chapter 11 sops (scix open publishing software) digital library

Chapter 11

SOPS (SciX Open Publishing Software)Digital Library Software Evaluationhttp://www.scix.net/sops.htm

Introduction

The SciX (Open, Self Organising Repository for Scientific Information Exchange) project

is an European Commission funded project under the IST Programme[1]. Its aim was

developing web-services on the Internet for scientific publishing and information exchange.

SciX Open Publishing Services (SOPS) is a software that allows setting up various on-line

scientific publishing media such as[2]:

• personal archives

• institutional archives

• topic & society archives

• electronic journals

• electronic conference proceedings

• workflow support for the above

SOPS is a result of an EU funded research project. It is freelyavailable under an open

source license. The first version of the software was made available on March 31, 2004.

332

CHAPTER 11. SOPS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 333

As on today, the software has brought out only version 1.0. Ithas not brought out any

further versions of the software after 2004.

SOPS supports to make the material easily accessible through web user interfaces. SciX

has developed a business model where minimal costs are associated which allow end users

to self organise the contents online while providing easy user interfaces.

SOPS is built on top of the WODA (Web Oriented Database) database, which was created

and established by Ziga Turk in 1996. WODA provides servicessuch as user management,

discussions, ratings, reviews, review process support etc. WODA uses a library of CGI

functions written in PERL. Since WODA is available free, oneonly needs a web server

that can handle PERL scripts to use SOPS.

SOPS features are:

• Metadata harvesting according to the OAI-PMH 2.0 standard.

• Compatibility with citation management software such as Reference Manager, Cita-

tion Manager and Endnote.

• Compatibility with Microsoft Office 2003 Research Task Pane

• Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds.

• SOPS is multilingual. It exists in English, German and Slovenian languages.

SOPS software can also be used to organize all conference related tasks such as online

abstract and paper submission, online review and scheduling, email notifications to au-

thors, creation of author and title indexes, scheduling of sessions, posting of abstracts and

schedules on the web etc. along with creating digital libraries[3].

In the present study the evaluation of current version of SOPS was selected for evaluation

ie Version 1.0. The following sections lists different observations after having installation

of version 1.0.

After installation and evaluation it was found that software supports minimal digital library

building support. Though it is mentioned that it supports organizing online conference

related tasks many of the tasks did not work. Many functions which are necessary for

digital libraries are also not supported by the existing version of SOPS.


11.1 Content Acquisition

11.1.1 Which document types can be added in the software (books, reports, journal articles,

lecture notes, technical reports, thesis, images, audio/video files, data set files etc.?)

SOPS supports to add only electronic publications such as normal papers, keynote

papers, short papers, extended abstracts, posters, paper sessions in symposium &

workshops.

11.1.2 Does the software have capability to define the domain/scope of Digital Library for whom

it is intended for?

SOPS is specially meant for organising electronic publications.

11.1.3 If yes, what level of the users it is intended for?

It is intended for conference organisers and organising electronic publications.

11.1.4 Which digital document file formats does the system support(proprietary as well as open

source)?

Though SOPS is specially meant for uploading electronic papers it also uploads other

file formats as well such as mp3, tar.gz etc.

11.1.5 Does the system carry out duplicate checking while uploading the data? What happens

if the same digital document is submitted multiple times?

No, System does not carry out duplicate checking. If the samedigital document is

submitted multiple times it gets added into the repository.

11.1.6 How does the system allow to upload the digital objects, whether normal digital object

or compressed digital objects?

Software supports to upload digital objects with normal size as well as compressed

digital objects.

11.1.7 Does the software support to upload digital objects from existing URL?

No, System does not support uploading digital objects from existing URL the docu-

ment has to be available on local disk.


11.1.8 Does the system support distributed/community based acquisition?

Yes, Software has facility to acquire material from networkthrough SOPS users.

SOPS user can upload documents through his/her login area from anywhere on In-

ternet.

11.1.9 Does the software support metadata/content import? In which file format data is required

for importing?

SOPS supports import of metadata if data is available in CSV file format such as

Excel or Access.

11.1.10Does system support importing of bulk metadata/contents of digital objects? Yes

11.1.11Does the software support import of automatic metadata for the digital objects that are

added into the repository? No

11.1.12Does the software support metadata/content export? In which file format data is ex-

ported?

