Abstract
This paper outlines challenges, considerations, informational needs, and technical assessments faced by developers of digital libraries representing cultural heritage collections. The University of Bergen Library’s Special Collections encompass four collections with differing material types and ways for disseminating content. In the effort to present a collective whole, the library has initiated the development of a unified digital solution. Due to the different nature of the collections and the existing technological stack used by the developing team, such a project presents various challenges and a series of pre-development considerations, including metadata structuring and accommodating diverse user needs. Drawing on discussions and work meetings of involved parties, the paper showcases ongoing efforts to determine the optimal approach for this in-house development. By highlighting the tasks and activities behind the development of new digital libraries presented to the public, this paper explores the complexities such as balancing ambitions and constraints, aligning processes and strategies, making technological choices, and leveraging developer expertise.
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Notes
- 1.
The theme categories formed by the collections are: 1) general, 2) crowdsourcing, 3) file management, 4) harvesting of today’s Marcus, 5) cataloging, 6) links, 7) downloading, 8) uploading, 9) search, 10) display, 11) research support.
- 2.
E.g. the ability to create search facets related to -all- metadata fields recorded in the database is not feasible for such a platform, and suggestions of this kind need a discussion with the Special Collections to work out relevance, gain, and technical possibility. Furthermore, some of the desired functions may exceed the expertise of the technical team at UBL, might however, be possible to solve using different approaches.
- 3.
A requirement for the frontend-solution is the capability of displaying collection hierarchies. This, however, is only possible if the underlying data reflects these hierarchical structures; and while the technical team can implement this, providing the data to the system is the responsibility of the Special Collections.
References
The University of Bergen’s platform of the Special Collections. https://marcus.uib.no
The National Norwegian Archive for Queer History. https://skeivtarkiv.no/en
The Norwegian terminology portal. https://termportalen.no
Norwegian dictionary. https://ordbokene.no
Digital portal for place names. https://stadnamn-web.vercel.app
St. Albanus abandoned church site. https://marcus.uib.no/instance/spatialthing/54123ede-502b-4768-97a2-6d077ad50783
ExLibris part of Clarivate. https://discover.clarivate.com/Library_workflows_portfolio
Tarje Sælen Lavik/Digital development team at UBL
Overarching architecture principles of the Norwegian Digitisation Agency. https://www.digdir.no/digital-samhandling/overordnede-arkitekturprinsipper/1065
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. https://wcag.com/
General Data Protection Regulation. https://gdpr-info.eu/
The University of Bergen’s general framework for the processing of personal data. https://regler.app.uib.no/regler/Del-1-Overordnede-rammer/1.5-Kvalitetssystemer/Overordnede-rammer-for-behandling-av-personopplysninger-ved-Universitetet-i-Bergen/Retningslinje-Overordnede-rammer-for-behandling-av-personopplysninger-ved-Universitetet-i-Bergen/#personvernprinsippene
Acknowledgments
This article draws upon insights from discussions and observations during work meetings of the digital development group. I am grateful to the technical group for their valuable input and thorough proofreading, ensuring the accurate presentation of arguments (adding yet another task to their workload). Through this paper, I hope to strengthen their voice in forums like these, and I wish to express my gratitude for their hard work and dedication! Without this exceptional team, neither this article nor the comprehensive technical support across numerous fronts would be possible.
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Tiemann, J. (2024). Technical Services in Research Libraries – The Backdoor Discussions of Collection Development. In: Antonacopoulos, A., et al. Linking Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries. TPDL 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15178. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-72440-4_10
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