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TDL Director search underway

January 16th, 2013

As announced previously, Mark McFarland will step down in Spring 2013 as Director of the Texas Digital Library. With McFarland’s departure on the horizon, the TDL Governing Board has begun the search for candidates to fill this crucial position.

The Governing Board has established a search committee and hiring process and have drafted and posted a job description through UT Austin Human Resources as of January 2. Those interested may review the job description and application process at the following URL: https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/hr/jobs/nlogon/130102010379

The Director Search Committee is comprised of members of the TDL Executive Committee, TDL Governing Board member Joan Heath, and select members of the TDL staff.

Dana Rooks, TDL Chair, University of Houston
Fred Heath, TDL Vice-Chair/Chair Elect, UT Austin
Chris Shupala, Secretary/ Treasurer, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Joan Heath, Member-at-Large, Texas State University
Ryan Steans, TDL Sr. Program Manager
Mark McFarland, TDL Director and ex-officio member of the Search Committee, UT Austin

The Texas Digital Library has initiated a multi-step hiring process and will keep members apprised of any developments as the Search Committee progresses.

Questions about the TDL Director Search should contact TDL Senior Program Coordinator Ryan Steans at info@tdl.org or 512-495-4403.

Presentation on Fair Use and Digitization Projects Available

December 21st, 2012

Missed the TDL Copyright Seminar held on December 13th? Georgia Harper, Scholarly Communications Adviser at UT Libraries and one of the leaders of the seminar, has made her presentation available through the TDL website.

You can access it through the Member Resources page of the website or by clicking HERE.

Announcement of TDL Director resignation

December 17th, 2012

From TDL Chairperson Dana Rooks:

Dear TDL Colleagues,

It is with pride and excitement for Mark McFarland and, hopefully forgivable regrets on my part, that I announce that Mark will leave his position as Director of the Texas Digital Library to assume a new role with the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas – Austin.

Thanks to Mark’s loyalty and commitment to TDL and the generosity of his new Dean, Mark will remain in his TDL role part time pending the recruitment and appointment of a new Director for TDL.

I have known, respected and worked closely with Mark for many years. Mark has worked in libraries, in one capacity or another, for most of his life. He started out shelving books in the Bizzell Memorial library in Norman, Oklahoma and then went to work in the Archives of the Western History Collections, also in Norman. So, before he even got to Texas, where he got his MLIS, he had already been working in libraries for years. He completed the MLIS degree while working at various positions in the UT Library system on the Austin campus.

I have known Mark since the TexShare days. In those early days, when libraries were struggling to find the best ways to pool resources and provide access to electronic information, Mark was already working with colleagues at UT to help provide cutting edge tools like Gopher. In addition, he was helping train library colleagues all across the State in all kinds of libraries as we all prepared to take on the huge challenges of working with an ever-increasing amount of digital information. Mark and his team, which consisted mostly of Ladd Hanson at that time, provided the technical leadership, expertise and technical assistance for all of us to actually run those first databases on TexShare hardware at UT. As TexShare matured and vendor services became more sensitive to our needs, we transitioned from a model of running the hardware ourselves, to allowing the vendor to run it and the technical team became more focused on providing websites and services in direct support of user needs.

All the while that Mark was working with TexShare, he was also working with colleagues in the UT System schools helping to shape electronic services for them and providing similar kinds of support. Mark is an avid collaborator and has always worked hard to advance libraries, and push them forward toward into the digital world.

Once the TexShare and UT System digital libraries became established, Mark began working to establish the Texas Digital Library – which is focused on tools and services to assist librarians, faculty and students in the discovery, dissemination, preservation and use of online information. TDL is in it’s 9th year and, again, Mark has worked with colleagues throughout the State to build a consortium of libraries and librarians who are committed to advancing library services and values. Along the way, Mark has helped form other organizations (the Preservation and Archiving Special Interest Group, The Texas Conference on Digital Libraries, the Digital Preservation Network) and has worked with many others around the country and the world to advance the aims of next generation scholarship and research.

