A Three-Year Plan for Development and Coordination

The Digital Projects Planning Committee (DSPC) was created as a task force of the Technical Services Planning Committee and became the planning committee of the State-funded Florida Heritage Project. The DSPC also shared an interest in two additional externally funded projects: Linking Florida’s Natural Heritage and Reclaiming the Everglades, with Committee members sitting on the governing panels of these projects. With two years of the Florida Heritage Project behind it, the Committee continues to monitor these three projects, but envisions itself in a coordinating role in the development of new projects, funded largely by external sources.

This three-year plan calls for continued and coordinated digital collections development. It returns to the founding precepts of the Millennium Project plan that preceded the development and growth of the more narrowly defined Florida Heritage Project. This plan is divided into tactical, collections, and technical goals. Tactical goals follow the model established by the University of Florida’s Digital Library Center for Digital Planning Projects documentation. Collection goals will be clarified when the DSPC meets with the Curators of Special Collections Task Force (currently being appointed.) Collection goals are restricted to projects specifically conceived of as PALMM initiatives.

In the short term, the DSPC and the Institutions of the State University System (SUS) need to move beyond self-funding digitization projects. Funds allocated by the SUS for digitization projects should be used as cost-share in granting. Every institution, individually or partnered, should seek grant funding to showcase materials of particular research merit and proven use within the State of Florida. In collaboration with other Planning Committees and with the guidance of the SUS Library Directors, the DSPC should educate its members in grant preparation in support of digital projects.

However, a grant orientation has two disadvantages. First, it encourages an approach to digitization that is more opportunistic than programmatic. Projects are skewed towards attracting funding rather than supporting the instructional and research goals of the institution. Second, it postpones the prioritization and integration of digitization services in the normal operating budget of the institution. Therefore the longer-term goal should be to leverage the experience gained and infrastructure developed through grant-funded initiatives in developing a rational, sustainable program of local digitization internally funded according to the priorities of the SUS and the individual institutions within it.

Partnerships among SUS institutions should be encouraged. Digital resources created by one institution undoubtedly will become a resource for the other SUS institutions. Partnerships beyond the SUS should also be encouraged insofar as they drive projects toward content critical and qualitative mass and improve access to funding. Partnerships should include agreements with the State’s private institutions of higher learning if not also those out of state. They should include agreements with teaching faculty, using the State’s uniform higher education course numbering system, and K-12 teachers, using the Sunshine State Standards. Partnerships should reach out toward governmental, non-profit, and corporate agencies not only as a source of funds but also as a source of technology.

Both locally and grant funded projects need clear and measurable project outcomes, findings and products. Project evaluations must provide reliable information on which to judge the impact of the project. Because of the difficulty in judging the worth of digital projects, evaluative methodologies including "outcome-based evaluation" proposed by the Institute for Museum and Library Services should be assessed in the future and incorporated, as appropriate, into project design.

Except as each institution is required to meet local cost recovery targets, the DSPC should encourage the contribution to PALMM of locally created digital resources, wherever they are created or reside within the SUS. The DSPC must seek guidance from the SUS Library Directors to deal with issues related to measuring Special Collections and the imprimatur of a particular institution. Institutions, and their Special Collections departments in particular, derive recognition from their holdings. These collections must be shared through digitization, as a means of opening access, without diluting the value an institution’s association with particular collections.

Description

Within Special Collections, digitization of primary sources from archival collections will present challenges with regard to arrangement and description. In published works, the order of pages and, subsequently, page-image files follows an implicit "binding order". Page-images need little more description than file names corresponding to source document page numbers. In archival collections, order is applied rather than implicit, and applied in multiple layers: collection, collection part, box, folder, and folder contents at the very least. Already within the Florida Heritage Collection, items from the Eartha White Papers illustrate the need not only to digitize collection’s contents but to digitize the collection’s finding guide, even when only selected items have been chosen for digitization. Encoded Archival Description (EAD [http://lcweb.loc.gov/ead/]) is the generally accepted method of digitizing finding guides for archival collections. Working with the DSPC, a Task Force of Special Collections Curators should not only profile collections for digitization but should also explore the viability of EAD’s implementation.

