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The service is written in Java and it uses Spring and Hibernate frameworks. The data is stored in PostgreSQL database, which is shared by all the libraries. They do not possess a direct access to the database, but the service offers an interface, which makes it possible to retrieve XML data over HTTP. Modification of the data via admin UI, however, is restricted, and access on the other libraries’ data is blocked.
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== How the Überset Almost Killed Me: using a METS Document to Create and Update Fedora Data Streams ==
* Jennifer Eustis, University of Connecticut Libraries, jennifer.eustis@lib.uconn.edu
The University of Connecticut Libraries is currently building a Fedora digital repository. We investigated the viability of using, Islandora to meet our needs of an administration module on top of Fedora. As our analysis came to end, we found that Islandora did not meet all of our needs. On the one hand, Islandora was convenient in terms of a being an already existing solution with a robust support community. We also liked that Islandora created and updated the Dublin Core (DC) and Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS) data streams seamlessly in Fedora Digital Objects. This was because we had decided to use MODS as our normalized metadata standard for descriptive metadata. On the other hand, our content model architecture was more atomistic than that of Islandora. Our content creators felt that content should be managed in separate Fedora Digital Objects whereas Islandora managed content as data streams. Furthermore, our content creators wanted a more tailored management system that Islandora could not deliver. Because of these concerns, we decided to build our own repository management system.
This decision entailed rethinking how to replicate Islandora’s functionality of creating and updating the DC and MODS data streams. When speaking to the programmer on the project, one of his tasks was to ingest METS (Metadata Encoding Transmission Standard) documents from Archivematica into Fedora. The programmer and I talked about the idea of using METS as a metadata standard to help us create and update data streams. As the metadata librarian on the project, I also wanted a way to be able to update other types of metadata beyond the description such as important rights or preservation metadata, which would not be in the same data streams as the DC and/or MODS. Moreover, I knew that metadata would not be the same in all of our Fedora Digital Objects. Each of our Fedora Digital Objects would need to have data streams created and updated with appropriate metadata. This lead to the decision of using a METS document with all the relevant metadata needed to create and update data streams. All of our Fedora Digital Objects would have such a METS document. Because these METS documents dealt with a rather large portion of our available metadata, we began to refer to them as the superset and eventually the METS überset document. As a result, as the metadata librarian, I created a METS Profile for the METS überset document that has just been approved and registered by the Library of Congress.
In this presentation, I will describe my process of how the METS überset document came to be and the specifications outlined in its METS Profile. I will also highlight the lessons learned from the process.
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[[Category:Code4Lib2013]]
