chapter 7 eprints digital library software evaluation http...

Chapter 7

EPrints Digital Library SoftwareEvaluationhttp://www.eprints.org

Introduction

GNU EPrints is a generic archive software developed by the University of

Southampton. It is intended to create a highly configurable web-based reposi-

tory. EPrints series began in early 2000[1] and EPrints 1.0 was released during

November 2000 with OAI 0.2 support. The project was originally sponsored

by CogPrints, but is now supported by Joint Information Systems Committee

(JISC) , as part of the Open Citation Project, and by NSF. Whenfirst version

of EPrints was released it became the first and one of the most widely used

free open access, institutional repository software for archiving preprints and

postprints of faculty members.

EPrints is an open source software for building open access repositories that

are compliant with the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvest-

ing. EPrints is primarily used by many organizations for building institutional

repositories.

The EPrints repository software has been developed to address the growing

demands on repositories to accommodate a wider variety of digital objects and

metadata, to integrate with a wider range of services and applications and to

support higher deposit rates to serve the needs of the whole institution.

It is a simple digital library software can be extensively configured to accom-

203

CHAPTER 7. EPRINTS SOFTWARE EVALUATION 204

modate the needs of academics and researchers aimed at dissemination and

reporting.

EPrints version 3 was officially released on 24th January 2007 and was de-

scribed by its developers as a major leap forward in functionality, giving more

control and flexibility to repository managers, depositors, researchers and tech-

nical administrators. The latest version of EPrints addresses high metadata

quality support by making data entry easier and range of import facility to im-

port objects from other services or data sources[2].

For the present study installation of 3.0.3 version was carried out and selected

for evaluation study. This version was released on 5th December 2007. Current

version of EPrints is 3.0.5 which was released during April 2008. The following

sections lists different observations after having installation of version 3.0.3.

7.1 Content Acquisition

7.1.1 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.?)

EPrints supports to add the following document types in the repository:

• Article (an article in a journal, magazine, newspaper. Maybe an

electronic-only medium, such as an online journal or news website).

• Book Section (A chapter or section in a book).

• Monograph ( A monograph. This may be a technical report, project

report, documentation, manual, working paper or discussion paper).

• Conference or workshop item (A paper, poster, speech, lecture or pre-

sentation given at a conference, workshop or other event.)

• Book (A book or conference volume)

• Thesis (A thesis or dissertation)

• Patent (A published patent)

• Artefact (An artist’s artifact or work product).

• Show/Exhibition (An artist’s exhibition or site specific performace-

based deposit)


• Composition (A musical composition)

• Performance (Performance of a musical event)

• Image (A digital photograph or visual image)

• Video (A digital video)

• Audio (A sound recording)

• Dataset (A bounded collection of quantitative data (e. g. spreadsheet

or XML data file).

• Experiment (Experimental data with intermediate analyses and sum-

mary results).

• Teaching Resource (Lecture notes, exercises, exam papersor course

syllabuses).

• Other (Something within the scope of the repository, but not covered

by the other categories).

7.1.2 Does the software have capability to define the domain/scope of Digital Library

for whom it is intended for?

Yes, it is possible to define the domain/scope of the digital library.

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

EPrints is basically intended for creating preprint/postprint archives, but

the current version also support adding other type of documents such as

audio/video etc.

7.1.4 Which digital document file formats does the system support(proprietary as

well as open source)?

All text formats are by default supported by the software, but software

also supports to upload JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF file formats, Adobe

Postscript, Adobe PDF, HTML file formats, MP3, AVI, MPEG file for-

mats.

Software also supports by default MS PowerPoint and MS Word format

uploading. Those formats which are not supported by the software are

added in the list as an ’other’ category.

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

happens if the same digital document is submitted multiple times?


Yes, software checks for duplicate entries while uploadingthe digital doc-

uments on the basis of “Title”.

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

objects or compressed digital objects?

System supports to upload normal digital objects as well as it supports to

upload files ending with .zip and .tar.gz

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

Yes, software supports to upload digital objects from existing URL as well.

7.1.8 Does the system support distributed/community based acquisition?

Yes, software has facility to acquire material from networkthrough au-

thorised EPrints user. EPrints user can upload documents through his/her

login area from anywhere on Internet.

7.1.9 Does the software support metadata/content import? In which file format

data is required for importing?

The software supports to import metadata of items via DOI (via CrossRef),

XML, PubMED ID, PubMED XML format. Software supports to import

metadata from XML/PubMED and allow end user to separately upload full

texts. It is easy to import metadata in EPrints if available in XML or the

EPrints supported format.

7.1.10 Does system supports importing of bulk metadata/contents of digital objects?

Yes, system supports to import bulk metadata/contents. Metadata is sepa-

rately imported and actual contents are separately imported in EPrints.

7.1.11 Does the software support to import automatic metadata for digital objects

that are added into the repository?

No

7.1.12 Does the software support metadata/content export? In which file format

data is exported?

