Villanova University
Department of Computing Sciences
CSC9010 Digital Libraries
Professor: Dr. Lillian
N. Cassel
E-mail: lillian.cassel@villanova.edu
Teaching Assistant:
Prashanth
Yella
E-mail: pyella@villanova.edu
Semester: Spring
2012
Course Description: Digital
Libraries
and other Web-Based Information Presentation : This special topics
course will examine the general question of providing organized,
efficient access to information through a web-based interface. The
emphasis will be on Digital Libraries since this is a reasonably
well-developed area that supports storage and presentation of a wide
range of information types. We will also look at some basic
topics in Information Retrieval to provide a foundation for
retrieving information from digital libraries.
During the class, students will install and populate a digital
library. There are several systems available. In the
past, we have used DSpace and have significant experience with
that software. However, the creators of DSpace and the newer
Fedora system have merged their operations. Their new name
is DuraSpace. (see them at www.duraspace.org) They continue
to offer DSpace and Fedora, as well as a new cloud service.
If you wish to use one of these, you are welcome to do so.
There is also a project called Greenstone. Their software is
probably the easiest to download, configure and get working.
However, it does not have the volume of options that the larger
systems provide. More recently, Content Management Systems
have become widely available. We are using one of these,
Drupal, extensively in projects that I supervise. You may
find that the most flexible system available.
Whatever you choose as your system software, you are free to
choose your own type of content for your digital library. Examples
include copies of work you have done, photos, songs, or any other
kind of digital objects or a mixture of kinds. Think about
what interests you and what your would like to develop into a
library to make visible to others.
There is a growing body of work investigating what makes a well
organized and well implemented digital library and this will form
the basis of this course. We will mix theory and practice to result
in expertise and experience.
Course Goals:
Describe Web based information
sources (Digital Libraries: Theory)
Contrast a digital library with other types of online resource
collections. Enumerate the characteristics of a digital library
that distinguishes it from a database or a web site.
Install and configure a digital library (Digital Libraries:
Practice)
You will install and configure a digital library so that it can
hold information and present it to users, along with appropriate
digital library services.
You will do a system installation
and configuration regardless of what project you choose.
You may extend that initial DL as your project or you may choose
to do something different.
Digital Library project (Digital Libraries: Practice)
Create something new in digital libraries.
There are various levels at which
you can do this. You can create a specific digital library
to showcase resources in a particular subject area. You
might choose to do something more in terms of adding to what we
can do with a digital library. If you develop a new module
for use with Drupal, for example, you would be making this type
of choice.
Characterize Digital Libraries using the 5S model (Digital
Libraries: Theory)
Streams, Structures, Spaces, Scenarios, Societies -- the 5 S's
that encompass the characteristics of digital libraries. What do
they all mean and how can they be used to build and maintain a
working digital library.
You will learn to characterize a
particular digital library using these characteristics.
You will present your own work in these terms.
Organize information in a digital library (Digital Libraries:
Theory)
The role of metadata and other ways to describe digital library
content
Your digital library will include
appropriate metadata chosen to serve the purpose of your
library.
Recognize and Protect Intellectual Property (Digital Libraries:
Theory)
Balancing the rights of the author with the desire to share
information requires understanding of intellectual property
rights. What can we put into our digital library? To whom can we
make it available?
You will answer these questions
with respect to the content you have chosen for your digital
library.
Digital Library services (Digital Libraries: Theory)
What besides content makes a library? How are these services
expressed in a digital environment?
In your own digital library, what
services have you included? What is the purpose of
each? What would you like to include if you had sufficient
resources and time?
Information about the course
management:
Introduction
:
Every indication is that the best
way to learn is to be actively involved in discovery, in creating
your own knowledge. As a result, your active participation is a
fundamental requirement of this course. Each class session will
involve some discussion. You will make at least one presentation
in front of the class. If that idea makes you somewhat
uncomfortable, take that as a sign that you need to overcome that
feeling and become confident in your ability to speak to a group
and to present your work and your ideas. In the class, you
will be with a small group who all have the same requirements and
I hope we will all be supportive of each other.
