Due to the recent economic crisis development of the Integrated Digital Special Collections (INDI) has been suspended. Information about the current status of the project, as well as a discussion of the value of business process management in archival content management systems, can be found in the most recent issue of the Code4Lib Journal.
At the recent Society of American Archivists annual conference in San Francisco members of the INDI Team presented a poster session on the project. The presentation included an overview of the project, as well as a discussion of ongoing review and design work.
For more information, please see the poster below:
The INDI Project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of our first phase source code, though Google Code. This release includes all of the functionality seen in the sandbox, including core tools and workflows for appraisal and accessioning.
The code is available for download at http://code.google.com/p/sierra-indi/, with some instructions for installation. Those installing the application should be aware of its dependencies on the Sierra-PHP and Sierra-OS frameworks.
While planning for Phase II continues, we also been working on making some improvements to INDI prior to its public release. The biggest, and least visible, of these improvements is an upgrade to the frameworks underlying INDI (sierra-php and sierra-os), taking them from PHP 4 to PHP 5. This improvement should make continued development of the system easier, as well as making the application more accessible for modern IT departments. As part of the sierra-php upgrade, INDI also has now integrated Web services. This interface makes INDI accessible through SOAP or REST requests, allowing remote interaction with the system.
Early this month the INDI project team made the INDI Sandbox available so that archivists and others interested in the distributed workflow system could kick the tires and get a feel for how the Integrated Digital Special Collections works. Late last week team members completed the INDI Walkthrough that will guide first time users through the various features available in INDI. This document is available at http://www.lib.byu.edu/indi/indi-walkthrough/ and is meant to be used in conjunction with the INDI Sandbox. It features step by step instructions on how to use INDI Desktop, MyProjects, and MyContacts, as well as detailed instructions for creating appraisal and accession projects. We hope that the walkthrough will make using the INDI Sandbox an easier experience.
In other INDI news, the project team is wrapping up the documentation for INDI Phase I, and once the final bug is fixed and the source code has been appropriately packaged INDI Phase I will be made available to the archival community. Phase I is comprised of INDI Desktop, MyProjects and MyContacts as well as the Apprasial module and the Acquisition and Accession module. Please watch the Downloads page for links to the source code for these items.
With the completion of Phase I the project team is turning its attention to Phase II. Phase II will focus on the creation of the Arrangement and Description module of INDI. This module will gather descriptive data about archival collections and then make that data available for export in a variety of output formats (EAD, EAC, MARCXML, MODS, Dublin Core, etc.). The project team is currently creating the requirements statements that will serve as the basis for programming this module of INDI. The team is also comparing the various standards that will be available for output and working to create a comprehensive data model. This data model is seen as the key to enabling INDI to output the specified formats as well as INDI’s future extensibility.
We would like to invite any archivist or manuscripts curator interested in the automation of archival workflow processes to visit the INDI (Integrated Digital Special Collections) web site (http://www.lib.byu.edu/indi/) and to become more familiar with the INDI project. Recent INDI developments include the completion of the INDI core tools (MyProjects, MyContacts, INDI Desktop, and the Administrative Interface) as well as the Appraisal and Accession Modules. Planning is nearly complete for the Arrangement and Description module and the development of this key module will begin shortly.
A new feature of particular interest on the INDI website is the INDI Sandbox. If you would like to become more familiar with INDI functionality enter the Sandbox and experiment with the core tools and the various modules. Collection information for four hypothetical collections has been entered. To experiment with INDI, enter or input keyword information for any one of the following collections: 1. Westwood Architectural firm records, 2. Murphy family papers, 3. George Washington legends, and 4. Department of Social Work records. Within the INDI Sandbox, you can also create your own collections as well; all data for created collections is deleted at the end of the day.
There are several ways to create an INDI project; as you become familiar with INDI, experiment with the system and discover the various ways to create new projects. For first time users, however, we recommend that you first create a project by clicking on the MyProjects icon (a clock face and pencil superimposed over a graph) at the bottom of the screen. Next, locate the File menu item located in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Click on the File menu and a drop-down menu will appear. Follow the drop-down menu to New Project and then to Accession and from there just follow the instructions to create a new project.
As you become more familiar with INDI functionality, please share your impressions with us. We welcome your input and your suggestions.
As we begin wrapping up the first phase of INDI, we put increased emphasis on documenting the application as it exists. While we had hoped to complete our documentation in time for the release of this phase of the project, documentation has also provided us with a chance to step back and orient our new programmer on the development of the system.
This work has included both user and technical documentation, including user guides, walkthroughs, internal help content, and design documentation. However, the most useful part of this effort has been the development of a revised software requirements specification. Our previous version of a requirements document, while adequate at the time, had been surpassed to such a point that it no longer provided a guide for development. At some points, INDI’s programming has been very organic, and under-documented features were added to the application. Returning to documentation has provided us a chance to recapture and redirect the course of development.