Software supports to export content/metadata. While exporting metadata

software supports to export individual item in the repository with following

file formats

• ASCII Citation

• BibTex


• Dublin Core

• DIDL

• EP3 XML

• EP3 XML with Files Embedded

• EndNote

• HTML Citation

• METS

• MODS

• OpenURL Content Object

• OpenURL Dissertation

• OpenURL Journal

• Refer

• Reference Manager

• Simple Metadata

7.1.13 Does the software support export of bulk metadata/content of digital objects?

Yes, software supports to export metadata of bulk digital objects. Export

command exports metadata. One has to separately export digital objects.

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

7.1.15 Does the software support its own accession number for each document that

gets added into the repository?

EPrints create a unique numeric ID for each document that gets added into

the repository.

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

Yes, software has weed out policy and it allows to put an embargo data

for each item that gets added into the repository as well as ithas "Retire

Document" option for every item that is added into the repository.

7.1.17 Does the system support to delete items from the collection/repository, move

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

collections?

System supports to delete items from the repository. But does not support

any cross linking of objects from one collection to other because EPrints


does not have any collection based organization. Each item gets added into

the repository as an individual object into the repository.It does not have

any attached collection identification.

7.1.18 Which persistent identifier scheme does the system support?

EPrints yet does not have any support of persistent unique identifier num-

ber for all the documents that are added into the repository but it has an

OAI identifier support. Each document that gets added into the repository

has OAI identifier.

7.1.19 Does the system’s persistent URL method handle an object’s change in loca-

tion and state in future with same identifier number?

No, EPrints does not support any persistent identifier hencethis feature is

not supported in EPrints.

7.2 Content Management

7.2.1 Does the system have proper work flow in place which handles different sub-

mission processes?

EPrints supports limited submission work flow. It allows to create only

user, editor and repository administrator role.

7.2.2 If the system supports to have proper work flow for all actions into the repos-

itory then whether submission supports following options:

7.2.2.1 System allows to create overall system administrator Yes

7.2.2.2 System allows to submit documents by users via web Yes

7.2.2.3 System allows to set up submission rules No

7.2.2.4 System can define accept/reject policy for all documents that gets added

into the repository Yes

7.2.2.5 Allows multiple collections within same installation of the system No

7.2.2.6 Home page for each collection/community No

7.2.2.7 Allows to set different policies for different collections No

7.2.2.8 Allows to set different authorization policies for different collection/items

added into the repository No

7.2.2.9 Allow to edit metadata submitted by users Yes


7.2.2.10Sends email notification to users/submitters/authors Yes

7.2.2.11Sends email notification to metadata reviewers No

7.2.2.12Sends email notification to reviewer No

7.2.2.13Sends email notification to administrators Yes

7.2.2.14Allow users to review completed content Yes

7.2.2.15Allow users to review uncompleted content Yes

7.2.2.16Allow content administrator to review submissions Yes

7.2.2.17View pending content administration tasks Yes

7.2.3 Does the system support to upload documents into the repository through

Librarian’s interface as well? No, EPrints does not have any separate support

of Librarian’s interface. All functions in EPrints are carried out through

web user interface.

7.2.4 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?

Yes, overall data entry of EPrints is very user friendly withproper help fea-

tures and user can add/edit records easily. Metadata fields which are added

by default in EPrints are well designed as well as proper helpfeatures are

provided for metadata entry.

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

formats be added or removed by the end user?

EPrints supports to upload any MIME file formats and new file formats

can be added into the software.

7.2.6 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, EPrints supports to have access control based on login and password.

7.2.7 Does the repository software maintains audit logs that identify by whom and

when documents are submitted into the repository?

No, EPrints does not store any audit logs in its installationdirectory. It has

only apache log files data.

7.2.8 Does the system support knowledge organization systems such as ontologies,


thesauri, classification systems and taxonomies for users while adding docu-

ments via web in the repository? No

7.2.9 Does the system support digital objects to be grouped into organized structure

(i.e. linear/hierarchical/graphical structure)?

Yes, EPrints supports to use Library of Congress subject heading list.

Hence it organises all documents under the Library of Congress subject

headings.

7.2.10 Does the system support to generate authority files? No

7.2.11 Does the system allow digital object to be a member of multiple collections,

i.e. content mapping? No

7.2.12 Does the system allow users to modify (add/delete/update) metadata/complete

document added within the repository? Yes

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

7.3 Metadata Submission and Support

7.3.1 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?

Yes, EPrints supports to add descriptive metadata for all documents that

are added into the repository.

7.3.2 Does the software support to add administrative metadata (such as technical

aspects of digital documents, source of information (when and how a digital

document was created), rights management, 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?

EPrints supports to add to some extent administrative metadata such as

rights management, file size and file format details of every digital docu-

ment that is added into the repository.

7.3.3 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?

Yes, EPrints supports to add structural metadata for every digital object

that is added into the repository.