Current project status: Active: http://susdl.fcla.edu/fh/

Description in Brief:

A collection of resources documenting the heritage, history, culture, and life of Florida from earliest records through the present day.

Funding Sources:

State of Florida. (Florida Center for Library Automation allocation)
State of Florida. (Cost share valued in the resources of the participating institutions.)

Goals:

1. Resolve backlogged materials (i.e., titles awaiting FTP to the DL).
Note: Significant backlogs for reside with the University of Florida, FIU and UCF.
Target date: 2001 July 01.
2. Continue to build and expand the range of content.
Target volume: 150 titles per year minimum.
Target anniversary date: July 01 (start of new fiscal year)
3. Empanel the Panel for the Identification of Florida Heritage Resources and completion of draft document.
Target date: 2001 June 28.
Current status: State Dept. of Education has not responded to queries for appointments to the K-12 committee membership slots. Names of Laboratory School staff have been compiled, additional nominations are welcome. Letter to all nominees requesting participation to be mailed 2000 December 13.
4. Devise strategies for building learning modules (lesson plans) from collection content.
Note: It was previously suggested that the Education Departments of each SUS institution be requested to participate.
Need: DSPC leader for this project.
5. Propose at least one subset for LSTA funding for each fiscal year.
LSTA target application deadline: mid-March of each fiscal year.

• Current project status: In development: http://susdl.fcla.edu/lfnh/
• Description in Brief:
Primarily a system to link existing library and museum databases for cross-system searching via Z39.50, this project grant also includes digitization of a core collection of literature pertaining to Florida species and ecosystems.
• Funding Sources:
Institute of Museum and Library Services.
State of Florida. (Cost share valued in the resources of the participating institutions.)
Targeted toward a variety of public and private (nature and garden societies) funding sources.
• Goals:

1. Resolve backlogged materials (i.e., titles awaiting FTP to the DL).

Note: The largest backlog resides with the University of Florida. It is comprised of titles from the University of Florida, and results from staffing difficulties in fiscal year 1998/1999.
Target date: 2001 July 01.
2. Continue to build and expand the range of content.

Task list:
• Identify and establish Z39.50 access to additional existing bibliographic and museum specimen databases.
• Image selectively the content of some materials described in selected collection databases.

Note: Currently, type specimens from the State Herbarium of Florida, on the campus of the University of Florida, are being digitized.
Need: programmatic rationale for selection, e.g., learning modules or sub-projects to represent the flora and fauna of an ecosystem.
3. Develop a GIS interface so location of specimens can be plotted on a map, and develop an interface to the ITIS taxonomical database to aid in translation between common and scientific names. These two developments may require a proposal for continuation project funding to the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

RECLAIMING THE EVERGLADES

• Current project status: In development: http://everglades.fiu.edu/RECLAIM/
Description in Brief:
A collection of resources documenting Florida’s Everglades, its ecosystem(s) and the urban and cultivated rural boundaries and intrusion into that ecosystem.
Funding Sources:
Library of Congress. LC/Ameritech Award.
University of Miami. (Cost share valued in the resources of the participating institutions.)
State of Florida. (Cost share valued in the resources of the participating institutions.)
• Goals:

1. Complete metadata creation and loading for digitized content.
Target date:
2. Complete building of website and all requisite links.
Target date:
3. Implement full text searching for materials with accompanying text.
Target date:

• Current project status: In development (Internet address not currently available)
Description in Brief:
A collection of historical literature for children from before 1850 to after 1960, founded on phased preservation microfilming grants and including digitization as a color management strategy.
Funding Sources:
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Preservation and Access Division. Brittle Books Program.
State of Florida. (Cost share valued in the resources of the participating institution(s).)
• Goals:

