Here's what we covered on November 1 (rescheduled October due to DLF):
Tech world (Brian)
| Topic | In brief | Action items |
|---|---|---|
| HTTPS everything / voro upgrade? | Brian continues to work on upgrading all of the (non-Calisphere) service pages to HTTPS. It's a big project. This has also caused Brian to want to think about a voro (EAD submission system) upgrade, since that technology is 15+ years old. | |
| Very, very large images | We hit up against an image size limit for an object (170K+ px), on our image server. We're going to have to figure this out. | |
| A perplexing Calisphere site error | Amy recently did a refactor of Calisphere javascript code to fix some various bugs; however, this seems to cause some big memory errors (with long load times, etc.) – it's perplexing. We need to figure out a way to reproduce the error in order to fix it. | |
| EZID-Nuxeo integration | We have processes in place to integrate EZID with Nuxeo, using command-line tools (nxid and nxidbatch). You can use the tools to mint one or more ARKs and add them into the "Identifier" field in Nuxeo, and also synch-up EZID with citation information derived from metadata in Nuxeo. There is usage documentation with the code. We want to build that out and start testing it with Nuxeo users (including conferring with you on your EZID account setups). | We will be checking in with campus libraries that use Nuxeo, on implementing the new tools |
| Spark experimentation | Mark is experimenting with Apache Spark (a data analysis tool) to see if we can better understand the extent of duplicate titles on Calisphere. Minimal description records sometimes have duplicate titles, and there are also a lot of objects called "untitled." We think it might really help SEO / Google crawling by making sure we have unique titles. So this analysis will help us make progress on that – plus, we might be able to do more sophisticated metadata analysis with this tool down the line. |
Data / ingest world (Adrian)
| Topic | In brief | Action items |
|---|---|---|
| Lots of new collections being harvested | UCLA Library has been working with the Clark Library on digitizing and publishing manuscript collections; the grant project is wrapping up. Also new collections from UCSD, updates from UCR, etc. | |
| Aeon "Request" links in OAC finding aids | Working with Atlas Systems and UCD Library to implement Aeon "Request" links in December timeframe. Also will be updating the behind-the-scenes linking protocol for all OAC contributors that have licensed Aeon, to work with updated version of the software. (For an example finding aid with a "Request" link, see here). | |
| Revisiting audit of ArchivesSpace EAD issues | We're revisiting checklists/procedures that have been used by campus libraries, to modify EAD exports from ASpace, prior to publishing those finding aids in OAC. We want to dial in on issues with the ASpace EAD export itself vs. things we may be able to adjust with the OAC stylesheet vs. local formatting conventions/preferences (that can't be easily addressed with stylesheet changes). Honing in on UCR Library and UCB Bancroft Library's checklists. | If your library has checklists/procedures for tweaking EAD exports, prior to publishing them in OAC, please let us know. (We've been compiling them on the UC Archival Management Systems CKG wiki). |
UI / initiatives world (Sherri)
| Topic | In brief | Action items |
|---|---|---|
| Comments pilot | Continued movement on this project with UC Riverside. We are finalizing the policies and UX. Thanks to UCSD for sharing their experiences! | |
| Exhibitions curatorial process | We released a new curatorial process for Calisphere exhibitions this week. It's more collaborative and less top-down. There's going to be a peer review process for proposed exhibitions. | Propose an exhibition if you'd like! |
| Complex objects 2.0 / IIIF implementation | The UX report is out! It has wireframes, requirements, UX testing, etc. Meanwhile, the outcome of the last IIIF meeting was that there doesn't seem to be a critical mass of people across UC willing and able to embark on a full-blown co-development project for an extensible viewer. However, we confirmed that it would be worth further exploring ways for any work CDL does on this project to be extensible (including syncing up with others in the IIIF / viewer development communities), and we'll be checking in with more regularly with those on the campuses with an interest in IIIF, as we embark on the complex object 2.0 implementation. If you are interested in co-developing with CDL on this project (even if it is limited to a Calisphere implementation, for now), please let us know! We also started a IIIF channel in the UC-Tech slack. | Join the IIIF Slack channel (on UC-Tech) |
Special topic: prioritizing big projects
We raised the fact that we are aware of some big-ticket items that we've heard voiced. We've noted these on this page (see "wishlist"): Roadmaps
We're wondering if and how the campus libraries would like to help us prioritize these projects. It's sometimes hard for us to know what is most important and needed (and how that fits with or diverges from non-UC needs).
Even though it was recognized that more discussion should be had around prioritization, everyone agreed that an OAC Redesign is very near the top of the list and we must figure out a way to move forward on that. It seems like a planning phase would be the best way forward, which would allow us to continue with some development work on Calisphere/digital content while setting the stage for a big OAC project. It's possible that we could obtain some grant funding that would help us continue on all fronts.
Action items:
- Sherri will expand upon the list of "wishlist" projects with some more info about benefits, risks, etc.
- We'll convene some kind of initial OAC planning meeting early next calendar year
- We'll send out a link to our preliminary proposal to IMLS, which was unsuccessful but laid out our vision for a planning phase (Update: here it is!)
