Variations Open Source Webinar Digital Library Program Indiana University March 4, 2009

Agenda What is the Variations system? – overview & demo How is it used currently, at IU and other institutions? What is the open source release and how can it be deployed?  technical and library staffing  hardware requirements  what's included in the release Where is Variations headed? What support is available for the open source release, both now and in the future? How can I try out Variations? Q & A

Today’s Voices Mark Notess, Variations Development Manager at IU Phil Ponella, Head, Cook Music Library, IU David Cartledge, Assistant Professor of Music (Piano), IU Sean Ferguson, Assistant Librarian, Metadata/Technical Services, Music and Dance Library, Ohio State John Anderies, Coordinator for Collections & Head, Special Collections, Haverford College And at the Q&A keyboard: Jon Dunn, Variations3 Project Director and Associate Director for Technology, Digital Library Program, IU Jenn Riley, Metadata Librarian and Variations/FRBR Principal Investigator, Digital Library Program, IU

Variations Overview Collection Metadata Access Control, Bookmarks content user interface users digitized audio scanned scores faculty students librarians

What is the Variations System? Online access to streaming audio and scanned score images Analysis and annotation tools useful in music teaching, learning, and research Flexible access control framework respects intellectual property rights Content comes from your own collections—Variations provides ingest tools and access management

What is the Variations System? Album-based, not track based: users see tracks in their album context Does not use Digital Rights Management (DRM) Access limited to authenticated login based on IP address and/or authorized group membership, such as a class roster Search function requires additional manual cataloging and so it is not being used apart from metadata research projects

Demonstration of Variations

Variations at Indiana Digital library of sound recordings and scores in IU Cook Music Library and born-digital IU performances Online since April 1996 Current technology online since ,000+ complete recordings; 300+ scores Access to course reserves, general collection, and special collections Full collection available at music library computers Outside music library, users must be enrolled in a class requiring Variations use and have installed Variations client

Variations at Indiana: Classroom Instructor View Not just a homework tool: provides improved access in classroom to listening assignments Playback tools and environment superior to embedded commercial players Provide timelines for all pieces in a course Students do listening study with the timeliner I can use the timeliner during class sessions Students come to class better prepared  The timeliner encourages active listening—even more than the score During class, coherent random access to course content  If I jump to a different part of the piece, it’s easy for students to see what’s going on

Instruction Benefits Students are… More easily able to sense musical form during listening Forced to develop aural analytical skills—crucial to good performance

Variations3 Funded by Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grant October September 2008 (extended through summer 2009) Extends Variations beyond IU & explores sustainability models Test sites have each deployed full Variations system:  New England Conservatory  The Ohio State University  Tri-College Consortium: Haverford, Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr  University of Maryland Also exploring application- (not content-) hosting with University of Miami and others.

Variations at Ohio State Variations is the primary source for required listening in multiple sections/offerings of five courses: Rock 'n' Roll History, Jazz History, The World of Classical Music, Music's Meanings, and Music on the Move in a Globalized World. Several sections have been taught entirely online. In total, over 1,000 students have used Variations during the past year (in use January 2008). Approximately 2,000 complete CDs from collection have been digitized in Variations. Recently began scanning scores for use in Variations later this spring. Access limited to students currently enrolled in a course using Variations; student access restricted to recordings used for their own class (no other Variations content). Students can access Variations on PCs in the Music/Dance Library or they can download the software and access the system on a personal PC or Mac, on or off campus. At OSU, Variations has been a very effective solution for access-controlled streaming audio. Following the initial technical startup and period of familiarization for IT and library staff, the system has run smoothly and required minimal maintenance.

Variations at Tri-College Library Consortium Since January 2008, Variations used in several courses at Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges, including Introductory Piano, Jazz and the Politics of Culture, Principles of Tonal Harmony II, Chopin, and Chorus. Legacy RealServer still used for other audio in other courses. Digitized ~250 complete CD titles from the collections of Haverford and Swarthmore (Bryn Mawr has no music library or audio collection), including the complete Great Pianists of the 20th Century series. In the Tri-Co, complete access to all content granted to all students, faculty and staff with network IDs. Access limited to IP ranges within the Tri-Co. Variations installed on PCs in the Haverford Music Library, PCs and Macs in the Swarthmore Performing Arts Library, and on PCs in the Bryn Mawr Main Library. Access model predicated on our similar model for the sharing of digital images. Access and discovery through links or playlists in Blackboard and by 856 links in Tripod, the Tri-College online library catalog. For the Tri-Co, Variations is a very effective solution for access-controlled streaming audio. Following the initial technical startup and period of familiarization for IT and library staff, the system has run smoothly and required minimal maintenance.

Variations Elsewhere University of Maryland – using Variations to provide access to the International Piano Archives at Maryland (IPAM); using new browser audio player instead of Java client application New England Conservatory – using for course reserves Hosted pilots – a different model aimed at faster deployment time and use of new browser-based audio player; Spring 2009 pilot use

What is the Open Source Release? Variations system release includes  Server software  Client software  Source code  Sample content for testing— two recordings and two scores Documentation available on the web Everything you need to set up and operate your own Variations system! Except…. Free Puppy!