1. Resolve backlogged materials (i.e., titles awaiting FTP to the DL).
Note: The backlog is comprised of a small collection of titles prepared for demonstration in support of the University of Florida's recently funded grant application to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
Target date: 2001 July 01.
2. Invite contributions to the collection from other SUS institutions.
Current status: contributions already accepted from FAU.
3. Complete Project web interface.
Current status: interface is in draft.
Target draft release date: 2001 February 01
4. Build collections per requirements of the NEH grant proposal
Target completion date: 2002 April 30.
Target volume: 575 volumes from the University of Florida alone.
5. Make additional NEH grant applications.
Note: After the University of Florida, the next largest collections of literature for children are held by the Florida State University and the University of South Florida.
Target proposal submission date: within the three years of this plan.

• Share copies of the University of Florida proposal. (Copies have been mailed to the Florida Atlantic University, Florida State University, and University of South Florida.)
• University of Florida: Phase II (renewal) by June 2002
• Other SUS: within three years, observing the June 01 NEH submission deadline.

FLORIDA ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE DESIGN

• Current project status: In development (Internet address not currently available)
Description in Brief:
A collection of core published resources pertaining to architecture and landscape design in the state of Florida. The collection is expected to expand, with funding, to represent an archive of plans and drawings. It was conceived as an adjunct project of the Florida Heritage Collection.
Funding Sources:
State of Florida. (Cost share valued in the resources of the participating institutions.)
American Institute of Architects. Florida Association of Architects. (Representing the value of Internet distribution agreements.)
Targeted toward a variety of public and private (architectural) funding sources.
• Goals:

1. Following implementation of new MXF, resolve backlogged materials (i.e., titles awaiting FTP to the DL).
Target date: contingent upon MXF, @ 2001 June 28
2. Establish a project web interface.
Target date: by 2001 January 28
3. Renew invitation for contributions to all SUS institutions.
Target date: by 2001 February 13
4. Define a project team and build project plan beyond the three core serial titles already scanned.
Target date: by 2001 June 28
5. Draft a grant proposal for implementation of plans and continuation of the demonstration project.
NEH submission date: by 2002 June 01 at latest

• Current project status: In development (Internet address not currently available)
Description in Brief:
A collection of materials intended broadly for the study of theology, this collection was built around an initial core of theology tracts, tracing the birth of Protestant faith in the American south from Scottish and English Wesleyan and Presbyterian roots. The collection is also used for the study of oratory and literature. The initial core represents a collection intended for use in support of a grant proposal not yet completed.
Funding Sources:
State of Florida. (Cost share valued in the resources of the participating institutions.)
Targeted toward a variety of public and private (religious) funding sources.
• Goals:

1. Resolve backlogged materials (i.e., titles awaiting FTP to the DL).
Note: The backlog is comprised of a small collection of titles prepared for demonstration in support of grant application not yet completed
Target date: 2001 July 01.
2. Establish a project web interface.
Target date: by 2001 January 28
3. Renew invitation for contributions to all SUS institutions.
Target date: by 2001 February 13
4. Establish a study team to determine if active collection building should proceed beyond the retrospective collection and voluntary contributions, and write a plan if it is determined to proceed.
Target date: by 2001 June 28
Secondary timetable will be established if determination to proceed is made.

