You limited your search to:
Department:
Digital Projects Unit
Resource Type:
Paper
Language:
English
Collection:
UNT Scholarly Works
- Targeted Access for Varied Audiences to Integrated, Heterogeneous Digital Information Resources
- This poster presents an overview of the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries' "Portal to Texas History" project, which aims to integrate and ensure long-term access to large quantities of heterogeneous digital resources from many different institutions. Portals have emerged as an important tool for facilitating single-point-access to digital resources. The UNT Library is undertaking the leadership role by creating the application framework, setting project standards and guidelines, and facilitating collaborative efforts for content building. Also discussed are expanded services for targeted audiences, project approaches to preservation challenges, collaboration benefits, and other issues that emerged in the process of building a platform for the portal system. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29309/
- The Cybercemetery: Prolonging Usable Afterlife
- Abstract: This paper discusses issues related to digital resources management when capturing and preserving Web-based, heterogeneous digital materials produced by a variety of software in various versions. Despite the current inadequate digital preservation solutions, the writers explore various methods and tools that facilitate the efficient management of vast quantities of dynamic and heterogeneous digital information resources. The CyberCemetery project at the University of North Texas (UNT) is used as an example of this type of endeavor. It specifically demonstrates the efforts being made by UNT to implement digital preservation strategies for prolonging the usable life of such heterogeneous digital resources. This paper also highlights the potential role of metadata at all levels in the life cycle of a digital resource (creation, management, use, and preservation). digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29310/
- The University of North Texas Libraries' Portal to Texas History: Archival Challenges and Solutions
- This paper discusses the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries' Portal to Texas History's archival challenges and solutions. The UNT Texas History Portal Project strives to balance the goals of accessibility of information and long-term preservation of digital objects. This poster details the system that automates the collection of metadata records to coordinate access to web-viewable files and preservation of archived master files. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29812/
- Meeting the Demands of Digital Scholarship: Challenges and Opportunities
- This paper discusses meeting the demands of digital scholarship. The synergies of numerous emerging trends such as the development of open standards and open source software, geometric growth of blogs and podcasts, peer-to-peer networking, cross discipline collaborations, etc. provide new directions for scholarship. Likewise, digital libraries and supporting technologies have now matured to the point where their contents are incorporating complex and dynamic resources and services. Powered by network capability and fueled by digital developments, research is becoming more data intensive in almost every discipline. The rapid pace of development poses new threats and problems. Many of these innovations, for example, may have come at the expense of simplicity, sustainability, and other commonly understood applications in the life cycle management of digital resources. Based on the University of North Texas Libraries' "Portal to Texas History" implementation experiences, this paper provides a general overview on the emerging trends and innovative usage of digital library technologies. This paper provides an overall scenario in the areas of aggregating a variety of digital formats; deploying, maintaining, and archiving digital contents; and other innovative uses of digital library technologies. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29312/
- Presidential End of Term Web Harvest Lessons Learned
- This paper discusses web harvesting and the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries' Presidential End of Term Web Harvest Project in which they captured government websites for archiving. In this paper, the author describes what web harvesting is, gives information on the project, and links and tools. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29814/
- The UNTL Metadata Guidelines: [Version-2, 2006]
- This paper discusses the The University of North Texas Libraries' (UNTL) metadata guidelines. The UNTL Metadata Initiative progressed on many fronts in 2005 and 2006, including testing and implementation of the UNTL metadata system, on which The Portal to Texas History system is based. As the metadata work group gains practical experience in describing objects with the recommended elements, the UNTL metadata system continues to evolve. This (verson-2) guideline is a product of a series of revision activities. It should be noted that in order to comply with changing internal and external standards and needs, the UNTL metadata creation guideline will remain under continuous review. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29314/
- Review of the Tools and Software to Support Interoperability
- This document provides an overview of tools and software to improve interoperability between digital repositories and the Library of Texas federated search. This review will be used for providing recommendations for best practices and workflows for installing software and tools onto Digital Asset Management Systems (DAMS) and selected databases that support search interoperability. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29816/
- Parsing Records from TSLAC ARIS Database into XML: Notes (Work Area B.2 - B.4)
- This document discusses the process of converting data from Texas State Library and Archives Commission (TSLAC) Archives and Information Services (ARIS) database into XML files, creating XML schemas, and mapping elements to simple Dublin core schema. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29815/
- Collaborations, Best Practices, and Collection Development for Born-Digital and Digitized Materials
