As we start a new academic year, we are now renaming the ‘ScholarWorks Update’ to the ‘Digital Repositories Update.’ You can access this and previous project updates at the new digital repositories space on Confluence. And they’re also posted to the new digital repositories listserv.
This name change reflects the fact that our work has for some time involved more than just the institutional repository. As we wrap-up the implementation and migration to our new ScholarWorks platform, our monthly updates will increasingly turn to other digital repository projects, especially digital archives.
Staffing changes
Kevin has accepted a full-time position at the University of Pittsburgh, and wrapped up his work for the CSU on August 21. We want to thank Kevin again for all his hard work on the ScholarWorks project these past three years. He was instrumental in our migration to Hyrax, and has been a pleasure to work with. We wish him all the best in his new position!
In July, Bryan Tu from the MERLOT project began working with us. He has been coming up to speed on the Samvera technology stack, and has already started working on Moss Landing’s migration from Islandora to ScholarWorks. Bryan has several decades of programming experience, and we’re excited to have someone with his skillset join our project.
ScholarWorks
Development
In June and July, Notch8 completed work on the Handle service and Glacier integration projects. All new and existing records in ScholarWorks now have a persistent URL minted from the Handle service, and the system also now saves a second, long-term preservation copy of all uploaded files.
Notch 8 continues to work on the new campus visibility option and SWORD integration, the last of the initial set of development projects from last year. Some challenges in implementing these two features have put us a bit behind our original schedule, but we are working closely with Notch8 to complete this work as quickly as possible.
We’ve also completed the initial implementation of an OAI-PMH service for ScholarWorks. We’ll be working with the ULMS Normalization Rules Joint Task Force to begin the process of harvesting records for all campuses into Primo.
Data migration
This summer we completed the test and production data loads for San Francisco, Los Angeles Pomona, and Humboldt. We also completed a second pass through migrated records that previously had errors for all campuses. We’re now down to Northridge, the last campus to migrate its research content off of DSpace.
Our attention will now increasingly turn to post-migration data clean-up tasks in both DSpace and Hyrax, which we’ll cover in greater detail in upcoming monthly updates.
Digital Repositories Committee
In July, the DRC issued its first annual report, summarizing this new COLD committee's first (half) year of work, including the major activities of its two working groups for Metadata and Digital Archives.
Over the summer, the steering committee, led by Carmen Mitchell, has begun systematizing and documenting the workflow around planning and hosting an annual meeting, has begun prioritizing new development projects for ScholarWorks, and is evaluating a potential DataCite membership to support the minting of DOIs in ScholarWorks.
Metadata Working Group (MWG)
The MWG, now chaired by Lia Ryland, continued its work unabated over the summer, even as it brought on-board a new set of committee members. The group continues to work on a CSU-based discipline taxonomy, defining separate ETD and non-ETD student work forms, and providing feedback on post-migration data clean-up tasks for ScholarWorks. They will also be issuing updated guidelines for degree names, concentrations, and rights information.
Digital Archives Working Group (DAWG)
DAWG, now chaired by Alyssa Loera, continues to outline a systemwide DAMS development plan. They are currently finalizing work on a DAMS self-evaluation toolkit, which will assess the readiness of campuses to adopt a system-wide digital asset management system, and have completed initial work on a DAMS performance evaluation tool, which will guide the evaluation of software to support a system-wide digital asset management system. Northridge, San Marcos, Channel Islands, and Pomona have begun setting-up test Hyrax systems to facilitate that evaluation.
This year DAWG is also looking to set out guidelines and best practices for digital preservation -- focusing on an NDSA-tiered approach, but specific to the CSU -- as well as investigating potential preservation services such as Archivematica and Preservica.