An Introduction to the Alliance, NWDA, and Digital Services Planning

Jodi Allison-Bunnell, NWDA Program Manager

First, the Alliance

Membership

Oregon & WashingtonPrivate & Public

2-year and 4-yearcommunity colleges, private colleges, public research universities

7Puget Sound

5Eastern2

Cen

tral

2Southern

17W

illam

ette

Val

ley

36 Members

Central Oregon Comm. CollegeCentral Washington UniversityChemeketa CC (July 2007)Clark CollegeConcordia UniversityEastern Oregon UniversityEastern Washington UniversityGeorge Fox UniversityLane Community CollegeLewis & Clark CollegeLinfield CollegeMt. Hood Community CollegeOregon State UniversityOregon Health & Science Univ.Oregon Institute of TechnologyOregon State UniversityPacific UniversityPortland Community CollegePortland State UniversityReed CollegeSaint Martin’s CollegeSeattle Pacific UniversitySeattle UniversitySouthern Oregon UniversityThe Evergreen State CollegeUniversity of OregonUniversity of PortlandUniversity of Puget SoundUniversity of WashingtonWalla Walla CollegeWarner Pacific CollegeWashington State UniversityWestern Oregon UniversityWestern Washington UniversityWhitman CollegeWillamette University

Cas

cad

e R

ang

e

Council & Executive CommitteeDeans/Directors of 36 member institutions

Committees & Steering TeamsCollection DevelopmentElectronic Resources Northwest Digital ArchivesSummit Borrowing Summit Catalog

An involved membership

Summit

Courier Service

Electronic Resources

Digital Services

Northwest Digital Archives

Major Programs

9.2 million unique titles

28.7 million items

433,117 loans in FY08

280 libraries served through 80 dropsites in Oregon, Washington, &

Idaho

24-48 hour delivery

350,000 packages / year

Courier Servicewww.orbiscascade.org/courier/

Electronic Resources

Group purchase of databases, electronic books & journals

• Shared subject expertise

• Shared licensing expertise

• Group buying power

Increased accessCost avoidance

~ $8 million each year

www.orbiscascade.org/er/

Digital Services

New program (May 2007) investigating digital services

• federated search systems

• streaming media

• new search engines

• data harvesting

• digital repositories

• next generation integrated systems

Northwest Digital Archives

Highly valued initiative

Compatible mission

Interest in

• Working with broader set of cultural institutions

• Move to sustainability

• Exploring digital content future

www.orbiscascade.org/nwda/

Strategic Agenda

• Council working on new SA– November 2008 meeting– February 2009 meeting

• Completed initiatives:– Growth in existing programs– NWDA program– Cooperative Collection Development

• New initiatives:– Digital Services– Regional Library Services Center– Many others!

High density storage

Member buildings put to best use

Cooperative collection development

Home for other collaborative projects

- Digitization

- Preservation

- Instruction

Regional Library Services Centerwww.orbiscascade.org/rlsc/

Council Planning Sneak Peak• Digitization general:

– Very important/important 61%• Digital preservation:

– Very important/important 43% (also strong “investigate further”)• Discovery tool:

– Very important/important 39% (also strong “investigate further”)• Hosting content:

– Very important/important 61%• Scanning and reformatting:

– Very important/important 42% (also strong “investigate further”)

Next, NWDA

• The Northwest Digital Archives (NWDA) is a regional consortium that provides enhanced access to archival and manuscript materials through a union database of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids.

• Union database includes finding aids for over 4,900 archives and manuscripts collections in thirty different repositories in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska.

• Brings together academic (public and private), state, historical societies, and municipal archives.

• Alaska State Library, Historical Collections• Central Washington University• Central Oregon Community College• Eastern Washington University• Gonzaga University• Idaho State Historical Society• Lane Community College• Lewis & Clark College• Montana Historical Society• Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture,

Eastern Washington State Historical Society

• Oregon Health & Sciences University• Oregon Historical Society• Oregon Institute of Technology

• Oregon State University• Pacific Lutheran University• Portland Community College• Seattle Municipal Archives• Seattle Museum of History and

Industry• University of Alaska, Fairbanks• University of Idaho• University of Montana• University of Oregon• University of Washington• Washington State University• Western Oregon University• Western Washington University• Whitman College• Whitworth University• Willamette University

