Common Solutions Group, January, 2003 The Campus Digital Landscape Through the Digital Lifecycle Comments from Yale University The Digital Landscape is Critical to the Institution Philip Long, CIO The Digital Lifecycle and Faculty Perspectives Ann Green, Director, Social Science Research Services Library support of Using Digital Images for Teaching Danuta Nitecki, Associate University Librarian Common Solutions Group, January, 2003

The Digital Landscape is Emerging Our campuses are home to a large and growing number of digital landscape activities For example, at Yale: A majority of courses have Web based materials Dozens of substantial digital teaching and research projects are underway A half dozen internally and externally funded digital archiving investigations are underway New activities are initiated continuously, independently as well as in conjunction with the Library and IT units

The Digital Landscape Requires a Campus Infrastructure Core teaching and research information is captured, analyzed, presented, published and archived in digital forms Such activities are expensive Down-stream results depend upon upstream decisions as interoperability depends on standards, interfaces and conversions The digital landscape is still being invented nationwide This is a key priority for ITS and the Library at Yale

How should a Campus manage its Institutional Digital Landscape? How can we balance faculty-driven projects with institutional projects? To meet immediate needs, faculty-driven projects are typically light weight and fast moving But can easily duplicate or dissipate investment To meet lasting needs, collection-driven projects typically require up front investment and ongoing curatorial care Thus costing more but potentially providing lasting value What standards and practices should we adopt in the face of continuing technical change to: Capture audio, image and video formats and more Manipulate, analyze, publish Discover and search Archive

We Start by Examining the Life Cycle of Digital Materials Full life cycle view encompasses all phases of digital materials from “cradle to archive.” Some materials will span the full life cycle, others will be short lived. Life spans: One-offs: create, use, discard, e.g., instructional Shared use: create, publish, archive for a time, discard, e.g., grant sponsored data Supported Collection: create, publish, archive, preserve indefinitely at some ongoing cost Different types of digital projects have different life spans, Ann will talk more about this

The Design of the Digital Landscape is Informed by a Digital Life Cycle view The Digital Landscape is made up of a continuum of support across projects and throughout the life cycle of digital resources. Common infrastructure and best practices can and should support the entire lifecycle of the range of projects: from one-off as well as collections oriented projects.

What Digital Landscape Infrastructure will Best Advance Institutional Goals? Today’s discussion: The Digital Life-cycle from the perspective of faculty projects Views from both the Yale ITS/AM&T and Library perspectives Including profiles of several campus projects

What is covered by the life cycle view? Life span of projects in the digital landscape (e.g. research projects, instructional initiatives) Life cycle of digital objects, the output of projects (e.g. images, databases, maps) Life cycle of digital resources such as presentations of the digital objects (e.g. custom web sites, classroom applications, media productions)

What are the phases of the digital life cycle? Produce: digitize images, collect surveys, compile databases, produce videos, etc. Publish: web publishing, (e)-journal article, classroom presentations, multi-media production, etc. Repurpose: secondary analysis, replicate, harvest, republish, reproduce Preserve: migrate, emulate, archive

Principles of life cycle management: managing resources at each stage of the life cycle Cradle to archive view of management Digital assets require specific and varying applications, support, architecture, and resources at various phases in their life cycle. Understanding complexities of the life cycle and costs associated with each phase will inform the digital landscape design. Develop a continuum of support throughout the life cycle to increase participation, leverage investments, and lower costs.

Why the faculty perspective? Faculty-driven digital initiatives are made up of a wide variety of resources and support requirements. Faculty-driven projects provide an informative needs-based environment for developing new approaches to the digital landscape.

Digital resources from faculty-driven projects Long life span (Collection): Statistical datasets generated from a long term survey of social attitudes and behavior Large collection of images relating to the history of women in Ancient Rome Medium term life span: Collection of images of US cities for a portfolio on urban sociology used in classroom teaching Very large datasets for neuroimaging analysis course Single use: Classroom lecture Interim research application

Not all digital resources are bound for the preservation phase Digital resources will differ in the appropriate length of their life cycle; support for all stages may not be needed Some resources that have long term value yet become ‘digital orphans.’ Look to develop appropriate solutions to: leverage utility of digital assets access/reuse assets & productions over time

Example of long term collection requirements: Yale G-Econ Project Produce: Statistical database of global GDP with extensive metadata Geographic coding and geo-referencing Ability for research team to entering data and metadata remotely Publish and repurpose: Large scale centralized, web accessible data storage Sophisticated Web site w/ statistical and GIS applications Scholarly publications Archive: Manage and provide access over long term Required by NSF

