Gobs of Blobs!
Scott E. Siddall
Denison University

Slide 2

Ubiquity of things digital
How many digital assets existed in 1984?

Digital assets are…
Images
Some common and some unique
Quality varies enormously
Audio and video
multiple formats including streaming
Texts and images of texts
PDFs, Word, OCR, searchable or not
Learning objects
simple and compound (entire course content)
URLs
Annotations to the above
OK….anything digital…some legally held and some not

Binary Large Objects

Databases to the rescue
Different types, functions, structures
flat file, relational, hierarchical….
DAM databases are unique
Objects are digital surrogates
e.g., images of an object
Objects are digital assets themselves
e.g., digital video clips, digital images of events
Digital object in a database field = repository
Digital object stored separately = referatory

DAM databases
Binary content cannot be easily searched, indexed

Enter metadata
Librarians have crafted metadata for decades
The schema (read open standards)
Dublin Core, VRA, METS, etc
MARC record and the OPAC
Database of bibliographic and item records
Searchable, indexed
No digital surrogate, only metadata
Cataloged objects are physical
Interconnected: convert DC->MARC; Embed DC in HTML

Sustainability through collaboration
Libraries:
Digital library initiatives at larger institutions, national efforts
Institutional collections – formal cataloging
Specialized data sets (social science, GIS, etc)
Repositories of scholarship (faculty and student…both archival and ephemeral)
Instructional technologists:
Faculty collections scattered in space, different platforms
Excel, Access, FileMaker, analog content
Course management systems, ePortfolios
Training and support issues
Technologists:
Another db on a server – reliability, backup, authn/access

Sustainability through collaboration
Among technologists, librarians, faculty, students
All confront:
Policy issues
intellectual property, rights management
Presentation issues, in class and out
manipulation, retention, printing
Metadata issues
standards, effort to create
Open source DAM?
By higher ed, for higher ed
Greenstone, Fedora, Connexions, DSpace, Sakai

Methods of DAM
Digitize
Standards per collection, by discipline, national and international requirements
Full-resolution versus service quality, thumbnails
Create metadata
Standard schema, with additions and mapping
Make accessible
Copyrights, releases, consortial agreements, export
Connect to course management systems
See the OCLC E-learning white paper
Open Archives Initiative and WorldCat

Creating metadata
Convert tacit information into explicit
Highly structured format
Limited opportunity to outsource
Creates complex workflow
ePortfolios (e.g., OSPI)

Slide 13

Major criteria for DAM
Allows collaborative and distributed collection development/management
Basic and advanced searching across collections, across sites (federated searches, virtual collections, stored result sets)
Web-based client with easy-to-use interface
Common client-side players/viewers
Client tools for manipulation, comparison, per-user annotation
Support for multiple metadata standards
Support for many object formats, and developing formats (e.g., jpeg 2000)
Support for high-resolution, zoom-in features
Supports Unicode text for display and searching
URL access to objects
Customizable display interface
Based on open standards (database, metadata, etc.)
Flexible access control list features
Standards-based export functions to avoid “lock-in” and promote remote indexing
Platform (hardware, operating system) agnostic – server and client

What’s a “collection?”
Arbitrary
Collections
Compound documents
Prescribed SQL results based on metadata
Depends on purpose and audience
Store and organize
Access and share
Preserve and archive

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Slide 18

View from 30,000’
How does DAM fit into the campus big picture?

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Slide 21

What’s the role for metadata?
Critical for digital asset management
Useful for
Assessment projects?
Decision systems?
Portals?
Breaking down information silos?
Links to course content in our datamarts?

Resources
Mellon Foundation “Research in IT” Twiki
CONTENTdm
ARTstor
Luna Imaging
Realia Project
Federated searches of small college collections

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