open source initiative in digital preservation: the need...

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Open Source Initiative in Digital Preservation: The Need -- 7th International CALIBER 2009

Open Source Initiative in Digital Preservation: The Need for an Open SourceDigital Repository and Preservation System

L Shanta Meitei Purnima Devi

Abstract

The paper discusses the Open Source Software in digital preservation for digital repository andpreservation system. The paper highlights the need and features of Open Source Software in DigitalPreservation with the successful adoption of open source application for library and informationmanagement system in this global digital information environment. The paper also discusses someof the important Initiatives of Digital Preservation and Repository System using Open SourceSoftware in India.

Keywords: Open Source, Digital Preservation, DSpace, Greenstone Digital Library, Eprints, Fedora,

Koha

1. Introduction

Open source denotes the principles of promotingopen access to a good’s production or designprocess and the product itself. It is mostly used inthe context of computer software, meaning that theknowledge assembled in software programs andoperating systems is available. Open source is oftenmentioned in the digital preservation context foropen standards play an important role here. Fileformat specifications and document formats canbe also open source, and related to open standards.Together they satisfy quite a number of preservationrequirements but for a number of reasons theycannot be proclaimed as a one-fits-all solution fordigital preservation [1].

The direction digital preservation must take isknown, but the details and complex relationshipswhich must be resolved are still being pursued. Andit is a matter of record that the array of resources

and expertise are making inroads into the solutionof all this digital complexity. Almost all of thedigital preservation exist within establishedinstitutions and have dedicated staff withtechnological expertise up to the task of wrestlingwith aspects of these issues. These include, forexample, National Libraries, National Archives,Institutional Repositories, Digital Libraries,Universities and other places of learning andresearch, and media and cultural museums andarchives.

So the point of this paper, and UNESCO MoWreport, “Towards an Open Source Repository andPreservation

System: Recommendations on the Implementationof an Open Source Digital Archival andPreservation System and on Related SoftwareDevelopment” on which it is based, is to imaginea scenario where there is a need to preserve acollection of simple digital objects, but where adigital preservation infrastructure has not yet been

7th International CALIBER-2009,Pondicherry University, Puducherry, February 25-27, 2009

© INFLIBNET Centre, Ahmedabad

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7th International CALIBER 2009 Open Source Initiative in Digital Preservation: The Need --

developed. In other words; to develop a sustainablepreservation standard digital management andstorage system for a collecting institution thatdoesn’t happen to be one of the world leaders indigital preservation [2].

2. What is Open Source Software?

Open-source software (OSS) is software for whichthe source code is freely available for anyone tosee and manipulate. There are various licensingmodels to which the OSS label has been applied,but the basic idea is that the software’s “licensemay not restrict any party from selling or givingaway the software as a component of an aggregatesoftware distribution containing programs” and theworking software must either be distributed alongwith its source code or have a “well-publicizedmeans of downloading the source code, withoutcharge, via the Internet.” That is, anyone can accessand manipulate the code that was used to write aprogram, as long as anything that person comesup with using that code is also offered to the publicas OSS. This allows those who use the software tocontribute to its further development, fix bugs andtinker with it as they please. This is contrasted withproprietary software, which is distributed ascompiled object code or machine code, leaving thesource code solely under the control of theindividual software vendor [3].

3. Open Source and Digital Preservation

Open source is not necessarily confined to software.Open standards, for example, can also be regardedas open source, in the sense that they are freelyavailable and open to the public. Assets conformingto open standards are more qualified for beingpreserved over a long period of time inasmuch as

they give access to the file format, making it easierto develop a tool which migrates this format shouldit become obsolete. In addition to this, many ofthe file format specifications like theOpenOffice.org spreadsheet and document formatsare themselves open source. However, proprietarysolutions can also provide satisfying results, havingthe advantages of, continuing and guaranteedcustomer support. Open standards for files to bepreserved, and also the implementation of thepreservation software and its parts under an opensource licence brings advantages. Other institutionscan use components developed using open softwareand adapt them to their needs. Furthermore,especially with respect to trust, open sourcesoftware is much easier to evaluate then proprietarysoftware [4].