While we hope that this process will not significantly delay the release of phase 1, we believe the project overall will be improved due to this work.
The INDI project has been a very thought provoking endeavor for INDI team members. It has forced us to examine the ways that archival principles are applied in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections and to ask ourselves whether or not we are meeting our intended goals. We have carefully analyzed the ways in which we apply the concepts of appraisal, acquisition, arrangement, description, and open access to the varied collections in our stewardships. We have noted the interrelationships between each of these concepts and struggled to decide on the best way to automate them. This process has been ongoing for the last 18 months. It was recently revitalized with the hire of a new lead programmer, Curtis Thacker, for the INDI project. The project team has spent the last couple of months working with Curtis to help him gain a better understanding of the archival needs that have driven the creation of the system and we are now working to better document the decisions that we have made and how they need to be implemented in the INDI system. It has been exciting to conceptualize new and improved ways of accomplishing our primary tasks as archivists. It has also re-emphasized the importance of being standards compliant. This has become particularly evident as we have been working on the data model and flowcharting the processes of arrangement and description in preparation for beginning work on the Arrangement and Description Module in early 2008. In building the data model we have consulted closely Describing Archives: A Content Standard (DACS) and looked at best practice guidelines concerning the use of Encoded Archival Description (EAD). This close consultation led us to two conclusions: 1) if we were going to build compliance with DACS into INDI then perhaps our staff should know how to use it and 2) if we planned to leverage Encoded Archival Description in our consortial environment, then we needed to have our own best practice guidelines. Recently Cory Nimer and Gordon Daines completed work on the Church Consortium of Libraries and Archives (CCLA) EAD Best Practice Guidelines. These new guidelines are being used to help finalize the arrangement data model and they are being used to build a new database delivery system for our finding aids. Gordon and Cory have also recently completed a series of trainings on how to use DACS in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections and the project team is working to integrated DACS concepts into the INDI help system. All archivists should be forced to revisit the way that they apply archival principles and to think seriously about why we do what we do–we might be surprised by what we find.
You’ll notice that both of the standards that we are using as the basis of our arrangement data model are descriptive standards. It begs the question–Where are our arrangement standards? Archivists need to seriously examine arrangement to see if it can be standardized and to develop a more solid footing for arrangement theory. We also need to think carefully about the relationship between arrangement and description. Should our descriptions reflect a physical arrangement or should they reflect an intellectual arrangement? What does original order mean? Whose original order? Original order at what point in time? Just a few questions to ponder.
The last several months have been pretty hectic for the INDI Development team. Our lead programmer, Jason Read, took another position and left the Harold B. Lee Library in early October. Curtis Thacker was hired as our new programmer shortly before Jason Read left and spent about two weeks working with Jason in an effort to gain a better understanding of the underlying architecture of the INDI system. To help jump start the learning process for Curtis, the INDI team developed a new module for him to build. The new module deals with the processes inherent in the appraisal of archival material. The change in programmers has wreaked havoc on our development schedule and we will be updating it shortly. We plan to release the INDI core tools (MyProjects, MyContacts, INDI Desktop, Administrative Interface) as well as the Accession and Appraisal Modules in early 2008. Another project that Curtis is working on is the development of an INDI sandbox that will be publicly available for interested individuals to examine INDI first hand. We hope to release the sandbox soon. The INDI project team is also working to update the INDI screencast to include information about the Appraisal module.
This past summer, Cory Nimer, Blake Miller, and I were tasked with the responsibility to develop the INDI Appraisal module. Appraisal, as suggested in the Society of American Archivists Glossary for Archivists, is the process of identifying records that have long-term historical or retention value. One of the most important appraisal tools available to the archivist or manuscripts curator is the collection development policy. The well-defined collection development policy identifies the types or kinds of historical materials acquired by archival institutions.
Traditionally, archivists have maintained paper-based case files to document or otherwise record appraisal activity. In terms of the web-based nature of the INDI Project, however, it was important that we also maintain or otherwise preserve a permanent electronic record documenting all appraisal transactions.
To accomplish this task we created a flow chart incorporating all major elements (from our perspective at least) of the appraisal process beginning with the identification of a potential collection or a potential collection donor—what we called in INDI parlance “lead identified.” Following steps, as outlined in our flow chart, and as developed by INDI software programmer, Curtis Thacker, include:
The long-term importance of the case file, including the permanent retention of appraisal information, cannot be overstated. Appraisal records not only document the provenance of the collection they become part of our institutional histories. They are frequently consulted by archivists and manuscripts curators and they inform our understanding of the collections in our care. It is our expectation that INDI will further facilitate the creation and maintenance of accurate case file and appraisal information.