Hull presentation to Fedora UK&I meeting, 21st March 2013

Towards a mature, multi-purpose repository for the institution…

Chris Awre, Simon Lamb, Richard Green

Fedora UK&I, University of Durham

21st March 2013

An institutional repository

• Repositories are infrastructure

– Maintaining infrastructure requires resource, which we need to minimise to justify costs in the long-term

• Content doesn’t sit in silos

– One repository facilitates cross-fertilisation of use

• Integration with one system

– Embedding the repository means linking to one place

Fedora UK&I meeting, Durham | 21 March 2013 | 2

One institution = one repository?

Five principles

A repository should be content agnostic

A repository should be (open) standards-based

A repository should be scalable

A repository should understand how pieces of content relate to each other

A repository should be manageable with limited resource


Five principles (leading to our implementation)

Fedora is content agnostic

Fedora is (open) standards-based

Fedora is scalable

Fedora understands how pieces of content relate to each other

Fedora is manageable with limited resource

– With help from the community


Hydra

Change the way you think about Hull | 7 October 2009 | 2

• A collaborative project between:

– University of Hull– University of Virginia– Stanford University– Fedora Commons/DuraSpace– MediaShelf LLC

• Unfunded (in itself)

– Activity based on identification of a common need

• Aim to work towards a reusable framework for multipurpose, multifunction, multi-institutional repository-enabled solutions

• Timeframe - 2008-11 (but now extended indefinitely)TextFedora UK&I meeting, Durham | 21 March 2013 | 5

Fedora and Hydra

• Fedora can be complex in enabling its flexibility

• How can the richness of the Fedora system be enabled through simpler interfaces and interactions?

– The Hydra project has endeavoured to address this, and has done so successfully

– Not a turnkey, out of the box, solution, but a toolkit that enables powerful use of Fedora’s capabilities through lightweight tools• Principles can also be applied to other repository environments

• Hydra ‘heads’

– Single body of content, many points of access into it


Hydra


Community• Conceived & executed as a collaborative, open

source effort from the start

• Initially a joint development project between Stanford, University of Virginia, and University of Hull• Close collaboration with DuraSpace / Partnership with

MediaShelf, LLC

• Complementary strengths and expertise

• Community now stands at 16 partners

Community Hydra heads

• sufia

– Institutional repository head, created by Penn State• Now being adopted by Notre Dame, Northwestern and others

• Avalon

– Video management head being developed by Indiana and Northwestern• Also HydraDAM, media management head based on sufia, at

WGBH

• DIL

– Image management head created by Northwestern

• Argo

– Repository administrative head, created by Stanford


Hydra in Hull home page

• Different views based on user login

• Multi-level security for differential access– Uses CAS (Shibboleth?)

• Queue-based submission workflow– Everything deposited goes

through QA prior to publication

• Creating records uses templates to suit content type

• Launched September 2011/March 2012


Adapt to the content


Organise the content

Structural sets

Display sets


Experimental and observational data

• Tiptoeing into data management

• JISC History DMP project

– Identified ways to encourage and facilitate the planning of data management

• EPSRC roadmap

– Highlighting ways forward to make the most of the data we produce


Onward… Upgrade to Hydra 5

• Hull’s original implementation was Hydra 2

– We then painfully upgraded to Hydra 3

• Hydra developers have since focused on streamlining the upgrade path

– Also re-architecting technology stack to simplify adding of new functionality

• We are planning an upgrade to Hydra 5 in April/May

– Note - Hydra 6 is on the way

• Watch this space…


Onward… Image management

• We need to add better image management to Hydra at Hull

• Options

• Still considering which route to follow

Adapt and expand our current workflow

Review and adopt Hydra community

solution

Develop solution based on IIIF specification


Onwards… Library search integration

Staff and students

Repository Catalogue Articles

How to combine delivery?


Blacklight


Onwards… Digital archives management

• Archives colleagues took part in Mellon-funded AIMS project

– An Inter-institutional Model for Stewardship of born-digital collections

Developing practice for archivists in dealing with born-digital collections through events and advocacy

Using Hydra to develop tools that help put the model into practice


Onwards… CRIS integration / E-publication

• Hull has adopted the Converis research information management system

• Integration enabling deposit from Converis to Fedora is ongoing– Will allow research outputs to be transferred and showcased– Meet open access requirements

• Larkin Press project developed a prototype for integrating Fedora with Open Journal System– Enables book editing and compilation– Archive artefacts to repository– Print on demand


Summary

• Hydra at Hull successfully, if at times painfully, launched in September 2011 (user interface) / March 2012 (create, update, delete)

• Hydra established, and recognised, as institutional repository solution

• Now looking to move to the next stage

– Upgrading, new collections, new functionality

• Encouraged by community growth

– Hydra maturing nicely…

• Fedora 4?


Thank youChris Awre – [email protected]

Simon Lamb – [email protected]

Richard Green – [email protected]

Hydra at Hull – http://hydra.hull.ac.uk

Hydra Project – http://projecthydra.org

Fedora and integration

Fedora and integration with other systems

• Fedora was deliberately not designed as a silo technology

– Open APIs– Modular framework

• Hence, how has Fedora been embedded within organisational systems infrastructure?

• Exchange of practice and experience aimed at supporting others with related activities

• Any gaps / limitations?

– Feed ideas and use cases into Fedora 4 development


Integration examples (notes from discussion)• Institutional ICT infrastructure

– E.g., authentication, storage, security, etc.– LDAP integration / pre-set filters in Solr / Shibboleth?– Tape storage (robotic arm)– Cloud still too expensive– Messaging - ActiveMQ

• Application integration

– E.g., VLE, CRIS, library, etc.– Archives catalogues (CALM) and other sources of descriptive

metadata– EPrints as separate IR? EPrints as ingest tool for Fedora (Oxford)– Upstream/downstream implications

• Where does access/preservation copy sit and route?– Archivematica (though gap in getting output into Fedora)


Fedora and data

Fedora and data management

• A number of presentations today have already mentioned data management

– Incl. Fedora 4

• Research landscape currently very focused on improving data management

– EPSRC roadmap, funder requirements, research integrity

• Small data / big data differences

– What functional requirements are needed across the data spectrum?


Data management examples/experience (notes from discussion)• Commercial emphasis on such management?

• CKAN / DataBank alternatives

• Making the repository a viable option for data

• Cleanliness/tidying of data (requirements for management)

– Funders may stimulate effort?

• Format issues

– Very varied and often rare

• Capturing metadata – consistency and validity

• Are data just digital blobs like other stuff?

• Work with researchers on creation of their data

• DataONE / Data Conservancy

• Linked data?


Technology

Hull presentation to Fedora UK&I meeting, 21st March 2013