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You had me with the compelling illustration. :) I haven't implemented every piece in the puzzle, but it seems like a viable setup. On 6/25/07, Eric Lease Morgan <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > Below is some text I wrote outlining the technical infrastructure for > at thing we colloquially call the "catholic > portal" (www.catholicresearch.net). Does the infrastructure make > sense to y'all? If it doesn't make sense to you, then it won't make > sense to non-technoweenies. > > Catholic Research Resources Initiative and its technical infrastructure > > This text outlines the proposed technical infrastructure for the > Catholic Research Resources Initiative (CRRI). > > The infrastructure begins with two assumptions. First, from the > user's point of view, the system provides a searchable/browsable > interface to sets of EAD (Encoded Archival Document) files. Second, > the system makes every effort to provide this interface through well- > established Web-based protocols thus making the underlying components > more modular. > > Figure 1 illustrates the proposal. Starting on the far left are sets > of EAD files. These files will be created remotely at partner > institutions and sent to a central location. Once received metadata > will be extracted and stored in a relational database along with the > entire EAD files. This metadata, in combination with a simple faceted > classification system, will provide a way to maintain and logically > organize the CRRI content. We propose to use MySQL as the relational > database and a set of object-oriented Perl modules called MyLibrary > to facilitate input/output against the database. [1, 2] > > To facilitate search, a report will be written against the database > and given to an indexing program. The indexer/search engine is > expected to support fielded, free-text, and full-text searching, as > well as relevancy ranking. More importantly, the search engine is > expected to be accessible through a Web Services-based protocol > called SRU (Search-Retrieve via URL). [3] This will enable other > information services to search the CRRI without using the CRRI > website. Examples of other information services include metasearch > interfaces now common in libraries. The use of SRU will also enable > the CRRI to exchange its underlying indexing program without changing > the user interface. We plan to use either Zebra, Kinosearch, or > Lucene as our indexing program. [4, 5, 6] > > To facilitate browse the increasingly popular "faceted navigation" > technique will be employed. Using the metadata contained in the EAD > files, very broad "facets" will be created. Examples include > subjects, formats, people, institutions, themes, and maybe dates. > Each facet will have associated with it sets of "terms" such as > African Americans, letters, Dorothy Day, Seton Hall University, or > Catholic Social Action. Through a second set of reports, these facet/ > term combinations will be displayed in a user's browser, and by > selecting them relevant content will be returned. > > To broaden access to the CRRI's content, a third set of reports will > be written against the database to enable OAI-PMH (Open Archives > Initiative - Protocol for Metadata Harvesting). [7] These reports > will result in the creation of sets of XML files saved to the > computer's file system. An OAI "data repository" application will > provide access to the files and enable OAI "service providers" to > read the metadata and use it in other applications. We plan to use > XMLFile for the data repository. [8] An example of a service provider > is OAIster. [9] > > > Links > > 1. MySQL - http://mysql.com > 2. MyLibrary - http://dewey.library.nd.edu/mylibrary > 3. SRU - http://loc.gov/standards/sru > 4. Zebra - http://indexdata.dk/zebra > 5. Kinosearch - http://rectangular.com/kinosearch > 6. Lucene - http://lucene.apache.org > 7. OAI-PMH - http://openarchives.org > 8. XMLFile - http://www.dlib.vt.edu/projects/OAI/software/xmlfile > 9. OAIster - http://oaister.org > > -- > Eric Lease Morgan > University Libraries of Notre Dame >