Additional
information :
Attendance: I assume that every
student will attend every class unless I have heard previously
that you have a reason for missing class. In all cases, you are
responsible to discover what has been done in the class you miss.
Just keeping up with class by hearing about happenings from other
students is not sufficient, however. Your input into our
discussions is important. Your absence not only hurts you; it
deprives the rest of the class of the valuable contributions you
would have made. A part of the grade is reserved for active
participation in every class session.
Writing:
Some of your work will be submitted
in written form. The quality of the writing will be considered in
grading your work. Resources are available to help with writing
well, and I will be glad to give you some assistance. I do
recognize that for many people in this class, English is not your
first language. I will consider that in evaluating your work.
However, I will expect you to make a conscientious effort to write
clearly and to present your ideas in a well-organized and
understandable form. Villanova has a writing center where any
student can obtain assistance with writing. I will be happy to
lend assistance also. Learning to express yourself clearly will
serve you well in future endeavors.
Grading Policy
Grades will
be based on successful and timely completion of assignments and
projects, and on active participation in class and in online
discussions.
A graduate
student who does satisfactory work in assignments receives a
grade of B. Better work receives better grades. An A is
certainly possible, but does require exceptional work, not just meeting
requirements.
There will be
some specific deliverables that will be graded. In
addition, there will be periodic quizzes. If this seems to
go well, we will not have any long examinations. If it
appears that we need the forced focus that exams provide, then
we will have them. Expect a quiz about every 2 to 3 weeks.
Course Web Presence
There
are
advantages and disadvantages to the Blackboard course
management system used at Villanova. I prefer that my
materials be open and accessible, so I will use this public
web site. We will use the Blackboard site from time to
time to take advantage of tools that are there. Be
sure to log in to the course site and become familiar with
its use.
Semester Schedule
The following
calendar will be developed as the class progresses. We
begin with an approximate schedule of topics and readings
for the first few weeks.
Week
|
|
Subject
|
Links_to Slides
|
Notes/Assignments
|
Activity
|
1
|
1/18
|
Digital Libraries: What and
Why
Concept maps
What is a library?
Introduction to the 5S model of digital libraries
|
Intro - Basics
|
Read: "As We
May Think" by Vannevar Bush
Read: Streams,
structures,
spaces, scenarios, societies (5S): A
formal
model for digital libraries
from the ACM Digital Library |
Introductions
Concept map of a digital library
|
2
|
1/25
|
The 5S model of digital
libraries
DSpace, Greenstone and other open source packages for
installing and managing a digital collection.
|
Modeling and Formalisms
|
|
Characterize a library by
the 5S model --
We will look at the library of caches documented at http://www.geocaching.com
Produce a diagram such as we saw for the Etana
library.
|
3
|
2/1
|
Content: The real thing and its
description. Gathering content, classifying it. Metadata
standards (including Dublin Core) and application to
digital library content.
|
Content
|
DUE:
|
Quiz 1 -- the 5 S model
Approximately 30 minutes (There will be time for questions
before the quiz)
Design an XML schema for a subject of interest
Establish groups for the first DL installation
|
4
|
2/8
|
Google Books, DL designs
Access control and encryption |
Access Control
|
Reading
due: Arms,
Digital Libraries Chapter 7 "Access management and
security"
Reading: NINCH
Guide Chapter 4 "Rights Management"
Discuss differences and similarities of these materials |
Access rights example
Cryptogram
Cryptography example
|
5
|
2/15
|
Finish Access Control
|
Public Key
Encryption and Digital Signatures
|
Read DL book chapter on
Evaluation found in Blackboard.
|
Quiz 2 -- Access Control
Questions from prior quizzes are fair game for each quiz
|
6
|
2/22
|
Evaluation and Quality in Digital Libraries
|
Quality and Evaluation
Usability intro
|
Quality in Digital
Libraries. From the Digital Libraries book by Fox et
al.
|
|
7
|
2/29
|
Team work time for first
project
|
|
|
Quiz 3 -- Quality,
|
8
|
3/7
|
Spring break -- no classes this week
|
|
|
|
9
|
3/14
|
Presentation of digital library installations
Presentation of project proposals
Full session used for presentations.
|
|
H.R. Hartson, P.