• Current project status: In development (Internet address not currently available)
Description in Brief:
A collection of French revolutionary tracts including popular (gray) literature, government documents, and street drama that captures the spirit of France during the revolution as it was occurring. This collection was built around an initial core of materials intended for use in support of a grant proposal not yet completed.
Funding Sources:
State of Florida. (Cost share valued in the resources of the participating institutions.)
Targeted toward a variety of public and private funding sources, including the Bibliotheque Nationale (Paris, France).
• Goals:

1. Resolve backlogged materials (i.e., titles awaiting FTP to the DL).
Note: The backlog is comprised of a small collection of titles prepared for demonstration in support of grant application not yet completed.
Target date: 2001 July 01
2. Establish a project web interface.
Target date: by 2001 January 28
3. Renew invitation for contributions to all SUS institutions.
Target date: by 2001 February 13
4. Establish a study team to determine if active collection building should proceed beyond the retrospective collection and voluntary contributions, and write a plan if it is determined to proceed.
Target date: by 2001 June 28
Secondary timetable will be established if determination to proceed is made.

• Current project status: Proposed
Description in Brief:
A collection of "ancient records" of the State of Florida, being primarily records of the national census. This project operates under the design and direction of the Clerk of Courts for Alachua County in collaboration with the University of Florida as part of a state historic records project. Conceived as an adjunct project of the current state directed modern records digitization initiative and of the Florida Heritage (?and the State Library and Archives’ Florida Memory?) Projects.
Funding Sources:
Alachua County, Florida. . (Cost share valued in the resources of the participating institutions.)
State of Florida. (Cost share valued in the resources of the participating institutions.)
Lorien Technologies, Inc. (Sunrise, FL. : microfilm conversion services)
Targeted toward a variety of public (LSTA) and private funding sources.
• Goals:

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Target date:

• Current project status: Projected
Description in Brief:
A proposed collection intended to support the Florida Library Research Consortium (FLRC) program in Drama, providing primary research resources. This collection is built upon two cores. It is built, in part, upon the University of South Florida’s recent proposal to the Institute for Museum and Library Services’ Leadership Program in support of the University’s specialized archival collections. It is also built, in part, on the University of Florida’s early digitization demonstration project, funded by IBM in the late 1980s, and on the University’s revival of this project which, to date, includes more than 7,000 images of costumes, stage-craft, and gray literature.
Funding Sources:
State of Florida. (Cost share valued in the resources of the participating institutions.)
Targeted toward a variety of public and private funding sources.
Goals:
[Only recently proposed and with limited discussion, this project requires wider vetting prior to the establishment of goals.]

1. nnn
Target date:

• Current project status: Projected
Description in Brief:
Conceived as an adjunct project of the Florida Heritage Project, a collection of Florida newspapers and early national news reports of Florida. The collection includes both image and full-text files. The core of the collection is proposed to come from within the Florida Heritage Collection and from specialized collections. From within the Florida Heritage Collection, issues of the Florida Dispatch have been contributed by the University of North Florida and the University of South Florida. From specialized collections, the Goza and Mickler collections at the University of Florida have been offered. Additional collections are likely from the University of West Florida.
Funding Sources:
State of Florida. (Cost share valued in the resources of the participating institutions.)
Targeted toward a variety of public (LSTA and NEH) and private funding sources.
• Goals:

1. Define a planning committee of specialists in journalism librarianship, journalism, etc. together with technology specialists in high-resolution digital imaging and newspaper indexing; most likely an extension of the U.S. Newspaper Project (USNP) advisory committee and implementation teams.
Draft plan completion date: 2002 January 28.
2. Identify core collections of Florida newspapers and early national news reports of Florida, most likely an extension of the USNP list, the Goza and Mickler indices, and the inventory compiled by the Florida Historical Society (FHS).
Draft inventory of collections: 2002 December 28.
Note: The FHS inventory is slated for digitization as part of the Florida Heritage Collection with fiscal year 2000-2001 funds.
3. Image a subset of the core collections as a demonstration library for use in granting.
Imaging completion date: 2003 February 28.
Image volume: 1 small run/1 title; minimum 100 indexed articles in full-text, subject to search by XPAT
Note: Florida Dispatch satisfies the need for 1 small run.
4. Draft a grant proposal for implementation of plans and continuation of the demonstration project.
LSTA and NEH grant submission deadlines: 2003 March 01.

