AgNIC’s "Born Digital/Reborn Digital" Repository Initiatives Barbara Hutchinson (University of Arizona) Linda Eells (University of Minnesota) Rob McGeachin (Texas A&M University) “ Making Agricultural Information Available and Accessible” Wageningen, 13 November 2008

Overview of Presentation The AgNIC Initiative: status and challenges “ born and reborn” digital definitions Reborn repositories: example from Texas Born digital repositories: a gleam in the eye…and what about the Internet Archive, etc? Update on AgNIC Born Digital/Reborn Digital committee activities

The AgNIC Initiative: status and challenges

“ born and reborn” digital definitions

Reborn repositories: example from Texas

Born digital repositories: a gleam in the eye…and what about the Internet Archive, etc?

Update on AgNIC Born Digital/Reborn Digital committee activities

The vision since 1995: “to be a premier electronic resource for evaluated, reliable agricultural information” Collaboration (NAL, Land-Grant University libraries, and others) Formalized cooperative governance structure Technology (distributed web-based information portal) Content (centers of excellence approach) Online Reference (linking people directly to subject experts)

The vision since 1995: “to be a premier electronic resource for evaluated, reliable agricultural information”

Collaboration (NAL, Land-Grant University libraries, and others)

Formalized cooperative governance structure

Technology (distributed web-based information portal)

Content (centers of excellence approach)

Online Reference (linking people directly to subject experts)

The Evolution of AgNIC A Growing Voluntary Partnership More than 60 member organizations International participation SIDALC (Agricultural Information and Documentation System for America), the Canadian Agriculture Library, and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Current Services Resource database Calendar of events News items AgOAI

The Evolution of AgNIC

A Growing Voluntary Partnership

More than 60 member organizations

International participation

SIDALC (Agricultural Information and Documentation System for America), the Canadian Agriculture Library, and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)

Current Services

Resource database

Calendar of events

News items

AgOAI

AgNIC’s Challenge: Lack of Funding & High Level Support If you build it… They may NOT come!

AgNIC’s Challenge:

The Changing Ag Info Stage in the U.S. New eXtension Initiative “ The most reliable information you'll find on the Internet brought to you by the nation's largest and oldest network of universities (the LGUs)” eXtension Services Resource pages (family, farm, youth, etc.) News items/feeds Calendar of events Ask an Expert/FAQs Global Search

New eXtension Initiative

“ The most reliable information you'll find on the Internet brought to you by the nation's largest and oldest network of universities (the LGUs)”

eXtension Services

Resource pages

(family, farm, youth, etc.)

News items/feeds

Calendar of events

Ask an Expert/FAQs

Global Search

eXtension’s Advantage Funding & High Level Support focus on strategic business plan at first % state Cooperative Extension funds 74 land-grant university signed partners commercial sponsors recently created eXtension Foundation

eXtension’s Advantage

focus on strategic business plan at first

% state Cooperative Extension funds

74 land-grant university signed partners

commercial sponsors

recently created eXtension Foundation

AgNIC Strategic Planning for 2010 Visioning a slightly different future: By 2010, AgNIC will be a leader in providing access to, and serves as a trusted steward for the world’s largest collection of quality digital information in the areas of food, agriculture, natural resources, and related sciences”

Visioning a slightly different future:

By 2010, AgNIC will be a leader in providing access to, and serves as a trusted steward for the world’s largest collection of quality digital information in the areas of food, agriculture, natural resources, and related sciences”

AgNIC Strategic Planning for 2010 A Refined Mission: AgNIC facilitates and participates in partnerships and cooperation among institutions and organizations worldwide that are committed to the identification, delivery, and preservation of reliable, freely-available, evaluated, digital content and quality services for agriculture, food, and natural resources information.

A Refined Mission:

AgNIC facilitates and participates in partnerships and cooperation among institutions and organizations worldwide that are committed to the identification, delivery, and preservation of reliable, freely-available, evaluated, digital content and quality services for agriculture, food, and natural resources information.

AgNIC Strategic Planning for 2010 New Goals and Objectives Improve Content and Services/Increase Funding Expand e-content Reborn digital Born digital Further develop AgOAI Pursue grants to support new projects Seek partnerships with other agencies and organizations

New Goals and Objectives

Improve Content and Services/Increase Funding

Expand e-content

Reborn digital

Born digital

Further develop AgOAI

Pursue grants to support new projects

Seek partnerships with other agencies and organizations

Born and Reborn Digital Defined Born-digital - adj . Relating to a document that was created and exists only in a digital format. (Word Spy, August 2008) Reborn-digital – “content that was first incarnated in physical, typically print, format and has been converted to digital format via a scanning (often with OCR software) process. (Linda Eells 2008)

