Hi, Repke,

Many of the digital objects [1] visible through VirgoBeta [2], which  
is an installation of Blacklight [3], are stored as METS. For each  
METS file we index the relevant parts in solr, and we have a  
middleware application that can easily grab relevant bits of it for re- 
purposing, so that we can use our METS data in many places without  
having many places where METS must be understood and interpreted. This  
middleware app is just a set of XSL transformations, held together by  
cocoon, of the form:

http://{URL FOR APP}/{ID OF METS FILE}/{descMeta | adminMeta |  
technicalMeta | rightsMeta | MIX | getParts } (This is from memory, so  
I know I'm leaving out some of our metadata streams and mis-naming  
others.)

We also create a Fedora object for each METS file with externally  
managed datastreams that reference each of the metadata datastreams.  
This is sort of a belt-and-suspenders approach, I realize, and I plan  
to re-examine it as this project progresses.

Then Blacklight has object-class specific views that know how to  
display these various parts (data is drawn from solr for the search  
results, and from the metadata streams for the full record display).

One of the views we're particularly interested in, which we haven't  
yet tackled, is a viewer for our digitized manuscripts. We have  
digitized manuscripts represented as METS files, in the system I've  
described above, but we're still working on displaying these to end  
users. I love what you've created with the DFG Viewer! I hope you  
don't mind if I borrow some of your UI ideas. Nicely done.

Bess

[1] e.g., http://virgobeta.lib.virginia.edu/catalog/uva-lib:414860
[2] http://virgobeta.lib.virginia.edu
[3] http://projectblacklight.org

On 17-Sep-09, at 4:05 AM, Repke de Vries wrote:

> Dear Code4Lib Community
>
> read the METS based OpenMIC - OpenWMS announcement (July 9th) with
> great interest.
>
> It points at a need beyond METS creation and that is METS Viewers for
> end users:
>
> who in the CODE4LIB community is working on METS Viewer applications ?
>
> Here is an example of what we mean by that - the DFGViewer:
> http://dfg-viewer.de/en/regarding-the-project/
>
> Anyone else ?
>
>
> Background: the International Institute for Social History [ http://
> www.iisg.nl ]  has such collections that we are involved with both
> the archiving and library communities.  Metadata issues therefore are
> a mixed bag. Added to that are Permanent Access issues. We are
> looking at METS to tie it all together and at METS Viewers for our
> users to easily navigate and negotiate what 's pulled together in
> these METS containers.
>
> Thanks, Repke de Vries

Elizabeth (Bess) Sadler
Chief Architect for the Online Library Environment
Box 400129
Alderman Library
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22904

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