Chris Awre gave an update on the university's digital repository and research data management activities. The repository uses Fedora and Hydra to store and provide access to a variety of digital content. Recent work included developing a data management plan template to help researchers plan for data management. Looking ahead, efforts will focus on upgrading Hydra, improving image and archive management, and integrating repository searches with the library catalog. Q&A followed the presentation.

1. Repository and RDM
update
Chris Awre
Head of Information Management, Library and Learning Innovation
ICTD Departmental Meeting, 17th April 2013

2. To cover
• Repository recap
• Current repository activity
• Research Data Management
• Q&A
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3. Digital Repositories
A digital repository is a technology that enables the storage,
management and preservation of structured digital content, and
access to it
Access Preservation
Digital
repositories
Management and maintenance
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4. Digital repository drivers
• Digital repositories emerged in response to the need to better
manage, share and preserve the digital content being generated
• Universities have been at the forefront because so much of what
they produce – research, teaching – is the generation of
knowledge that we need to keep a record of and share
– Institutional record of authority
• Subject communities have also developed their own repositories
(e.g., physics, economics), driven by the desire to foster
communication and collaboration
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5. Digital repository development
• OpenDOAR lists 2271 repositories worldwide
– 210 in the UK
• 76.2% are institutional
• Content types started with journal articles (open access
publication), but are now more widespread
– Conference papers, reports/working papers, books (incl.
chapters), theses/dissertations, multimedia/AV materials,
learning materials (OER), software
– Research data
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6. Five principles
 A repository should be content agnostic
 A repository should be (open) standards-based
 A repository should be scalable
 A repository should understand how pieces of content relate to
each other
 A repository should be manageable with limited resource
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7. Five principles (leading to our implementation)
 Fedora is content agnostic
 Fedora is (open) standards-based
 Fedora is scalable
 Fedora understands how pieces of content relate to each other
 Fedora is manageable with limited resource
– With help from the community
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8. Fedora and Hydra
Hydra provides user interfaces and workflows
over the repository
Hydra
Concept of multiple Hydra ‘heads’ over single
body of content
Fedora is the digital repository system, holding
Fedora the content in a highly structured way
The content is stored either locally or in the
Cloud (currently a slice of the SAN)
Storage (e.g., SAN, Cloud)
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9. Hydra
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10. Four Key Capabilities
1. Support for any kind of record or metadata
2. Object-specific behaviors for workflow and discovery
– Books, Articles, Images, Music, Video, Manuscripts, etc.
3. Tailored views for user or discipline-specific materials
4. Easy to augment & over-ride with local modifications
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11. A vision
“I believe that a mature and fully realized institutional repository
will contain works of faculty and students – both research and
teaching materials – and also documentation of the activities of the
institution itself in the form of records of events and performance
and of the ongoing intellectual life of the institution. It will also
house experimental and observational data captured by members of
the institution that support their scholarly activities.”
Cliff Lynch
“Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age”
ARL, no. 226 (February 2003): 1-7.
http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/br/br226/br226ir.shtml
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12. A vision (as interpreted by Hull)
“I believe that a mature and fully realized institutional repository
will contain works of faculty and students – both research and
teaching materials – and also documentation of the activities of the
institution itself in the form of records of events and performance
and of the ongoing intellectual life of the institution. It will also
house experimental and observational data captured by members of
the institution that support their scholarly activities.”
Cliff Lynch
“Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age”
ARL, no. 226 (February 2003): 1-7.
http://www.arl.org/resources/pubs/br/br226/br226ir.shtml
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13. Work of faculty and students
Faculty Students
- Disseminate research outputs - Disseminate theses / dissertations
- Manage research data - Provide exam papers
- Learning material resource - Student handbook archive
Granular security required to manage these different activities
The repository has been tied into our CAS system
Materials can be open, internal, or restricted to user groups / users
All material is quality assured by Content & Access Team in LLI before publication
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14. Records of events and performance
Creative writing – discussions with authors
Inaugural (and other?) lectures
University Annual Learning & Teaching
Conference
Campus-based e-publishing
Integration with Open Journal Systems to enable
archiving of publications
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15. Experimental and observational data History DMP
Managing data for historical research
In brief…
The Department of History at the University of Hull was the top performing department in the RAE2008 at the University. This high
standing has resulted from the broad range of research activity across the department, with over 30 full-time members of staff
contributing to the overall body of work. The Department’s focus on teams engaged in the production of databases was specifically
recognised in feedback from the RAE2008 panel.
The History DMP project has built on the existing data management best practices within the Department. It has used the experience in
data management demonstrated and recognised to frame a departmental approach to data management, to enhance and build on the
individual activities that have been the basis of data management thus far. This departmental data management plan will be used to
support future research strategy and provide a coherent platform for data sustainability in future research.