- This paper discusses collaborations, best practices, and collection development for born-digital and digitized materials. Abstract: The University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries is a collaborative partner in the Web-at-Risk project, one of eight preservation projects funded by the Library of Congress under the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). Early in the project, UNT conducted a needs assessment to identify web archiving issues facing curators and librarians. Key findings in three areas are reported: current challenges, organizational issues, and collection development concerns. These findings informed the development of guidelines and a template for the project's curators to create web collection plans. In addition to the Web-at-Risk project, the Digital Projects Unit at the UNT Libraries has several digital library initiatives with government agencies at the Federal and State levels to preserve and provide access to important collections of born-digital and digitized materials. The library also houses The Portal to Texas History, a digital gateway to the rich collections held in Texas libraries, museums, archives, historical societies, and private collections. Collaborations, best practices, collection development, and key lessons learned from these initiatives are identified. The DPU is also involved in trialing emerging tools and solutions for the libraries' storage architecture and information services. Building on research findings and experience gained in collaborations and projects, future plans for infrastructure and services are discussed. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc33120/
- Integrating Controlled Vocabularies into Cultural Heritage Digital Collections: The Portal to Texas History Experience
- This presentation paper is based on the University of North Texas Libraries' digital libraries' implementations experience. It discusses various scenarios and strategies for integrating controlled vocabularies in the uncontrolled digital library world. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29315/
- XML to Lucene to SRW
- The data workflow that has been chosen for implementation can be described as Digital Asset Management System (DAMS) to XML to Lucene to SRU/SRW to Texas Heritage Online. The document "Parsing Records from TSLAC ARIS Databases into XML Notes" describes the process and includes code for exporting data from MySQL database into XML records in native and simple Dublin Core schemas. This document describes the procedures of parsing XML records into Lucene index and making those records available via SRW. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29822/
- Comparison of Digital Asset Management Systems (work area E)
- This paper includes examinations of various digital asset management systems' (DAMS) capabilities and functions. Evaluation is based on the documentation relating to each package. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29818/
- Installation and Testing of Selected Digital Asset Management Systems (work area E)
- This document contains installation procedures for the Digital Asset Management Systems (DAMS) identified as the most suitable candidates for the deployment by the Texas Heritage Digitization Initiative (THDI) partners. Procedures include prerequisites, installation steps, problems and solutions. Also this document contains final recommendations about implementation of the Digital Asset Management System (DAMS). digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29819/
- Metadata: Batch Editing of MARC Records (work area D)
- This document describes workflows developed for the conversion of two sets of metadata records and serves the following objectives: research different avenues for the batch import and export of MARC records from popular integrated library systems, identify tools/software which aids in batch editing of MARC records, and document workflow for batch editing MARC records. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29820/
- OAI Static Repositories
- This document gives an overview of the Open Archive Initiative (OAI) static repositories' and their restrictions and conformation rules. It also discusses intermediation with a Static Repository Gateway, workflows and best practices, and interfaces for the creation of metadata for OAI static repositories digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29821/
- Maintaining Quality Metadata: Toward Effective Digital Resource Lifecycle Management
- This paper discusses maintaining quality metadata. Quality is a multidimensional concept. Abstract: Quality is a multidimensional concept. The two aspects of digital library data quality are the quality of the data in the objects themselves, and the quality of the metadata associated with the objects. Because poor metadata quality can result in ambiguity, poor recall and inconsistent search results, the existence of robust quality assurance mechanisms is a necessary feature of a well-functioning digital library. Recognizing the strategic benefit of quality metadata as a means of ensuring long term access to its digital resources, the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries employ a number of metadata quality assurance procedures, tools, and associated quality assurance mechanisms. This paper discusses issues related to digital resources management and describes how UNT approaches metadata quality issues at various levels of the digital resources life cycle. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29317/
- Expanding the Search for Digital Preservation Solutions
- This paper discusses expanding the search for digital preservation solutions. Abstract: This paper will present some preliminary results on factors that affect the adoption of PREMIS in cultural heritage institutions. The study employed a web-based survey to collect data from 123 participants in 20 countries as well as a semi-structured, follow-up telephone interview with a smaller sample of the survey respondents. Roger's diffusion of innovation theory was used as a theoretical framework. The main constructs considered for the study were relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, observability, and institutional readiness. The study yielded both qualitative and quantitative data, and preliminary analysis showed that all six factors influence the adoption of PREMIS in varying degrees. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29319/
- Metadata Quality: A Phased Approach to Ensuring Long-Term Access to Digital Resources