SOPS supports to export data into variety of formats such as Haward Style Refer-

ences, BibTeX References, EndNote (refer), ProCite, Reference Manager, Default

Short Format, Default, Detailed Format, Comma Delimited Format (.csv), Semi-

colon Delimited Format(.csv), Tab Delimited Format, XML Format, Easy to parse

XML, RSS 0.91

11.1.13Does the system support export of bulk metadata/content of digital objects? Yes

11.1.14Does system allow adding past versions of the digital document files? No

11.1.15Does the software support its own accession number for each document that gets added

into the repository? Yes

11.1.16 It is necessary to know whether software supports weed out policy?

Yes, SOPS supports weed out policy.

11.1.17Does the system support to delete items from the collections/repository, move digital

objects from one collection to other collection, cross-list digital objects across different

collections?


SOPS supports to delete items from the repository but each item in SOPS is sepa-

rately added. It does not support adding items under different collections.

11.1.18Which persistent identifier scheme does the system support?

No, SOPS does not support any persistent identifier scheme.

11.1.19Does the system’s persistent URL have capability to handle an object’s change in location

and state in future with same identifier number? No

11.2 Content Management

11.2.1 Does the system have proper work flow in place which handles different submission

processes?

No, SOPS does not have any work flow while uploading documentsinto SOPS. It

allows only to create different users and users are allowed to submit documents and

documents are added into the repository.

11.2.2 If the system supports to have proper work flow for all actions into the repository then

whether submission supports following options:

11.2.2.1System allows to create overall system administrator Yes

11.2.2.2System allows to submit documents by users via web Yes

11.2.2.3System allows to set up submission rules No

11.2.2.4System can define accept/reject policy for all documents that gets added into the

repository No

11.2.2.5Allows multiple collections within same installation of the system No

11.2.2.6Home page for each collection/community No

11.2.2.7Allows to set different policies for different collections No

11.2.2.8Allows to set different authorization policies for different collection/items added

into the repository No

11.2.2.9Allow to edit metadata submitted by users Yes

11.2.2.10Sends email notification to users/submitters/ authors No


11.2.2.11Sends email notification to metadata reviewers No

11.2.2.12Sends email notification to reviewer No

11.2.2.13Sends email notification to administrators No

11.2.2.14Allow users to review completed content Yes

11.2.2.15Allow users to review uncompleted content Yes

11.2.2.16Allow content administrator to review submissions No

11.2.2.17View pending content administration tasks No

11.2.3 Does the system support to upload documents into the repository through Librarian’s

interface as well?

No, SOPS does not have any separate support for Librarian’s interface. All functions

in SOPS are carried out through Web User Interface only.

11.2.4 Does the software provide easy way for adding/editing of records for Librarian as well as

for the remote user? Are insertion and deletion of records easy?

SOPS data entry interface is same for all. It is easy to add/edit/delete records in

SOPS.

11.2.5 Are the supported file formats well documented in the system? Can new file formats be

added or removed by the end user ?

SOPS allow to upload any file format there is no mention of any file format restric-

tion. Documentation of supported file formats is not available.

11.2.6 Does the repository software have any capabilities, such as access control lists, Internet

address filters, etc. that limit who is allowed to submit items in the software?

Yes, SOPS supports to have access control based on login and password.

11.2.7 Does the repository software maintain audit logs that identify by whom and when docu-

ments are submitted into the repository?

SOPS provide detailed log file of all users with details such as when each user is

logged on to the system, what actions are carried out by each user, time duration, IP

address of the machine from which SOPS was accessed etc.


11.2.8 Does the system support knowledge organization systems such as ontologies, thesauri,

classification systems and taxonomies for users while adding documents via web in the

repository? No

11.2.9 Does the system support digital objects to be grouped into organized structure (i.e.

linear/hierarchical/graphical structure)? No

11.2.10Does the system support to generate authority files? No

11.2.11Does the system allow digital object to be a member of multiple collections i. e. content

mapping? No

11.2.12Does system allow users to modify (add/delete/update) metadata/complete document

added within the repository? Yes

11.2.13Does the system support to show strength of each collection? No

11.3 Metadata Submission and Support

Metadata support in SOPS is very limited. There is no mentionof which metadata schema

it supports neither it has any other information available.