Born-digital - adj . Relating to a document that was created and exists only in a digital format. (Word Spy, August 2008)

Reborn-digital – “content that was first incarnated in physical, typically print, format and has been converted to digital format via a scanning (often with OCR software) process. (Linda Eells 2008)

Historical (Reborn) content National Preservation Program for Agricultural Literature A National Endowment for the Humanities supported project of USAIN (United States Agriculture Information Network.) Preserve and provide access to agricultural literature published prior to 1950 Twenty-seven states in first five phases MN – 350 titles, ~3,000 volumes (example) NAL/land-grant universities Microfilming Project Early 1980s - microfilmed older Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station, Agricultural Extension Service , and some academic department publications, including both monographs and serials (example) Cornell >1,900 books 6 journals >850,000 pages

National Preservation Program for Agricultural Literature

A National Endowment for the Humanities supported project of USAIN (United States Agriculture Information Network.)

Preserve and provide access to agricultural literature published prior to 1950

Twenty-seven states in first five phases

MN – 350 titles, ~3,000 volumes (example)

Institutional Repositories – combining historical and current digital resources Facilitating scholarly communication & open access

Texas Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin – AgNIC Cooperative Agreement

Reborn Digital Project Committee Planning and Next Steps Establish scanning procedures for preservation Assist in planning for re-born digital projects Help lobby for creation institutional repositories Ultimate Goal: Central search to harvest metadata from all ag info repositories Ag OAI

Planning and Next Steps

Establish scanning procedures for preservation

Assist in planning for re-born digital projects

Help lobby for creation institutional repositories

Ultimate Goal: Central search to harvest metadata from all ag info repositories

The Problem: Long-term Access to Born Digital Resources = LINK ROT The percentage of inactive Internet references increased from 3.8% at 3 months to 13% at 27 months after publication Inactive Internet references .com addresses - 46% lost after 27 months .edu (30%) other (20%) .gov (10%) .org (5%) -Dellavalle et.al. 2003 46% of all citations to Web-located sources could not be accessed HTTP 404 (Page not found) message (61.5%) being the greatest cause of missing citations. Collectively, the missing citations accounted for 22.0% of all citations -Sellitto 2005

The percentage of inactive Internet references increased from 3.8% at 3 months to 13% at 27 months after publication

Inactive Internet references

.com addresses - 46% lost after 27 months

.edu (30%)

other (20%)

.gov (10%)

.org (5%)

-Dellavalle et.al. 2003

46% of all citations to Web-located sources could not be accessed

HTTP 404 (Page not found) message (61.5%) being the greatest cause of

missing citations.

Collectively, the missing citations accounted for 22.0% of all citations

-Sellitto 2005

Born-Digital Project Committee Mission A group of land-grant institutions, in partnership with AgNIC, ADEC, USAIN, NAL, and others , and with strong (and critical) support from institutional Colleges of Agriculture and/or Natural Resources and Cooperative Extension Service units, propose to collaboratively create policies, determine appropriate standards, and develop the technical infrastructure for a born digital repository , and subsequently reborn digital, of agricultural resources that may be readily scaled to involve other national and eventually international partners.

Key Concepts Phased approach Scalable Compliant with national/international standards Persistent long-term access Secure Openly accessible Collaborative content development Sustainable deposition/description

Phased approach

Scalable

Compliant with national/international standards

Persistent long-term access

Secure

Openly accessible

Collaborative content development

Sustainable deposition/description

Key Players Steering Committee - Institutional Members Colorado State University Cornell University Michigan State University Ohio State University Purdue University Texas A&M University of Arizona University of Florida University of Illinois - UIUC University of Minnesota (Lead, Phase I) Project Liaisons to External Groups ADEC (Janet Poley) AgNIC (Cindy Straus) IAALD (Barb Hutchinson) NAL (Melanie Gardner) USAIN (Nan Hyland) Others: California Digital Library ? Internet Archive? Advisory Group (tbd) international tribal/1890 LGUs eXtension library deans NASULGC Others?

Steering Committee - Institutional Members

Colorado State University

Cornell University

Michigan State University

Ohio State University

Purdue University

Texas A&M

University of Arizona

University of Florida

University of Illinois - UIUC

University of Minnesota (Lead, Phase I)

Project Liaisons to External Groups

ADEC (Janet Poley)

AgNIC (Cindy Straus)

IAALD (Barb Hutchinson)

NAL (Melanie Gardner)

USAIN (Nan Hyland)

Others: California Digital Library ? Internet Archive?

Advisory Group (tbd)

international

tribal/1890 LGUs

eXtension

library deans

NASULGC

Others?

