What goes around, comes around …

1. What goes around, comes around … Peter Burnhill EDINA National Data Centre University of Edinburgh http://edina.ac.uk/ IASSIST Annual Conference Ann Arbor, 23 -25 May 2006

2. Overview • EDINA • Services • Repositories of digital content • (user) verbs, not (supply-side) nouns • Experience with repositories of digital content • Personal • General

3. EDINA • JISC-designated National Data Centre, 1995/96 - • based at the University of Edinburgh Data Library (1983 -) • focus is on service, with significant r&D: projects into services • Our mission... to enhance the productivity of research, learning and teaching in UK higher and further education • If not, don’t do it! • delivering key datasets via ‘web-rooms’: • Map & Data Place • geo-spatial data & geo-referenced information • Reading & Reference Room • Supporting scholarly communication • Sound & Picture Studio • Download still images; documentary films • Learning & Teaching Centre • supporting interoperability & shared services • SDSS/Shibboleth; OpenURL Router; geoXwalk, etc • We do things for JISC

5. Every day is a school day … New words, and new ‘old’ words, new composite words: • digital libraries, portals • digital preservation, data curation & digital curation • and now digital repositories & institutional repositories • Opportunity to re-think what we do as data folk • Merit in looking at what we do, using viewpoints outside ourselves

6. Repositories of digital content • So what is a digital repository? • Do we already run digital repositories? • Can we move into that space? • What value can we add • For the client community? • For academic support colleagues? • Can we say: “Behind every great data service, there is a wonderful managed repository of digital content?” • First, some context

7. Experience with repositories of digital content: Personal • Scottish Education Data Archive, late 1970s – mid 1980s • Data generated from survey by a research centre (CES) • Made available online under ‘privileged access’ • Edinburgh University Data Library, mid-1980s & on • Wider range of data obtained from others, often via others (eg UKDA) • Made available online, sometimes with special software, to UofEd Attended IASSIST in 1985 • EDINA national data centre, mid-1990s & on • Still wider range of reference and source data, obtained under licence • made available, after value-added ‘curation’, to UK universities/colleges • For JISC: national repositories of digital content: Jorum, GRADE, Prospero • Digital Curation Centre, 2004 & 2005 • Even wider range of data yet (e-science), but held by others • Strategic role: ‘data curation’ & ‘digital preservation’ (there at the birth) • Information Services, Univ. of Edinburgh • Re-alignment, Institutional Repositories … • University Collections - digitisation

8. Experience with repositories of digital content: General • 1970s – mid 1980s • physical sciences and many in life & social sciences generated their own • emergence/growth of data archives & data libraries for social science data • IASSIST community of information professionals • growth in networked computing, and emergence of desktop • mid-1980s & on • Internet spurs development of new approaches for data services • global environmental change: data task forces link data factories • libraries get OPACS, access remote A&I databases • IASSIST 1990: ‘numbers, words, pictures & sounds’ • ‘all will be digital & accessed from afar’ • mid-1990s & on • arrival of WWW as successor to Gopher & WAIS, linking users to content • Sciences focus on curation of databases • arrival of digital library movement • Fusion of computation & document tradition; • digitisation in the Humanities, and digital preservation concerns • 2000 & on • Big Science discovers ‘sharing’, invests in data curation • Open Access movement; for authors & readers (publishers & libraries) • strategic role to encompass ‘data curation’ & ‘digital preservation’

9. Repositories of digital content • So what is a digital repository? • (user) verbs, not (supply-side) nouns … • A repository is a noun that meets a set of (user) verbs, by supporting delivery of [services] for a given/designated client community: • Put [ingest service] • Keep-safe [storage service] • Get [access service] • Motivation: for the record? for re-use? Can we say, “Behind every great service, there is a wonderful managed repository”? No, not if access service do not have a corresponding ingest service.

10. 3 JISC-funded national digital repositories: Jorum, GRADE & Prospero • Prospero • At the scoping stage (March – July 2006) • For e-Prints available under Open Access • A lot of Institutional Repository activity • Jorum • Now launched as ‘service-in-development’ • For learning & teaching materials • Few examples of Institutional Learning Object Repositories • GRADE Geospatial Repository for Academic Deposit & Extraction • A funded project (February 2004 – July 2006) • For geo-spatial derived data available under Licensed Access • informal and formal repositories repositories at associate partner sites

11. > Introducing the Jorum • Jorum is …. • national repository of learning & teaching materials • supporting reuse and repurposing • but not Open Access • a set of services (put & get) for UK universities & colleges • jointly run by: Introduction Background Overview Contributors Users Support Future work “helping to build a community forsharing”

12. > Jorum into service Jorum Contributor launched November 2005 Introduction Background Overview Contributors Users Support Future work • 41 Institutions have signed Contributor Licence • 200+ contributor accounts created • 581 objects being deposited, 402 now published Jorum User launched February 2006 • 165 Institutions have signed User Licence • 300+ user accounts created • 500 downloads • 400 on mailing list

13. > An Introduction to Jorum Introduction Background Overview Contributors Users Support Future work Jorum Contributor Jorum User Jorum “Getting content out” “Putting content in” Jorum R&D

14. > An Introduction to Jorum What type of objects does Jorum support? Introduction Background Overview Contributors Users Support Future work • Single files • Content Packages • Virtual Objects E.g. text documents, Spreadsheets, PowerPoints, Images, Video, Audio, Flash Animations Bundling learning resources together with LOM metadata - Content can be moved between programs, facilitating easier delivery, reuse & sharing of materials. Jorum can catalogue and point to resources stored elsewhere - “Learning Object has Information Objects”