We will never be able to adequately acknowledge all of Mark’s significant contributions to Texas libraries. He promises he will not stop his involvement with libraries. We are very grateful that we will be able to rely on Mark as needed as we make this transition to new leadership of TDL.

I will be following up with details on the search process for a new Director very shortly. Please send your thanks and your best wishes to Mark as he begins his exciting new responsibilities.

Dana C. Rooks

Chair, Texas Digital Library Governing Board

TDL updates all WordPress sites and blogs to latest version

December 14th, 2012

The Texas Digital Library has upgraded all its hosted WordPress sites and blogs to WordPress 3.5, the latest version of the software Users of TDL-hosted WordPress sites and blogs will see several new features the next time they log in, including:

A streamlined media upload process, with a single button for adding any type of media, as well as easier tools for arranging galleries and adding metadata.
A new theme, called “Twenty Twelve,” with a minimal look that works well on mobile devices.
A new welcome screen to help new users get started using the software.

The video below, provided by WordPress introduces some of these features:

For more information about TDL-hosted blogs and sites, which the TDL provides at no cost for faculty and staff at TDL member institutions, visit the TDL website. Full documentation for WordPress software is available on the WordPress site.

Keynote speakers for TCDL 2013 bring focus on digital preservation

December 6th, 2012

The TDL is pleased to announce that Michele Kimpton, CEO of DuraSpace, and Nancy McGovern, Head of Curation and Preservation Services at MIT, will serve as the keynote speakers for the 2013 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries.

Both speakers have long resumes in tackling issues related to digital preservation.

Currently the Head of Curation and Preservation Services at MIT, Nancy McGovern is a highly respected figure in the field of digital curation and preservation. She was formerly the Digital Preservation Officer and a Research Assistant Professor at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), and prior to that, a digital preservation manager and researcher at Cornell University Library.

As CEO of the DuraSpace Foundation, Michele Kimpton is the project director for the DuraCloud project and provides overall leadership for all DuraSpace initiatives, activities, and partnerships. She has been named a Digital Preservation Pioneer by the NDIPP program at the Library of Congress.

Call for Proposals

The TCDL 2013 planning committee is accepting proposals for participation through February 8.

TCDL 2013 has multiple avenues for participation, including individual presentations, panel sessions, posters, workshops and tutorials, and “birds of a feather” sessions. The full Call for Proposals, which includes a list of “topics of interest,” is available on the conference website.

About TCDL 2013

TCDL 2013 will be held May 7-8, 2013, at the Radisson Hotel & Suites in downtown Austin.

The conference covers topics relevant to the creation, promotion, and preservation of research, scholarship, and cultural heritage digital materials. The goal of TCDL 2013 is to bring together those working on library-related digital projects — including outreach librarians, repository managers, cataloguers, technical staff, and others — in order to build a practical, usable and sustainable model for digital libraries.

Information about the conference, including discounted rates at the conference hotel, can be viewed on the conference website.

Preservation on the horizon: Continuing development of preservation services at TDL

December 6th, 2012

Through development efforts on multiple fronts, the TDL continues its commitment to developing a dedicated preservation infrastructure that will ensure the longevity and accessibility of digital scholarly communication into the future.

On the long-term horizon is the national Digital Preservation Network effort, which TDL joined in early 2012. Closer to home, the TDL has begun investigations of DuraCloud as a local solution for allowing member institutions to move content easily from their institutional repositories (or other locations) into storage at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC).

The TDL hopes that DuraCloud will provide an interim preservation solution for members by giving them the ability to manage content stored at TACC, but it will also, over the longer term, provide the means for integrating TDL member content at TACC with the Digital Preservation Network.

Digital Preservation Network (DPN)

The Digital Preservation Network is a federated effort within the academy to address preservation needs by creating a network of linked repositories that replicates and preserves research and scholarship across diverse software architectures, organizations, and geographic regions.