4. Need & Features of Open Source Softwarein Digital Preservation

Open source software development model givesorganizations a new option for acquiring andimplementing systems, as well as newopportunities for participating in digitalpreservation projects. Five library related opensource software are described to illustrate the needand practice in digital preservation system [5] withtheir comparative study as shown in Table – 1.

4.1. Koha

Koha is the first open-source Integrated LibrarySystem (ILS). In use worldwide, its developmentis steered by a growing community of librariescollaborating to achieve their technology goals.Koha’s impressive feature set continues to evolveand expand to meet the needs of its user base. Kohais distributed under the open-source General PublicLicense (GPL). Koha includes modules for

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circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials,reserves, patron management, branch relationships,and more[6].

4.2. Greenstone

Greenstone is an open source suite of softwareissued under the terms of the GNU General PublicLicense. It is a user-friendly, multilingual, multi-platform package for assembling electronicdocuments into digital collections

and for publishing these collections on the Web oron CD-ROM. It accepts documents in a wide rangeof proprietary and standard formats, supportsnumerous standards for document and metadataexchange, including compliance with the OAI-PMH(Open Archives Initiative - Protocol for MetadataHarvesting) and Z39.50 information retrievalstandards, and readily converts bibliographicdatabases created under UNESCO’s CDS/ISISpackage into digital libraries, including the full textsof the related documents if available. Greenstone’sflexibility, robustness, ease of use, and freeavailability make it a particularly useful resourcefor the development of a wide range of DLapplications and for the training of librarians andinformation specialists in DL concepts [7].

4.3. Eprints

EPrints is free software developed by the Universityof Southampton, England. ePrints@IISc repositorycollects, preserves and disseminates in digital formatthe research output created by the IISc researchcommunity. It enables the Institute community todeposit their preprints, postprints and other scholarlypublications using a web interface, and organizes

these publications for easy retr ieval. Whileeprints@IISc can be accessed by anybody, submissionof documents to this repository is limited to the IIScresearch community only. ePrints@IISc repositoryis running on EPrints open archive software, a freelydistr ibutable archive system available fromeprints.org. ePrints@IISc complies with the OpenArchives Initiative (OAI) framework allowingpublications to be easily indexed by web searchengines and other indexing services [8].

4.4. DSpace

Developed jointly by MIT Libraries and Hewlett-Packard (HP), DSpace is now freely available toresearch institutions worldwide as an open sourcesystem that can be customized and expanded [9].DSpace is a digital asset management system. Ithelps create, index and retrieve various forms digitalcontent. Dspace is adaptable to different communityneeds. Interoperability between systems is built-inand it adheres to international standards formetadata format [10].

4.5. Fedora

Fedora is a center for innovation in free and opensource software, and creates a community wheredevelopers and open source enthusiasts cometogether to advance free and open source software.The Fedora community contributes everything itbuilds back to the free and open source world andcontinues to make advances of significance to the

broader community. Fedora is a ÿþLinux basedoperating system that provides users with access tothe latest free and open source software, in a stable,secure and easy to manage form [11].

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Note: These features may change as newer versionsof the software are made available

(Source of the Table: Madalli, Devika P. A DigitalLibrary of Library and Information Science usingDspace. Statistical Institute, Bangalore)

5. Initiatives of Digital Preservation Systemand Digital Repositories in India

A digital preservation is a digital archive of theintellectual output of an organization/institution.It makes the quality and breath of scholarshipproduces at the organisation accessible to othersworld wide over the Internet. It is a set of servicesthat a University/Organization offers to the

members of its community for the management anddissemination of digital material created by theinstitution and its community members. It is mostessentially an organizational commitment to thestewardship of the digital materials including longterm preservation. An effective digital preservationand institutional repository of necessity representscollaboration among libraries, informationtechnologies, archives and record managers, facultyand University administrators and policy makers[12].

