Annual Report Sep 2005 - Aug 2006

From DigiRepWiki

JISC Digital Repositories Programme Support Team

Contents 1 Progress Report September 2005 – August 2006 1.1 Workpackage 1. Repositories Support Management 1.2 Workpackage 2. Collation of projects’ process-oriented outputs 1.3 Workpackage 3: Support for JISC’s Strategic Decision 1.4 Workpackage 4: Advice and support to projects 1.5 Workpackages 5 Programme dissemination and 6 Consultation/validation of work

Progress Report September 2005 – August 2006

The following staff comprised the DRS team over this period:

UKOLN: Julie Allinson (1.0), Mahendra Mahey (1.0), Rachel Heery (0.2)

CETIS: Sarah Currier (0.5 Nov-Apr, 0.4 May-Aug), Mark Power (0.5)

Workpackage 1. Repositories Support Management

• DRP wiki (DigiRep – www..ukoln.ac.uk/repositories/digirep) and DRS (support staff only) wiki created; continued population of content.
• Several jiscmail discussion lists established and managed, including jisc-repositories@jiscmail.ac.uk (public list with 816 subscribers).
• Monthly DRS conference calls, documented on the DRS wiki.
• Sarah Currier left the DRS team 18/08/2006; CETIS are arranging a replacement for Sarah.

Workpackage 2. Collation of projects’ process-oriented outputs

• Scenario and use cases: ‘Writing Effective Scenarios and Use Cases’ (Bath, Nov 2005) and ‘UML for use cases’ (Edinburgh, Jan 2006) training arranged; supporting documents and templates on DigiRep. ‘Writing Effective Scenarios and Use Cases’ training repeated (Edinburgh, Jul 2006). Submission process for scenarios, use cases and UML diagrams established. Projects have indicated willingness to share. Collection continues to build up on the wiki.
• Workflows (business processes): UML training; Workflows page on DigiRep. Workflow training planned for late 2006.
• Standards: Collaboration with JISC Standards Catalogue activity at UKOLN; sub-group of projects have input into Catalogue; planned conformance work.
• Scoping reference model: Evaluation of OAIS as a reference model, through DRS and CETIS Metadata and Digital Repositories SIG meeting. Evaluation report written by Julie Allinson was made available on DigiRep wiki and circulated to the jisc-drp list 3rd July 2006. Team has met with Ed Fox to explore 5S model (short evaluation planned). A discussion area on the support wiki has been established for other reference models. Mahendra Mahey attended the DELOS workshop about the Digital Library Manifesto (reference model).
• Deposit API: Kick-off meeting of repository developers to discuss specifying a Deposit API. Second 2-day meeting resulted in an XML serialisation for deposit and deposit receipt. Further work planned.
• e-Framework: DRS have input into e-Framework service definitions and ELF via meetings and email discussion, including representation on Framework WG and Framework Operations Group and attendance at ‘Submitting your Reference Model to the e-Framework’.
• Themes: Identifying repository themes across the programme through site visits, to be mapped to reference model work.

Workpackage 3: Support for JISC’s Strategic Decision

• Repositories Roadmap produced by Andy Powell and Rachel Heery.
• Repository Ecology in production.
• Repository Typology development ongoing.
• Eprints Application Profile developed, with Andy Powell. Dissemination workshops planned at Dublin Core Conference 2006 and at Open Scholarship 2006.

Workpackage 4: Advice and support to projects

• Gathering intelligence about projects, support requirements and project synergies through project visits.
• Continuing development of DigiRep to provide information and guidance.
• Training courses arranged (Scenarios, use cases and UML, workflows training being planned for late 2006).
• Clusters established, including DigiRep pages for collaboration.
• Support team assisted with facilitation of Programme Cluster meetings in March, including producing summary reports for the wiki.
• Support team have been active in discussions around possible cluster activities and are planning a Data Repositories event in October in conjunction with national Data Centres.
• DigiRep FAQs and Themes pages collate information on specific topic areas, including Personal Resource Management Strategies; Projects pages provide a quick reference to projects and project web sites.

Workpackages 5 Programme dissemination and 6 Consultation/validation of work

• Repositories advocacy package in production, to be incorporated in new JISC website.
• Presentations include: JISC-CETIS Conference, US Augmenting Interoperability meeting; JISC E-team; IWMW; UKOLN Open Forum; Intute IR Search Project; JISC-CNI Conference.
• Publications include: D-LIB in-brief; Ariadne at-the-event report on March cluster meetings; forthcoming item in Research Information.
• Meetings: Various attended, including Fedora Users Group; Versions project workshop; JISC IE and Digital Repositories Workshop at WWW2006; DELOS reference models meeting (Rome); DRIVER project kick-off meeting (Athens); CETIS MDR SIG meetings (York, Bath); UML for everyone; EThOS project meeting; A Technology Analysis of Repositories and Services final project meeting (Baltimore), plus meetings with Darenet, DLF, e-Framework.
• Contribution to discussions re synthesis and evaluation activities; DigiRep Projects, Clusters, Deliverables and Themes pages are being used to gather information to support activities.