Copyright Sam Demas, Diane Graves & Eric Jansson, 2007.

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An Initiative to Share Digital Repository Services for Liberal Arts Colleges

Sam Demas, Carleton CollegeDiane Graves, Trinity

UniversityEric Jansson, NITLE

Genesis of the project

April 2004

Founding Four

• Carleton College, MN• Dickinson College, PA• Middlebury College, VT• Trinity University, TX

– All members of NITLE

– All members of the Oberlin Group

Who we are

• Small, selective liberal arts colleges• Healthy endowments• Strong programs in the sciences• Emphasis on faculty-guided

undergraduate research• Light on our feet

The opportunity

• A chance to get into IR game• Showcase student work• Introduce faculty and students to

publishing alternatives• Introduce Creative Commons license• Experiment with the concept

Our first platform

• Berkeley Electronic Press (BEPress)

• ProQuest Digital Commons– http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/

LIMITATIONS

Growing Interest from Peers

Spring 2007

• RFP– Longsight– Fedora– ContentDM

• Review• Presentations

We needed help

Accomplishments to date

• Group contract with Longsight as host

• Attend “Open Repositories” 2007• DSpace Implementation Feb. 2007• June 2007 membership meeting to

identify the work ahead • Membership growth: 27 members • Small amounts of content up• Workshops planned

LASR members todayLASR members today

Bucknell Bucknell UniversityUniversity Carleton CollegeCarleton College CUNY LibrariesCUNY Libraries Franklin and MarshallFranklin and Marshall

CollegeCollege Gettysburg CollegeGettysburg College Grinnell CollegeGrinnell College Hendrix CollegeHendrix College Kalamazoo CollegeKalamazoo College Middlebury CollegeMiddlebury College Mount Holyoke CollegeMount Holyoke College SarahSarah Lawrence College Lawrence College SewaneeSewanee Simmons CollegeSimmons College

Smith CollegeSmith College St. Lawrence UniversitySt. Lawrence University Trinity UniversityTrinity University Union CollegeUnion College University of PugetUniversity of Puget

SoundSound University of RichmondUniversity of Richmond Washington and LeeWashington and Lee

UniversityUniversity Washington CollegeWashington College Wesleyan UniversityWesleyan University Wheaton CollegeWheaton College Whitman CollegeWhitman College

Lessons Learned

• Schools have different purposes and visions for their IR

• Cooperation is hard!• Governance is hard!• Content recruitment is hard!

• Lots to learn and lots to do

Challenges ahead, 1 of 5

– Governance• Growth and diversity of membership• Segmentation into multiple repositories?

– How to form segments – Relationship among them?– Content searchable across segments?

• NITLE’s role and role of LASR Advisory Board• Mission statement• Effective communication

Challenges Ahead, 2 of 5

• Realizing the benefits of cooperation

– How to mobilize the LASR community to • make decisions, and• Take action on foundational issues?

• Communication– Moodle– Lists– Video-conferencing– Meetings and workshops

Challenges Ahead, 3 of 5

– Education, training, best practices development

– Workshop topics1. Scope and content definitions2. Site organization 3. Metadata standards and practices

Challenges ahead, 4 of 5

4. Access controls - granularity & uniformity?• To specific content• By specific user groups• Shibboleth implementation

5. Rights management• Local policies and practices essential• Common policies for LASR?• Many using Creative Commons, use with attribution

Challenges ahead, 5 of 5

6. Joint strategies for content recruitment– Critical mass of common content:

-->undergraduate research

– Methods: • records management program• Individual relationships and projects• Scraping content from college web site• Low hanging fruit?

7. Joint strategies for marketing and education at the campus level

Example of one campus’ approach

• Start as pilot project, not a service• Campus conversation on digital archiving• Solicit partners in pilot, e.g.

– Student senior papers/projects (honors only?)– Student publications (campus clubs,

newspaper)– Campus radio station archives– Music department performance archive– Department records, publications (library)– Prize papers

Building a bigger sandbox locally…. the education

challenge-- what is the relationship of Institutional Repository

to:

• OnBase-->Admin archive systems?

• ContentDM?• Other content delivery

systems?• Course management

system?• web content

management system)?

• ARTstor?• E-reserves?• E-portfolios?• Collab (disk spaces for

works in progress)?• Department servers?• Etc., etc., etc.

About NITLE…

• Not-for-profit serving small, independent, undergraduate-centered colleges and universities, in US and abroad

• Over 100 campus participating• Three main services:

1. Networks of peer and topic-centered communities

2. Professional development and training programs

3. Managed technology services

• http://www.nitle.org

NITLE Information Services

Managed Services

Managed Services

TrainingTraining

Community of practice / Peer network

Community of practice / Peer network

COMMUNITY EXPERTISE

PROFDEVELOP-MENT

PEER SUPPORT & FEEDBACK

EFFICIENT ACCESS

JUST-IN-TIME KNOWLEDE

SHARED CONTEXT

NITLE Information Services

• Current Areas of Activity:– DSpace and Institutional Repositories (IRs)– Open-source Learning Management Systems– Multipoint Interactive Videoconferencing– NITLE is open to investigating other areas with

its participants

• Collaboration – NITLE provides programs and services in

support of collaborative projects– community member organize and lead

collaborative initiatives, making use of NITLE services

NITLE DSpace Services

• Through services around DSpace and IRs, NITLE intends to– help meet campus needs for IRs – help meet the needs of collaborative

projects, like LASR– help other projects and campuses learn

from each other, as they explore a common concern

NITLE Information Services

• Exploring with the community new ways of working together for the common good

• Examples:– Enabling easy and cost-effective ramp-up via

shared resources (NITLE’s segmented DSpace repository)

– Working with technology developers (DSpace Foundation) to contribute while allowing the small college community to participate in needs assessment

– Allowing the community to develop and distribute expertise (NITLE DSpace Technology Fellowships)

Thank you!

We’re glad to take your questions