15. > Presentation An Introduction to Jorum Jorum Contributor - putting stuff in Introduction Background Overview Contributors Users Support Future work Step 1 Contribute Step 2 Publish Step 3 Catalogue Step 4 Review • Upload resource(s) • Add basic metadata fields & classification • Attach relevant rights holder information • Published & available for download • RDN Cataloguer previews resource • and completes full metadata record • Reviewer assesses metadata • not content quality

16. > An Introduction to Jorum Jorum User – getting stuff out (not Open Access) Introduction Background Overview Contributors Users Support Future work • Users are teachers (tutors & learning technologists), not students • for deployment in VLEs for learners in institution • Direct or re-purposed use of materials • Institutions sign up for User Licence • via JISC Collections • a site representative and a technical support representative • Users from registered Institutions required to authenticate • log in using Athens username and password • Supports search/browse preview, download, reuse

17. > An Introduction to Jorum The Jorum Deposit Licence (looked at Creative Commons) Introduction Background Overview Contributors Users Support Future work • Contributor Institutions sign a Deposit Licence • Contributors grant Users a non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use materials for educational (non-commercial) purposes: • Aggregate, annotate, excerpt and modify • Search, retrieve, display and download • Save, print • Incorporate into learning environments & compile into study packs • Promotional purposes

18. > An Introduction to Jorum Introduction Background Overview Contributors Users Support Future work • How do you start to build a community of sharing? • ensure that products from projects do not disappear • long term retention of publicly funded outputs • experiment with national repository facilities that promote sharing,reuse and repurposing of content • provide a ‘keep safe’ and showcase for those who wish to share learning and teaching resources • regardless of institution and subject • consider subject-presentation & institutional profiling • provide easy to use publishing tools • all content is properly tagged with essential metadata and have adequate rights holder information.

19. > Presentation An Introduction to Jorum Where do the materials come from? Introduction Background Overview Contributors Users Support Future work • Centrally funded e-learning projects • JISC& other publically-funded projects • e.g. X4L Phase 1 and 2, Distributed e Learning projects • HE Academy CETLs • Centres of Excellence in Teaching and Learning • UK Further and Higher Education • Individual institutions – universities & colleges • Institutions working as part of a consortium • Working with other organisations/programmes • CETIS, other JISC services e.g. RDN/Intute, Digital Curation Centre • HE Academy Subject Centres • built (with critical mass of content), they will come!

20. User verbs: adding productivity to their workflow Discover Fit for purpose? Locate Access Use Create Publish Put Preserve

21. Re-thinking two ‘fuzzy’ verbs • To deposit • Who is the depositor? • What is their relationship to the object to be deposited? • What are the terms & conditions (licence) for access? • To share • Formal sharing: published (‘publicated’) • What does it mean to be ‘well-published’ (not ‘ill-published’) • What is the licence • Informal sharing: between friends/peers • Illicit sharing: outside terms of licence

22. Dataset publishing • Re-introduce the concept of Dataset Publishing (Callahan, Johnson, and Shelley 1996) • analogous to publishing papers • rewards people for publishing datasets • e.g. promotion, RAE • involves establishment of procedures (e.g. standards to use, peer review) & resources to manage procedures • Should minimise time and effort required • a dataset description is the equivalent of the bibliographic record • need tools to assist in creation, maintenance and dissemination of dataset descriptions • EDINA involved in two related activities • Go-Geo! Portal Phase 4b • GRADE – (Geospatial Repository for Academic Deposit and Extraction)

23. Prospero • Project at the scoping stage • Started in March 2006, will report in July • Main Phase for project under consideration • From August 2006 • Joint activity by EDINA & SHERPA • SHERPA is co-operative promoting OA & IRs • Scoping & Preparatory Phase • Have built early repository • using eprints.org software

24. Stakeholders for a national Open Access repository facility? connecting the Reader and the Writer • Researchers as authors • exposing work of authors to a readership • Researchers as PIs and grant-holders • to comply with conditions of grants • Institutions • as asset managers and service providers to their researchers • Grant-funders, as public purse holders • are they environment or stakeholders? • Learned societies • how else are subjects represented? • Publishers • are they environment or stakeholders?

25. Repository: Extended Abstract Model Ib 6. institution 2. depositor 1. object 3. repository (Prospero) 4. author journal 5. publisher

26. A national repository facility? • Many larger research-led universities have Institutional Repositories (IRs) • When will all have an IR? • Making INROADS • An interim national repository for OA deposits • UK repository junction? • WAYF? • Re-direct to web-page of extant IR • Accept deposit from researcher/authors where no extant IR • Transfer to IRs as and when they come into being

27. Trusted Repositories of Knowledge The Maori entrusted their knowledge to people, trained to be the repositories,who could: • receive information with the utmost accuracy • store information with integrity beyond doubt • retrieve the information without amendment • apply appropriate judgement in the use of the information • pass on the information appropriately. Whatarangi Winiata, (2002), Repositories of Röpü Tuku Iho: A Contribution to the Survival of Mäori as a People, Wellington: Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa Annual Conference, 17-20 November 2002 Special thanks to Professors Derek Law & Seamus Ross

28. Contact details Peter Burnhill Director, EDINA p.burnhill@ed.ac.uk or better still edina@ed.acuk Tel.: +44 (0)131 650 3302 Fax: +44 (0)131 650 3308 EDINA web site: http://edina.ac.uk