The work undertaken developed an overall plan for use across he Department, and then implemented this using past, present and future
research activities as case studies. The role of local technical provision for data management, in the shape of the University’s digital
repository, was explored and the system enhanced in specific ways to deliver a platform that not only manages the data, but allows for
its exploitation and access as well.
The data management plan The technology
• Tiptoeing into research data management (RDM)
A three step process was taken to develop the History data The focus of the project’s work on technical solutions for
management plan: managing data was on the institutional digital repository at Hull.
This is based on Fedora1 and presented using Hydra2.
Ø Requirements for data management were gathered through
interviews and focus groups. Hydra provides a interface toolkit that enables templates (models)
Ø These highlighted that academics were pleased that to be defined for different content types; a dataset model was
someone was looking to help them: many were making do, created, that allows us to address dataset needs in the broader
having little idea of how to manage data, or who to ask. context of the repository as a whole. This specifically enables:
Ø The data management plan was developed through a Ø Addition of coverage and the translation specifically of
distillation of questions in the DCC checklist, adapting them to geographic coverage into map displays using KML Google
suit identified needs amongst history academics Maps files – e.g., https://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:2157
Ø The document is available at Ø Addition of a DOI identifier derived on submission to DataCite
http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:5423 (search for via the DataCite API
history dmp at http://hydra.hull.ac.uk for related documents). Ø The addition of extra fields (based on MODS) as required for
Ø An online version using the DCC DMPOnline tool is in different future data management needs
preparation.
Linked data – The project translated a sample dataset into linked
Ø The data management plan was applied to three projects at open data to highlight how this might support data management
different stages of the research lifecycle: a completed project, based around the structure inherent in datasets. This identified
a current project, and a project just starting. All found the plan how to effectively link out using appropriate ontologies as well as
convenient to complete and a useful way of focusing their allowing linking in: the work will be a case exemplar to inform
thoughts on data management. further discussion.
Ø Case studies – https://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:5421
Key to the data management plan has been raising
awareness and confidence in the capacity for
managing that data. The project has revealed that
local management within a repository provides a
straightforward way of adding value to the data in its
own right alongside any disciplinary repository and
provides local assurance of the data being managed.
• JISC History DMP project
Credits and Further Information
Chris Awre, Richard Green, John Nicholls, Peter Wilson, and David Starkey, University of Hull | Martin Dow, AcuityUnlimited
Plus many thanks to the members of staff and postgraduate students of the department for their input
This work is taking place under the auspices of the JISC-funded History DMP project within the JISC Managing Research Data Programme 2011-3
History DMP Project Blog: http://historydmp.wordpress.com
Email contact: r.green@hull.ac.uk or c.awre@hull.ac.uk
1Fedora – http://fedora-commons.org | 2Hydra – http://projecthydra.org
– Identified ways to encourage and facilitate the planning of data
management
• EPSRC roadmap
– Highlighting ways forward to make the most of the data we
produce
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16. Starting points for RDM
• Management of research data happens
– Existing activity is acknowledged
• Current research data management (RDM) initiatives are based on
three main trends
– The amount of data is growing (the data deluge)
– Data management is required more, across multiple disciplines
– Increasing perception of the value of data
– …and a fourth – demonstrating return on investment
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17. RDM @ Hull: Why?
• In many cases current practice may be sufficient
• But…
– Funder requirements may not always be feasible to implement at the
project level
– Institution level services and support can help meet requirements
and save the cost of repeating activity across multiple projects
– National and international data centres may also be appropriate for
use
• Data management is not just storing the data securely
– Building the value of the data through active, local management
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18. RDM @ Hull: What?
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19. RDM @ Hull: Who?
• Research data management support is not the sole responsibility of any
current support service – nor should it be
– But we can all work together to create the whole picture of support
• Units involved, currently and potentially:
– Library and Learning Innovation
– Research Funding Office
– ICTD
– Knowledge Exchange
– Faculty/Departmental admin
– Others?
• How can we complete the jigsaw?
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20. Context, context, context…
Research data management
does not sit in isolation
Research It is one type of
data digital content
Research Learning
outputs materials
It is one type of
Digital content workflow
Multimedia
archives
There may be similar processes we can adapt
There may be joint developments that serve more than one need
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21. Onward…
• Upgrade to Hydra 6
– Hydra 6 will ensure we can more easily add new features and take
advantage of functionality from other Hydra partners
• As well as share what we do with others
• Image management
– Increasing number of use cases for image collection management
• Digital archives management
– Using Hydra to implement a model for the management of born-
digital archives
• Library search integration
– Embedding repository collections alongside the catalogue and article
searches
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22. Thank you
c.awre@hull.ac.uk
http://hydra.hull.ac.uk
http://projecthydra.org
http://libguides.hull.ac.uk/researchdata