Abstract

INTRODUCTION Our library’s digital asset management system (DAMS) was no longer meeting digital asset management requirements or expanding scholarly communication needs. We formed a multiunit task force (TF) to (1) survey and identify existing and emerging institutional needs; (2) research available DAMS (open source and proprietary) and assess their potential fit; and (3) deploy software locally for in-depth testing and evaluation. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM We winnowed a field of 25 potential DAMS down to 5 for deployment and evaluation. The process included selection and identification of test collections and the creation of a multipart task based rubric based on library and campus needs assessments. Time constraints and DAMS deployment limitations prompted a move toward a new evaluation iteration: a shorter criteria-based rubric. LESSONS LEARNED We discovered that no single DAMS was “just right,” nor was any single DAMS a static product. Changing and expanding scholarly communication and digital needs could only be met by the more flexible approach offered by a multicomponent digital asset management ecosystem (DAME), described in this study. We encountered obstacles related to testing complex, rapidly evolving software available in a range of configurations and flavors (including tiers of vendor-hosted functionality) and time and capacity constraints curtailed in-depth testing. While we anticipate long-term benefits from “going further together” by including university-wide representation in the task force, there were trade-offs in distributing responsibilities and diffusing priorities. NEXT STEPS Shifts in scholarly communication at multiple levels—institutional, regional, consortial, national, and international—have already necessitated continual review and adjustment of our digital systems.

Highlights

  • Our library’s digital asset management system (DAMS) was no longer meeting digital asset management requirements or expanding scholarly communication needs

  • The infrastructure for managing an academic library’s digital assets might include DAMS oriented toward scholarly publication needs, deployed in the form of institutional or data repositories, or archival and special collections needs with modules aimed at display and exhibition

  • The LR and short rubric (SR) rubric scores were converted to numeric values to facilitate comparisons of the DAMS

Read more

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Under the banners of scholarly communication, special collections, collection development, and digital scholarship, academic libraries have taken on greater responsibilities for collecting, publishing, and preserving a range of digital assets. Simultaneous to our local realization, an international community effort to forge a collective “DSpace Vision” for the platform emphasized the need to “focus on the fundamentals of the modern ‘Institutional Repository’ use case.” This community-supported vision pledged that DSpace “will be designed in such a way that it can be /quickly configured to integrate with new and future tools/services in the larger digital scholarship ‘ecosystem’” (Donohue, 2014, DSpace 3-5 Year Vision Statement). These twin promises—of a closer emphasis on institutional repository functionality (rather than broad digital library or asset management design) and the potential to integrate with other systems—positioned DSpace as a likely component among other tools fulfilling our diverse digital needs These factors, coupled with strategic hiring that forged a cross-unit emphasis on digital collection-building and preservation, prompted a reevaluation of our strategy of using DSpace for any and all university-generated open access content. This article presents two models: (1) a process for identifying, selecting, and evaluating open-source and commercial DAMS; and (2) a “digital asset management ecosystem” (DAME) approach to technical infrastructure that comprises a distributed, linked set of open source platforms

LITERATURE REVIEW
Evaluation Process
Evaluation Summary and Recommendations
Evaluation Challenges
A Digital “Ecosystem” to Serve the Scholarly Communication Ecology
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call