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

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

Yes, For each metadata field proper help is provided for entering data along

with examples.

7.3.6 Does the metadata entry field has one field mandatory? What are the manda-

tory fields in each software? Yes

The following are the mandatory metadata fields

• Item Type

• Title

• Creator

• Reference

• Subject

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

EPrints supports UTF-8.

7.3.8 Does the software allow to create and manage variety of different metadata

schemas to meet different needs across the subject disciplines ?

No, current version of EPrints I.e. Version 3.0.3 supports only Dublin Core

metadata schema.

7.3.9 Can the metadata fields or formats be customized?

Yes, EPrints supports to add any metadata fields.

7.3.10 What type of Metadata Schemas are supported by the software as a default?

EPrints supports by default Dublin Core metadata schema.

7.3.11 Does the software have default metadata entry templates? Yes, EPrints

have default metadata entry template.

7.3.12 Are the metadata formats documented? Yes

7.3.13 Does the software support different interface for metadata entry and whether

customized data gets added into the system? Yes

7.3.14 How 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.

7.3.15 Are there automated checks of the metadata, such as verifying that a date

entered into a field is really a date string? No

7.3.16 Does the repository software have any means to verify that objects or meta-

data have not been tampered with, such as checksums or digitally signed

checksums? No

7.3.17 Does the software support real time updating and indexing of accepted con-

tents? Yes, as soon as data is uploaded it is available for searching.

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

7.3.19 Does the software support metadata versioning? What happens to old versions

of metadata or content objects when they are replaced by new versions or

modified in some way? No

7.3.20 Does the repository software support provenance metadata? What is included

in the provenance? No, EPrints does not support provenance metadata.

7.3.21 Does the software support metadata crosswalk? No

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

saurus standard is used? Which subject heading DDC, DC or LC is used for

thesaurus building?

Software supports thesaurus building and it uses LC subjectheadings.

7.3.23 Does software have ontology support? No

7.3.24 How does the repository verify file types, for example, if a 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?

Yes, software verifies the submitted file and uploads the respective plugin

for that file while uploading any file into the repository.

7.3.25 While exporting metadata whether software support checksums? No

7.3.26 It is necessary to know whether the software support RAP protocol?

Yes, EPrints supports RAP protocol.


7.4 Classification

7.4.1 Does the system allow digital objects to be grouped into classification/subjects?

EPrints allow to group digital objects into different subject groups as per

Library of Congress Subject heading lists.

7.4.2 Which classification system does the software support?

EPrints does not support any classification system.

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

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

collections through class number?

No, software does not allow to brows collections through class number but

it allow to browse collections through Library of Congress subject head-

ings list.

7.5 Information Search & Retrieval

7.5.1 Browsing

7.5.1.1 Author/Creator/Contributor Yes

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

7.5.1.3 Issue Date/Date of Publication Yes

7.5.1.4 Collection No

7.5.1.5 Communities No

7.5.1.6 Subject browsing Yes

7.5.1.7 Publisher wise browsing No

7.5.1.8 Table of Contents browsing No

EPrints by default supports browsing by Date and Publication but it is pos-

sible to configure browse function by adding other Dublin Core fields in

browsing.

7.5.1.9 Multi-Dimensional Browsing No

In EPrints it is also possible to construct a view using the combined values

of two or more fields (eg. group records by author and editor),or even


using a sequence of two or more fields (eg. group records by journal title

and then by volume number).

Additionally EPrints supports browsing by Journal Title/Volume Number

as well as type of document.

7.5.2 Searching

7.5.2.1 Searching content via different metadata fields such as author, title, subject,

publisher etc.

The software supports to search via the following metadata fields

• Title

• Creator

• Abstract

• Uncontrolled keyword

• Subjects

• Item Type

• Department

• Editors

• Status

• Referred

• Journal or Publication Title

• Date

7.5.2.2 Full text searching Yes

7.5.2.3 Boolean (AND, OR, NOT) searching Yes

7.5.2.4 Basic search Yes

7.5.2.5 Advanced search

Yes, EPrints advance search feature has different fields through which data

can be searched such as Full text, title, creator, abstract,uncontrolled key-

words, subject, item type, Department, Editors, Status, Referred, Jour-

nal/Publication Title, Date, Retrieved Records, Search order all these fields

can be combined with other fields and data can be searched.


7.5.2.6 Does 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 AND NOT

Boolean operators respectively.

No, the software does not support any additional search via different search

strings.

7.5.2.7 Truncation/Wild card searching No

7.5.2.8 Exact words/phrases searching No

7.5.2.9 Proximity searching No

7.5.2.10Stemming No

7.5.2.11Fuzzy searching No

7.5.2.12Phonetic searching No

7.5.2.13Case sensitive or case insensitive while searching No

7.5.2.14System should support term weighting No

7.5.2.15System should support search history option , reuse of query, query save option.