With the emergence of successful digital library andpreservation projects in more developed countries,the public institutions in the region opted for long-

GSDL Eprints-II DSpace Fedora KohaCreator University of University of MIT libraries Cornell Katipo

Waikato Southampton & Hewlett- University & CommunicationsPackard

& University Ltd., New Zealandof Virginia

Open Source Yes Yes Yes Yes Yesand FreeOperating Unices, Unices Unices Unices, Linux,System Windows Windows Windows

Web-server Apache/ IIS Apache 1.3 Apache 1.3/2.0 Tomcat 1.4 Apache (2.0and/or Tomcat is preferred)

Language Perl Mod-Perl 1.0 Java 1.3, JSP J2SDK v.1.4 PerlDatabase Its own MySQL PostgreSQL 7.3 McKoi v.0.94 MySQL

(uses by default)MySQL//Oracle9i (optional)

Resource No OAI Identifiers CNRI Handles Uses own persistent

Identifier (similar to URNs) identifiers (PID)Dublin Core Dublin Core Dublin Core Qualified Dublin Dublin Core

Core YesMETS No No NoTo be

implementedin next Version1.2

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term preservation of this wealth of knowledgethrough digitization projects and digitalpreservation initiatives. Diverse multi-cultural andmultilingual contents are now being documented,preserved with the adoption of Open SourceSoftware System and made available through theinternationally acclaimed Digital Preservation andRepository initiatives such as [13]:

5.1. National Level Digital Preservations/Repositories:

Catalysis Database www.eprints.iitm.ac.in Software Used: EPrints Librarians’ Digital Library (LDL) https://

drtc.isibang.ac.in/ Software Used: DSpace OpenMED@NIC http://openmed.nic.in/ Software Used: EPrints

5.2. Institutional Repositories:

Digital Archive of National Institute ofTechnology Rourkela http://dspace.nitrkl.ac.in/dspace/

Software Used: DSpace Electronic Theses and Dissertations of Indian

Institute of Science (ETD@IISc) http://etd.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in

Software Used: DSpace Open Access Repository of IISc Research

Publications (ePrints@IISc) http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in/

Software Used: EPrints IDRC Digital Library http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/ Software Used: DSpace Digital Repository of IIT Bombay http://

dspace.library.iitb.ac.in/dspace/ Software Used: DSpace DSpace at National Centre for Radio

Astrophysicshttp://ncralib.ncra.tifr.res.in:8080/dspace/

Software Used: DSpace DSpace@IIMK http://dspace.iimk.ac.in/ Software Used: DSpace DSpace at National Chemical Laboratory

http://dspace.ncl.res.in/dspace/ Software Used: DSpace DSpace@INFLIBNET http://

dspace.inflibnet.ac.in/ Software Used: DSpace University of Delhi EPrint Archive http://

eprints.du.ac.in/ Software Used: EPrints Raman Research Institute Digital Repository

http://dspace.rri.res.in:8080/dspace/ Software Used: DSpace One World South Asia Open Archive

Initiative http://open.ekduniya.net/SoftwareUsed: EPrints

5.3. Digital Library:

Archives of Indian Labour: IntegratedLabour History Research Programmewww.indialabourarchives.org

Software Used: Greenstone Digital LibrarySoftware

India Education Digital Librarywww.edudl.gov.in

Software Used: Greenstone Digital LibrarySoftware

Vidyanidhi www.vidyanidhi.org.in Software Used: DSpace

6. Conclusion & Suggestion

It is largely achievable in a country where policyframeworks, institutional frameworks, informationinfrastructure, trained manpower, and financialresources are adequately available. The effect offocused capacity building programmers in the areas

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of digital preservation, digital libraries andapplication of open source software is encouragingin country like India, where significant proliferationof digital preservations and digital repositoriesinitiatives have been achieved in the last decade. Anumber of workshops and training events wereorganized in India during this period, where a fewthousand libraries and computer professionalsreceived training in open source software forbuilding open access repositories and digitalpreservation initiatives. Library schools in Indiahave since included open source digital archiving/preservation software in their curricula. Severalnational and international conferences, seminars,and symposia were also organized in India, wherelibrary professionals discussed methods andtechniques of digitization, digital librarydevelopment, institutional & digital repositorydevelopment and digital preservation.

