Some of us at work were talking about a problem the archivist and other 
digitizing people have: showing particular digitized objects to particular
people with particular restrictions.  We called it GRAP:  the granular 
restricted access problem.

Here's the archivist's description.  If you also had this problem and 
found a solution, we'd love to know.

# ----- begin GRAP

We are generating lots of digital assets (TIFFs of historical photographs, 
WAVs of sound recordings and oral histories, etc.) not only in the course 
of our regular digitization-for-access activities but also as a result 
of researcher requests and requests through Accessibility Services.

We have a institutional digital repository (DSpace) that works well as a 
mass distribution tool, but as with most primary sources there are often 
additional restrictions on access based on copyright, donor permissions, 
third party privacy issues and other legislation.  We are struggling to 
find ways of promoting these resources that have additional access 
restrictions.

What we want:

A system of storing and organizing all digitized materials in one place so 
that everyone (librarians, archivists, technicians, IT, scholars, faculty, 
students) can find them.

A means of managing and tracking all these objects that will allow:

- the creation of unique identifiers (to generate statistical metrics, 
track chains of custody, access etc.)
- quick and easy updating
- access controls, possibly with time limits, for all material (X to the 
public, Y to this person, Z to students in HUM 101 for one week)
- seamless streaming of audio and video (with access controls)

# ----- end GRAP

Any suggestions welcome.  I'll pass along and report back.

Thanks,

Bill
-- 
William Denton
Toronto, Canada
http://www.miskatonic.org/