No

7.5.2.16Boosting the term No

7.5.2.17Range searching No

7.5.2.18Use of thesaurus or permuted index for searching No

7.5.2.19Expand search No

7.5.2.20Lateral searching No

7.5.2.21Search support for special collections No

7.5.2.22Searching via table of content and classification codes No

7.5.2.23Ability to browse subject/author authority files No

7.5.2.24PIC variant searching (plurals, international spelling variants, and compound

words) No

7.5.2.25Support multilingual search and retrieval Yes

7.5.2.26Allow refinement of searches with qualifiers No

7.5.2.27Ability to group: prior to search, user can delimit pending results listings, and

group results by item characteristics (type, format) No


7.5.2.28Spell checker support No

7.5.2.29Refine searches: Once results are retrieved, users have the ability to focus and

reduce number of items retrieved No

7.5.3 Sorting

The system should support sorting results by

7.5.3.1 Author Yes

7.5.3.2 Title Yes

7.5.3.3 Issue Date Yes

7.5.3.4 Relevance No

7.5.4 Which search engine tool kit is used for searching the database?

No information about search engine tool kit used in EPrints is found anywhere.

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

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

the recall is high via word searching and precision is high ifthe metadata fields

are used for searching the database.

7.5.6 How is the speed of the retrieval of the documents?

The speed of the retrieval of the documents is very fast in EPrints but it does

not show how many documents are retrieved within how many seconds.

7.5.7 Does the system provide help for the users while searching digital documents? No,

EPrints does not provide any help for searching the documents from EPrints.

7.5.8 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 with minimum metadata fields such as author, title, pub-

lisher and access restrictions. Yes, after searching userscan download/export

contents into different formats such as ASCII Citation, BibTeX, Dublin Core,

BP3 XML, EndNote, HTML Citation, METS, MODS, Open URL Context Ob-

ject, Refer, Reference Manager.

7.5.9 While viewing the results does the system provide access control? Yes, EPrints

provide access control while viewing the results.


7.5.10 Does system support streaming audio/video option? Or it allows only to download

documents? Whether browser can support any other document viewing? Does the

end user need to have plugins and software for viewing particular documents?

System shows the contents of the video directly on the screenbut it first down-

loads the document and then shows the video through browser.No mention

about streaming server connection with EPrints was found. Software is basi-

cally meant for organising preprints/reprints collections.

If the browser plugins are installed system supports to showall documents

which are added into the repository.

7.5.11 Does the system support advanced features such as my binders, virtual bag, shelving

etc.

No, EPrints yet does not have any such advanced feature support.

7.5.12 Whether 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

7.5.13 Whether system support 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

7.6 Access Control, Privacy and Management

7.6.1 How users are managed in the software?

System keeps proper information of each user registered in the repository. For

every user, the following information is stored into the repository

• Type of User - User, Editor, Repository Administrator

• Email address

• Name

• Department

• Organization


• Address

• Country

• Homepage URL

• User Preferences

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

7.6.3 Does the system support to define different roles for different users?

System supports to have only three roles such as User, Editorand Repository

Administrator.

7.6.4 Does the system keep detailed information of each user that registers in the repos-

itory such as name, email, phone number, address, etc.? Yes

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

Registered user in the repository can be either user, editoror repository admin-

istrator.

7.6.6 Does the system have provision to identify active and inactive members and take

necessary action against inactive members? No

7.6.7 User Roles

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

7.6.7.2 Does system allow to create different groups of users No

7.6.7.3 Does system allow definition of different user groups No

7.6.7.4 Does system limit access by role No

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

7.6.8 Does the system allow access limits at different levels?

i. File/object level Yes

ii. Collection level No

iii. User/Group level No

7.6.9 How passwords are administered in the system?

EPrints stores passwords in MySQL tables.

7.6.10 Does the system assign passwords for each user? Yes

7.6.11 Does the system allow users to select passwords? Yes


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

7.6.13 How 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)?

The system allow to give access to metadata level information to all. The full

text view can be controlled by the following access levels

• Anyone

• Registered Users

• Repository staff only

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

i. IP source address filtering No

ii. Proxy filtering No

iii. Credential-based access Yes

7.6.15 Are access denials flagged in any special manner by the software? Does the soft-

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

processing and interpretation?

Yes, software gives a flag such as "Request a copy" if full textis not allowed to

be viewed by end user. The logs of the system are accessible toonly root user

where access log is kept.

7.6.16 Does the system support access to the collection for a specific period?

EPrints supports to keep the items added into the repositoryfor a specific pe-

riod. One can add embargo date for each item that gets added into the reposi-

tory.

7.7 Authentication and Authorization

7.7.1 Does the system support to provide setting different authorization policies? Yes

7.7.2 System should support restricting access to contents through password authentica-

tion/IP filtering/Proxy filtering.

Yes, EPrints supports to restrict access based on login and password.


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

preferred records, full text item or collections through different authorizations with

different privileges for different communities or individuals. EPrints supports autho-

rization privileges based on item full view with following authorizations such

as full text can be viewed by anyone, registered users only and repository staff

only.