11.3.1 Does the software support to add descriptive metadata (such as author, title, subject,

publisher, copyright , year of publication, etc. ) for each digital object that gets added

into the repository?

SOPS supports to enter id, authors, year, title, source, summary, keywords, series,

type, email, more, content, discussion and ratings.

11.3.2 Does the software support to add administrative metadata (such as technical aspects of

digital documents, source of information (when and how it was created), rights manage-

ment, how the digital document is created, what is file size, in what file format digital

document is in, what is needed to view the digital document) for each digital object that

gets added into the repository? No

11.3.3 Does the software support to add structural metadata (such as description, owner, data

type, date deposited, version number, date of last revision, how compound objects are


put together, how pages are ordered to form chapters) for each digital object that gets

added into the repository? No

11.3.4 Does the software support adding/editing/deleting metadata fields? Yes

11.3.5 Are help messages given in each metadata field while entering data? Yes

11.3.6 Does the metadata entry have atleast one field mandatory? What are the mandatory

fields in each software?

While entering metadata SOPS has author, title, year as mandatory fields.

11.3.7 Does the software support Unicode character set for metadata entry? Yes

11.3.8 Does the software allow to create and manage a variety of different metadata schemas

to meet different needs across the subject disciplines ? No

11.3.9 Can the metadata fields or formats be customized? Yes

11.3.10What type of Metadata Schemas are supported by the software default?

SOPS does not support any metadata schema by default.

11.3.11Does the software have default metadata entry templates?

Yes, SOPS has simple metadata entry template which is a standard template for

entering data.

11.3.12Are the metadata formats documented? Yes

11.3.13Does the software support different interface for metadata entry and whether customized

data gets added into the system? No

11.3.14How does the software verify that submitted objects and metadata are correct?

There are no ways by which it is possible to verify submitted objects and metadata.

11.3.15Are there automated checks of the metadata, such as verifying that a date entered into

a field is really a date string? No

11.3.16Does the repository software have any means to verify that objects or metadata have

not been tampered with, such as checksums or digitally signed checksums? No


11.3.17Does the software support real time updating and indexing of accepted contents?

Yes, as soon as data is uploaded it is available for searchingimmediately.

11.3.18Does the software allow for metadata extensibility and complexity? No

11.3.19Does the software support metadata versioning? What happens to old versions of meta-

data or content objects when they are replaced by new versions or modified in some way?

No

11.3.20Does the repository software support provenance metadata? What is included in the

provenance?

No, SOPS does not support provenance metadata.

11.3.21Does the software support metadata crosswalk? No

11.3.22Does the software support ”thesaurus” building? Does it specify which thesaurus stan-

dard is used? Which subject heading DDC, DC or LC is used for thesaurus building?

No

11.3.23Does software have ontology support? No

11.3.24How does the repository verify file types, for example, if JPEG images are submitted

to the repository, does the software verify that it is really a valid JPEG, or does it just

blindly take the submitters word? No

11.3.25While exporting metadata whether software support checksums? No

11.3.26 It is necessary to know whether the software support RAP protocol? No

11.4 Classification

11.4.1 Does the system allow digital objects to be grouped into classification/subjects? No

11.4.2 Which classification system does the software support? SOPS doesnot support any

classification system.

11.4.3 Does it allow to group documents as per the class number? No


11.4.4 It is also necessary to know whether system supports hierarchical browsing of collections

through class number? No

11.5 Information Search & Retrieval

11.5.1 Browsing

11.5.1.1Author/Creator/Contributor Yes

11.5.1.2Title of the document/Title of the book/Title of the article etc. Yes

11.5.1.3 Issue Date/Date of Publication Yes

11.5.1.4Collection No

11.5.1.5Communities No

11.5.1.6Subject browsing Yes

11.5.1.7Publisher wise browsing No

11.5.1.8Table of Contents browsing No

11.5.1.9Multi-Dimensional Browsing No

11.5.2 Searching

11.5.2.1Searching content via different metadata fields such as author, title, subject, pub-

lisher etc. Yes

11.5.2.2Full text searching Yes

11.5.2.3Boolean (AND, OR, NOT) searching Yes

11.5.2.4Basic search Yes

11.5.2.5Advanced search Yes

11.5.2.6Does the system allow to search the database putting boolean operators such as !,

