1. University of Colorado at Boulder
Library-IT Collaboration at Georgetown: Building a New Rich Media Environment
CSG Workshop
University of Colorado at Boulder
Charles F. Leonhardt `

2. Georgetown Libraries Major library for each campus:
Main: Joseph Lauinger Memorial Library
Medical: John Vinton Dahlgren Library
Law: Edward Bennett Williams Library
Specialized Libraries:
Blommer Science Library
Kennedy Bioethics Library
Woodstock Theological Library

3. Library-IT Collaboration
Historically:
Low level of Collaboration
Technology islands
(e.g. 3 separate instances of the same library management system)
Library systems housed in each library typically without test, development, or business continuity environments
Today:
Regular interaction of librarians, CNDLS (pedagogical support staff), and UIS (central IT)
Encouraging increase in collaborative projects

4. Scholarly Systems Group
Created in the central IT organization to support the enterprise technology needs of the libraries and the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship and their customers
Supports scholarly systems in schools and departments that need enterprise technology services
A dedicated scholarly service group akin to the HR/Payroll, Student System, and Financial Services support groups
Group encourages collaborative projects

5. Examples of Collaborations
Interfacing the IdM & Library Systems
Wireless Network Replacement
NetID-enabling of services; moving to Shib
Web server hosting
Digital Repository Pilots
Course Mgmt/ Library System integration
Planning for migration of library systems to new enterprise data center
Building a new Rich Media Environment

6. Creating a Rich Media Pilot
Academic Year : Multimedia Working Group formed, chaired by the Digital Media Libarian, to determine University requirements for Rich Media. Report published in May 2004 and presented to the University administration.
High Interest in Rich Media
Review of Vendor provided systems
No University Capital Available

7. Librarian Thinking on Rich Media
Dramatically increasing demand
Faculty want to deliver more media to students
Students want “better” access to course materials eliminating restrictions on time on place
Demand for anytime, anywhere services
Download and streaming
Podcasts
Lecture Capture
What’s Next???
MMWG

8. Technical Drivers Liabilities of existing Cisco IPTV System
Proliferation of Apple Streaming Servers
No AuthN / AuthZ
“Under someone’s desk”
Varying level of reliability
No enterprise-class services

9. The Decision to Partner
Significant capital requirements… with no University funding available
An offer from local startup: ShareStream
Vendor play - Everyone contributes
Georgetown brings:
Knowledge of higher ed
Functional requirements
Quality assurance / testing
Real-world use cases
ShareStream brings:
Capital investment
Development resources
Experience with streaming media and related tech.
Risk!
MMWG members joined ShareStream project

10. What is ShareStream?
ShareStream provides the means to capture, encode, store, deliver, and archive rich media materials. Media may be streamed, downloaded, or RSS-fed to students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the general public as appropriate.

11. High Level Requirements
Access: Public and Privileged
Authentication and Authorization
Content Management – metadata, browsing & searching, asset and collection relationships
Capture, Encode, and Archive
E-Commerce
Interfaces and Interoperability
Monitoring and statistics
Support for a large number of users
Significant Storage
NetID-enabled
Web and standard-based
Blackboard integration
Course shells
Course enrollment data
Metadata
Reuse of objects

12. If you can’t get Open Source…..
Will being Agnostic work?
Desired Areas for Agnosticism
Operating Systems
DBMS
Storage Systems / Repositories
Authentication and Authorization Engines
Streaming Media Services
Media Clients
Course, Student, Library, and Portal Systems
Metadata Structures
NetID-enabled
Web and standard-based
Blackboard integration
Course shells
Course enrollment data
Metadata
Reuse of objects

13. Intellectual Property Issues
Fair Use
TEACH Act Issues
DMCA Issues

14. Capture, Encoding, Storing
Building Relationships with Faculty
“Scope” of content
Faculty planning
A different kind of “bandwidth” problem
Capture & Encode process (high-level)

15. Audio Capture, Encode & Upload
iTunes
Create MP3s
Import metadata
ShareStream uploading tool
Imports metadata from iTunes
Transfers metadata to server
Squeeze (Hint) MP3s so they’re streamable
Upload hinted MP3s to ShareStream

21. VHS Capture, Encode & Upload
Capture in iMovie
Export as a full quality QuickTime file (dv)
Use QuickTime Pro to compress (H264 MPG4)
Hint the file in QT Pro
Use Sharestream to upload the hinted file
Enter metadata in ShareStream

27. DVD Capture, Encode & Upload
All of these steps are the same as with VHS (i.e. digital to analog to digital)
Capture via iMovie
Use QuickTime Pro to compress (H264 MPG4)
Hint the file in QT Pro
Use ShareStream to upload the hinted file
Enter metadata in ShareStream

28. Technologies Red Hat Linux / Solaris AJAX-based front-end
Java-based back-end
Apache
Tomcat
MySQL / Oracle Databases
Darwin streaming server
Dojo / Acegi

29. Project Process Extremely Collaborative effort
CNDLS, Lauinger, Dahlgren, LLT, UIS, ShareStream have met weekly since Fall ‘04
Close Vendor relationship
Project evolution
Rapid application development vs.
Formal development
Project Tools
PM, Formal Bug Tracking, Version Control, etc.
Pilot Process
Everyone brings something to the party!
Weekly meetings

30. A Constant Stream of Pilots
Many Pilots
Spring 2006
ShareStream v 1.0
Fall 2006
ShareStream v 1.5
Spring 2007
ShareStream v 2.0
Fall Fall 2008
ShareStream 2.5
Sometime in Spring 2009: ShareStream 3.0
Fall 2006
681 user
52 courses
650 audio tracks
175 videos
Approximately 20k assets served

31. Moving to Production / GA
New hardware (multiple servers and SAN) to support anticipated needs
Locking down addition of new features / requirements
Anticipate general availability for the campus in Fall 2009 once new University Data Center has been completed