7.7.4 System should also be able to allow different roles for different members for different

items/collections.

EPrints supports only three roles such as users, editor and repository adminis-

trator.

7.7.5 Does the system support to have a super user/admin user who is overall man-

ager/administrator of the software? Yes

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

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

No

7.7.7 Does the system use an external authentication mechanism (e. g., Lightweight

Directory Access Protocol)? No

7.7.8 Does the system display only those pages that are pertinent to each user for which

he/she is able to see? No

7.7.9 Does the system support the feature that groups are assigned to one or more roles?

No

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

or collections? No

7.7.11 Does the system support the following roles:

i. Content Developer Role: must be able to create/add/edit/delete metadata

and content in defined (not ALL) collections in addition No

ii. Administrator Role: must be able to add/delete/create users and groups

Yes

iii. Contributor Role: must be able to submit metadata and content, in addition

to general users’ role No


iv. General User Yes

v. Submitter Yes

vi. Metadata Reviewer No

vii. Max Role: must be able to do ANYTHING within the system Yes

7.7.12 Does the system use authorization to verify users with campus security systems

(NetID) No

7.8 Interoperability

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

PMH protocol?

EPrints supports OAI-PMH protocol.

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

harvesting?

The software uses PKP harvesting software.

7.8.3 SRU/SRW Support No

7.8.4 Does the software have openURL support?

Yes, the software has openURL support.

7.9 Ease of Deployment of each software

7.9.1 Software Installation

7.9.1.1 Packaging and installation steps

The installation instruction of EPrints is added in Appendix D of this document.

7.9.1.2 Automatic installation script

There is no automatic installation script available for installing EPrints. One

has to follow all the steps that are provided on wiki page of the EPrints.http://

wiki.eprints.org.

7.9.1.3 Disk space used

Around 130 MB disk space is used for installation of the software.


7.9.1.4 Time required to install each software

It is easy to install the software. It took around two to four hours to completely

configure the software to make it run live.

7.9.1.5 Documentation help available and useful for installation

The wiki.eprints.org page provides documentation help andinstallation help

step by step.

7.9.1.6 Environments needed to set for installation of each software

There is no requirement of settings any environment for installation of the soft-

ware.

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

can be installed

EPrints can be installed on UNIX like platform: Linux, Solaris, BSD etc. even

OSX as well as Windows.

7.9.1.8 Programming languages used

EPrints is written in PERL and runs as an apache module (usingmod_perl).

7.9.1.9 Database supported at back end

EPrints uses MySQL to store the metadata about records and users. The actual

full text files are stored in the archive directory stored in the UNIX file-system.

7.9.1.10Web Server used

EPrints uses Apache Web Server.

7.9.1.11Java servlet engine needed

EPrints does not need any Java servlet engine.

7.9.2 System Support/Maintenance

7.9.2.1 Documentation/manuals

The documentation of EPrints is now available only from wikipage such as

http://wiki.eprints.org

7.9.2.2 Mailing lists/discussion forums

EPrints has only technical mailing lists which is availableathttp://www.eprints.org

/tech.php/


7.9.2.3 Wiki pages

EPrints has its wiki page and it is available athttp://wiki.eprints.org

7.9.2.4 Help desk support No

7.9.2.5 Ease of system administration (ability to configure for different users)

EPrints is available for different users for different roles through web user in-

terface.

7.9.3 Hardware/Software Requirements

7.9.3.1 What are the minimum hardware requirements for the repository software?

1 GHz or more PC running GNU/Linux, or equivalent UNIX server

512Mb or more of RAM

40Gb or more of disk space with possibility of adding more if your archive gets

big

7.9.3.2 How actively is the software maintained by its owners or contributors?

Since EPrints has been widely used all over the world it is actively maintained

by its owners and contributors while bringing new versions often.

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

when hardware technology changes are needed? No

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

system security fixes? Yes

7.9.4 Security

7.9.4.1 Does the system have security methods such as

i. Data encryption No

ii. Digital signatures No

7.9.4.2 Server security (Does software has secure database connection?)

Yes, the database in EPrints is stored in MySQL where mysql has username

and password for EPrints database.


7.9.4.3 Ability to restrict access repository at item level (For e. g., to view metadata but

not content)

Yes, In EPrints by default metadata is visible to all but the full text visibility

has different options such as

visible to all

Registered users only

Repository staff members

After having a look at the metadata an end user can request fora full text copy

of the article if it is not visible.

7.9.5 System Level Security

7.9.5.1 Fixity - such as checksums or digests Yes, Md5 checksum supported

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

7.9.5.3 Logging and auditing events No

7.9.5.4 Does the software support any security if OS does not have any firewall imple-

mented?

No, EPrints uses Apache server’s security.

7.9.6 General features related to technical aspect

7.9.6.1 Does the software have any back end maintenance? No

7.9.6.2 Does the software have RSS support? Yes

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

to new versions?

