1. © 2005 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice The China Digital Museum Project Dr. Robert TANSLEY, HP Labs Prof. Xukun SHEN, Beihang University Prof. Yue QI, Beihang University

2. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK2 HP Labs and China MoE Digital Museum Project Many universities in China have a museum − Many objects of historic, cultural, educational and research value Due to space requirements, and size (geographic and population) of the country, museum contents are not optimally utilised Additionally, some physical objects are deteriorating Therefore objects are being digitised − Improve access − Preserve

3. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK3 Phase I Status 18 campus museums each with 20k-50k objects. 4 categories: geoscience, biological, anthropological, science and technology Plan for Phase II 50+ campus museums. Standardisation of platform and metadata. DSpace-based distributed system. China Digital Museum Introduction

4. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK4 Challenges Many objects of various kinds − E.g. Calligraphy, pottery, biological specimens, aircraft Large amount of digital data will be produced − 100 universities, ~2Tb per university museum Must be easy to find and access content − Currently distributed over many sites Content must be preserved

5. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK5 Approach Use and enhance DSpace to build a large, distributed digital asset management system − Capture, preserve, enable access HP Labs, China MoE & universities collaboration Beihang University main technical collaborator

6. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK6 Approach overview Each museum loads content and metadata into local DSpace Content and metadata are replicated at two large- scale ‘data centres’ − For preservation: multiple copies − Enable access: more bandwidth for end-users − Ease discovery: aggregate ‘virtual museums’

7. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK7 ‘Virtual Museums’

8. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK8 Standardised Metadata All objects are categorised according to standard taxonomy All objects have core metadata (Dublin Core) Extended metadata for each category of object

9. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK9 University Museums Each University Museum runs a DSpace instance Digitised objects, and associated metadata descriptions, are ingested into local DSpace instance − Including category Each object given a Handle at this stage − Handle generated by local DSpace; registered with central DM project Handle Server

10. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK10 University Museums University museums allow METS to be harvested via OAI-PMH This METS includes: − Category − Core metadata − Extended metadata per category − URL references to Bitstreams − User access level information Intended to be compatible with standard DSpace METS profile

11. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK11 University Museums

12. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK12 Data Centres Data Centres hold replicas of digitised objects and metadata from University Museums − Good for robust, long-term preservation − More than one place where digitised objects can be downloaded; enables serving more users Data Centres use OAI-PMH protocol to obtain objects from University Museums Replicated items retain same Handle − Data Centre copy added to Handle record

13. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK13 Data Centres using OAI-PMH

14. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK14 Overall system architecture

15. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK15 Enhancements to DSpace Chinese language translation of user interface Search of Chinese metadata and text OAI-PMH harvester/client − Build on existing client from Old Dominion University Supporting extended metadata − “Pretend” its Dublin Core to start; build on metadata support extension proposed by HP Labs, under development at Eduworks METS Importer tool − Various specific needs, but common core to contribute to OSS DSpace Create Handles using remote Handle Server

16. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK16 Challenges and research questions Managing a federated DSpace: − Handle resolution: One Handle, multiple objects − Updating objects: − Lifecycle of university museums: Registration, when there are problems Metadata standardisation − Ensuring metadata is valid: XML Schema validation on METS and metadata within it Distributed authorisation − Role-based approach: User access levels Many deployments − Version control, release processes

17. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK17 Challenges and research questions Mapping Digital Museum model to DSpace model − University Museums free to organise as desired, but must specify category in metadata − At Data Centres, capitalise on community scope browse/search tools DSpaceData Centre Top-level CommunityMajor category, e.g. “Science & Technology” Sub-communityMinor category, e.g. “Aircraft” Lower-level communityUniversity museum, e.g. “Aircraft at Beihang Aviation Museum” CollectionCollections from museum ItemPhysical museum object BitstreamDigitised file

18. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK18 Project plan Three-phase approach Phase 1: One data centre, 1-2 university museums Phase 2: One data centre, 10-18 university museums Phase 3: Full deployment, two data centres, 100 university museums

19. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK19 Project status Phase 1 nearly complete Single university museum, data centre replicating content Chinese metadata searchable Currently testing and consolidating Metadata standardisation in progress

20. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK20 Summary Many Chinese university museums are digitising contents These digital objects and metadata are loaded into DSpace instances Content and metadata from university museum DSpace instances replicated in two data centres Building large-scale distributed DSpace system

21. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK21 China Digital Museum Project Technical Team

22. 7-8 July 2005DSpace User Group Meeting, Cambridge, UK22