Friday 13 July 2012

Metadata Stores Community News #5

  1. Welcome to the Metadata Stores blog. The purpose of this blog is to provide a national communication channel for the MetaData Stores Community. Please inspect the tab for Funding Rules as well as the comparison of solution schematics. If you would like to post to this space please contact Simon Pockley for author permissions.

    Screenshot of the Australian Libraries Gateway where you can look up your ISIL code

  2. Action #1: Please follow this link to instructions on how to check your ISIL code, contributor name. You will need to confirm both, as well as the contact person e.g. AU-QGU, Griffith University j.morris@griffith.edu.au - You can confirm by comment box, at the bottom of this post, or email to simon.pockley@ands.org.au.

    Action #2: Please also send a Harvest URL from which the NLA can retrieve your Party records. If you are not yet ready for this then please say 'not ready' or decide on the url that you intend to use.

    See Training below - questions - just ask...

  3. All TIM/Trove training modules are at: http://ands.org.au/training/trove/index.html. Modifications to TIM/Trove training Module 1: now split into 2 parts:
    • Module 1-A: Process for contributing party records to Trove and how to obtain an ISIL code. This module explains:
      • The process for contributing records to Trove
      • How to obtain an ISIL code (International Standard Identifier for Libraries and Related Organisations)
    • Module 1-B: Register with Trove and access TIM. This module explains:
      • How to register with Trove; and
      • How to access TIM ( Trove Identities Manager).
      • TIM Beta and Trove Test
      • TIM Production and Trove People and Organisations zone
  4. We now have 2 communities of practice who have agreed to regular Teleconferences: First the ReDBox collaboration, co-ordinated by Vicki Picasso (see contact list). Second, a VIVO Group co-ordinated by Simon Porter (see contact list). More detailed information about the working sub-groups of these communities will follow.

  5. A South East Queensland Metadata Stores Roundtable is scheduled for Thursday 19th July 2012 form 10:00am - 12:00pm. The agenda is reasonably open and the session will be informal to promote discussion.

    Note the venue will now be Room 712 of the QUT library (V Block), not 714 as originally advertised. For more, contact Andrew White [andrew.white@ands.org.au].
    • Introductions and update from each of the Metadata Stores Projects?
    • National level activity update from ANDS
    • Commonalities and synergies
    • DOI's
    • NLA Integration
    • Other topics

Friday 6 July 2012

Metadata Stores Community News #4 (19/06/2012)

Apologies for any cross-posting 1. Call for collaboration. At a round table in Sydney on the 25/05/2012 (Minutes available on request) collaborative groups were formed. You are invited to participate or form a group.
  • ReDBox collaboration: contact Vicki Picasso - Vicki.Picasso@newcastle.edu.au - A teleconference is pending.
  • Change Management: contact Susan Robbins - S.ROBBINS@uws.edu.au
  • Optional Deliverable 8: contact Neil Anderson - Neal.Anderson@sydney.edu
  • Integration with data capture: contact Peter Sefton - P.Sefton@uws.edu.au

2. QCIF agrees to provide ReDBox Software support to any Australian research institution that has or want to deploy ReDBox. Prtess to see schedule of fees and the terms and conditions.

3. Project contacts have now been included in the comparison. The NLA will use these contacts (please contact me if any detail or contact is not correct) Press to open Google Spreadsheet.

4. Featured question: What is the road map for updating these ARC and NMHRC Activity Records? ANDS is negotiating with NHMRC and ARC to provide an automatic process for updating these records (Coverage currently 2000-2010). This project is still at the early stages. In the meantime, anyone who needs to add new collections to a recent grant (e.g. approved in 2011) then please email Amir Aryani [amir.aryani@ands.org.au], and he will add the grant activity record to RDA, and give you the key to use as the related object.

5. Our latest featured profile is Flinders University - Press to see the Vimeo interview with Amanda Nixon.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flinders University successfully completed one Data Capture project and two Seeding the Commons Projects in 2011. As part of the Data Capture project, a metadata store running on ReDBox software was installed and delivered RIF-CS metadata covering all ANDS-funded Flinders projects to Research Data Australia. Flinders continues to support ReDBox, is represented on the ReDBox Product Reference Group and plays an active part in the ReDBox User Group.

The metadata store has been strongly identified within Flinders as a deliverable of the previous Data Capture project and as such, has not yet been integrated into University systems and workflows.

Flinders University seeks to automate the collection of research datasets metadata wherever possible. The Metadata Stores project will investigate two models for enabling this and implement the model best suited to Flinders needs. The first model involves the migration of data from 'sources of truth' into ReDBox. The second model would include the development of a Data Management Planning tool, similar to that in operation at Curtin University. Such a tool would be prepopulated with data from sources of truth. Successful completion of the Data Management Plan would trigger access to a collaborative research project site, and migration of metadata to ReDBox.

The project will produce a workflow and infrastructure to encourage the registration and description of research datasets. Depending on the model chosen, the outcome could be either an easy to use research data registration process that will give Flinders important management information for further work to develop support; or a data management planning workflow that will enable researchers to not only register and describe their datasets, but also arrange sound data storage.

Less tangibly, the project will raise awareness of good research data management practice amongst researchers and professional staff, increase capacity within the Library to support researchers in managing their data and provide the University valuable information about research datasets produced at Flinders that could be used to identify emerging research areas or opportunities for collaboration.

For more details please contact Amanda Nixon: amanda.nixon@flinders.edu.au.

Metadata Stores Community News #3 (24/05/2012)

Apologies for any cross posting

1. NLA announces the availability of the Trove Application Programming Interface.

... for everyone who likes to discover gems in Trove, a related VALA 2012 paper.

2. Building communities of interest - who is doing what in Metadata Stores.
Some of this information is changing. Please check data about your university and alert me to any updates.

3. New Training Module: How to obtain an ISIL code, register for Trove and access TIM.

4. Profile: Metadata Stores at the University of Adelaide (below).

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Background and context

The University of Adelaide has been involved in three ANDS-funded projects to date: one Seeding the Commons project and two Data Capture projects. All three projects have produced RIF-CS compliant records for inclusion in Research Data Australia. There is currently no institutional facility for centrally storing these and subsequent metadata records.

The need for an institutional metadata store has been identified through the University of Adelaide’s Research ICT Review conducted by IT Strategy and Architecture staff in 2011. Also in 2011, the ANDS-funded Seeding the Commons project ‘Showcasing Research Data’ elicited researchers’ requirements for a University research data repository and metadata store. The project report Responses to interviews: University of Adelaide research data repository and metadata store indicates strong support from the research community for the development of a repository and metadata store. The report is available at http://libguides.adelaide.edu.au/content.php?pid=202841&sid=1766886.

In April 2012 the University of Adelaide embarked on an ANDS and University co-funded Metadata Stores project. This project will realise the important first step in meeting the needs identified in the above mentioned report.

Project overview

The University of Adelaide is developing a semi-automated, institutional approach to the capture of metadata about research data collections from the University’s research community.

The University of Adelaide will utilise open source software to support a workflow for registering new collections. The workflow will leverage information already stored in the University’s HR and research management systems to describe researchers and research activities, thereby capturing rich contextual information to support the descriptions of research data collections, and minimising duplication of data entry.

Technology

The University of Adelaide will utilise open source software to support a workflow for registering new collections. Both ReDBox and Vivo are currently under consideration.

Contact

For more information contact Cathy Miller, Research Data Project Officer http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/cathy.miller

Project Manager: PY Wong

-----------------------------------------------------------

Best wishes

Simon

Contributors