Yes, Upgrading EPrints is very easy for its subsequent versions. An upgrade of

EPrints from version 3 to version 3.0.3 was carried out and itwas found that

only following procedure is required to upgrade

download latest upgrade version

untar the tar.gz file

then run ./configure /opt/eprints3 eprints eprints localhost

then run epaadmin upgrade repositoryID


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

repository software?

EPrints can be migrated to another repository.

7.9.6.5 Does the system support any ranking algorithms for the documents added in the

repository? No

7.9.6.6 Are there any known issues/bugs in the system? No

7.9.6.7 Whether a novice user can easily publish content ?

Yes, an end user can easily submit the contents to the repository and finally the

item is made available after review process to all. The software has very few

steps while uploading any document.

7.9.6.8 How often user needs to use database schema for making any change?

No, end user does not have to use database schema for making any changes.

7.9.6.9 Whether user can reorganize database? No

7.9.6.10Does the system support automated content acquisition, harvesting and automatic

metadata generation, including named entity recognition, automatic subject index-

ing/classification? No

7.9.6.11Does the system support to store metadata records separately from actual contents?

Yes, metadata records are stored in backend database and actual contents are

stored in ’archive’ directory of EPrints installation.

7.9.6.12Does the software support storing varied file formats?

EPrints software by default supports to store the followingfile formats

• HTML

• PDF

• Postscript

• Plain Text

• MS Powerpoint

• MS Word

• Image (JPEG)

• Image (PNG)


• Image (GIF)

• Image (BMP)

• Image (TIFF)

• Video (MPEG)

• Video (QuickTime)

• Video (AVI)

• Other

7.9.6.13Does the system keep the original file’s name, size and created date?

Yes, software keeps original file’s size and name as it is.

7.9.6.14While using the software if there are any errors occur, does the system allow to

submit the error report? No

7.9.6.15How many developers are working for the software?

There are currently six members developing the software as well as providing

the support to EPrints.

7.9.6.16How many users are using the software/strength of the community?

There are 251 installations of EPrints as on 26th March 2008.The total number

of items using EPrints repositories all over the world are 4,43,788 items in all

these repositories[3]

7.9.6.17Does the software provide its history on the web page for evidence of sustainability

and vitality? Yes

7.9.6.18Total number of downloads of the software?

No information about total number of downloads of the software is maintained

on EPrints website. EPrints is not available through SourceForge hence this

data is not available.

7.9.6.19 Is the software really under Open Source License terms and conditions?

EPrints is available under GPL license terms and conditions.

7.9.6.20Are there any costs involved for using OSS-DL? No

7.9.6.21Does the repository software have a clear policy regarding software upgrades? No

7.9.6.22Whether the software has a long-term leadership and consulting services?


Since EPrints user base and collection strength all over world is very large it

has long-term leadership and consulting services.

7.9.6.23After releasing the software whether it was tested and whether it has integrated

new features or not? Yes beta testing of the software is done regularly.

7.9.6.24How is the mailing list used by the users?

EPrints is available since 2001, the mailing list is heavilyused by users. The

following table (as observed on 26th March 2008) provide number of requests

sent on EPrints tech list which is available since 2005. The following table

shows that more number of users are using EPrints. Since EPrints has only one

mailing list it is heavily used by users.

Table 7.1: EPrints Tech Mailing List DataYear Number of Requests

Sent on EPrintsTechnology Mailing List

2005 250

2006 2000

2007 3000

2008 March 26th 434

7.9.6.25Whether software has conducted any workshops, training sessions on local, regional,

national and international levels?

EPrints workshops are conducted regularly at local, regional, national and inter-

national levels. The announcements of the workshops are sent through EPrints

mailing lists as well as available throughhttp://www.eprints.org web site.

7.9.6.26Whether software is built according to open standards? Yes

7.9.7 Architecture of the Software

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


The EPrints software has several data objects within the PERL modules to rep-

resent runtime entities such as users, e-prints, sessions,subjects and the meta-

data fields .

The work flow in EPrints is based upon a web interface that handles the sub-

mission process. The Depositor submits an e-print into the user workspace.

Approved e-prints are moved to a public location where they are accessible

by the repository’s user community. Subsequent processingmay be performed

upon the e-print and the accompanying metadata record. Thisincludes migra-

tion of the e-print file format, enhancement of the metadata record, or deletion

from the public archive.

Figure 7.1: EPrints Architecture

7.9.7.2 Does the architecture supports separation between different local parts and put

into different machines ( e. g. centralised/distributed database, relational/object-

oriented database management system, different components of the directory to

distribute to different machines) and the transport model (protocols for communi-

cation between the system and the user interface or between system components).

EPrints can be configured as centralised/distributed database.

7.9.7.3 Does system support grid architecture? How grids can help to disaster recovery of

data?

There is no mention anywhere about support of grid architecture in EPrints

software.


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

and retrieval?