Task Forces: Phase I Pilot Institution Selection Establish criteria (e.g. functioning IR, strong formal Extension & Libraries commitment), and identify Phase I pilot project institutions; policy & standards assessment. Grant Funding - source assessment and identification Identify possible funding agencies, map their goals/mission to the mission of this project, and pursue contacts. Planning Grant Writing /Policy Development Draft planning grant and guide submission of proposal. Establish collection development policies and copyright policies and permissions, and develop work flow templates, etc. to be defined in planning grant. Infrastructure Advisory Group Identify IT contacts at each steering group member’s institution to advise Committee on IT issues. Goal is to ensure agreement on metadata standard(s) and an operating infrastructure compatible with capabilities and existing infrastructure at pilot institutions.

Pilot Institution Selection

Establish criteria (e.g. functioning IR, strong formal Extension & Libraries commitment), and identify Phase I pilot project institutions; policy & standards assessment.

Grant Funding - source assessment and identification

Identify possible funding agencies, map their goals/mission to the mission of this project, and pursue contacts.

Planning Grant Writing /Policy Development

Draft planning grant and guide submission of proposal. Establish collection development policies and copyright policies and permissions, and develop work flow templates, etc. to be defined in planning grant.

Infrastructure Advisory Group

Identify IT contacts at each steering group member’s institution to advise Committee on IT issues. Goal is to ensure agreement on metadata standard(s) and an operating infrastructure compatible with capabilities and existing infrastructure at pilot institutions.

Work in Progress 1) Follow-up on Steering Committee Meeting (AgNIC 2008) Reviewed & finalized Phase I parameters Reviewed & finalized Task Force descriptions & goals Determined Task Force membership Determine Advisory Group membership (tbd) 2) Task Forces began work – Fall 2008 Conducting survey of funding options & contacts Conducting survey of institutional repository preparedness 3) Preparation of first grant proposal (planning/pilot) UMN submitted preliminary internal UMN proposal for initial funding to establish processes and workflow issues (Oct. ’08)

1) Follow-up on Steering Committee Meeting (AgNIC 2008)

Reviewed & finalized Phase I parameters

Reviewed & finalized Task Force descriptions & goals

Determined Task Force membership

Determine Advisory Group membership (tbd)

2) Task Forces began work – Fall 2008

Conducting survey of funding options & contacts

Conducting survey of institutional repository preparedness

3) Preparation of first grant proposal (planning/pilot)

UMN submitted preliminary internal UMN proposal for initial funding to establish processes and workflow issues (Oct. ’08)

Engage more members in digitizing projects Build on & promote development of institutional repositories Gain funding for born-digital pilot and follow-on projects Agree to standards and procedures Bring B.D./R.D. together into one user-friendly system linked to similar international efforts Challenges for AgNIC Partners The average lifespan of a Web page today is 100 days. This is no way to run a culture .” -Brewster Kahle, Director and Co-Founder , Internet Archive

Engage more members in digitizing projects

Build on & promote development of institutional repositories

Gain funding for born-digital pilot and follow-on projects

Agree to standards and procedures

Bring B.D./R.D. together into one user-friendly system linked to similar international efforts

Cornell Historical Literature for Agriculture, available at http:// chla.library.cornell.edu/c/chla/about.html . (18 April 2008). Dellavalle, Robert P. et.al., 2003. Going, Going, Gone: Lost Internet References , Science 302 (5646): 787. Eells L. 2007. Born-Digital Agricultural Resources: Archives and Issues. Quarterly Bulletin of IAALD, 52(3/4). Gwinn, Nancy, 1993. A National Preservation Program for Agricultural Literature , U.S. Agricultural Information Network. Heatley R. 2007. Plan to Develop a Digital Information Infrastructure to Manage Land Grant Information. Available at http://www.adec.edu/adec-agnic-digital-inf.pdf (5 February 2008). Sellitto, Carmine. 2005. The impact of impermanent Web-located citations: A study of 123 scholarly conference publications, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 56(7):695-703. Unsworth, John and Pauline Yu. 2003, Not-so-Modest Proposals: What do we want our system of scholarly communication to look like in 2010? CIC Summit on Scholarly Communication, Chicago, December 2, 2003. Available at http://www3.isrl.uiuc.edu/~unsworth/CICsummit.htm (18 April 2008). USAIN Task Force. 2008. Making the Case for a Next-Generation Digital Information System to Ensure America’s Leadership in Agricultural Sciences in the 21st Century. Available at http:// www.usain.org/WhitePaperFinal.pdf (1 May 2008). Weiss, Rick. 2003. Electronic Archivists Are Playing Catch-Up in Trying to Keep Documents From Landing in History's Dustbin , Washington Post, November 24, 2003, A08. Selected References