|, &, ∼ , +, −, etc. as well as ”must contain”, ”should contain”, ”may contain”,

”not contain”, as operators in place of AND, OR, and NOT Boolean operators

respectively. Yes

11.5.2.7Truncation/Wild card searching Yes

11.5.2.8Exact words/phrases searching Yes


11.5.2.9Proximity searching Yes

11.5.2.10Stemming Yes

11.5.2.11Fuzzy searching Yes

11.5.2.12Phonetic searching No

11.5.2.13Case sensitive or case insensitive while searching No

11.5.2.14System should support term weighting No

11.5.2.15System should support search history option , reuse of query, query save option.

No

11.5.2.16Boosting the term No

11.5.2.17Range searching No

11.5.2.18Use of thesaurus or permuted index for searching No

11.5.2.19Expand search No

11.5.2.20Lateral searching No

11.5.2.21Search support for special collections No

11.5.2.22Searching via table of content and classification numbers No

11.5.2.23Ability to browse subject/author authority files No

11.5.2.24PIC variant searching (plurals, international spelling variants, and compound words)

No

11.5.2.25Support multilingual search and retrieval No

11.5.2.26Allow refinement of searches with qualifiers No

11.5.2.27Ability to group: prior to search, user can delimit pending results’ listings, and

group results by item characteristics (type, format) No

11.5.2.28Spell checker support No

11.5.2.29Refine searches: Once results are retrieved, users have the ability to focus and

reduce number of items retrieved No

11.5.3 Sorting

The system should support sorting results by


11.5.3.1Author No

11.5.3.2Title No

11.5.3.3 Issue Date No

11.5.3.4Relevance No

11.5.4 Which search engine toolkit is used for searching the database?

WODA has its own search engine which is used for searching theSOPS database.

The woda search engine offers a broad range of facilities, such as full-featured natu-

ral language search, category based browsing etc.

11.5.5 How is the recall and precision ratio while searching the documents?

Since the system supports searching via metadata fields and full text searching the

recall is high via word searching and precision is high if themetadata fields are used

for searching the database.

11.5.6 How is the speed of the retrieval of the documents? The speed of the retrieval of doc-

uments is very fast in SOPS but it does not show on the screen how many documents

are retrieved within how many seconds.

11.5.7 Does the system provide help for users while searching digital documents?

Yes, system provides proper help support for searching the documents in SOPS

repositories.

11.5.8 How the results are displayed to the users? Whether users can download contents after

searching? How are results displayed such as metadata, filetype, file size?

Results are displayed in abridged form with all metadata fields such as author, year,

title, publication details. It allows end user to export data into variety of format such

as BibTex, XML format, Tab Delimited Format etc. after searching with all searched

results or selected search results.

11.5.9 While viewing the results does the system provide access control? Yes

11.5.10Does system support streaming audio/video option? Or it allows only to download doc-

uments? Whether browser can support any other document viewing? Does the end

user need to have plugins and software for viewing particular documents? No mention


about streaming server was found. SOPS is basically meant for organising electronic

publications.

11.5.11Does the system support advanced features such as my binders, my searchers, my basket,

etc. Yes, SOPS supports adding searched items in each users basket.

11.5.12Whether system supports unified search? (Unified search is the support for finding items

that are scattered among a distributed collection of information sources or services,

typically involving sending queries to a number of servers and then merging the results

to present in an integrated, consistent, coordinated format)? No

11.5.13Whether system supports federated search? ( Federated search allow users to search

multiple digital libraries with a single query from a single user interface. The user enters

a search query in the portal interface’s search box and the query is sent to every other

digital library software)? No

11.6 Access Control, Privacy and Management

11.6.1 How users are managed in the software?

SOPS supports all users data in WODA database.

11.6.2 Does the system support to add/edit/delete user profiles? Yes

11.6.3 Does the system support to define different roles for different users? No

11.6.4 Does the system keep detailed information of each user that is registered in the repository

such as name, email, phone number, address etc.? For all users, SOPS record following

information such as user name, given name, family name, email, title, affiliation,

country and address.

11.6.5 How the permissions are given to users who have registered into the repository ? SOPS

does not have any work flow. It does not give any permissions for different users.