EPrints can handle large volume of data and can work satisfactorily with more

number of users accessing EPrints..It has capability to handle millions of records.

7.9.9 Extensibility: Extensible, to allow new elements (collections, data types, services,

etc.) to be easily added to the digital library. No information available.

7.9.10 Storage:Does the system support data compression, For eg, in case of multimedia

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

system should support compression/decompression techniques. Does the system

support to store compress file formats?

Though software supports to store compress file formats it does not have any

support of compression/decompression techniques.

7.9.11 Backup/Restore facility

7.9.11.1Does 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?

No, software does not have any backup facility. EPrints recommends to

backup the installation directory of EPrints such as /opt/EPrints and mysql

EPrints database.

7.9.11.2Does the software explicitly require any particular backup strategy, or does it

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

Software does not have any backup strategy and it just relieson system-

level backup plans.

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

No

7.10 User Friendly Interface

7.10.1 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, it is possible to completely customize EPrints software. There are

different .pl files in perl_lib directory of EPrints installation. It is possible

to make changes in these files and customize EPrints completely.

7.10.2 Can user interfaces be localized in their language?

Yes, Since EPrints supports UTF8 it is possible to create user interface in

any localized language.

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

EPrints has same user interface for all users.

7.10.4 How is the user interface designed for the use of librarian or for the use of

users?

EPrints has same user interface for all users.

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

7.10.6 Does the system provide online help?

There is no online help provided throughout all the operations that are

carried out either by user or librarian.

7.10.7 Does the system provide multilingual access support? Yes

7.10.8 Does the system allow users to submit feedback on system problems? Yes

7.10.9 Does the system notify user’s current state of the task? Yes

7.11 Usability

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

EPrints is easy to use for the Librarian as well as for the end user for

searching.

7.11.2 Is the user able to navigate and find his/her ways to information quickly and

easily? Yes

7.11.3 How are the help features provided with the software? Does help feature

allow a user to feel comfortable within a digital library? Does the help feature

provide general as well as technical answers to the problems?

EPrints provides general help features for end users. No Technical answers

are provided with help features.


7.11.4 Does the user need to know which player or viewer is necessary to view mul-

timedia or other digital objects from the system?

No, EPrints automatically runs the file with available multimedia plugins

installed on the local machine.

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

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

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

A. Usage patterns

B. Use of materials

C. Usage statistics

D. Who uses what, when

E. For what reasons/decisions

EPrints supports to generate all the above statistics with the help of "ana-

log" tool which is free software and can provide different statistical data

for the end users for advanced reports.

7.11.7 Transaction Log Analysis

7.11.7.1Does the system keep error log files?

The system keeps all logs in /var/log/httpd such as access.log, error.log,

ssl_error.log, sss_access.log etc. which is Apache log area. EPrints uses

apache log files for all transactions that are carried out in EPrints. It does

not have any separate log files in EPrints area.

7.11.7.2Does the system keep user logs ? No

7.11.7.3Does the system keeps track of query’s submitted to the system? Does it

store any query log?

Yes, EPrints supports to store search history data. It stores all search his-

tory requests carried out into the repository as per the userID number and

system administrator has access to this data.

7.12 Copyright/Policy Issues

7.12.1 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?

Yes, Repository supports to allow to pick up from the following list keep

licensing conditions for individual digital objects in therepository with

different licensing conditions such as :

• License unspecified

• Creative Commons Attribution

• Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial

• Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives

• Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike

• Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike

• Creative Commons Attribution Public Domain Dedication

• Creative Commons Attribution GNU GPL (Software)

• Creative Commons Attribution GNU LGPL (Software)

EPrints also supports to add any other third party license inEPrints.

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

address filters, etc., that can be used to enforce copyright or access restric-

tions?

Every item that gets added into the repository can be controlled by follow-

ing default ways supported by the software

Visible to anyone Registered users only Repository staff only

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

policies addressing liability and challenges to those rights? No

7.13 Advanced Features

7.13.1 Whether software has long term leadership and consulting services? Yes, num-

ber of installations of EPrints are increasing day by day. Hence it is evident

that EPrints will provide service in future. EPrints also has strong suppport of

University of Southampton.

7.13.2 Does the system provide citation data? No, EPrints does not citation data.


7.13.3 Does the software have defined road map for the future?

There was no information found on web about defined road map for the

future of EPrints.

7.13.4 Does software support indexing of all documents that are added in the repos-

itory in a distributed way, without central control?

No, The ’epindexer’ command creates indexes of all documents that are

added into the repository and administrator can run that command or define

a cron job to automatically create indexes of new documents added into the

repository.

7.13.5 Virtual Collection Support: Does software support to generate virtual collec-

tions /special collections across several content providers? No

7.13.6 Load Balancing: Does software have any mention of load balancing? It is

necessary to know how the software functions when number of records are

more or more number of people try to access the software?

EPrints functions well if more number of people try to accessthe page or

more number of records are added into the repository.