- This paper discusses metadata quality. Maintaining usable digital collections necessitates maintaining high quality metadata about those digital objects. An effective metadata management approach can help institutions improve consistency, clarity of data lineage and relationships so that institutions can better use, reuse, and integrate resources. The metadata quality characteristics depend on various factors, including: type of resources, user perspectives, needs and priorities, which vary across groups of users. The metadata quality issue is particularly acute if there are multiple institutions participating in collaborative digital projects, where a high level of interoperability is an important element. This paper demonstrates metadata quality assurance mechanisms by examining different quality assessment criteria, including metadata record completeness, consistency, accuracy, provenance, conformance to expectations, and other known substantive factors. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29318/
- Better Guidelines, Better Functionality: How Metadata Supports the Cycle of System Improvement at the University of North Texas
- This paper discusses how metadata supports the cycle of system improvements at the University of North Texas (UNT). The UNT Libraries recently revised their Metadata Input Guidelines in order to improve usability and accessibility for metadata writers, and to enhance the quality of metadata that drives new features in their digital systems. This paper describes important considerations in the revision process and also demonstrates the relationship between quality metadata and system functionality that ultimately benefits both metadata creators and system end-users. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29323/
- Exploration of Adoption of Preservation Metadata in Cultural Heritage Institutions
- This paper discusses preservation metadata. Abstract: The challenges of long-term access are multifaceted, often requiring a mixture of approaches. Considering the critical role of metadata in any successful digital preservation strategy, the Preservation Metadata Implementation Strategies (PREMIS) has been extremely influential on providing a "core" set of metadata elements that support the digital preservation process. However, there is no evidence, in the form of previous research, as to what factors explain and predict the level of adoption of PREMIS. This paper attempts to identify factors that affect the adoption of PREMIS in cultural heritage institutions. The study employed a web-based survey to collect data from 123 participants in 20 countries as well as a semi-structured, follow-up telephone interview with a smaller sample of the survey respondents. Roger's diffusion of innovation theory was used as a theoretical framework. The main constructs considered for the study were relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, observability, and institution readiness. The analysis showed that all six factors influence the adoption of PREMIS in varying degrees. Results of a regression analysis also showed a statistically significant relationship. The R square value for the model was .528, which means that 52.8% of the variance in PREMIS adoption was explained by a combination of the six factors. This research just barely begins to show the many layers of the complex problem of digital preservation. This study has important implications for future research on preservation metadata and provides recommendations for researchers and stakeholders engaged in digital preservation and metadata standards development efforts. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29321/
- Open Source Components, Standards Conformance, and UCD: Building Blocks for Successfully Managing and Enhancing an Established Digital Archive
- This paper discusses open source components, standard conformance, and UCD. The Portal to Texas History is a gateway to cultural heritage collections from Texas libraries, museums, archives, historical societies, and private collections. From its initial release in 2004, the Portal's unique visitors had grown from 1,000 per month to over 20,000 per month. The user interface had become dated and the underlying digital asset management system (DAMS) did not readily support implementation of new functionality. The IOGENE project at the University of North Texas Libraries involved family history researchers, a major user group of archives, in a user-centered application development project to redesign the Portal's interface. At the outset of the project, an application development model was created to guide three teams: system development, interface design, and user studies. The legacy DAMS was replaced with an infrastructure and framework of open source components. Specifications and standard practices in critical areas were established. The Portal's newly minted interface and infrastructure debuted in two public releases in 2009. Subsequent to each release, usability tests were conducted and at the conclusion of the project, experiences and accomplishments were reviewed by the project teams. This review informed a revised application development model that may be of value and interest to both the user support staffs and technical organizations at other archives. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc28325/
- Chronopolis and MetaArchive: Preservation Cooperation
- Abstract: This paper will examine ongoing work between two major preservation systems, the Chronopolis Digital Preservation Program, and the MetaArchive Cooperative. In the past year, these two systems have begun work on bridging their technical underpinnings to create a more robust, reliable, long-lived preservation community for their users. The main emphasis of this work is moving data between a LOCKSS-based system (MetaArchive) and an iRODS-based one (Chronopolis). This work also involves several other emerging preservation micro-service tools and practices, and the expertise of the University of North Texas (UNT) Digital Library in deploying them. The final result of this work is intended to be of three-fold benefit: 1) directly improving the services offered by Chronopolis and MetaArchive to their constituents; 2) offering specific technical findings which will be of benefit to other systems using LOCKSS and iRODS; and 3) contributing to the larger preservation community through the examination of organizational best practices for preservation system interactions. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc29823/
- Curation of the End-of-Term Web Archive