11.6.6 Does the system have provision to identify active and inactive members and take nec-

essary action against inactive members? System keeps track of existing and inactive

members.


11.6.7 User Roles

11.6.7.1Does system allow to create different groups for different users No

11.6.7.2Does system allow to create different groups of users No

11.6.7.3Does system allow definition of different user groups No

11.6.7.4Does system limit access by role No

11.6.7.5Does system allow collection to be customized for each role/group No

11.6.8 Does the system allow access limits at different levels?

(a) File/object level No

(b) Collection level No

(c) User/Group level Yes

11.6.9 How passwords are administered in the system? No information about administrating

passwords is found in the documentation anywhere.

11.6.10Does the system assign passwords for each user? Yes

11.6.11Does the system allow users to select passwords? Yes, system allow end users to

select their own passwords.

11.6.12Does the system have mechanism to retrieve forgotten password? Yes

11.6.13How is the level of access for inside/outside users (such as outside users can access only

metadata and abstract level access and internal members can access full texts as well as

metadata)? It is possible to allow registered users only to access each object added

into the repository.

11.6.14Does the system have any mechanism to provide access to the digital library via

(a) IP source address filtering No

(b) Proxy filtering No

(c) Credential-based access Yes


11.6.15Are access denials flagged in any special manner by the software? Does the software keep

access logs and how accessible are the logs to either human or machine processing and

interpretation? SOPS keeps detailed log of all actions that are carried out inSOPS.

11.6.16Does the system support access to the collection for a specific period? No

11.7 Authentication and Authorization

11.7.1 Does the system support to provide setting different authorization policies? No

11.7.2 System should support restricting access to contents through password authentication/IP

filtering/proxy filtering. No

11.7.3 System should be able to support access based on browsing/viewing metadata, preferred

records, full text item or collections through different authorizations with different privi-

leges for different communities or individuals. No

11.7.4 System should also be able to allow set different roles for different members for different

items/collections. No

11.7.5 Does the system support a super user/admin user who is overall manager/administrator

of the software? No

11.7.6 Does the system use authorization to support different roles within the system (for eg

submit user, metadata editor, reviewer, approver, overall administrator etc.) Yes

11.7.7 Does the system use an external authentication mechanism such as LDAP (Lightweight

Directory Access Protocol)? No

11.7.8 Does the system display only those pages that are pertinent to each user that he/she is

able to see? No

11.7.9 Does the system support the feature that groups are assigned to one or more roles? No

11.7.10Does the system support the feature that users are assigned to one or more groups or

collections? No

11.7.11Does the system support the following roles:


(a) Content Developer Role:must be able to create/add/edit/delete metadata and

content in defined (not ALL) collections in addition No

(b) Administrator Role: must be able to add/delete/create users and groups Yes

(c) Contributor Role: must be able to submit metadata and content, in addition to

general users’ role No

(d) General User Yes

(e) Submitter Yes

(f) Metadata Reviewer No

(g) Max Role: must be able to do all activities within the system Yes

11.7.12Does the system use authorization to verify users with campus security systems (NetID)?

No

11.8 Interoperability

11.8.1 It is necessary to know whether the software supports Z39.50 protocol and OAI-PMH

protocol? SOPS support OAI-PMH 2.0 protocol.

11.8.2 Which harvesting software is used by the Digital Library Software for metadata harvesting?

No information found about the harvesting software used in SOPS.

11.8.3 SRU/SRW Support No

11.8.4 Does the software have openURL support? No

11.9 Ease of deployment of each software

The following points will be considered while evaluating installation of each software:

11.9.1 Software Installation

11.9.1.1Packaging and installation steps The installation process of SOPS is added in Ap-

pendix G of this document.


11.9.1.2Automatic installation script There are no automatic installation script available for

SOPS installation.

11.9.1.3Disk space used SOPS requires WODA database installation and SOPS program.

WODA gets installed in /usr/local area,which occupies minimal disk space i.e. 2.2

MB and woda and SOPS executables gets installed in /var/www/cgi-bin and / var/

www/ html area and it uses total 13 MB disk space.

11.9.1.4Time required to install each software SOPS successful installation requires changing

paths in many files. Installation of SOPS needs expertise on handling different in-

stallations of software. It took around four to five hours to completely do installation

of SOPS.

