DART Project Work Packages CR4 and CR5 Tom Denison, Nicholas McPhee, Monash University.

2 Outline  DART Package CR5  Action Statement  Issues  Metadata  Our Approach  Current Projects  Social Sciences  Climatology  Crystallography  DART Package CR4  Action Statement  Crystallography Project  Background  Issues  Metadata  Proposed Infrastructure  Current Status  Questions?

3 DART Package CR5 - Action Statement  Make it as easy as possible for researchers to deposit datasets and other digital objects into institutional repositories, and:  Develop workflow steps and a user interface (UI) for software to enable researchers to easily ingest/deposit communication units into repositories, and to receive identifiers  Determine workflows in order to enable researchers to easily ingest/deposit communication units into repositories and receive a persistent identifier  Determine metadata that needs to be captured/machine-generated  Prototype data-entry screens  Implement into ARROW software development environment  Test usability and modify software as required  Move into ARROW production software

4 DART Package CR5 - Issues  Specifically, the CR5 team will explore the following;  Client needs and the development of metadata schemas  Identification of user and rights management  The way in which different metadata schemas and user and rights management can be incorporated successfully into a user interface  The methodology and timing of the package may change, as VTLS have just released a beta version of the interface with improved capabilities, which may necessitate that we look at developing a range of appropriate metadata schemas rather than specifying any software development. The presence of this software also has the benefit of allowing us to spend more time to incorporate the findings of work package CR1. Once we have the data from CR1, we will work to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the aforementioned interface package created by VTLS and propose amendments (if any).

5 DART Package CR5 - Metadata  The metadata will look at four areas;  The provenance and/or context of the resource (including relationships to other resources)  Technical specifications (may vary according to discipline)  The content of the resource  Rights management information

6 Our Approach  CR5 is inextricably linked to work package CR1, which involves investigating issues around personal research data repositories. CR1 comprises the following steps:  Locating willing researchers with personal data repositories, preferably in the areas of the demonstrators (Climate Research, X-ray Crystallography, Humanities/Social Sciences)  Identifying barriers that inhibit the placement of datasets into secure institutional repositories  Developing strategies to overcome these barriers and test these with the researchers  Documenting the findings in a research report  Due to this, we see CR1 as leading into package CR5. Hence, our focus is not on the development of specific interfaces, but rather the metadata schemas that will be incorporated into the software. This approach, we hope, will lead to a more valuable outcome, and will be far more accurate in addressing the needs of clients.

7 Current Projects  Social Sciences  Climatology  Crystallography

8 DART Package CR4 - Action Statement  To develop guidelines for best information management practice for research dataset issues. This will be accomplished by;  Locating research teams with dataset information management issues, preferably in the areas of the demonstrators (Climate Research, X-ray Crystallography, humanities/social sciences)  Embedding information management professionals into these teams  Getting these professionals to identify areas requiring improved information management practices  Developing strategies and guidelines to help to eliminate these barriers  Testing these strategies and guidelines in a range of disciplines  Documenting the findings in a research report

9 Crystallography Project - Background  Background  The Crystallography Department is part of the Bio-Medical Faculty of Monash University, and was established in January Funding was provided by a number of organisations including;  The Ian Potter Foundation  The National Health & Medical Research Council  The Victorian State Government, and  Monash University

10 Crystallography Project - Issues  After investigating and documenting the current procedures of the Crystallography Department, the following issues were realised;  Files stored on a combination of local HDDs and removable HDDs  Images and documents are usually unlabelled  DVD backup system is not deemed to be completely suitable  Difficulties in locating files  No records kept of the location of files  Scanning and analysis phases are manual  Machines are shared between researchers  Lack of metadata  These issues greatly affected the ability of the Department to store, access, and archive information.

11 Crystallography Department - Metadata  After analysing the needs of the Department, a draft metadata schema was developed with the input of the Crystallography researchers. The metadata was developed according to their specifications and has not, at this stage, been broadened to look at metadata standards or the requirements of other users.

12 Crystallography Project - Proposed Infrastructure  The current infrastructure is clearly ineffective and inefficient, which is why DART’s objectives and deliverables will be of great use to the Department.  The objective of our work with the Crystallography Department is to implement an new set of procedures and a new data storage, access, and archiving system. After receiving input from the research team, a PostgreSQL database with a PHP interface will be developed in order to prototype the proposed DART system, and provide an immediate benefit to the Department through the use of a centralised database.

13 Crystallography Project - Proposed Infrastructure Flowchart Laboratory PC Sun Grid Laptops/ Notebooks Client Machines External Client Machines Files Encrypted Linux Partition MIDDLEWAREMIDDLEWARE PostGre DB VPN

14 Crystallography Project - Current Status  The database has been created and development of the PHP interface is proceeding  Needs analyses are being examined and redefined as necessary  CIMA/SRB prototyping may occur later in the year  Why not just install SRB/CIMA now?

15 Questions?