[MCN-L] Embark and Gallery Systems
Hi Chris, Sorry for the delayed response -- fortunately, I was far removed from email access (as we all should be from time to time). Please feel free to contact me directly. It would be useful to know a bit more about the intended use for the XML data. There are currently three means of generating XML from EmbARK. 1) Report writer - I have created a few report templates that allow you to save data in XML (including CDWA Lite). By using the report writer, you can take advantage of advanced scripting tools to embed considerable logic to finesse the output. 2) EmbARK Web Kiosk - EmbARK Web Kiosk 7 has customizable templates enabling the publication of any XML format (this is what Marla is using at SFMOMA). The XML may be harvested using SRU (Search and Retrieval by URL). You can load a URL at any time to access the data set you need (or configure that URL into an application that would harvest the data). 3) COBOAT - As Ben mentioned below, you can use COBOAT to automatically extract data from EmbARK and generate XML. COBOAT simply requires that you create an ODBC data source for EmbARK. The templates are quite customizable -- I have already configured them for CDWA Lite. The XML can be saved as text files or loaded to an OAI-PMH Server. Hope that is helpful. Best, Robb Robb Detlefs Director, West Coast Operations and Strategic Initiatives _ Gallery Systems 3200 College Avenue, Suite 2 Berkeley, CA 94705 phone: (510) 652-8950 x233 robb at gallerysystems.com -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Chris Alexander Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 11:15 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Embark and Gallery Systems Thanks Dana, Ben and Marla, This is very helpful. So as I understand it, currently there is not an automated way to export it. It has to be done manually? Is there the ability to create plug ins for the systems? -Chris -Original Message- From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of Ben Rubinstein Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 8:07 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Embark and Gallery Systems On 29/7/09 01:06, Chris Alexander wrote: I'm wondering if Embark or Gallery Systems has any way to export data as an XML feed. Does anyone know if this is possible? Thanks in advance. Possibly also worth noting that Robb Detlefs at Gallery Systems has been working to create an Embark configuration for the (freely available) software we created for the OCLC Museum Data Exchange project, which produces CDWA Lite XML exports - it can be configured to run automatically on a regular basis, and to send the data to a database or generate flat files. See http://www.oclc.org/programs/news/2009-04-10.htm for more information - and contact Robb for more info if it seems of interest (though I happen to know he's floating down a canal in England this week, and trust that means he's offline...). Ben -- Ben Rubinstein Technical Director email: benr at cogapp.comdirect: +44 (0)1273 829972 Cogapp address: Lees House, 21-33 Dyke Road, Brighton BN1 3FE, England tel: +44 (0)1273 821600 fax: +44 (0)1273 829988 web: http://www.cogapp.com blog: http://blog.cogapp.com - the art and science of engagement ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ ___ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
[MCN-L] Fwd: New tool available: File Information Tool Set (FITS)
Hello all, This may be of interest to some of us on MCN-L: Original Message Subject: [Digipres] New tool available: File Information Tool Set (FITS) Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 14:40:18 -0400 From: Andrea Goethals andrea_goeth...@harvard.edu To: digipres at ala.org, diglib at infoserv.inist.fr, padiforum-l at nla.gov.au File Information Tool Set (FITS): http://fits.googlecode.com With the increase in web archiving and other born-digital projects that introduce new formats and genres to our digital preservation repositories, it is becoming more important that our tools support a wide range of file formats. In particular, our file format identification, validation and metadata extraction tools should work with a broad range of formats and genres. There are a number of these file tools in existence, but none of these tools individually can both support a wide range of formats and extract the technical metadata necessary to fully characterize digital content. In the fall of 2008 Harvard University Library began development on the File Information Tool Set (FITS) in response to this need. FITS acts as a wrapper around multiple open source file format identification, validation and metadata extraction tools. FITS invokes and manages the output of these tools. The native output from these tools is converted into a common format, FITS XML, compared to one another and consolidated into a single XML output file. The tools currently wrapped by FITS are: * JHOVE * Exiftool from Phil Harvey * National