11.9.1.5Documentation help available and useful for installation Documentation help is avail-

able for installation but it is not properly listed hence it is not very easy to install

SOPS with available documentation manual.

11.9.1.6Environments needed to set for installation of each software No environment variables

are needed to set for installation of SOPS as it only uses perlscripts.

11.9.1.7Operating systems (Linux/Windows/Solaris/MacOS/GNU/AIX) on which software can

be installed SOPS works well with Linux, Unix as well as Windows operatingsys-

tem.

11.9.1.8Programming languages used SOPS is developed in PERL programming language.

11.9.1.9Database supported at back end SOPS requires WODA database as a back end

support. WODA database automatically generates web pages,which are used for

adding, updating, searching and reviewing of records, as well as for administration.

11.9.1.10Web Server used It works on Apache Web Server.

11.9.1.11Java servlet engine needed No Java Servlet Engine is used.

11.9.2 System Support/Maintenance

11.9.2.1Documentation/manuals There is one documentation manual available for SOPS but

it is not very detailed documentation manual.


11.9.2.2Mailing lists/discussion forums No mailing lists or discussion forums yet available for

SOPS software.

11.9.2.3Wiki pages No wiki pages are yet available for SOPS.

11.9.2.4Help desk support No help desk support yet available for SOPS.

11.9.2.5Ease of system administration (ability to configure for different users) SOPS is easy for

carrying out different administrative tasks. It has menu driven admin interface where

different tasks can be carried out.

11.9.3 Hardware/Software Requirements

11.9.3.1What are the minimum hardware requirements for the repository software? SOPS

works well with a server connected to the Internet with about20 MB free disk space

plus 4 MB disk space for each language version and requires space for storing data.

SOPS can work successfully with Intel Pentium 133 Mhz class machine.

11.9.3.2How actively is the software maintained by its owners or contributors? SOPS version 1.0

was released during 2004. After that the software developers have not yet brought

out any new versions.

11.9.3.3Does the software have procedures in place to monitor and receive notifications when

hardware technology changes are needed? No

11.9.3.4Does the software creators have a process to stay current with the latest operating system

security fixes? No

11.9.4 Security

11.9.4.1Does the system have security methods such as

(a) Data encryption No

(b) Digital Signatures No

11.9.4.2Server security (Does software have secure database connection?) Yes


11.9.4.3Ability to restrict access repository at item level (For eg to view metadata but not

content) Yes

11.9.5 System Level Security

11.9.5.1Fixity - such as checksums or digests No

11.9.5.2Management of users’ accounts and rights to specified locations within the DL No

11.9.5.3Logging and auditing events Yes

11.9.5.4Does the software support any security if OS doesn’t have any firewall implemented?

No

11.9.6 General features related to technical aspect

11.9.6.1Does the software have any back end maintenance? No

11.9.6.2Does the software have RSS support? Yes

11.9.6.3Does the software have easy mechanisms to upgrade the software from old versions

to new versions? No new versions have come out so far hence this feature is not

available yet.

11.9.6.4Does the software support migration of data from one repository software to another

repository software? No information available on this feature.

11.9.6.5Does the system support any ranking algorithms for the documents added in the repos-

itory? Yes, SOPS supports to rank each document that is added into the repository

in the scale of poor, average, good, very good, excellent.

11.9.6.6Are there any known issues/bugs in the system? One of the major bugs in installa-

tion is, one has to change paths in many files then only all options in SOPS works

properly.

11.9.6.7Whether a novice user can easily publish content ? Yes, Novice user can easily submit

and publish content easily on SOPS.


11.9.6.8How often user needs to use database schema for making any change? SOPS WODA

database administration page is available through web hence it i s easy to customize

database as per requirements.

11.9.6.9Whether user can reorganize database? Yes

11.9.6.10Does system support automated content acquisition, harvesting and automatic metadata

generation, automatic subject indexing/classification? No

11.9.6.11Does the system support to store metadata records separately from the actual contents?

Metadata and actual contents are stored in different directories in SOPS, such as

metadata is stored in /var/www/html/wdat/works/_data directory and actual contents

are stored in /var/www/html/ wdat/works/att directory.

