[CODE4LIB] Job posting: Digital Library Software Engineer
The Harvard University Library is engaged in a redesign of our Digital Repository Service (DRS), a preservation and access repository of digital objects from libraries and museums at Harvard, currently storing more than 23M files and over 126TB of first copy content. As a team effort involving digital preservation specialists, metadata analysts, digital content librarians, user experience designers, and software developers , we are developing new content models and building new tools for the curation and DRS deposit of born digital materials, including web harvests and email. We currently have open a 1 year term position in Cambridge for a Digital Library Software Engineer to work primarily on the development of EASi, a new email archiving curation interface for processing email collections and depositing them for archiving in the DRS. If you are interested in joining a great team of experts in these domains and working on this exciting project, please feel free to contact me directly with any questions or apply through the Harvard job posting linked below. https://jobs.brassring.com/1033/asp/tg/cim_jobdetail.asp?partnerID=25240 siteID=5341AReq=24412BR
Re: [CODE4LIB] Apps to reduce large file on the fly when it's requested
Hi All, Thank you to those who sent the suggestions. Much appreciated. We now have lists of options to ponder and investigate. Please do not hesitate to add more idea or suggestions! thanks, ranti. On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 7:36 PM, Ranti Junus ranti.ju...@gmail.com wrote: Dear All, My colleague came with this query and I hope some of you could give us some ideas or suggestion: Our Digital Multimedia Center (DMC) scanning project can produce very large PDF files. They will have PDFs that are about 25Mb and some may move into the 100Mb range. If we provide a link to a PDF of that large, a user may not want to try to download it even though she really needs to see the information. In the past, DMC has created a lower quality, smaller versions to the original file to reduce the size. Some thoughts have been tossed around to reduce the duplication or the work (e.g. no more creating the lower quality PDF manually.) They are wondering if there is an application that we could point to the end user, who might need it due to poor internet access, that if used will simplify the very large file transfer for the end user. Basically: - a client software that tells the server to manipulate and reduce the file on the fly - a server app that would to the actual manipulation of the file and then deliver it to the end user. Personally, I'm not really sure about the client software part. It makes more sense to me (from the user's perspective) that we provide a download the smaller size of this large file link that would trigger the server-side apps to manipulate the big file. However, we're all ears for any suggestions you might have. thanks, ranti. -- Bulk mail. Postage paid. -- Bulk mail. Postage paid.
Re: [CODE4LIB] Seeking feedback on database design for an open source software registry
On Aug 4, 2011, at 4:17 PM, stuart yeates wrote: On 04/08/11 13:09, Peter Murray wrote: Thanks for the reply, Stuart. With the first question, I've updated the diagram to add an Association entity. (Technically, I don't think this is an entity but rather a specialization of a relationship.) This is based off some great work I saw at the NITRC. Take a look at the Associations section of these page: http://www.nitrc.org/projects/fcon_1000/ http://www.nitrc.org/projects/fsl/ This fits the use case you describe and that of modules that would be a part of a Drupal installation or how djatoka can be a component of several different projects. Regarding the second question, I think of standards as a kind of technology. I've added standard to the list of enumerations at http://wiki.code4lib.org/index.php/Registry_E-R_Diagram So in your example, if a dspace / fedora run in a servlet container (which is a standard) which depends on Java (which is both a standard and a project) would you be expecting to break those out? If so, that's a lot of entities and your proposed mockups are going to have to be redone; If not, you can’t do proper dependency tracking. Well, we certainly don't want to get into a situation where we find it is turtles all of the way down. As the model is shaping up now, there is an important distinction between an Association and a Technology. An Association is a relationship between a Package and another Package and a Technology is an attribute of a Package. So the key is defining what a Package is to represent, which is some unit of open source software that is unique or specific in its implementation to libraries. (DSpace and Fedora are not necessarily specific and unique to libraries, but those two packages are highly visible in libraries and related communities.) Tomcat as a servlet container and Java as a programming language would be considered Technologies not Packages (since they are not unique and specific to libraries) and so would not have a relationship to other packages. Peter -- Peter Murray peter.mur...@lyrasis.orgtel:+1-678-235-2955 Ass't Director, Technology Services Development http://dltj.org/about/ LYRASIS --Great Libraries. Strong Communities. Innovative Answers. The Disruptive Library Technology Jesterhttp://dltj.org/ Attrib-Noncomm-Share http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Re: [CODE4LIB] Seeking feedback on database design for an open source software registry