What’s not free? Server hardware Necessary IT expertise to install, configure, and support Variations server software and streaming server Digitizing/scanning hardware/software Digitizing/scanning staffing & expertise Computer workstations in library and/or client software distribution mechanism Staffing & expertise for user support Intellectual property / copyright policy

Server Hardware Linux operating system  Tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux 4 and 5 RAM and disk space dependent on load and amount of audio and score content Third-party software  Java Runtime Environment  Apache HTTP Server  Apple Darwin Streaming Server  Perl  MySQL Cost: $0-25,000, depending on IT resources and ambitions (amount of content, user load)

IT Expertise Critical success factor! Initial server config, installation, software config, network troubleshooting, etc., is demanding Requires good partnership between library and IT Initial configuration is only a day or so of work, but that day can easily take weeks of communication between different parties, with extra time for troubleshooting

IT Staff Requirements Linux system administrator Database administrator Windows/Mac desktop support  Library desktops  Student computing lab desktops  Faculty desktops  Faculty/student home use Student information system staff  If basing access on course enrollment Network engineering staff  Troubleshooting firewall/bandwidth issues

IT Staff Requirements Decisions that affect IT time requirement  Have to tie system in with an authentication system  Access control policy—IP-based is easy; enrollment-based is more work to construct roster-based groups  Backup and Archiving policy keeping backups of compressed files makes recovery faster but increases storage requirements Keeping archival uncompressed files (wav, tiff) helps with future migration but increases storage requirements and adds a step (possibly automated) to the ingest process Ongoing support  Diagnosing and fixing (or reporting) problems  Updating to new versions  Restarting server software One reason implementation needs to start early!

Variations Architecture Variations cataloging server Variations production server MySQL production database MySQL cataloging database Apache HTTP Server Darwin Streaming Server Variations Java client (Mac or Windows) Variations score and audio Lease Managers RMI HTTP RTSP/HTTP Single physical server

Variations Digitizer/Cataloging Java client (Windows) Variations Architecture Variations cataloging server Variations production server MySQL production database MySQL cataloging database Apache HTTP Server Darwin Streaming Server Variations score and audio Lease Managers Single physical server

Digitizer Station Recent Windows Vista or XP computer High quality sound card or audio -> USB interface Flatbed scanner Audio capture/editing software  Commercial: Sound Forge, WaveLab  Free: Audacity Nero Digital Encoder software (free)  for encoding.wav files to.mp4 ImageMagick, DjvuLibre (free)  for encoding score.tif files to.djvu

Digitizer Staffing & Expertise Work can be done by student hourly employees Workflow needs to be defined and documented Need basic skill with moving files around Audio skill level depends on whether you are ingesting only CDs or analog media Scanning skill level can be low if workflow well documented Ingesting a CD can take minutes, beginning to end (compression takes the most time)

User Clients Windows  Vista or XP  512MB+ RAM  QuickTime 7.5 or later  Internet Explorer or Firefox browser Mac OS X  10.4 or later  512MB+ RAM  Firefox browser preferred (limitations with Safari) Installer for user client has to be configured and built; if users install client on own computer, installer has to be put somewhere for download

User Support If users can install client, support load will be higher 90% of problems are solved by  (re) install QuickTime  (re) install Variations  Restart computer  “You’re not registered for a class authorized to use Variations. Contact your instructor.” Support load heaviest at beginning of term

Access Policy Options All authenticated users can access all content Users can only access content on reserve for classes in which they are enrolled Users who are enrolled in a class with reserve items can access all library content; “Personal reserves” can only be accessed by class members Others…

Access Policy Determination May require discussions with internal or external attorneys Changes to access policy rules require restarting server software Some policy issues to consider  Who can access library content, from where, when?  Classroom use  Distance education use  Recordings of institutional performances  Instructor’s personal items or compilations  Textbook companion recordings Another reason why implementation planning needs to start early!

Variations Futures Have browser-based web application for player (using at Maryland, Miami, maybe others) – will include this in the open source release before the Fall Have browser-based web application for access management – will add to open source release before next Fall. Currently, access management is command line Working to move more of the end-user tools to the browser (playlists, then scores) Deploying web applications will require additional expertise in Tomcat and Java web application management. Exploring hosted option this Spring – would like to be able to offer as an option Are integrating DRAM (could have by Fall); would like to integrate CML and Naxos, but they won’t be interested until we have a large installed base Browser-based search system w/mostly automated cataloging

Variations Sustainability Ideally, would have an independent organization, “Variations Foundation”, where paid membership would provide influence over future feature development Chicken and egg problem: need to have an adopter community of a certain size before an independent organization makes sense Still exploring possible options and financial models. Test sites are committed to continuing with Variations, as is IU. You can help us here!

Support Options Self-support via open source  IU will continue to update open source distribution  IU will participate actively in the variations-discuss mailing list on SourceForge If enough institutions adopt Variations, 3 rd party support or even hosting options could emerge; chicken & egg problem again We are exploring options for paid support—you can help us figure out that equation!

Trying Out Variations The new browser-based player: ui/Player.do?containerID= Download and try out the Windows or Mac client application with a test database (2 recordings, 2 scores: search on Mahler, Beethoven, or Respighi): ut.html We will resend these URLs when we send out webinar recording announcement

More Information Variations Open Source Site Variations Documentation Site Variations 3 project info: Questions?