Objective 1. Develop an Integrated Framework for CUL's Digital Collections.
Provide an integrated discovery framework for CUL’s digital collections in order to give users at Cornell and around the world a powerful and easy way to search across our collections and to retrieve integrated sets of results. The framework will allow digital collections to be searched collectively while still allowing them to be searched individually in their native interfaces. Reach consensus and operationalize a set of best practices to underpin CUL digital collection building, federated access, and sustainability.
Implementation
- Project initiation:Initiate a project to build a CUL integrated framework for digital collections, using the proposed requirements and system architecture as described in the report “An Integrated Framework for Cornell University Library Digital Collections: High-Level Requirements and Internal Implementation Issues,” for an initial set of CUL collections.
- Project team: Assemble and charge a project team. Have the team further refine the high-level requirements laid out in the report before beginning to build the framework.
- Statistics: Engage IRIS Research and Assessment Services to develop more comprehensive, meaningful, and accessible measures of CUL digital collection usage and user behavior.
- Security and recovery: Develop shared common practices for security and recovery for CUL digital collections and the integrated framework.
- Establish a CUL Digital Collections Program:
- Create and achieve consensus on CUL best practices and organizational structures for creating, sharing, sustaining, and documenting CUL digital collections, as laid out in the report section “Best Practices.”
- Through an examination of case studies, recommend CUL organizational structures that assign clear responsibility, accountability, and long-term support for every CUL digital collection, existing and prospective.
- Reach consensus on a CUL collection development policy to guide what digital collections are built and how they relate to each other, the integrated framework, and national and international digital library initiatives.
- Reduce the number of delivery systems as appropriate; reach a CUL consensus on criteria/guidelines for deciding when to use what platform.
- Evaluate, and realign as needed, funding and resource allocations to CUL digital collection building projects and the integrated framework.
Potential Partners
- Digital Library Federation: Distributed Open Digital Library (DODL) and OAI Best Practices Working Group.
- Other institutions with digital content related to CUL’s digital collection holdings.
- The European Library (TEL) project.
- Others developing search and retrieval via URLs (SRU) and XML gateways.
- CIT.
- Faculty members and others at CU who are developing digital content.
- Luna Insight.
- Endeavor.
- Developers of DLXS.
- IT companies
Measures of Success
- Ease of finding and connecting to CUL digital collections (as measured by user satisfaction, increase in awareness/usage).
- Conformance of CUL digital project teams to agreed-upon CUL best practices.
- Emergence of a CUL digital collections program (as opposed to a variety of projects) with more-organized long-term support for digital collections.
- Increase in number of OAI-harvestable CUL digital collections.
- Increase in interactions with other institutions delivering digital content related to CUL holdings.
- Participation in large-scale initiatives such as DODL as a data provider.
- More efficient and effective use of digital collection delivery platforms at CUL.
- Enhanced level of funding and human resources allocated to CUL digital collections and the integrated framework.