DSpace and E-Learning June 2, 2006 DSpace and E-Learning William Reilly MIT Libraries Digital Library Research Group (DLRG) Presenting on behalf of several

DSpace and E-LearningJune 2, 2006

DSpace and E-Learning

William Reilly

MIT Libraries

Digital Library Research Group (DLRG)

Presenting on behalf of several colleagues…


Agenda (high level)

• Another Domain… Libraries– Scholarly record– Digital Archives, Institutional Repositories

• Introduction to DSpace

• DSpace and E-Learning

• Sakai and DSpace


Digital Archives (agenda cont., 1 of 4)

• Open Archives Information System (OAIS) Reference Model

• JISC Repositories Deposit API

• RAMLET (IEEE LTSC) Packaging


DSpace per se (2 of 4)

• DSpace in General– Audiences, purposes, uses– DSpace architecture, information model– History– DSpace Federation, governance board

• DSpace and E-Learning– CWSpace (OpenCourseWare)– Stellar Images Tool


Sakai-related (3 of 4)

• Sakai + Repositories generally– Sakaibrary, Twin Peaks, Fedora, OKI

• DSpace + Sakai Integration Points– Forthcoming whitepaper, Univ. of

Cambridge's CARET• Centre for Applied Research in Educational

Technologies http://www.caret.cam.ac.uk/


Other Speakers (4 of 4)

• Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching– Olga Trusova– Knowledge Media Lab: KEEP Toolkit

• DSpace + Sakai Integration– Ian Boston– Early initiatives at Univ. of Cambridge's CARET


Scholarly Information Life Cycle

Scholarly Information Life Cycle


"Cosmic" View of the Repositories Space


Neil McLean's Observations• The many different permutations of potential

contexts are rarely articulated in a coherent fashion

• Some tension between managed and unmanaged environments

• No common methodologies as yet to deal with multiple permutations of context

http://www.ecdl2004.org/presentations/mclean/n-mclean.ppt

As linked to from JISC(UK)/DEST(Aust.):

http://www.e-framework.org/events/conference/programme/repositories/


Archives "Reference Model" (OAIS)

• Information Packages: SIP, AIP, DIP = Submission IP, Archival IP, Dissemination IP

http://public.ccsds.org/publications/archive/650x0b1.pdf


Repositories: Variety. Convergence?

JISC Deposit API– http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/repositories/digirep/index/Deposit_API

· WebDAV· OKI OSID· JSR 170 & 283· SRW Update· Flickr Deposit API· Fedora Deposit API· ECL· Etc.

EPrintsDSpaceIntrallectARNOFedoraGreenstoneHarvestRoadaDORe - LANLOCLC Digital Archive


JISC Deposit API

Repository

Stores, manages and makes available content and metadata

• Deposit interface• Delete interface• Search interface• Harvest interface• Obtain interface

Deposit interface

• Intelligence: Data format, packaging standard.

•Data in: Deposit request (content, metadata, etc.)

•Data out: Deposit status (success, failure, pending, etc.) and content identifier

Format checking, editorial control, quality assurance mechanisms, etc.


Universe of Content- WWW• University

– Academics: CLE, Depts• Video Audio• Image collection

– Libraries• Licensed Content $$

– E-Serials, Journals

– Vendor Databases

• Locally-Owned Content– E-Reserves: digitized, scanned

– Digital Library Collections

– Image collections

– Institutional Repository / Digital Archive

» E-Scholarship

» Image Collections

– Learning Objects Repository

» Courseware

» Learning Objects


World View…


DSpace: Visually Explained• Submission: Files | Metadata• Organization: Bundle | Item | Collection | Community• Curation: Preservation | Rights Mgt. | Admin.• Use: Search | Browse | Disseminate | Retrieval

http://www.dynamicdiagrams.com/case_studies/mit_dspace.html


Information Model• Item can

be mapped to more than one Collection

• Bundles organize Bitstreams

• Little in way of associating Items


DSpace Architecture


Current development model

DSpace Community

Committer GroupMain DSpace Code Base

(SourceForge )

Contributions(“Patches” )

Feedback

Accepted contributions

Committer development

Non-contributing users


Jul 2005

2nd user group meeting140 attendees , 22 countries

Nov 2002 - Mar 2004HP/MIT development ;

community support

Nov 2002

DSpace 1.0 Released

Mar 2004

First user group meeting120 attendees , 7 countries

Apr 2004

Committer group formed

Mar 2005DSpace workshopBangalore , India

Mar 2006

Governance advisoryboard meeting

Open Source communityresearch /development

Mar 2004 -

Feb 06DSpace UG

meeting , Sydney

Nov 2000 - Nov 2002HP-MIT development of DSpace 1.0

How Did We Get Here?