11.9.6.12Does the software support storing varied file formats? Yes

11.9.6.13Does the system keep the original file’s name, size and created date? No, SOPS

changes file names with its own file name.

11.9.6.14While using the software if any errors occur, does the system allow to submit the error

report? No, system does not allow to submit any error reports.

11.9.6.15How many developers are working for the software? No information about this feature

was found anywhere.

11.9.6.16How many users are using the software/strength of community? Total 12 organisations

are using SOPS software.

11.9.6.17Does the software provide its history on the web page for evidence of sustainability and

vitality? Yes

11.9.6.18Total number of downloads of the software? No record of total number of downloads

of the software is available for this software.

11.9.6.19Is the software really under Open Source License terms and conditions? Though soft-

ware is open it is not provided under any Open Source License terms and conditions.

11.9.6.20Are there any costs involved for using OSS-DL? No

11.9.6.21Does the repository software have a clear policy regarding software upgrades? No


11.9.6.22Whether the software has a long-term leadership and consulting services? Since no

new versions have come out after 2004, it is difficult that software will be available

during long-term.

11.9.6.23After releasing the software whether it was tested and whether it has integrated new

features or not? No

11.9.6.24How is the mailing list used by the users? No mailing lists of SOPS are available.

11.9.6.25Whether software has conducted any workshops, training sessions on local, regional,

national and international levels? No

11.9.6.26Whether software is built according to open standards? No information about open

standards is found in documentation manual.

11.9.7 Architecture of the Software

11.9.7.1How is the architecture and design of the software whether it is simple or complex?

Architecture of software is modular architecture allowingmodules to be included,

left out, added or replaced relatively easily in any particular implementation or ap-

plication.

Figure 11.1: SOPS Architecture

11.9.7.2Does the architecture support separation between different local parts and put into differ-

ent machines ( e.g. centralised/distributed database, relational/object-oriented database


management system, different components of the directory to distribute to different ma-

chines) and the transport model (protocols for communication between the system and

the user interface or between system components).

No information was found about this feature.

11.9.7.3Does system support grid architecture? How grids can help disaster recovery of data?

No information about grid architecture was found.

11.9.8 Scalability:It is necessary to know whether software is scalable in terms of storage and

retrieval?

No information about scalability of SOPS was found anywhere.

11.9.9 Extensibility: Extensible, to allow new elements (collections, data types, services, etc.)

to be easily added to the digital library. No

11.9.10Storage: Does the system support data compression for eg in case of multimedia col-

lections the size of the files (for eg video/audio files) would be very large, hence system

should support data compression/decompression techniques. Does the system support

to store compressed file formats?

No, SOPS does not support compression and decompression technique.

11.9.11Backup/Restore facility

11.9.11.1Does software support backup function, which contains metadata associated with

access controls, customized files, as well as full texts of the documents added in

the repository?

Yes, SOPS support backup feature. It supports to backup all tables where actual

data is stored.

11.9.11.2Does the software explicitly require any particular backup strategy, or does it just

rely on system-level backup plans, like periodic disk backups to tape?

Yes, SOPS relies on system-level backup i.e. All digital documents are stored

in /var/www/wdat/_data files.

11.9.11.3In the event of a disaster, what recovery plans are supported by the software?

No recovery plans are supported by the software.


11.10 User Friendly Interface

11.10.1 Whether end user can easily customize the user interface ”look and feel”? Whether the

end user can change the header, theme, footer, overall web interface of the system?

Yes, end user can customize the user interface as per needs. SOPS allows to change

header, footer, theme etc. as per the end user’s requirements.

11.10.2Can user interfaces be localized in their language?

Currently SOPS interface is available in English, German and Slovenian Language.

11.10.3How is user interface for the experienced or non experienced users?

User interface is same for experienced and non experienced users.

11.10.4How is the user interface designed for the use of librarian or for the use of users?

User interface is same for the library staff and for the end user.

11.10.5Whether system provide web based interface for all its functionalities? Yes

11.10.6Does the system provide online help? No

11.10.7Does the system provide multilingual access support? Yes

11.10.8Does the system allow users to submit feedback on system problems? No

11.10.9Does the system notify user’s current state of the task? No

11.11 Usability

11.11.1 What user skill levels are expected to use the web interface?

It is easy to use SOPS web user interface for a non experiencedperson.

