Open-Source, Open-Access Digital Archives in the Sunshine:

A Review of Current Initiatives in Florida’s Public Universities

Kelsey Adams and Mia TignorSchool of Information, University of South Florida

James Anthony SchnurSpecial Collections and University Archives

Nelson Poynter Memorial LibraryUniversity of South Florida St. Petersburg

Early Automation Trends

The old “card” catalog, March 1986, shortly before the arrival of LUIS, the online Library User Information System.

Barcoding “party” in 1985, before LUIS online system became fully operational in Florida’s SUS

Offering a demo of LUIS, the Library User Information System, 1986

End of the “card” catalog at USF St. Petersburg, 1990

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 13 July 1997

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 13 July 1997

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 28 April 1999

Early databases of digital collections and resources

available through WebLUIS

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 12 January 1998

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 24 December 1997

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 24 December 1997

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 31 January 1998

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 31 January 1998

Portal to all libraries of the University of South Florida system through the USF Virtual Library project, 1999

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 2 October1999

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 24 April 1999

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 27 April 1999

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 9 February 1998

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 9 February 1998

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 23 July 2001

Wayback Machine Snapshot from 13 February 2004

Open Access Software in Florida University Special Collections & Archives: An Exploratory Survey

Mia Tignor and Kelsey Adams

A five minute questionnaire designed as an exploratory survey to evaluate what software for content management in digital collections and archives are already in place and to gauge the satisfaction of these programs was sent to all 11 Florida public universities (below) and the Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA):

•Florida A & M University•Florida Atlantic University•Florida Gulf Coast University•Florida International University •Florida State University•New College of Florida•University of Central Florida•University of Florida•University of North Florida•University of South Florida•University of West Florida

METHODOLOGY

RESULTS

Pros of Open Access

•Simplicity of use; both inputting and accessing•Multiple functions•Budget-friendly•Community support

“…All of these (open access) tools have large user communities that provide new features/plugins and assistance with diagnosing and troubleshooting problems.”

“…Dspace is easy to use, very intuitive and open source. It has a loyal and well established network of fans and programmers throughout the world.”

Cons of Open Access

•Technical skills

•Material formats vary

•Compatibility

“…although the source code is free, open source software frequently requires other resources and expertise to implement, such as programmers and system administrators, which can be more expensive in the long run.”

Pros of Proprietary

•Familiarity

“…”the systems we have in place are appropriate for our present staffing models and resources and generally allow staff to retrieve materials in a timely and accurate manner.”

Cons of Proprietary

•Numerous limitations•Cumbersome

“…without access to the source code, it’s very difficult to diagnose or fix problems, It’s also impossible to develop new or improved features.”

“…we found the commercial tools like DigiTool, ContentDM and related to be insufficient to our needs and so do not use them.”

IN THE FUTURE?

•FCLA/CCLA and Islandora

•Open Access + Proprietary

The USFSP Digital Archive

http://dspace.nelson.usf.edu

Example of extracted text from the original document

Example of corrected text to promote access to content in the original document

Scanned document

Non-public bitstreams that document our permission to provide open access

Non-public bitstreams that document our permission to provide open access

Bitstreams safely archived far away from Tampa Bay!

Deeds of gift and donor paperwork scanned and mounted in a non-public area of the USFSP Digital Archive with date and time stamps, in case anything happens to the original copies.

Future directions

Questions?