Fast!!


DSpace Federation Governance Advisory Board Formed (March 2006)

• Digital Curation Centre, UK

• Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories

• Biomed Central, UK

• University of Rochester

• Rice University

• University of Michigan

• Coalition for Networked Information

• University of Toronto

• Harvard Business School

• Indian Statistical Institute

• HP Labs

• Carelliance BV, Netherlands

• MIT Libraries

http://wiki.dspace.org/DspaceGovernance

"The governance board was convened to draft a recommendation for governance and funding mechanisms……to advance the DSpace community and ensure that the technology platform remains sound, protecting the investment that institutions have made."


Board Decisions (Mar. 31, 2006)

• Drafted a statement of mission• Made a decision to form an independent

foundation and initiated a planning process to accomplish that end

• Formed an interim steering committee chaired by Chris Rusbridge (Director, Digital Curation Centre, UK)

• Addressed the need for a technical working group and initiated a road map and white paper process to support that effort


Statement of Mission (Mar. 31, 2006)

The draft mission of the DSpace foundation is:• to lead the collaborative development of open

source software for digital repositories that enables services for access, provision, stewardship and re-use of digital assets with a focus on educational and research materials;

• to promote the adoption of this technology; and• to provide a platform for innovation in these

areas with an overarching goal of promoting the dissemination and future utility of information and knowledge.


DSpace In Use

Little world tour…












CWSpace Overview

* CLE = Collaborative Learning Environment

Goal: Archive MIT's OpenCourseWare to MIT’s DSpace– Also: Make content available to CLEs *

MIT iCampus project, nearing completion

Method: Interoperability of systems– Use Content Packaging standard– Use Web Services standard


OCW Materials in DSpace =

New GroundEducational Materials Digital Archive

New kind of content: educational, teaching, learning

POLICY - Cost/merit evaluation of archival treatment. Preservation and IP considerations

New emphasis (ideally) on re-use, re-purposing: aggregation, disaggregation

GRANULARITY - Challenge to digital archive; how flexible can it be? (cf. CMS)

New kind of structure, composition: website, compound digital object, rich metadata

COMPLEXITY - Need to package multi-file content, plus metadata

New needs for system-to-system access: CLEs, Image Tools

BACK-END / FRONT-END - Need for networked access


OCW Materials in DSpace =

New GroundEducational Materials Digital Archive

New kind of content: educational, teaching, learning

POLICY - Cost/merit evaluation of archival treatment. Preservation and IP considerations

New emphasis (ideally) on re-use, re-purposing: aggregation, disaggregation

GRANULARITY - Challenge to digital archive; how flexible can it be? (cf. CMS)

New kind of structure, composition: website, compound digital object, rich metadata

COMPLEXITY - Need to package multi-file content, plus metadata

Content PackagingNew needs for system-to-system access: CLEs, Image Tools

BACK-END / FRONT-END - Need for networked access

Web Services


OpenCourseWare as Content• Normalized data model (out

of chaos)– "Sections" fit well to

publication organization

• Normalized content files (.PDF)

– Reduced ability to disaggregate, re-purpose


Package Interchange File (PIF)

IMS Content Package (IMS-CP) uses a .ZIP file with a Manifest XML file and all content files.

http://www.imsglobal.org/content/packaging/cpv1p1p4/imscp_bestv1p1p4.html


"RAMLET"• Resource Aggregation Model

for Learning Education and Training– IEEE Learning Technology

Standards Committee (LTSC).

