The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a multifaceted and collaborative international digital library project that will preserve and increase access to valuable resources for the study of the Caribbean and the advancement of Caribbean Studies.

Four U.S. institutions and five Caribbean partners have been awarded a U.S. Department of Education Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA) grant to build dLOC. This award grants approximately $500,000 for a four-year period beginning in October 2005 and running through September 2009.

Below are some of the details relating to this development. These details include:

• Architecture
• Database
• METS
• Tools
• Greenstone
• Additional Resources
• Credits

• TICFIA Proposal

  This is the body of the original TICFIA proposal for dLOC.

• Web Draft Outline

  This describes a possible approach to the main web pages for dLOC.

• dLOC Participant Survey

  Survey to determine training needs and institutional strengths.

Greenstone's Digital Library System was chosen as the metadata storage, retrieval, and search engine for dLOC. Greenstone is an open-source digital library system produced and maintained by the New Zealand Library Project at the University of Waikato. It is promoted by the United Nations to many of our partners in Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Greenstone has two main components, the metadata portion and the display portion. While the metadata and indexing portion is strong, we felt that the display portion did not provide some of the functionalities we required. As a result, we chose to utilize only the metadata portion of Greenstone. All the bibliographic data ultimately resides in Greenstone 2.60 running under Linux.

We chose to build a multi-tier architecture with a custom presentation layer. Greenstone forms the foundation of dLOC. A presentation layer provides access to the web user. Work began on creating this layer in C#, utilizing ASP.net. The presentation layer will read all bibliographic data from Greenstone and interact with Greenstone in real-time to perform searches. The Greenstone server will continue to serve both the data and the image. However, the user will interact with the presentation layer outside of Greenstone.

Figure 1: Basic Architecture with Greenstone, Presentation Layer, and User

There are several advantages to this architecture, besides total control over look and feel. This provides for platform independence. Greenstone could be removed from the data layer and a variety of other digital library managament systems could be used. We can build a hierarchical collection structure with collection groups, collections, and subcollections. Using this architecture will also allow us to store session state and develop user portfolios, should we decide to do so in the future. This architecture can read data from a variety of sources besides Greenstone, and allow the data and images to appear under the same interface. This provides for a continuous look and feel for the users regardless of the source of the images and data.

Figure 2: Architecture with multiple data and image sources

The same architecture is currently being employed for the University of Florida Digital Collections (UFDC), and some examples in the metadata section refer to UFDC resources.

• Architectural Details

  This image shows details of the architectural design chosen, as well as some of the technologies employed, and supported, at each level.

• Project List

  This document has the current collection hierarchy from collection group to collection to subcollections.

• Collection Groups, Collections, and SubCollections

  This document explains the hierarcy of collections, as well as any restrictions on names and codes.

Data needed to drive the presentation layer are placed in a Microsoft SQL database. This database mainly stores display information. The appearance of collections depends partly on data stored in the database. This data tells the presentation layer where to look for the stylesheets and banners. It also contains the information about the hierarchy of collections. The bridge between the presentation layer and the greenstone collection(s) is stored in this database.

The database also stores basic information to assist with the display of items from Greenstone. This includes the watermarks (or icons) on the left navigation bar, downloads, and the table of contents.

• Database diagram [ as HTML | as GIF ]

  This shows the tables and relationships in the database supporting the presentation layer.

All resources which will be loaded into dLOC must conform to both the national Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS), as well as our local extension schemas. METS files include data about each file in a bibliographic resource, as well as descriptive and administrative information about the resource. Althoguh these METS files contain dublin core information, the bulk of the bibliographic information will be held in a locally-defined structure. In addition to the main dLOC extension schema, other project and resource specific extension schemas may be created.

During the normal workflow at the Digital Library Center, METS files are created by the Quality Control Application, and then reviewed by our text technicians. Much of the bibliographic data for these METS files are imported from the catalogue record, when one exists. Stand-alone tools will also be available shortly to code dLOC-compliant METS files.

