Sinead Redmond, Software Engineer, An Foras Feasa

Rebecca Grant, Digital Archivist, Royal Irish Academy

Interdisciplinary Processes at the Digital Repository of Ireland

Presentation Synopsis

• Introduction to DRI

• DRI Structure

• Problem statement

• Problem solution

• Solution outputs

Mission

DRI is a trusted digital repository for Humanities and Social Sciences Data

-linking and preserving the rich data held by Irish institutions, with a central internet access point

-Our Cultural & Social Heritage

-Exchequer funded; HEA PRTLI 5, €5.2M

-RIA (lead), NUIM, TCD, DIT, NUIG, NCAD

-Partners: academic, cultural, social, industry

-Sep 2011 – Sep 2015

Stakeholder Advisory Group

International Advisory Group

Management Board

Core Implementation

Team

Management, Operations Infrastructure Rollout

Policy, Requirements

DRI Structure

Demonstrators, E&O

DRI strands and Work Packages

Issues with Strand and WP structure

• Strands and Work Packages divided by area of expertise and required

work to be done

• Led to ‘hiving off’ of specialist areas

• Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the DRI and its goals, it

became apparent that structures to allow for interdisciplinary work

and communications were needed

• Interdisciplinary Working Groups and Taskforces were set up

Metadata Guidelines

Workflows

IP & Copyright

Data Protection

DRI Task Forces

Business Models

TDR – Trusted Digital

Repository

Irish Language

Organisational

Liaisons

The Metadata Taskforce

The goal of the Metadata Task Force

• to oversee and steer the successful implementation of metadata deliverables in the DRI Implementation Plan

• to, in conjunction with WP7, input into the design of the data model

• to help manage and resolve a range of metadata-specific issues that DRI will need to address during the lifecycle of the project.

• to advise on the policy and technical issues pertaining to the production of policy and ingestion guidelines to DRI.

The Metadata TaskforceStrand 2 (Policy)

• Rebecca Grant (Digital Archivist, RIA)

• Dr. Aileen O’Carroll (Policy Manager, NUIM)

• Charlene McGoohan (Requirements Analyst, NUIM)

• Dolores Grant (DRI-IRL Digital Archivist, RIA)

• Catherine Ryan (Digital Librarian, RIA)

• Jenny O’Neill (Data Curator, TCD)

Strand 3 (Design and Implementation)

• Agustina Martinez Garcia(Software Engineer, NUIM)

• Stuart Kenny (Software Engineer, TCD)

• Sinead Redmond (Software Engineer, NUIM)

Strand 4 (Rollout – Access, Support and Development)

• Dr. Seathrún Ó’Tuairisg (NUIG Demo Project leader)

•Dr. Rósmáire Ní Cholla (Digital Curator, NUIG Demo Project)

• Marta Bustillo (Metadata Cataloguer, TCD)

10

Common Metadata standards in Ireland

11

• Balance between facilitating search of the repository, and not wishing to discourage depositors with onerous ingest requirements.

• Overall metadata policy/strategy aims to reduce barriers to sharing

Selection of fields

Simple Dublin Core Qualified Dublin Core Encoded Archival Description

http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/

http://dublincore.org/documents/2000/07/11/dcmes-qualifiers/

http://www.loc.gov/ead/index.html

MandatoryTitle, Type, Rights, Creator, Description, Date

MandatoryTitle, Type, Rights, Creator,

Description, Date Issued, Created

MandatoryTitle of the Unit, ID of the Unit, Conditions Governing Use, Origination, Physical Description, Scope and Content, Date of the Unit, Level

RecommendedLanguage,ContributorRelation, Source,Coverage, Subject

RecommendedLanguage,ContributorRelation Is Version Of, Has Version. Is

Replaced By, Replaces Is Required By, Requires, Is Part Of, Has Part, Referenced By, References, Is Format Of, Has Format

Source,Coverage Spatial, Temporal, DCMI Point,

DCMI Box

Subject

RecommendedLanguage of the Material, Related Material,Separated Material,Alternative Form Available,Geographic nameSubject,Name, Personal Name, Family Name, Corporate Name

The Workflows Working Group

The goal of the Workflows Working Group

• The aim of the Workflow Group is to identify areas within the data lifecycle (data creation, processing, analysis, preservation, access and reuse) that require coordination and input across strands.

• Preliminary discussions have identified the following areas that require coordination between strands:

• User roles - addressed and documented by WP7 Access Controls (user and data workflow).

• Ingest Workflow (including collection manager approval, deposit agreement (uploading and check box), end-user agreement/licence - all of which are informed by policy and the IP Copyright Task Force)

The Workflows Working Group

• Audit Workflow (data workflow)

• Preservation workflow (data workflow - an automated process)

• Data workflows (edit an object (how does impact on DOIs?), embargo dates (is the metadata published?), metadata is open but how to handle thumbnails, snippet view and search with restricted content.)

The Workflows Working Group

Strand 2 (Policy)

• Rebecca Grant (Digital Archivist, RIA)

• Dr. Aileen O’Carroll (Policy Manager, NUIM)

• Charlene McGoohan (Requirements Analyst, NUIM)

• Jenny O’Neill (Data Curator, TCD)

Strand 3 (Design and Implementation)

• Agustina Martinez Garcia(Software Engineer, NUIM)

• Sinead Redmond (Software Engineer, NUIM)

• Kathryn Cassidy (Software Engineer, TCD)

• Eoin Kilfeather (PI, DIT)

• Anna Deegan (Graphic Designer, DIT)

The Workflows Working Group – example output

Solutions implemented for interdisciplinary collaboration

• Taskforces

• Meetings

• Trackers

• Plone

• Telcos via Skype

• Google Drive

UAT with DRI stakeholders

• Initial requirements gathering undertaken with 40 stakeholder institutions

• Provided guidance on requirements which fed into work of Metadata Taskforce and Workflows working group, for example which metadata schema needed to be supported

• Reconvened key stakeholders to provide initial feedback at UAT workshops

• Pilot Repository launched in May 2014 to wider stakeholder group, given opportunity to interact with the pilot and asked for comments

UAT with DRI stakeholders

• This process is key to ensuring that our ongoing validation and verification processes that take place project-wide reflect the needs and expectations of our stakeholder community

• Ensures ongoing engagement with the people and institutions who generously gave of their time to complete the requirements gathering process

• Feedback on the pilot, particularly UI and workflows influenced next phase of development.

Summary and conclusions

• We have described the development of the innovative

interdisciplinary processes and procedures put in place during the

building of the DRI

• We have explained how these are implemented to ensure that a fit

for purpose digital repository for the humanities and social sciences

is delivered by the end of the project

• We have discussed the creation of taskforces and working groups

across the project, illustrated by the example of the Metadata

Taskforce and the Workflows Working Group, and examined some

of their outputs

• Finished by describing the ongoing validation and verification

processes, including user acceptance testing and stakeholder

consultation, that take place project-wide to ensure the final delivery

of a repository that fulfils the needs of the Irish community of data