Taken as a whole, the community and member surveys LYRASIS did a year ago found that open source software is still in early adoption. There are notable packages that are breaking out of that stage, but the the majority of survey responses said that libraries are seeking assistance with figuring out if and what software is right for them. Marshall's numbers do show an interesting up-tick in the adoption of open source, but I don't think we can call it a trend yet. The way the world looks from my vantage point is that there is still a lot of interest in open source and usefulness in a tool like the one being proposed. (I will concede to some bias on this point, though.) Peter On Aug 4, 2011, at 6:13 PM, BWS Johnson wrote: I am fascinated by this assertion. Perhaps I'm just misreading. The technology adaptation curve I remember from Rogers and Crossing the Chasm would break down to about a third of folks finding themselves in the early majority. Much fizzles between the Innovators and Early Adopters, and the same occurs again between the early adopters and the early majority. Are you really viewing all open source at the same point in the curve, namely still in early adoption? Even if one were to squint and apply the lens of Librarians being more conservative than average in terms of adopting new things (which I'm not sure is true profession wide) open source and Library Science at this point have a history. Koha is in its eleventh year. Dspace is 9ish. This listserv is cruising about its 8th. Evergreen is at least 5 years on, now. VuFind is 4ish years. There are certainly many more that belong on this list that slip my mind at present. When one considers Johnson's arguments on innovation contained in Where Good Ideas Come From (Less scholarly than Diffusion of Innovations, but every bit as valuable in my eyes) the diversity contained here parallels the explosion in the pace of innovation elsewhere. Marshall Breeding stated that This year SirsiDynix and Innovative Interfaces were especially hard struck by open source competitors. in this year's Automation Marketplace. I'd argue that if the development were pre chasm, it wouldn't eat the established competition's lunches like that. With all due respect, I would think that it would be fair to peg a large consortial entity or National Library at the right hand side of the curve. I think this ends up happening more often than not since there is a perception that if the wrong decisions were taken too early on, it would reflect poorly on a prestigious institution. Cheers, Brooke -- Peter Murray peter.mur...@lyrasis.orgtel:+1-678-235-2955 Ass't Director, Technology Services Development http://dltj.org/about/ LYRASIS --Great Libraries. Strong Communities. Innovative Answers. The Disruptive Library Technology Jesterhttp://dltj.org/ Attrib-Noncomm-Share http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Re: [CODE4LIB] Seeking feedback on database design for an open source software registry
On Aug 5, 2011, at 6:27 PM, Peter Murray wrote: Marshall's numbers do show an interesting up-tick in the adoption of open source, but I don't think we can call it a trend yet. The way the world looks from my vantage point is that there is still a lot of interest in open source and usefulness in a tool like the one being proposed. (I will concede to some bias on this point, though.) I concur. In this particular community (Code4Lib) open source is the norm, if not the expectation, but we are only 2,000 people out of tens of thousands. I think the majority of libraries do not possess the necessary personnel to support open source software. Similarly, I think there is a large number of existing library administrators who say, We tried that open source thing in the beginning of my career, but we called it 'home grown systems'. It didn't pan out then, it won't pan out now. I think there are still others who say things like, Writing and maintaining software is not our core business. Farming it out to commercial vendors, whether they use open source software or not, is financially the right thing to do. Finally, like most institutions, libraries are risk adverse places. I believe all of these factors contribute to the idea that open source software is still in the adoption phase. -- Eric Lease Morgan