- This paper discusses an end-of-term archive research project. The Classification of the End-of-Term Archive research project at the University of North Texas Libraries is investigating the feasibility of machine-generated classification of websites in the 16-terabyte End-of-Term (EOT) Web Archive. The research is being conducted concurrently in two areas: Archive Classification and Web Archive Metrics. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc36301/
- Transport Neutral Digital Object Replication
- This paper discusses digital object replication. The University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries has implemented a simple transport neutral digital object replication strategy in its production digital repository infrastructure. This strategy is built with the same ideals as other Curation Micro-Services, in respect to lightweight, software independent specifications coupled to provide a set of services for digital repositories, this approach to replication has allowed the UNT Libraries the flexibility of multiple storage infrastructures and the reassurance that objects are being fully validated as they are replicated throughout the repository. Building on standard Web technologies and methodologies like the Atom Publishing Protocol and REST, coupled with digital library technologies such as Checkm and BagIt, a transport neutral replication strategy allows institutions to meet the increasing demands on their services while keeping the overall costs low by allowing the use of a variety of storage platforms. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc36293/
- Analyzing the Persistence of Referenced Web Resources with Memento
- This paper analyzes the persistence of referenced web resources with memento. Abstract: In this paper we present the results of a study into the persistence and availability of web resources referenced from papers in scholarly repositories. Two repositories with different characteristics, arXiv and the UNT digital library, are studied to determine if the nature of the repository, or of its content. Memento makes it possible to automate discovery of archived resources and to consider the time between the publication of the research and the archiving of the reference URLs. This automation allows us to process more than 160000 URLs, the largest known such study, and the repository metadata allows consideration of the results by discipline. The results are startling: 45% (66096) of the URLs referenced from arXiv still exist, but are not preserved for future generations, and 28% of resources referenced by UNT papers have been lost. Moving forwards, we provide some initial recommendations, including that repositories should publish URL lists extracted from papers that could be used as seeds for web archiving systems. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc39318/
- PREMIS Event Service
- This paper discusses the PREMIS Event Service. The University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries have created a digital library infrastructure that is designed using the Curation Micro Services methodology for building repositories. Based on modular components designed for reuse and re-configuration the authors propose a general-purpose preservation event logging system using the PREMIS Event and Agent data model. An example implementation developed with the Django Web framework and employing RESTful design patterns with the Atom Publishing Protocol is described. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc40413/
- Data Desiccation: Facilitating Long-Term Access, Use, and Reuse of ETDs
- This paper discusses data desiccation and facilitating the long-term access, use, and reuse of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). Abstract: The successful management of electronic theses and dissertations requires effort across the entire life-cycle to ensure that ETDs are managed, preserved, and made accessible in a manner that today's users expect. Given the pressure of reading more in less time, today's users demand access to various formats regardless of temporal and spatial restrictions and the types of devices used. Digital curation is the active management of any type of digital resource through its entire life-cycle, from creation and active use, to preservation and re-use. ETDs are a highly specialized collection that demands a more specialized treatment and characterization to better capture the semantic relations of the underlying concepts. Over the past year, the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries have put forth great effort in making digital collections more accessible and useful in research processes. This paper discusses UNT's ETDs curatorial activities including how ETDs users can benefit from desiccated versions, traditionally discussed only in a digital preservation context. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67625/
- Open Access and Scholarly Communication: The Current Landscape, Future Direction, and the Influence on Global Scholarship
- This paper discusses open access and scholarly communication. The synergies of numerous emerging trends such as the development of open source software, global and explosive growth of social networking, interinstitutional data sharing, cross discipline collaborations, etc. provide new directions for scholarship. The rapid pace of development poses new threats and challenges to scholarly communication as well. Open access is increasingly viewed as a popular alternative to traditional distribution methods. Despite the overwhelming agreement regarding the concept of open access, there are however, significant differences and debate about a number of issues. This panel brings together diverse stakeholders, explores the current landscape and future direction of scholarly communication, and reflects on the overall implications on global scholarship. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc67619/
- Lessons Learned: Digitization of Cooke County Ledgers
- This paper describes a grant project to digitize Cooke County, Texas ledgers. The project was funded in part by the National Historic Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) and involves digitizing and hosting several rare and unique collections representative of the Civil War. The UNT Archives partnered with the UNT Libraries Digital Projects Unit (DPU), which managed all stages of the digitization. This paper describes and examines the process the DPU implemented to digitize the Cooke County ledger collection; in doing so, it provides insight into the problems one might encounter, as well as recommendations for institutions that may be considering similar digital projects. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc83298/