• "Conceptual model for digital aggregates of resources for learning, education, and training applications."

http://ieeeltsc.org/wg11CMI/ramlet/

Various Standards:• IMS Content Package

• METS• MPEG21-DIDL• XFDU• …


Interop: What’s Achievable


Interop: Challenges


InterOp: Possible Resolution?


DSpace dev: LNI & PKGers


DSpace Mapped to WebDAV


WebDAV Methods in LNI• PROPFIND - very powerful request with multiple functions:

– list names of properties

– return property values

– recurse through 1 or more levels of a "collection" resource.

• PROPPATCH - changes value of or deletes properties on one resource.

• GET - retrieves contents of a resource• PUT - replace or add a new resource to a collection• COPY - map a resource ("Item") to a different Collection.

As noted, equivalent SOAP methods are provided

Not Implemented: Locking, Versioning.


Stellar Image Tool

• Dspace as "back-end" to Teaching & Learning application

• Stellar add-on tool + OKI + SRW + DSpace

• Also note: Sakai Tool (Berkeley) + t.b.d. (OKI?) + Fedora's Web Services


Sakai + Fedora Integration Posts (April 2006)

• Intersection between Sakai and Fedora– Idea: "…to make Fedora the content repository for

Sakai, as opposed to a Sakai search/browse/retrieve/edit tool for Fedora."

• Peter Murray, OhioLINK– http://bugs.sakaiproject.org/confluence/x/ikE


Further Discussion: Sakai + Repository Integration

• JSR-170? No longer.• "You must implement ContentHostingService API"

– Wide implications– Plugin pattern better idea

• OKI OSID DR = secondary interface to repositories• Alternative: Extend ContentHosting… repository

gateway– Implementation at CARET (IMS-CP player)


Sakai Content: Resource

Tool


Sakai Content: "The" Repository


Sakai Content: External Repositories


Sakai + DSpace Integrationforthcoming whitepaper


Sakai + DSpace: Integration Report (CARET)

Preliminary ideas from a forthcoming whitepaper - Univ. of Cambridge CARET

• Background, sources• Focus group results: Areas of interest• (Use Cases)• (Models)• Tools, Projects• Roadmap, Recommendations

Source: Univ. of Cambridge CARET Whitepaper (forthcoming)


Where to "Intervene"?

• Background to Integration Report– Case studies reviewed– Projects interviewed– Interventions: technical, non-technical– For DSpace, for Sakai– Gaps, enabling technologies identified

Source: CARET Whitepaper (forthcoming)


Current View

Web Services exposed, not (yet) exercised (extensively)



E-Learning View?

For a CLE/CMS, what is exact relation of "Repository" notion to "Storage" needs … ?



Peer Systems ViewWeb Services for loosely coupled peer systems

Note the CMS W/S point to Repository business, not storage.



Focus Group Results

• Time pressure, chaos• Search within CMS; not

web• Hurdle in publication

process• Multi-homed work• Imaging and

visualization tools valued

• Continued importance of face-to-face meetings

• Overoptimistic re: own preservation

• "Disinterest" in repositories, archives

• Repository "fear"• Metadata fear



Related Topics of Interest

• Cross-pollination talks: CLEs and IRs

• "Rebranding" of repository svcs.

• "Unrolling" repository svcs. (separating out)

• Policy Manifestation transferability

• Metadata quality mismatch

• Breaking the preprint model

• Supporting informal meetings (PPW Personal Professional Webpage)



Some Guiding Principles• Tools available at

multiple locations• Authors should feel in

control:– Preservation– Dissemination– Metadata– Availability, access

• Metadata implicitly collected where possible

• Permit librarians to manage metadata of differing quality

• Convey to depositors nature of qualified acceptance of some materials



Options for Tools, Projects

1. Extending Sakai Resource Tool

2. Site Archive

3. Collections Workflow

4. Policy Manifestation


5. Showcase Tool

6. Bibliography Tool

7. Learning Object Creation Tools

8. Search Tool

9. PPWs

10. Ad hoc Collections

11. Realtime Discovery

12. Sakai-delegated Permission

13. Erobots

14. Item History

15. Migration Services


1. Extending Sakai Resource Tool

(briefly)

• Ian Boston, CARET, will describe…– http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.cms.sakai.devel/2870/

"…a plugin into ContentHostingService

… Once it 'owns' the node, it takes responsibility for providing ContentResources for that node and all child nodes.

