Innovative ways, sustainable means: The Archives Hub's space exploration

Space for All...

• The Archives Hub as a space for innovations

• How archive repositories can use the Archives Hub to enhance their virtual space

Space for All 2009

THE ARCHIVES HUBMake the most of your virtual space ...

Space for All 2009

The Hub in a Nutshell

• Based at Mimas, University of Manchester

• In service since 2000

• Over 23,000 collection descriptions

• 170 repositories

• JISC funded

• Management and service team at Manchester

• Development team at Liverpool

• Cheshire software

• Cheshire for Archives – works with EAD descriptions

• Distributed system

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Content and contributors

• Strategic aim: build and enhance content

• Meeting the needs of the UK research community

• Meeting the needs of the wider community

• Archives for education and research

Flickr cc licence: eileenaway's photostream

The success of the Hub is a reflection of the rich content available from Hub contributors

BE SEENMake the most of your virtual space...

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Archives Hub across the UK

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Archives Hub searches

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Archives Hub visits and views

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Monthly visits April 2008 – April 2009

Monthly page views April 2008 – April 2009

International perspective

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Visits from around the world, April 2008 – April 2009

Archives Hub: top content

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Content Performance April 2008 – April 2009

BENEFIT FROM HUB TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS

Make the most of your virtual space...

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Innovation through technology...

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+ understanding users

= Recipe for user satisfaction

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The Hub Space: behind the scenes

• Sustainable

• Transparent

• XML data

• Efficient search

mechanism

• Flexible access

FACILITATE ACCESS TO CONTENT

Make the most of your virtual space...

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Add links to digital objects

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BECOME A SPOKEMake the most of your virtual space...

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The Distributed Hub

Flickr cc licence : Thomas Hawk

The main goal of a distributed computing system is to connect users and resources in a transparent, open, and scalable way. Ideally this arrangement is drastically more fault tolerant and more powerful than many combinations of stand-alone computer systems.

[Wikipedia]

• Administration interface

• Customisable web front-end

• Machine-to-machine interfaces

• Data Creation Template

• Local control

• Technical support locally

• Hub team support

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Spokes software

• Offers a means of storing and sharing archival descriptions in XML

• Provides machine-to-machine access to the descriptions through Z39.50 and SRU (Search and Retrieve via URL) & OAI-PMH for harvesting records

• Provides a customisable Web search interface

• Is open source and based on open standards

• Includes a data creation and editing template

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Anatomy of a Spoke

EAD XML files

Web search interface

Direct searching access for other

applications through

standards-based machine-to-

machine protocols

…

Including the central Hub!

Z39.50

SRUCheshire indexes of EAD data

HT

TP

Spoke Administration

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Statistics

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Leeds Spoke

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John Rylands Spoke

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Being an Archives Hub Spoke…

• Gives you control over your own EAD files

– Allows you to update and add new files when you need to

• Exposes your EAD to other applications which need to cross-search the descriptions

– Using standards-compliant methods

• Means you benefit from using software that has been developed with the Archives Hub community

BE PART OF THE NETWORKMake the most of your virtual space....

Space for All 2009

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The National Archives Network

‘Our vision of the future of British archives is of a flow of archival information which takes account of all the opportunities offered by digital networks and offers opportunity for exploration - historical, personal, social - to the broadest possible range of people wherever they can use it - in the home, the classroom or the office.’

British Archives: The Way Forward (NCA, 2000)

A comprehensive national resource discovery mechanism

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The importance

‘There can be no higher priority for archives than the creation of this collaborative electronic network, overcoming the limitations of geography, crossing the many archival sectors and creating a truly unified digital directory or encyclopaedia of British historical documents.’

British Archives: The Way Forward (NCA, 2000)

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National Archive Network

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Progress of the NAN

• Many archives took part in this drive towards a national archives network

• …many still are taking part

• The importance of recognised standards

• Intention to create collection level catalogues of all substantial collections within a defined timeframe

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Success of the NAN

• Strands of the national archives network provide access to archives that were previously inaccessible

• The HLF has played a major role in enabling access and online discovery

• Users of archives have benefited enormously

• Data standards have become of central importance

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Shortcomings of the NAN

• We don’t have a single national network

• Differences in data structure; content; search capabilities; look and feel

• Strands are not fully interoperable

• Politics, funding and willpower may not combine in favour of this approach

But the landscape has changed substantially since 2000 – maybe the space has changed and this solution is no longer appropriate?

Space for All 2009

The NAN today

• Many ‘strands’

• Lack of funding for a joint solution

• Great deal of experience and expertise but lack of resources

NAN as:

• a community, sharing knowledge and experiences

• a promoter of standards and facilitator for data sharing

• a promoter of flexible and open approaches

BE INTEROPERABLEMake the most of your virtual space...

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The Interoperable Hub

The ability of software and hardware on different machines

to share data

• Content standards

• Structural standards

• Validation of content

•Training and awareness

• Contributor responsibility

• Networking and community building

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Machine-to-machine interfaces

• Web access is just one means of access to the data

• Machine access provides flexible access, so people can set their own agendas– Z39.50

– SRU

– OAI-PMH (harvester)

• Need to provide semantic data – properly marked up, well-structured

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Pilot project for SRU: Genesis portal for Women’s Studies

• Hub hosts data

• Genesis searches the Hub using SRU

• User searches for “women” as subject as a default and whatever else they have entered

• One description, held in one place

IDENTIFY DESCRIPTIONSMake the most of your virtual space...

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Persistent Identifiers

• All Hub descriptions have their own identifiers – a unique reference

• Gives them their own web address – can point to any description

• Facilitates linking, e.g. from National Register of Archives

• Enables bookmarking of content

THE FUTUREMake the most of your virtual space...

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Challenges (of which there are many)

• Understanding our users

• Understanding Impact

• Sustainability

• Adding images

• Technology

• Perceptions of relevancy

Flickr cc licence: hoodwink’s photostream

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A Space for All

• Increasing content and contributors

• Branding and new Website

• More engagement with users / user generated content

• Continuing to be standards-based, open and interoperable

BENEFIT FROM & PARTICIPATE IN HUB DEVELOPMENT

Make the most of your virtual space....

Space for All 2009