• Current project status: Projected
Description in Brief:
Conceived as an adjunct project of the Florida Heritage Project, an illustrated Florida as conceived by mapmakers and as recorded by aerial photographers and satellites. The collection, as proposed, is strong especially in antique maps and county-by-county, plot-by-plot aerial photographs.
Funding Sources:
State of Florida. (Cost share valued in the resources of the participating institutions.)
Targeted toward a variety of public (LSTA and NEH) and private (agricultural) funding sources.
• Goals:

1. Define a planning committee of specialists in maps librarianship, government documents, and Florida geography, together with technology specialists in high-resolution digital imaging and geographic information systems.
Draft plan completion date: 2003 January 28.
2. Identify core collections of maps, aerial photographs and remote images.
Draft inventory of collections: 2003 December 28.
3. Image a subset of the core collections as a demonstration library for use in granting.
Imaging completion date: 2004 February 28.
Image volume: 20 large maps, aerial photographs of 1 locale (likely the Florida Everglades.
4. Develop a plan for integration of traditional GIS information (i.e., supporting queries against GIS and core library, archive and map collections) to bring together multi-source maps on demand of given regions, locales, etc.
Draft plan completion date: 2004 March 28.
5. Draft a grant proposal for implementation of plans and continuation of the demonstration project.
NEH grant submission deadline: 2004 June 01.

The following collections are little more than prospects for development based upon limited discussions conducted around the state during the "Digital Library Services Presentation" [dog & pony show], presented by Priscilla Caplan, FCLA’s Digital Library Services, and Erich Kesse, UF’s Digital Library Center/current chair, DSPC.

VOICES OF FLORIDA: ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

• Current project status: Projected
Description in Brief:
Conceived as an adjunct project of the Florida Heritage Project and built from the core of collections at the University of Florida and the University of South Florida, a collection of recorded interviews, transcripts and illustrative supplements documenting the lives of both great and ordinary Floridians together with the life and development of Florida itself.
Funding Sources:
Targeted toward a variety of public (LSTA and NEH) and private (political) funding sources. A funding proposal from UF is currently out for NEH review. USF has already digitized selected sets.

CUBAN DEMOCRACY COLLECTION

• Current project status: Undetermined
Description in Brief:
A collection of materials supplementing the University of Miami’s Institute for Museum and Library Services’ Leadership Project. The University of Miami project concentrates on expatriate materials and Cuban culture in the United States of America with some Cuban materials from Cuba. The Cuban Democracy Collection is intended to be a collection of materials originating from pre-Castro Cuba. Joining the core of the collection might be the Diario de la Marina from the University of Florida’s, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation project, the Caribbean Newspaper Project, and a complete run of legislative documents and constitutions from Independence through the Revolution.

JUDAICA COLLECTION

• Current project status: Undetermined
Description in Brief:
A core collection of Judaica, religious and secular, European and Palestine Mandate materials, including text and audio sources in a variety of languages. Religious materials would also join the Theology Collection.

2000/2001

Goal 1: Provide full suite of basic text and image handling capabilities.

FCLA currently runs locally developed "digital library" software to display and navigate compound documents such as books and serials in image formats. Commercial software for full text search (XPAT) has been licensed. Development is required to implement XPAT, to implement open source "DLXS Text Class" for display of XPAT search results, and to integrate this with existing digital library software. Software must also be selected or developed and implemented to handle collections of simple (non-compound) images.

1.1   Implement and integrate XPAT full text search for "text behind" images.
1.2   Implement and integrate DLXS Text Class SGML display for "text in front".
1.3   Select, implement and integrate software for image collections (e.g. DLXS Image Class, Content, Luna Insight)

Goal 2: Replace "dataset.toc" with MXF (Metadata Exchange Format) for metadata contribution.