The TDL is one of more than 50 academic institutions to have joined the DPN project in 2012. Those 50+ institutions also include other leading academic organizations such as the University of Virginia, MIT, Stanford, and HathiTrust.

The TDL fits into the DPN project in several ways.

TDL Director of IT Ladd Hanson serves on the DPN Technology Working Group, which is charged with determining immediate technology needs and plans for the project, as well as a longer-term preservation technology road map.
Additionally, UT Austin, through its relationship with the Texas Advanced Computing Center, may serve as one of the “replicating nodes” of an initial network for DPN. In the proposed DPN architecture, the replicating nodes would be dedicated preservation repositories that will create redundant copies of their data at other linked nodes.
The TDL, under this structure, would be a “contributing node” — that is, one that contributes content to a replicating node (presumably UT/TACC), which would in turn replicate and preserve the content through the network.

DPN launched at the beginning of 2012 and is currently making progress on three fronts, with the aim of creating a working proof-of-concept of the core components of the network: first, the technology working group mentioned above; second, a governance group that will define a governance and sustainability model; and third, a “data partnerships” group that is undertaking n environmental scan of research data preservation.

For more information about the Digital Preservation Network, visit the DPN website at http://www.dpn.org/ and sign up to receive news alerts.

DuraCloud

In addition to and in concert with its work with DPN, the Texas Digital Library is exploring DuraCloud as a potential solution for allowing members to more easily move and manage content in storage at TACC.

The term “DuraCloud” refers to both a paid service provided by DuraSpace (the organization that develops and support DSpace) and to the open-source DuraCloud software that can be implemented by any organization. The TDL is currently exploring the idea of implementing DuraCloud open-source software and providing it as a service for its membership.

So what benefit would DuraCloud give to members? DuraCloud provides a web interface for interacting with cloud services (like Amazon Web Services, or – in the case being explored by the TDL – TACC) and managing content there. Once implemented, TDL members could use TDL’s DuraCloud to move content into “dark archive” storage that TDL owns at TACC.

Over the short term, DuraCloud could give TDL members an easier way to move content into TACC for dark archiving. And, over the longer term, it may provide a means for contributing content to the DPN replicating node that may be located at TACC.

TDL and UT Libraries developers are currently working on a prototype of the DuraCloud service. Once operational, Director of IT Ladd Hanson hopes to invite members to test and provide feedback on the prototype, with the aim of determining whether the service would be useful for members in implementing their preservation strategies.

For more information about DuraCloud, please visit the DuraSpace website, or contact the TDL at info@tdl.org.

What’s Happening Now: Current Preservation Tools at TDL

December 6th, 2012

While the Texas Digital Library continues work on dedicated preservation solutions like DPN and DuraCloud, it currently provides members with tools that support local preservation work.

Two of these services are its hosted DSpace repositories and dark archive storage at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). DSpace and TACC, together with policies and practices instituted by staff at local member institutions, can help members ensure the longevity of their collections.

DSpace Repositories

While DSpace is not a preservation solution on its own, it can enable preservation policy and practice via a set of included features. Individual member libraries can use these features in accordance with their local institutional policies and strategies to do preservation work.

These tools include the following:

A Checksum checker that can routinely check items in the repository for bit rot
A Format registry that allows your institution to specify what formats are supported and the Format Profiler curation task, which counts profile types according their level of support (i.e. Supported, Known, or Unknown)
Logging tools, which provide a trail of information about items in the repository and actions taken on them
Handles, which give each item in the repository a unique web address that won’t change if the item is relocated, because it is registered with an outside service

Additionally, DSpace is OAIS-compliant and is backed by the DuraSpace Foundation, an organization that guides future development and support and ensures the stability and longevity of the software.

