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On Feb 2, 2006, at 4:59 PM, Alexander Johannesen wrote: >> http://dewey.library.nd.edu/morgan/demo/ > > Could you explain what we're seeing and what we should be looking for > (like, the second digital image doesn't work; bad ID?) ? Thank you for your interest, and I will probably reply with more information than you desire. What you are see at the URL above is an amalgamation of three digital repositories in the form of a browsable/searchable list. The implementation is a demonstration of harvesting OAI-accessible content and providing services against the cache. It is the beginnings of a digital library. We have three digital repository applications here at Notre Dame: DigiTool, DSpace, and ETD-db. Each of these three systems have distinct advantages and disadvantages. One of the most distinct disadvantages of each system is their inability to truly be customized for any institution; each application is always going to look DSpace-like, DigiTool-like, or ETD-db-like. This characteristic works against usability. More importantly, each of these systems works more like an application as opposed to a set of library function calls; each system does not really support any API. This makes it difficult to provide additional functionality against the repositories. (MyLibrary 2.x had this problem; it was more of a turn-key application as opposed to a set of object-oriented Perl modules.) For example, without a lot of programming, it is difficult to provide RSS feeds against any of the systems above. Similarly, it is next to impossible to send search results via email. Even if everybody put stuff into DSpace, it would not be possible to create things like personal bibliographies for personal Web pages from the DSpace content without querying the database directly. DSpace was not designed to do such functions. By aggregating the content of these three systems into a centralized cache accessible through an API I can do all of the things above and more. I can provide search through any number of indexers. I can provide simple search or power search. I can create a browsable list that looks like this, that, or the other thing. I can syndicate the content to a campus-wide portal. I can create subsets of the data and insert it via HTML script tags into personal Web pages. As I create searchable/browsable lists and I can include things like a Google PageRank number to denote the apparent importance of the page. I can sort the list in many ways. With a bit more work, I can measure how many times a particular page has been viewed and by what IP address. This information would be very valuable to the author. These are the things to watch for later. As of now, most of the content in the system is sample data. That is why all the images don't produce output. (Most do.) That being the case, we are well on our way to creating a cohesive, synergistic digital library complete with collections AND services. We are doing this by exploiting our systems, writing our own software, and taking advantage of well-articulated best practices. Instead being controlled by our computers, we are controlling them. -- Eric Lease Morgan University Libraries of Notre Dame