Library of New Zealand Metadata Extractor * DROID from the UK National Archives * Ffident from Marco Schmidt * File Utility In addition, FITS includes two original tools: FileInfo and XmlMetadata. There are a number of tools that will be evaluated for incorporation into FITS in the future, including: * Apache Tika * JHOVE 2 * Aduna Aperture * MediaInfo FITS is written in Java and is compatible with Java 1.5 or higher. FITS can be invoked by its command-line interface or through its Java API. FITS produces a ?status? value for each format identification it makes. When the status is SINGLE_RESULT, all tools that were able to identify the format agree on the file?s format. When the status is CONFLICT, there is more than one purported format identified for the file. Because FITS combines the output of multiple tools it has to be able to handle conflicts among the tool?s output when they don?t agree. It handles this conflict in many ways: * Tool output is normalized before it is compared for conflicts. For example, one tool might report for a file format that it is ?PNG?, while another tool may output it as ?Portable Network Graphics?. In another example, one tool might output the resolution unit as ?2?; another tool might output it as ?inches?. These values are normalized in the XSLT file that converts the tool?s native output to FITS XML before the FITS XML for each tool is compared to each other. * Users configure a tool ordering preference. In cases of format identification conflicts, the format identified by the preferred tools will determine the format FITS reports. * Tools can be excluded from reporting on particular formats and/or on particular metadata elements if its output is found in testing to be incorrect or buggy. This is very useful for incorporating a tool into FITS because it is good at some things without having to accept known unreliable information from the tool. * FITS consults a configurable ?format tree? to know when two reported formats for a file are not really conflicts because one of the formats is a more specific form of the other format. For example the format tree documents that the OpenDocument Text format is a more specific form of the Zip format. If a file is identified as being in both of these formats by FITS tools it is not reported as a conflict because technically they are both correct. Instead the more specific format, OpenDocument Text, is reported as the format. FITS is available to the public under the LGPL license. Harvard University Library (HUL) plans to use FITS in production in 2010 within its ingest service, but is making an early release of it available now for testing at http://fits.googlecode.com. Additional tools are being written at HUL to convert FITS XML into MIX, textMD, documentMD and other technical metadata schemas. We invite you to download and try using FITS. Any issues using it can be reported on the FITS website on the Issues web page (http://code.google.com/p/fits/issues/list). For more information please see the FITS website (http://fits.googlecode.com) or contact me directly.
[MCN-L] Craig Glassner/GOGA/NPS is off the Rock.
I will be out of the office starting Mon 08/03/2009 and will not return until Mon 08/17/2009. This is an automated reply to your email - I will be out of the country until August 17 and will have limited email access so may not respond until my return. If need be you can contact one of the park rangers on Alcatraz at 415-561-4900 or email nancy_goodman at nps.gov. Ranger Craig Glassner, Alcatraz Island Golden Gate National Recreation Area Fort Mason, Building 201 San Francisco, CA 94123 Voice: 415-561-4902 Fax: 415-705-1050 Email: craig_glassner at nps.gov URL: http://www.nps.gov/alcatraz \ The National Park Service cares for special places saved by the American people so that all may experience our heritage. EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICA
[MCN-L] Museum Technology Consulting
Hi All, We are looking for recommendations for a technology consultant to create a three-year technology plan for our organization. Hoping to find someone who has experience with multi-faceted institutions like us -- We have a school that offers art classes with around 80 teachers, we have a restaurant that serves food during the day, a medium-sized shop, an education department that works with the community and conducts tours of the museum, and a film performance theater. We are basically looking to create a three-year plan to integrate our many disparate systems into a more cohesive and usable structure, and to drastically improve our interaction with the public. Have any of you worked with a museum technology consultant qualified enough for a project of this scope? We'll be putting out an RFP soon and are looking for consultants to submit them to. Thanks, Chris -- Chris Scrofani Network Administrator Honolulu Academy of Arts 900 South Beretania Street Honolulu, HI 96814 Tel. 808 532-3625 cscrofani at honoluluacademy.org
