overview Staff Introductions – See organizational chart Outline of presentation Project Demonstrations Selection for Digital Projects Metadata Break Conversion Issues Storage Access Final Questions/Wrap-up

Background on Digital Library Program Established in late 1997 Collaboration among the Libraries, UITS, SLIS, and the School of Informatics Base funding provided by Libraries and UITS Grant funding from federal and foundation sources

Key Elements – “Good digital collections” Interoperable – with the important goal of cross-collection searching Within Indiana University Across other institutions worldwide Persistent – reliably accessible Re-usable – repositories of digital objects that can be used for multiple purposes

Major Activities Developing and maintaining digital library infrastructure – hardware, software, staff expertise Creation of digital resources for instruction (Variations and DIDO) Creation of digital resources for research (archival collections, indexes) Consultation with individuals and department who have ideas about potential digital projects

Digital Projects Conversion from an analog to a digital format Creation of metadata for digital objects Development of systems to store and provide access to created digital content We provide technical expertise needed to create the digital resource, store the content and metadata, provide persistent access to it.

Selection of Digital Projects We will consult on any project, but for us to provide support we must consider: Purpose Copyright/Intellectual Property Audience Funding Intangibles

Overview/Purpose What do you want to do? Significance of the resource to be created? Why digital? Preservation Access

Copyright What is the copyright status of this material? Public domain Pre-1923 Not renewed Unpublished material; author deceased <1932 Controlled by Indiana University Permission secured Situation unknown or murky

Audience Who currently uses these materials? Who is the primary intended audience? Is there a secondary intended audience? In general, do you anticipate that this resource will be used by a large number of people or a very specialized or small number of users?

Funding In order to determine necessary funding, we need to know exactly what you want to do Preparation of a budget Small projects may be funded internally Pilot projects may be funded internally “Large” projects require outside funding

Essential Components Librarians and faculty willing to work as partners with us Adherence to standards and recommended best practices

Project Priorities Low overhead – the project is similar to previous projects so we can use established procedures and existing technologies Item-level information or metadata available Complements previous projects – creation of a critical mass Related to Indiana University or Indiana Special expertise at Indiana University Opportunity to learn from the project – contribution to digital library development

Will not undertake (1 of 2) Projects that result in restricted-access resources; product must be accessible to Indiana University community at a minimum Projects where we operate as a service bureau, with little or minimal input into the design of the project Projects that clearly violate copyright law For projects where the copyright situation is unclear, we will consult with Legal Counsel

Will not undertake (2 of 2) Projects where we relinquish control over the resulting digital resources Example: Faculty projects; need for joint control

Important Points All projects require a time commitment from permanent staff – even if we have external funding. Selecting one project means that others must be rejected. We prefer to use common solutions to digital library problems, not start from scratch. Example: Need for Indiana University photo databases to provide access to information about and digital access