Assignment 2: Greenstone Digital Library Project
Greenstone Digital Library Project
Summary
Greenstone is a popular open source digital library (DL) software. You will use Greenstone to build a small digital library of your own, and you will describe your process and justify designs in a short technical report.
Requirements of the Digital Library
Installation
You will need to download and install a version of the Greenstone DL development software onto your local machine. Access the download page for the Greenstone DL software from http://www.greenstone.org (link will be at the top of the webpage). Your digital library will be developed locally (on your local machine), and there are versions of Greenstone for both Mac and PC. You can use either Greenstone 3 or Greenstone 2.86 (the previous version), although older versions of Greenstone may not be supported by a newer OS on a Mac.
Reminder: The Greenstone Wiki will be useful throughout all steps and requirements of this assignment.
Dataset
There are two options for building the dataset/collection to use for the assignment: 1) I give you a set of items to choose from and a metadata schema and a few content standards for creating the records, or 2) You are responsible for collecting items of the digital library and coming up with a metadata schema and different content standards for the records.
More about your options:
Indexing / Record Creation
The indexing portion of the assignment includes two parts:
If using the football image collection, three example records are included in the attached xml file to guide record structure and data entry. (The xml file contains the record output from Greenstone, i.e. you won’t be hand coding XML records for this assignment.) As you see from these examples, you are required to add primary elements and qualifiers to existing ones, such as to capture “Indexer” information and visible “Player Numbers” from both “Alabama” and/or “Opponent” based on a qualified “Subject” element. The football metadata schema is based off of Qualified Dublin Core, but obviously there are some specialized modifications that have been made. Do not delete any of the core elements from your metadata schema even if they do not include current record content as in the provided example.
If building a new collection of your own, you must provide at least four additional primary elements relevant to the collection and five qualifiers to existing elements, again, relevant to the collection. It is recommended you base your new metadata schema for your collection off of one of the versions of Dublin Core.
Be sure to use appropriate names for your schema, new elements and qualifiers, etc. For example, calling your schema by your name, i.e. “Tom’s schema”, will result in a loss of points. This goes for both options, whether using the football collection or designing your own.
Create the Record Content
You are required to enter data (record content) for at least 20 images.
With the football collection, you can see from the record examples given to you, you will be essentially providing content (data) for five elements, including qualifiers, so most fields will be blank or subject to auto-populate (as part of a digital library “scenario”). Again, be sure not to delete any of the core elements from your metadata schema even if no data are to be provided in the record fields.
If designing your own collection and corresponding set of records, you must also populate at least 5 different fields with corresponding qualifiers for all 20 record items, and the decision to populate one field over the others must be justifiable (e.g. some fields must be manually indexed while others can be auto-indexed), again, as part of a digital library “scenario” or situation.
Interface Design and Publishing
Next, you will be required to design the search and browse components of your digital library and thus make some formatting changes to the interface. The designs and formatting must be logical for use and users of the digital library. For example, for the football collection, crimson (as opposed to green) and white may be a good color choice. Obviously, you will need to make sure your components, e.g. drop down menu options, are understandable (and not just the default field names) and all other features are clearly labeled and presented. Your system will function as you deem suitable, including offering multiple ways to search and browse, but ensure the options correspond to anticipated use and searches of users. There is not an exact set of changes that needs to be made, but please be sure to modify your interface from the demo version. Keeping the default Greenstone layout will result in lost points. Interfaces are critical components to digital libraries.
You are required to “publish” it to the Web server installed locally as part of the Greenstone DL software.
Technical Report
You are also be required to type up a small tech report detailing your work and final system. You should briefly describe how the system was created and what is being searched. Essentially, this report should describe system functionality; you will want to discuss various system components, such as the user interface, metadata (i.e. metadata schema and record content), indexes, and whatever else you deem important. Also, be sure to justify any design decisions. This paper should be concise, no more than one page single-spaced.
Submission and Deadlines
For submission, you will need to zip up the contents of the project’s directory found in the “collect/” directory of Greenstone, and attach and submit the zip file here. Further, zip up the full folder for your collection — and only the collection, not all the entire “collect/” directory containing all collections on your local machine.
This is an individual assignment.