Texas Advanced Computing Center Dark Archive

In addition to the preservation tools available through DSpace, TDL members have access to dark archive storage at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, a world-class advanced computing facility located on the UT Austin campus. TACC contractually provides the TDL with digital storage that is available for members needing to back up large collections.

Any member interested in accessing this resource for their collections should contact TDL’s senior program coordinator Ryan Steans at info@tdl.org or 512-495-4403.

TCDL 2013 Call for Proposals

November 15th, 2012

The 2013 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries, sponsored by the Texas Digital Library, will be held in Austin, Texas, on May 7th and 8th. The TCDL 2013 planning committee invites you to share your proposals for participation at TCDL 2013.

The Texas Conference on Digital Libraries covers topics relevant to the creation, promotion, and preservation of research, scholarship, and cultural heritage digital materials. The goal of TCDL 2013 is to bring together those working on library-related digital projects — including outreach librarians, repository managers, cataloguers, technical staff, and others — in order to build a practical, usable and sustainable model for digital libraries.

TCDL 2013 has multiple avenues for participation, including individual presentations, panel sessions, posters, workshops and tutorials, and “birds of a feather” sessions. All completed presentations will be published on the conference website.

Possible presentation topics include:

Case studies and best practices
Domain-specific challenges (cultural heritage, web archiving, medical records, scientific data, etc.)
Data Management and Data Management Planning
Digital Preservation strategies
Digital Humanities
Theoretical perspectives
Outreach strategies
Intersections of social media and digital libraries
Metadata
Mobile Technologies to provide access to digital libraries
Digital Archives and special collections
Scholarly Communication
Big Data
Open Access

Proposals on other topics of interest to a digital libraries audience are welcome.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Presentations

Presentations may focus on practical work, theoretical or speculative issues, or on-going or completed research. Accepted presentations will be organized into thematic sessions or may be combined into joint/collaborative sessions. Submissions for individual presentations should include a one-page proposal that provides the following details:

title
abstract (a brief description of the presentation)
speaker information (i.e., name, title, institution, and email address for each presenter)

Panels

Proposals for panel sessions at TCDL 2013 are encouraged. Panel sessions should address a single topic from multiple perspectives and should engage the audience for a full 80-minute session. Submissions for panel sessions should include a one-page proposal that provides the following details:

title
abstract (a brief description of the panel topic(s))
panelists’ information (i.e., name, title, institution, and email address for each panel participant and identify the moderator)

Posters

Submissions are encouraged for a special session for posters that report on emerging issues, works-in-progress, or innovative solutions. In addition to displaying their posters at the conference site, poster presenters will participate in a “Minute Madness” session, during which presenters for each poster will give a 60-second summary of the poster’s main points.

In your poster proposal, please include an abstract detailing the main theme(s) of your poster.

Easels will be available at the conference site, and foam board will be made available upon request. TCDL will be unable to provide power for multimedia displays. Additional details about poster requirements will be provided following acceptance.

Workshops, Tutorials & Demos, Birds of a Feather Sessions

Please submit an abstract of no more than one page that outlines the purpose and content of your workshop, tutorial, demonstration, or birds of a feather session. Also provide as much information as possible regarding your needs (including audio-visual needs) for the session.

Submissions for workshops, tutorials, demos and “birds of a feather” sessions will be judged on the merits of the proposals and the space and time available at the conference.

Workshops, tutorials, demos, and “birds of a feather” sessions will take place on May 8th in the afternoon.

KEY DATES

November 12, 2012: Call for Proposals

February 8, 2013: Deadline for Proposal Submissions

March 15, 2013: Notification of Acceptance

Note: No individual shall participate as a speaker in more than one presentation/panel session; however, presenters and panel speakers are welcome to participate in the poster sessions.

Also note: Accepted presenters, including co-presenters, panelists, and poster presenters, must register for the conference and pay applicable registration fees.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Proposals can be submitted through the conference website by clicking Proposal Submission in the menu on the right side of the page. You will be required to log into the system to submit a proposal.

