MIDESS Dr Stephen Charles MIDESS Project Manager /Repository Manager, University of Leeds MIDESS Management of Images in a Distributed Environment using Shared Services. (Its not just images) This presentation will be available at the following link

MIDESS Project Looking at the issues involved in using and sharing multimedia material in digital repositories. Area’s of interest. –Interoperability between different repositories –Metadata schemas/metadata for multimedia etc –Integration with Enterprise Architecture –Long term preservation of digital material.

MIDESS Project MIDESS partners are: University of Leeds London School of Economics (LSE) University of Birmingham University College London (no repository installed as part of MIDESS project– examined copyright issues only). However UCL do have a repository (DigiTool).

Digital Repository Software evaluated in depth Dspace (open source) Fedora (open source) Greenstone (open source) Encompass/Curator (commercial) DigiTool (commercial) Symposia (commercial) Detailed evaluation of all products on MIDESS website (Work Package 3)

Key activities for MIDESS (each has a workpackage) User needs analysis Functional and technical evaluation of digital repository software packages Implementation of digital repository. Metadata requirements analysis Digital preservation requirements analysis Enterprise integration Copyright and IPR review Resource discovery and shared services review Metadata Harvesting Evaluation and dissemination

Steamed Server and SAN MIDESS video and sound material will be streamed from a streamed server (Helix) (Example in DigiTool demonstration) There is limited space on the server where the Leeds Repository will be located therefore this server is linked to the Storage Area Network (SAN) within the university

Digital Collections These include: Medical School/Healthcare (Leeds/Birmingham) Department of English Fine Arts Library special collections (Leeds/Birmingham/LSE) Leeds Textile Museum Department of Physics (Bragg) Media Services (Leeds/LSE/Birmingham) School of Music (various compositions) Training/E-learning material/video of lectures etc (Leeds/LSE/Birmingham)

Manuscripts (Leeds, Birmingham) Coins (Leeds, Birmingham) Medical images (Leeds, Birmingham) Media Services Images (Leeds, LSE, Birmingham)

Integration ALPS Leeds is also working with other universities (Leeds Metropolitan and York St John’s) on a project called ALPS to access multimedia material and e-learning material via mobile devices (PDA’s, mobile phones etc). Leeds is piloting storing this material in our repository Shibboleth is to be used to communicate between DigiTool and Blackboard/WebCT for Authentication.

Integration of Digital Library Systems The goal at Leeds is to integrate the following seamlessly: Digital repositories (Scholarly repository, Multimedia repository, e-learning repository) VLE’s (Leeds is currently tendering for a new VLE). Portal System (SunGard Luminus Portal) Library Management System (Innovative) Electronic Journals etc.

Digital Repositories requirements/wish list Digital Preservation support - system addition of technical/preservation metadata and updating of formats. (KRONOS –Library of New Zealand). Flexible metadata standards (not just Dublin Core/qualified Dublin Core). May include: VRA Core/LOM/bespoke metadata schemas etc. Highly customisable systems which can be EASILY tailored (ideally with resorting to Java/complex programming etc).

Digital Repositories requirements/wish list Flexibility in authentication using techniques such as IP address restrictions, LDAP (Windows active directory), Shibboleth, Passwords etc. Ability to handle content packaging standards for e- learning (eg IMS, SCORM etc). Ability to interface with other systems eg: Library Systems, Portals, Virtual Learning Environment’s etc).

Summary Setting up digital repositories requires a lot of work! No such thing (yet) as the ideal Digital Repository software, all have strengths and weaknesses. Important to understand user requirements before you start. Its early days for digital repositories – numerous improvements on the way.

End of Presentation Questions? Dr Stephen Charles MIDESS Project Manager Edward Boyle Library University of Leeds Phone