- Content Divide: Africa and the Global Knowledge Footprint Sponsored by: SIG/III
- This paper discusses Africa and the global knowledge footprint. Abstract: The purpose of this panel is to discuss the global knowledge output at a macro level with a view to understand key inputs that foster scientific and research performance. Here, knowledge production is limited to scientific and technical journals and patent registrations to gauge the performance of each region and continent the world over. Greater emphasis will be placed to highlight important indicators from the input side that help spur national research and innovation systems in Africa. Defined here as "content divide," panel members focus on key variables that help build scientific and research capabilities of Africa. Closely interrelated variables that will be discussed include (1) access to the global knowledge base, (2) the role of higher education systems (3) national, regional, and global research and education networks (RENs); and (4) gross expenditure on R&D (GERD). digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc130186/
- Digital Preservation of Newspapers: Findings of the Chronicles in Preservation Project
- In this paper, the authors describe research led by Educopia Institute regarding the preservation needs for digitized and born-digital newspapers. The 'Chronicles in Preservation' project, builds upon previous efforts (e.g. the U.S. National Digital Newspaper Program) to look more broadly at the needs of digital newspapers in all of their diverse and challenging forms. This paper conveys the findings of the first research phase, including substantive survey results regarding digital newspaper curation practices. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc109727/
- Empowering Digital Libraries Users through Combining Taxonomies with Folksonomies
- This paper accompanies a poster presentation discussing empowering digital libraries users through combining taxonomies and folksonomies. Abstract: The increase in the number and heterogeneity of digital resources has led cultural heritage institutions to develop tools, workflows, and quality assurance mechanisms that allow effective digital resource management. The poster that this paper describes assesses the current landscape in digital libraries as well as best practices and identifies emerging trends in information indexing. It also explores the potentials of and controversies surrounding user supplied tags or keywords in terms of complementing established controlled vocabularies in a diverse and collaborative environment. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc122173/
- The Origins of SIG-III and Its 30 Years' Journey: Visions and Reflections
- This paper discusses a panel on the origins of the Special Interest Group for International Information Issues (SIG-III) of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) and its early years. In addition to the reflections of the last 30 years, Toni Carbo (one of the co-founders of SIG-III), Nadia Caidi (SIG-III Advisory board member), Anatoliy Gruzd (Social Media Administrator), Daniel Alemneh (SIG-III Chair), and Abebe Rorissa (SIG-III Chair-elect) look forward and discuss the future of the SIG-III including strategies to facilitate collaborations and information exchanges globally. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc122172/
- Repurposing Existing Digital Resources and Smoothing Interdisciplinary Communication: Environmental Policy Collection Development
- This paper accompanies a poster presentation discussing repurposing existing digital resources and smoothing interdisciplinary communication. Given the proliferation of scholarly digital contents, it has become increasingly difficult for researchers to find relevant contents on their own, not to mention related, disciplines. The situation is even worse in interdisciplinary fields such as environmental sciences. Many academic libraries provide services to support the creation, organization, management, use, and reuse of digital contents. This poster describes the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries' initiative to provide digital infrastructure and stewardship in order to ensure long-term access to the resources collected. The preliminary results from usage and related statistics analysis suggest significant research and educational impact of the Environmental Policy Collection. Based on the UNT Libraries' experience in integrating heterogeneous digital resources from diverse sources and providing seamless access, this paper describes guidelines for future digital collection development, and make recommendations for further study of collection development strategies. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc122174/
- Improving Access to Web Archives through Innovative Analysis of PDF Content
- This paper discusses improving access to web archives through innovative analysis of PDF content. Abstract: In 2008 five United States institutions collaborated to archive the U.S. federal government Web presence: the Library of Congress, the Internet Archive, the California Digital Library, the Government Printing Office, and the University of North Texas (UNT). Their objective was to document the changes coincident with the shift in leadership of the U.S. executive branch. The five partners identified key resources from the U.S. .gov Top Level Domain and completed crawls from September 2008 until March 2009. The resulting End of Term (EOT) 2008 Web Archive, a 16 TB dataset, was distributed to partners interested in providing local services and access to the archive. The UNT Libraries investigated Portable Document Format (PDF) files, a class of content many information professionals associate with the traditional notion of “discrete documents”. Over four million unique PDF documents were extracted from the Archive and a series of metadata and information extraction processes were conducted for each document. Additionally, derivative raster images of the first page of each document were created. These metrics were ingested into a database for further analysis, which brought to light previously hidden characteristics of the federal government’s Web-published content. The paper discusses the overall workflow and describes the tools used to extract document features. Findings suggest opportunities for the development of retrieval tools that will provide new ways of selecting content and building collections from large Web archives. digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc155622/