Therefore, (i) Governments should encourageproviding adequate open source access throughvarious communication resources, notably theInternet, to public official information. Establishinglegislation on digital access to information and thedigital preservation of public data, notably in thearea of the new technologies, is encouraged; (ii)Develop policy guidelines for the development andpromotion of digital preservation system as animportant international instruments promotingpublic access to information; (iii) Encourageinitiatives to facilitate open access and digitalpreservation including journals and books, andarchives for scientific information; and (iv) Promoteresearch and development of digital preservationinitiatives projects and digital repositories with opensource software and ICTs for all, including

disadvantaged, marginalized and vulnerablegroups.

References

1. Neumayer, Robert. Open Source in DigitalPreserva tion. Available at http://www.digitalpreservationeurope. en/publications/briefs/open_source.pdf (Accessed on 05/01/2009).

2. Bradley, Kevin. Digital Preservation: the needfor an open source digital archival and preservationsystem for small to medium sized collections. Availableat http://www.amw.org.au/mow2008 /mow /speakerpapers/Bradley paper.pdf (Accessed on 07/01/2009).

3. Lee, Cal. Open-Source Software: A PromisingPiece of the Digital Preservation Puzzle. Available athttp://ils.unc.edu/Callee/oss_preservation.htm(Accessed on 05/01/2009).

4. Neumayer, Robert. Open Source in DigitalPreservation. Available athttp://www.digitalpreservationeurope.en/publications/briefs/open_source.pdf (Accessed on 05/01/2009).

5. Chawner, Brenda. Free/Open Source Software:New Opportunities, New Challenges. Available athttp://www.vala.org.au/vala2004/2004pdfs/33Chawn.PDF (Accessed on 07/01/2009).

6. Koha : The First Open Source ILS. Available athttp://www.koha.org/about-koha/ (Accessed on 13/01/2009).

7. About Greenstone. Available at http://www.sagreenstone.unam.na/aboutgsdl.html(Accessed on 09/01/2009).

8. About ePrints@IISc. Available at http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in/information.html (Accessed on13/01/2009).

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9. About DSpace. Available at http://dspace.udel.edu/AboutDSpace.html (Accessed on 13/01/2009).

10. Madalli, Devika P. A Digital Library of Libraryand Information Science using Dspace.Documentation Research and Training Centre, IndianStatistical Institute, Bangalore.

11. Available at http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Overview(Accessed on 13/01/2009).

12. Patel, Yatrik, Vijayakumar, J K and Murthy,T A V. Institutional Digital Repositories/e-Archives:INFLIBNET initiatives in India. Published in DigitalLibraries in Knowledge Management: Proceedings ofthe 7th MANLIBNET Annual National Convention.pp. 312-318, edited by M G Sreekumar [et al]. NewDelhi: Ess Ess, 2006.

13. Das, Anup Kumar. Open Access to Knowledgeand Information. Published in Open Access toKnowledge and Information in South Asia: ScholarlyLiterature and Digital Library Initiatives-The SouthAsian Scenario. Edited by Bimal Kanti Sen andJocelyne Josiah. New Delhi: UNESCO, 2008.

About Authors

Dr. Th. Purnima Devi, Reader, Department ofLibrary and Information Science, ManipurUniversity.E-mail: [email protected]

Dr. Lairenlakpam Shanta Meitei , LibraryAssistant, College of Agricultural Engineering &Post Harvest Technology (Central AgriculturalUniversity), Ranipool, Gangtok,Sikkim.E-mail: [email protected]

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