…implemented an IMS-CP plugin, that 'plays' IMS-CP files

…could use to 'mount' a repository"


2. Site Archive

(briefly)

• Dan Sheppard, CARET, may implement

• Leverage CWSpace


3. Collections Workflow• Motivation: need to accept submissions of varying

quality. Partitioned to separate collections; not all visible

• Put Items into workflow: maintains a state re:– Dissemination, preservation guarantees– Metadata quality requirements

• Events trigger workflow actions– Add to OAI-PMH set– Migration– Add to or retract from public catalogue

• Extends existing DSpace Workflow to fuller lifecycle



4. Policy Manifestation (1 of 3)

(not briefly (!))• "Handshake" at beginning of Web Services connection

– Layer above LNI or DR OSID

• Machine-readable exchange of policies– Available collections– Restrictions on Epersons– Collections using specialist tools– Required notices, agreements to/from Sakai user– Copyright, licensing, preservation, dissemination requirements– Required metadata, mandatory keys, acceptable ranges– Extra metadata searches by collection




• Fragments: simple, uncontroversial action-based policy snippets– E.g. Creative Commons license four constraints

• Expressed in RDF = extensible• Example ideas:

– Special structure or contents of collections• Contact details for collection's maintainer

• Programs under which collection is managed

– Repository status• E.g. Patches available for special image gallery handling




• Sakai functionality:– Ability to display (repository-defined) notices to user at

ingest– Ability to display (negotiated) drop-downs, re: collections,

metadata– Ability to check Sakai IP properties are consistent with

repository IP– Ability to modify search per abilities of search tools– Ability to associate items pulled notices (e.g. bibliography

tool)– Ability to fulfill license requirements (CC and metadata

fields)

• "Sticky" folders could help with implicit or default values inheritance…



Summary Table

(1 of 2)

• Variety of quite preliminary ideas surfaced…



Summary Table

(2 of 2)

• Some work to be commissioned this summer



DSpace and E-Learning:

Other Observations…Olga Trusova, Carnegie Foundation for the

Advancement of Teaching

Ian Boston, Univ. of Cambridge (CARET)


DSpace and E-Learning:

Discussion, QuestionsWilliam Reilly

MIT Libraries

Digital Library Research Group (DLRG)

Presenting on behalf of several colleagues…

MacKenzie Smith, Julie Walker, Rob Tansley, Larry Stone

v. 20060602_1000 PDT


DSpace & E-Learning: Abstract• An introductory presentation to DSpace, the digital archive system and open

source community.• The precise relation of a digital archive to a collaboration and learning environment (CLE) like Sakai

is a topic very much in development. Preliminary ideas on potential integration points will be presented, from a forthcoming whitepaper [1]. These will be discussed within the context of recent Sakai discussion group activity on closely related topics (e.g. Sakaibrary, Twin Peaks, Fedora, OKI, repositories generally).

• Comparison of "repository" as a component of the architectural stack of a CLE (akin to Sakai's Resource Tool and ContentHosting API), vs. "repository" or digital archive as a peer system to a CLE, whereby interoperation is achieved via Web Services.

• General topics include: DSpace's architecture, information model, its other (non E-Learning) audiences & purposes, its open source community, and the DSpace Federation governance board.

• E-Learning-related topics include: CWSpace: archiving MIT's OpenCourseWare (OCW) to DSpace; and the Stellar Image Tool, using DSpace as backend.

• Contributing speakers to include some remarks from Indiana University vis-a-vis repositories as they relate to the current scope of Sakaibrary; remarks from Univ. of Cambridge initial experiments with Sakai and DSpace integration; and a report from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching exploration of DSpace as candidate back-end and dissemination platform (non Sakai-related) for their KEEP Toolkit (see Technical Demos).

• [1] Univ. of Cambridge, CARET, "DSpace/Sakai Integration Report" • (draft May 16, 2006)

Documents

DSpace and E-Learning June 2, 2006 DSpace and E-Learning William Reilly MIT Libraries Digital Library Research Group (DLRG) Presenting on behalf of several