The METS file for any item loaded in dLOC can be viewed by selecting METS Metadata under the Technical Data menu on the navigation bar to the left of an item being viewed.

• METS Files for Digital Resources in dLOC

  This manual describes, in depth, the sections of a METS file. Additionally it covers the metadata extension schema and requirements for a dLOC-compliant METS file.

• METS Schemes for dLOC / Greenstone

  This describes every element used in dLOC-compliant METS. Each element is also mapped from MARC.

• dLOC Extension Schema (.xsd) File for METS

  This is the .xsd schema which provides for the addition of the and elements into the METS files.

• METS File for Baldwin Children's Book
  METS File for University Archive Photograph

  These link to METS files for items currently loaded into UFDC, which uses a very similar scheme.

There are basically three parts to the custom tools being created for Digital Library of the Caribbean.

• Bibliographic Metadata Entry Portion
  • Allows user to enter bibliographic data about an item
  • This produces a METS file that has neither a file section, nor a structural map of the book.
• Post-Scanning Processor
  • Running this processor creates JPEG images for each TIFF, and prepares a package to enter the structural metadata entry portion
  • This will likely automate Adobe Photoshop to create the JPEGs
• Structural Metadata Entry Portion
  • Allows the user to view each page image and set the division information
  • Any pagination can be entered at this time
  • Produces a complete METS file, assuming step 1 has been completed

These tools are being adapted from applications currently in use at the University of Florida. Questions regarding these tools should be addressed to Mark Sullivan.

• Bibliographic Metadata Specification

  Specifies which elements should be editable by users in the final metadata tool.

• Bibliographic Metadata Entry Tool Beta Screenprints ( 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 )

  These screen prints are for the early stages of the bibliographic metadata entry tool.

• Bibliographic Metadata Tool

  This is an early version of the bibliographic metadata tool. You will need the .NET Framework 1.1 to run and install this tool. The framework is freely distributed by Microsoft®.

• Structural Metadata Entry Tool Beta Screenprints ( 1 | 2 )

  These screen prints show the basic design of the strucutural metadata entry tool.

The collection and each item ultimately resides in Greenstone. Because of this, a good amount of collection configuration still resides in greenstone. Additionally, each item must be converted into Greenstone-compliant metadata during the loading process. Greenstone Archival (GSA) files include much of the metadata from the original METS file. Extension schema were also added to Greenstone. The namespace used in the METS files (dLOC) is converted to UFDC during the ingest process.

• Creating Greenstone Collections for dLOC

  This manual details how to configure greenstone collections for viewing, browsing, and searching from dLOC.

• Building Collections in Greenstone...

  This lists the commands necessary to build a collection in Greenstone from existing files.

• Greenstone Metadata Namespaces for dLOC

  This describes every element used in greenstone files. This includes the mapping from the METS elements.

• UFDC Metadata Extension for Greenstone

  This is the metadata file used by Greenstone to ingest the METS dLOC data elements in the UFDC Greenstone namespace.

• Internal Metadata Extension for Greenstone

  This is the metadata file used by Greenstone to ingest some elements which are used mostly for displaying and searching purposes. These elements reside in the internal namespace in Greenstone.

• GSA File for Baldwin Children's Book
  GSA File for University Archive Photograph

  These link to Greenstone Archival files for items currently loaded into UFDC.

• Greenstone 2 Development Server

  Access to the Greenstone 2 development server. Appearance will be strange since the results of searches and browses are usually in XML format. View the source for any results to see the true format.

• Affecting Design Changes on dLOC

  This manual describes how to make design changes to the presentation layer.

• ASP.net Front End
  • Memory States and Use
  • Translation support for dLOC.
  
  
• Ingest Tool
  • Design of Ingest Tool [ jpg | html (use with IE) | pdf ].
  • Pre-Loader Diagram [ jpg | html (use with IE) | pdf ].
  • Loader Diagram [ jpg | html (use with IE) | pdf ].