Program History

2002: Founded with grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission

2002-2004: Phase 1: $350,000 NEH grant and $138,000 NHPRC grant

2005-2007: Phase 2: Grants of $300,000 from NEH and $178,000 from NHPRC

July 2007: NWDA became a permanent program of the Orbis Cascade Alliance

2007-2008: Digital Services needs assessment and planning efforts

Current Program• EAD database of over 4900 finding aids• Technical infrastructure hosted at Washington State

University• 20,000 to 22,000 documents retrieved per month• Member training and support• Emphasis on collection-level access to materials• Half-time Program Manager• Working Groups support policy and changes to site and

program:– Standards– Usability Design

Current Services: The Pluses• Finding aid access across institutions• Serves experienced researchers well• High-level collection access• Some access to digital content• Finding aids are in a portable, flexible format• Usability testing shapes site functions• Good search engine exposure

Current Services: The Minuses• No digital content hosting capability• Links to digital content functional but clunky• Finding aids have a limited audience• Not taking full advantage of flexible data

structure• Encoding finding aids has few rewards for

some current and potential members• We’re another silo!

Last, Digital Services Planning

The Big Questions

• Why digitize, and for whom?• Role of special collections and archives• What do our members want and need?• What do their researchers want and need?• How do we create an essential program?

Needs Assessment Process

• Survey of Digitizing Initiatives• Researcher Type Survey• Researcher Needs Study• Institutional Needs Survey

Survey of Digitizing Initiatives

• Many programs in place• Convergence in standards for metadata• Many concerns about sustainability• Many concerns about audience/use• Desires for collaboration, training, hosting

Researcher Type Survey

• Priority audiences:– Students from my academic institution– Faculty from my academic institution– Staff/administration from my institution– Avocational historians– Family historians/genealogists– Alumni of my academic institution

Researcher Needs Study: Preliminary Results

• Strong desire for traditional reference functions

• Less interest in web 2.0 functions• Search preferred to browse• Most unfamiliar with sites we showed them

Institutional Needs Survey• A clear mandate for search engine exposure of any digital content• Very strong interest in pursuing preservation of reformatted and born

digital materials as a consortium, including hosting for preservation• Very strong support for a program to aggregate archives and special

collections materials for access, including “skin and slice” capabilities• Support for a program to present whole digitized archival collections• Adapt existing best practices• Desire for training• Strong support for scanning and reformatting services

Other Factors to Consider

• Investment in NWDA database metadata• Mass digitization of special collections• Need to increase efficiency of digitization and

metadata creation• Strong desire to integrate silos

Review Process October 2008-Present

• Digital Program Working Group studies results• NWDA PM studies results• Both present preliminary recommendations• Meet with NWDA ST early November• Group presents recommendations• This group carries forward into this meeting• Council integrates into February 2009 retreat

Digital Preservation

• Develop a digital preservation solution for born-digital and digitally reformatted content

• LOCKSS system, likely dark archive• Consider other models: MetaArchive

Cooperative

Discovery

• Develop a discovery tool or system to search and present content from systems currently used by Alliance and NWDA institutions:– Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems– Institutional repositories (IR)– NWDA database

• Presentations/user services to be informed by user studies

Hosting Services

• Develop options for hosting content for access• For institutions currently without hosting

options• Also may interest others who want other

options

Scanning and Reformatting Services

• Initially group-rate contracting for special formats

• Facilitate “adoption” of institutions who need services by institutions that have them for a fee

• Long-term, plan for services based in RLSC

Fees

• Flexible structure• Opt in, out of services

A Digital Services Systems Model

ContentServer

PreservationServer

StorageServer

Institution A

Institution C

Institution B

DAM

ContentServer

DAM

PreservationServer

Institution D

ContentContributor

ContentServer

IRDAMPreservation

Server

DiscoveryInterface

ConsortialSystems

Participates in shared storage and preservation services

Has content harvested, participates in preservation service, and runs preservation node

Participates in storage and preservation services and runs preservation node

Participates in storage service

NWDADB

Prepared by Michael Paulus, DPWG chair, October 31, 2008

IMLS Collaborative Planning Grant• Advisory Board in important areas:

– Preservation– Search and presentation– Business planning

• Programmer for prototype• DPWG meetings with AB• December 2008-December 2009

– Mostly January-July 2009

Grant Prospects

• IMLS National Leadership Grant, February 2010– August 2009-January 2010 preparation

• NHPRC Digitizing Historical Records, June 2009• Several possibilities with NEH

Atmospheric Considerations• Always a need to focus on advocacy, users as

well as back end– Institutions have to find this service essential

• Economic situation– Find ways to create cost savings, shift existing

budgets rather than new money