When digital files for compound documents are sent to FCLA for loading and/or serving, they must be accompanied by metadata describing the structure of the document and the files that comprise it. Currently the data structure used is called "dataset.toc" and is based upon the format used by Elsevier to transmit electronic journal articles for local loading. A local, XML-based Metadata Exchange Format (MXF) has been defined to replace the somewhat limited dataset.toc. The MXF carries more information and supports a richer hierarchical description, but as a consequence is more complex. PC client software to aid in data entry is being written, and all existing programs to load and serve digital documents must be rewritten to accommodate the new format.

2.1   Write PC client software to support creation of MXF data.
2.2   Modify loader and server software to handle data submission via MXF.
2.3   Distribute client software and train sites contributing digital documents to FCLA in its use.
2.4   Target discontinuation of dataset.toc use by 7/1/01.

Goal 3: Improve infrastructure services.

Infrastructure services apply not only to PALMM initiatives but also to other digital library activities (see "Other activities" below). One priority for FY2000/2001 is to design and implement meaningful statistics on use of PALMM collections. Currently use statistics are inferred from analyzing logs written by the Apache web server so only the most rudimentary information is available, such as the URL of the requested item, and the network address of the requester. Statistics are being redesigned so that the image server software writes a log record when an image or a table or contents is accessed. The log record can include information unknown to Apache, such as which institution contributed the requested item or the "parent" collection of the item. Log records will be processed and summarized as the basis of collection-level statistics.

3.1   Implement naming services using a local PURL server.
3.2   Automate receipt and processing of MXF data.
3.3   Develop meaningful collection-level statistics.

2001/2002

Goal 4: Improve support for text, image and multimedia.

Work in the current year is geared towards improving basic text- and image-handling capabilities. We anticipate that the focus will shift in FY2001/2002 to other formats, particularly audio and synchronized text and audio.

4.1   Find or write programs to automate TEI markup of text converted from images.
4.2   Consider replacement of locally written image server with OpenSource or commercially available software.
4.3   Implement support for oral history (mixed text and audio) and other multimedia collections; monitor development of the SMIL standard for markup and synchronization of audio, video and text.

Goal 5: Augment support for metadata creation and maintenance.

There has been little demand so far for non-MARC metadata formats. However, we anticipate that interest in other metadata will increase, and that at a minimum support for Dublin Core and Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids will be requested. At the same time, the migration to the new library management system will require replacing WebLUIS with the new LMS or some other MARC-management system as the access mechanism for digital collections.

5.1   Implement OCLC's SiteSearch RecordBuilder capability for Dublin Core and MARC-like data.
5.2   Develop a plan for serving QF and QC data during and after the migration to a new LMS.
5.3   Select and implement software to support Encoded Archival Descriptions (EAD), including programs to automate markup of textual finding aids.

Other activities

While most of these apply to PALMM, some planned digital library services are broader than PALMM services in that they are intended to provide support to all digital materials, both "born digital" and retrospectively digitized. Priorities for the period covered by this report include infrastructure services such as naming, the development of digital archiving facilities for the SUS libraries, and providing electronic publishing services for non-commercial academic and research journals.

Goal 6: Provide robust naming services.

6.1   Implement local PURL server and policies for distributed PURL creation and maintenance.
6.2   Enhance (or replace) PURL software to provide additional features including enforcement of naming conventions, individual user authorization, and multiple resolution capability.
6.3   Install resolution services in a high-availability, rapid-response configuration.

Goal 7: Provide central archiving services.

7.1   Draft a multi-year plan acceptable to the Directors.
7.2   Develop a database system to record locations and characteristics of physical images.
7.3   Develop a multi-tiered storage management system.
7.4   Develop a repertoire of utilities for conversion to canonical formats and for forward migration of formats.

Goal 8: Provide electronic publishing services.

8.1   Migrate currently supported e-journals to the PALMM platform.
8.2   Develop SGML/XML text search and display capability for journal articles.
8.3   Bring system into full conformance with Bio-One standards.