7.13.7 Visualization: Does the software support visualization feature? No

7.13.8 Personalization: Does the system support Personalization feature? No

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

7.13.10Community Services: Does the software support to provide community services

such as allowing members of the digital library community to exchange ideas,

make announcements, write reviews etc. No

7.13.11Page Ranking: Does the software support page ranking such as supported by

commercial digital libraries. No

7.14 Digital Preservation

The following are some of the criteria which are defined from digital preserva-

tion point of view:

7.14.1 Does the software support any digital preservation strategy and if yes, does

it explicitly support any particular preservation strategy, such as described by


PREMIS like, bit-level preservation, format migration, format normalization,

emulation, or restrictions on submission formats

EPrints at present does not support any digital preservation strategy.

7.14.2 Whether system preserves the file’s original identities such as its name, size

and created date?

Yes, software keeps file’s original identities such as its name, size and

created date.

7.14.3 Does the system have any data integrity check for a file added into the repos-

itory? Yes, EPrints supports checksum with MD5.

7.14.4 Does the software have quality control measures to ensure integrity, and per-

sistent documentation identification for migration purposes? No

7.14.5 Does the repository software preserve pre-existing persistent identifiers for

submitted packages or objects? Yes

7.14.6 Does the software support preservation of metadata? It addresses the following

attributes of an archived digital object:

• provenance - documenting the history of the object. Yes

• authenticity - validating that the digital object is in fact what it should

be, and has not been altered. No

• preservation activity - documenting the actions taken to preserve the

digital object. No

• technical environment - describing the technical requirements, such as

hardware and software, needed to render and use the digital objects.

No

• rights management - recording any binding intellectual property rights

that may limit the repository’s ability to preserve and disseminate the

digital object over time. Yes

7.14.7 How does the software manage compound objects (where multiple file formats

of same object are linked together)?

Yes, EPrints supports to link together compound digital objects.

7.14.8 Does it have mechanism to keep licensing conditions for individual images/objects

in the repository?


Yes. Repository supports to keep licensing conditions for individual digital

objects in the repository with different licensing conditions. EPrints also

supports to add any other third party license into EPrints.

7.14.9 Does the software support to track and manage copyrights and restrictions on

use as required by contract or license? Yes

7.14.10Where does the repository software store the actual digital files and the meta-

data?

EPrints stores actual files in archive directory of EPrints and metadata is

stored in revisions folder of same archive directory.

7.14.11Can the repository software automatically validate checksums on a periodic

basis? No

7.14.12Are the checksums cryptographically signed to prevent tampering? No

7.14.13Does the repository software have a well documented process by which a

submission is ingested into the repository for storage? For example, how and

when does the repository software generate fixity data, such as checksums?

Yes, details of checksum are recorded into.xsh file.

7.14.14How does the repository software verify that archival objects and metadata are

correct?Are there automated checks of the metadata, such as to verify that a

date entered into a field really is a date string? No

7.14.15Does the repository software provide audit logs of all events that have occurred

in the life cycle of a package? Yes, EPrints keeps audit logs of all events that

have occurred in the life cycle of a package in httpd.log.

7.14.16 If repository ingests digital content with unclear ownership/rights, does soft-

ware has policies addressing liability and challenges to those rights? No

7.14.17Does the software have many echanisms to change its preservation plans as a

result of its monitoring activities? No

7.14.18Does the system have any mechanism in determining when objects in digital

archives should migrate to new hardware and software? No

7.14.19Can the software support scheduled events such that a human can be notified

on a preset schedule to manually check for format obsolescence? No

7.14.20Can new file formats be added or removed? Yes


7.14.21Does the software have ability to handle variety of file formats and does it also

supports file format versioning? Yes

7.14.22Does the software have mechanisms in place for monitoring and notification

when format (or other representation information) obsolescence is near/or are

no longer viable? No

7.14.23Can the software monitor any standard format registries in order to ascertain

format obsolescence? No

7.14.24What standards does the repository software use to describe file formats and

does the software record representation information? Does it use Internet

MIME Types?

EPrints uses MIME type identification of each file format. It does not

record any representation information of any file format added into the

repository.

7.14.25Does it use any format registries? If yes, which format registry is used such

as PRONOM or GDFR or DCC to represent format information? No

7.14.26Does the system support automatic format registration, For unknown formats

does the system sends any message to the submitter requesting for additional

information? No


Figure 7.2: EPrints Installation Screen

Bibliography

[1] http://wiki.eprints.org/w/Entire_manual#Introduction. (Browsed on 20th

March 2008).

[2] Carr, Leslie A. (2007). EPrints 3.0: new capabilities for maturing reposi-

tories.Proceedings ELPUB 2007 Conference on Electronic Publishing, Vi-

enna, Austria, p.435-436.

[3] http://www.eprints.org/software/archives/. (Browsed on 1st March 2008).

238

chapter 7 eprints digital library software evaluation http...

Documents