11.11.2 Is the user able to navigate and find his/her ways to information quickly and easily? Yes

11.11.3How are the help features provided with the software? Does help feature allow user to

feel comfortable within a digital library? Does the help feature provide general as well as

technical answers to the problems?


SOPS provide only general help feature. It doesnot provide any extensive help sup-

port.

11.11.4Does the user need to know which player or viewer is necessary to view multimedia or

other digital objects from the system?

No, SOPS automatically identifies required player and display contents on the web

if end user has installed required browser plugin.

11.11.5Does the user interface provide facility to give user opinion on the web as well as does

the software support users to fill up online user feedback form? No

11.11.6Does the system support to show usage statistics such as :

(a) Usage patterns Yes

(b) Use of materials Yes

(c) Usage statistics Yes

(d) Who uses what, when Yes

(e) For what reasons/decisions No

11.11.7Transaction Log Analysis

11.11.7.1Does the system keep error log files?

SOPS keeps detailed log of all actions carried out in the software. It keeps error,

usage log file.

11.11.7.2Does the system keep user logs ?

Yes, software records all data about which user had logged in, time duration, actions

carried out etc.

11.11.7.3Does the system keeps track of query’s submitted to the system? Does it store query

log?

Yes, SOPS records details about all queries submitted to SOPS.


11.12 Copyright/Policy Issues

11.12.1 Does the repository software have any means to manage, store, or enforce contract

agreements for all the digital documents that are added into the repository? No

11.12.2Does the software have any capabilities, such as access control lists, Internet address

filters, etc., that can be used to enforce copyright or access restrictions?

SOPS allows to restrict access to documents added in SOPS either open to all or to

registered users.

11.12.3 If repository ingests digital content with unclear ownership/rights, does it have policies

addressing liability and challenges to those rights. No

11.13 Advanced Features

11.13.1 Whether software has long term leadership and consulting services? No

11.13.2Does the system provide citation data? No

11.13.3Does the software have defined road map for the future? No

11.13.4Does software support indexing of all documents that are added in the repository in a

distributed way, without central control? No

11.13.5Virtual Collection Support: Does software support to generate virtual collections /special

collections across several content providers? No

11.13.6Load Balancing: Does software have any mention of load balancing?

No mention about load balancing was found.

11.13.7Visualization: Does the software support visualization feature? No

11.13.8Personalization: Does the system support Personalization feature? Yes, CDS-Invenio

support personalization feature. Each user can create their own collection baskets

and CDS-Invenio’s search engine alerts for the new items added in the repository to

each user through email. User can also generate discussionson any document which


is available in the repository. Users can also get citation information of each docu-

ment. Users can also write reviews of any documents that are there in the repository.

software supports to create personal collections.

11.13.9Translation Service: Does the system provide translation service? No

11.13.10Community Services: Does the software support to provide community services such as

allowing members of the digital library community to exchange ideas, make announce-

ments, write reviews etc.

SOPS supports to initiate online discussion on a particulardocument submitted in

SOPS repository.

11.13.11Page Ranking: Does the software support page ranking such as supported by commercial

digital libraries. No

11.14 Digital Preservation

SOPS has not yet implemented any digital preservation support. Hence none of the evalu-

ation criteria related to digital preservation were valid and considered for evaluation.


Figure 11.2: SOPS Installation Screen

Bibliography

[1] Bjork, B. ; Turk, Z. ; Martens, B. (2002). Re-engineeringthe scientific publishing

process for the ‘Internetworked’ global academic.ELPUB Proceedings- J. A. Carvalho

[et al.] [ed.], VWF, Berlin, 8 p.

[2] SciX Open Publishing Services (SOPS) version 1.0, Documentation Manual. March

31, 2004,http://www.scix.net/sops.htm. (Browsed on 27th February2008).

[3] Martens, B. and Cerovsek, T. (2004). Experiences with web-based scientific collabora-

tion: managing the submission and review process of scientific conferences.8th ICCC

International Conference on Electronic Publishing, Brasilia, - DF, Brazil, June, p. 204-

217.http://elpub.scix.net/cgi-bin/works/Show?204elpub2004 . (Browsed on 1st March

2008).

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