Shivakumar, M.A. Pérez-Quiñones (2004)
Usability
inspection of digital libraries: a case study. In
International
Journal on Digital Libraries, v4(2), pp. 108-123.
|
Paper will be sent by
e-mail.
Read for next week.
|
10
|
3/21
|
Usability and User
Interface
|
Usability and Evaluation
|
|
|
11
|
3/28
|
Interoperability: The Open
Archives Initiative
|
Interoperable DLs
|
|
Quiz 4 -- Usability and
Evaluation
|
12
|
4/4
|
Fundamentals of Information
Retrieval
|
IR - 1
|
|
ONLINE CLASS!!
|
13
|
4/11
|
Information Retrieval, part
2
|
IR - 2
|
|
|
14
|
4/18
|
Web Crawling
|
Web Crawling
|
|
|
15
|
4/25
|
Last day of class.
Summing up and reflection |
Recap of the semester
|
|
|
16
|
5/9
|
Project presentations
|
|
|
|
References (This list will be
expanded as the class progresses)
- CIS 661 - Digital Libraries: http://webapp.slis.ua.edu/smmweb/DLib/Metadata/OrganizingInternetResources_files/v3_document.htm
- Concept Maps: http://cmap.ihmc.us/Publications/ResearchPapers/TheoryCmaps/TheoryUnderlyingConceptMaps.htm
- Copyright Management Center, IUPUI
Indianapolis. Checklist for Fair Use http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/checklist.htm
- Cryptograms. http://www.cryptograms.org/
- Cryptograms - Letter Frequencies. http://www.cryptograms.org/letter-frequencies.php
- Data Encryption Standard.
http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip46-2.htm
- Getting Permission. http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/PERMISSN.HTM
- Giving SOAP a REST http://www.devx.com/DevX/Article/8155
- Gonçalves, M. A., Moreira, B. L., Fox,
E. A., and Watson, L. T. "Quality Model for Digital
Libraries"�
- Gonçalves, M. A., Luo, M., Ali, M. F.,
and Fox, E. A. “An XML Log Standard and Tool for
Digital Library Logging Analysis� In Research and Advanced
Technology for Digital Libraries, 6th European Conference,
ECDL 2002, Rome, Italy, September 16-18, 2002, Proceedings
- Klas, C., et al "A Logging Scheme for Comparative
Digital Library Evaluation� Research and Advanced
Technology for Digital Libraries, 10th European
Conference, ECDL 2006, Alicante,Spain, September 18-20,
2002, Proceedings
- Library of Congress. American Memory Project http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
- Library of Congress. American Memory Project.
Map Collections. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html
- OAI For Beginners - The Open Archives Forum online
tutorial: http://www.oaforum.org/tutorial/index.php
- Sale, Tony. Technical Specification of the
Enigma. http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/enigma/rotorspec.htm
- Sale, Tony. Virtual Bletchley Park. The
Breaking of Enigma by the Polish Mathematicians http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/virtualbp/poles/poles.htm
- SOAP Version 1.2 Part 0: Primer http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/REC-soap12-part0-20030624/#L1153
- US Copyright Office. Copyright. http://www.loc.gov/copyright
- Z39.50 An Overview of Development and the Future
(1995) http://www.cqs.washington.edu/~camel/z/z.html
- Z39.50 Resource Page: http://www.niso.org/standards/resources/Z3950_Resources.html