Log in to the conference website:

After clicking on the link, you will be taken to a login page. If you already have an account for the website, you can enter your existing account information. If you are new to the site, you must register by creating a new user account.

Creating a new account requires completing a few brief fields on a web form. Be sure that the AUTHOR checkbox is selected at the end of the form and click CREATE.

Make the submission:

Once you have completed the form, you will be taken directly to the proposal submission section. Follow the instructions provided in the submission interface to submit your proposal

Need help? If you have questions about using the online submission system, please contact support@tdl.org. General questions about the conference can be directed to info@tdl.org.

Rollout of Vireo 1.8 for members: An update

October 31st, 2012

The Texas Digital Library has begun to roll out staging versions of Vireo 1.8, while development for a future version of Vireo continues.

In September, the Vireo Development Team concluded active development of Vireo 1.8, a new version the Vireo Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Management System, and began deployment and testing of staging instances of the software for TDL members. Currently, a staging instance is available for testing at UT Austin, and other TDL-hosted instances of the software will be rolled out in the weeks to come.

The TDL is communicating with each member institution individually as staging instances become available for testing. Following a testing period, the TDL will schedule the roll-out of production instances of Vireo 1.8 at the convenience of each institution.

In addition to the roll-out of Vireo 1.8, active development of the next Vireo version is ongoing under the guidance of the Vireo Users Group. Scott Phillips, Senior Lead Software Applications Developer at Texas A&M Libraries, is leading that effort.

Development on Vireo 1.8 was a collaborative effort among TDL members (led by staff from Texas A&M University) and TDL staff, with key contributions coming from developers at the University of Illinois and MIT. The TDL thanks sincerely everyone who has participated in this process and looks forward to continuing and expanding the collaboration on future efforts.

The source code for Vireo 1.8 is available under an open-source license at github.

What’s New in Vireo 1.8

As promised, Vireo 1.8 is a feature clone of the existing Vireo, meaning that it looks and behaves like the previous version. However, the Vireo development group has made a number of improvements to the software that make it more intuitive, flexible, and powerful. The list below is a partial list of these enhancements.

Full documentation about new features in the software is available on the TDL Wiki at https://wikis.tdl.org/tdl/Vireo_1.8.

New publishing, deposit, and export features

Batch deposit/publish to one or more repositories
Configure one or more repositories from within the SETTINGS tab
New export formats and immediate download

More and easier options for customization

Customizing LIST view
Editing submission license, submission instructions, email templates, etc.

More available information

Faculty Review URL
System Control Panel
Display of institutional ID

General interface/usability improvements

“Drag and drop” functionality
Visual cues for editable fields

TDL upgrading all online journals to latest version of OJS

October 31st, 2012

TDL technical staff have been working for the past month to upgrade all hosted online journals to the latest version of Open Journal Systems software. During the upgrade process, TDL is making several additional changes to the configuration of the journal service that will result in a significantly better experience for journal managers, readers, and other users.

Effie Jarrett, senior systems administrator at the TDL, is the lead on the project, which includes three main objectives:

Upgrading the OJS journal software from version 2.2.3 to OJS 2.3.7
Moving all journals from a multi-site OJS installation (where multiple journals have been hosted off of one site) to single-site installations, where each journal is the sole journal belonging to its own OJS installation.
Removing Shibboleth single-sign-on from the front end of all journals. (Login will instead take place through the authentication system native to OJS.)

Upgrading the journal software will provide users with a number of new features. The move to single-site installations and the removal of Shibboleth will make it easier for journal managers to manage users, give them access to parts of the system previously hidden, and streamline the login process for all users.

The TDL has communicated with each journal’s staff and registered users as the upgrades and changes have taken place in order to minimize impact on users.

The list of all journals hosted by the TDL is available on the TDL website at: http://www.tdl.org/journals/tdl-electronic-press/.