Support from Social Science Research Services to G-Econ project Production phase: Custom data entry front end for distributed staff: enter data values, formulas, and descriptive metadata Database design for backend master database for Web distribution and analysis Web interface design and implementation Publication and repurposing phases: GIS web service for interactive GIS visualization Publication and presentation output (high quality graphics) Archival concerns: Ongoing maintenance and development Archival responsibility for the data AND the interface functionality

Life cycle phase Support requirements Life span PRODUCTION Production tools Standards: format and metadata Training Development space, storage Short, mid, and long term lifespan PUBLICATION   Standards Web support Interoperability Harvesting/searching tools e-publishing solutions Repositories, Storage REPURPOSING Standards Web support Interoperability, discovery Harvesting/searching tools Integration tools storage Persistence (naming standards) Access controls   mid and long term lifespan PRESERVATION Digital archive system w/ standards, storage; discovery, migration and preservation processes; persistent identification; rights management and security Long term lifespan

Common requirements throughout the life cycle phases Standards (format, metadata, and administrative) Storage Web support Interoperability Persistence

Digital projects benefit from early partnerships Efforts in the production stages will reap long term benefits in the publishing, reuse, and archiving stages Infuse best practices into faculty projects: the choices of format and metadata standards at the creation of digital resources can significantly increase both short- and long-term benefits Provide tools and processes that make best practices attractive and cost effective at the design and production phases of the life cycle.

Challenges of the life cycle view What is the cost of each life-cycle stage, both initial and ongoing? What digital assets should we collect and what are created for a limited time or purpose? Who decides what to preserve? Where do we most effectively provide support and partnerships? Which digital assets should be institutionally managed? Principles might include reuse beyond the author, e.g., not single use instruction

American Digital Imaging Project A Library’s view of faculty-driven digital projects in teaching with images: ELI Yale University Library’s Electronic Library Initiatives [ELI]: A focused effort to facilitate and study the use of digital images and other materials in teaching, learning, and scholarship. http://www.library.yale.edu/eli/ American Digital Imaging Project

A Library’s Evolved Focus Building collections to simplifying access Partnering with libraries and museum collectors to technologists and vendors Organizing & preserving information to teaching & learning knowledge Librarians as resource specialists to client-based knowledge managers Counting collection size to assessing impact of resources as gauge of quality service

ELI Infrastructure Steering Committee & 6 Working Groups: Product Design Expand Digital Collections Software Integration Copyright & Intellectual Rights Guidance Instruction Services Assessment

Evolved sense of digital image “life-cycle” Faculty conceive digital assets Library/ITS deliver birth or serve as midwives Library give foster care or adopt when asset outgrows faculty home Library disciplines asset with standard education and offers parenting training With educators study life’s impact Haven’t successfully designed estate planning

Library & ITS Commonalities Clients Concerns Infrastructure Life-cycle concept of digital assets & their availability Faculty, students & researchers--discipline based Meeting expectations within resource limits Standards, systems, technical specialists “Cradle to archive”

Can we improve the quality of digital life? With collaborative services & procedures: to guide faculty to expert assistance to foster cross-campus team service support to identify and adapt standards to facilitate migration to shared collections to promote respect of intellectual property rights to implement effective “best practices”

Life-cycle concept applied to ELI faculty-driven projects ITS-AMT Identification Production Publication Repurposing Preservation Retrieval/identify Library ELI service cycle Identification: images to meet pedagogical objectives Production: digital images & metadata Publication: course material Assess Learning Impact

Service Support Toolkits Instruction Copyright/Intellectual Rights Guidance Integration applications Assessment Techniques

Current observations about goals for supporting faculty-driven projects in the digital landscape: ITS-AM&T Provide spheres of support and common tools throughout the flow of digital collection, production, access, and preservation processes Build a consistent and efficient infrastructure for digital assets Leverage innovation; integrate innovation into production and infrastructure Promote an architecture that supports collaboration, partnerships and effective long term management Mine and preserve Yale resources

Additional observations about goals for supporting faculty-driven projects in the digital landscape: Library Balance client desires for immediate use of digital assets & products with institutional desire for long term availability Don’t loose perspective of impact of project Facilitate knowledge management partnerships to assess teaching, infrastructure support, and behavior Foster respect of intellectual property rights

Discussion: Challenges in the digital landscape What kind of support and infrastructure are necessary at the various phases of the life cycle? How much can be centralized, how much is discipline specific, how much can be ubiquitous? How do faculty navigate among support units as they move through the phases, e.g., from production to publishing to archiving? What are the entry costs for each collection level? How do we develop and promote common standards, best practices, tools, architecture, and staff expertise across domains? Can collections from disparate domains be managed w/in common digital repositories?