[Sagreenstone] Fwd: [eIFLgreenstone] Greenstone capabilities and development
John Rose
john.rose1 at free.fr
Wed May 7 16:03:53 EEST 2008
Forwarding this message from Prof. Ian Witten
(conceiver of Greenstone) since it follows on my
message of 14 April. Best regards, John
>Delivered-To: online.fr-john.rose1 at free.fr
>From: Ian Witten <ihw at cs.waikato.ac.nz>
>Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:23:43 +1200
>To: eiflgreenstone at lists.eifl.net
>
>Subject: [eIFLgreenstone] Greenstone capabilities and development
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>I'd just like to point out that Greenstone is suitable for a host of
>applications that far exceeds what Hussein characterizes as "heritage
>and archival collections" [as opposed to "institutional research
>paper repositories", "electronic theses and dissertations" and
>collections where "hyperlinked pages are needed"]. With its built-in
>full-text search, Greenstone is very suitable for full-text
>electronic theses and dissertations. Its capability of handling
>internal and external hyperlinks (along with the built-in facility
>for downloading documents from the web) suit it well to richly-
>hyperlinked collections. Even institutional repository capability
>exists, as John Rose pointed out in his recent email ("There is also
>a very interesting, but not yet documented module called 'Depositor',
>which enables remote users to input documents and associated metadata
>from their browser ...").
>
>Digital library systems tend to be moving targets, and something that
>one ought to take into account is responsiveness to demands from the
>user community. The Greenstone team gives a high priority to
>responding to user needs, particularly for users in developing
>countries. For example, the now mature CDS/ISIS capability was
>created in response to user demand, and has turned out to be very
>successful. (So was the "explode" functionality for metadata
>databases, the web downloading facility, a host of plugins, the
>ability to select different indexers, ....) One thing that can impede
>the incremental updating of collections is Greenstone's reliance on
>the GDBM database system for metadata storage, which was originally
>chosen over more conventional solutions (like MySQL) for its ease of
>installation. However, we have been experimenting with allowing users
>a choice of database schemes (as we do for indexers), including
>MySQL. Also, at the top end, the folks at DLConsulting are working
>with IBM's flashy new DB2 Server (with its free version DB2 C-
>Express), which allows Greenstone's full-text indexes to be
>automatically distributed across different computers via a federation
>mechanism.
>
>Unlike many other DL projects we have worked hard on allowing
>interoperability with other DL systems, including the DSpace/
>Greenstone linkup and a new Fedora hookup (Bainbridge/Witten have a
>paper on "A Fedora Librarian Interface" (FLI) in this year's Joint
>Digital Library conference in Pittsburgh, US; see http://
>www.jcdl2008.org/). There are plenty of ways to get data *out* of a
>Greenstone system, whether OAI/PMH, export to METS, export to DSpace;
>as well as different choices for hosting the collection (on the Web,
>on removable media like CD-ROM/DVD/memory stick) and working with it
>(the remote GLI, the Depositor, as well as stand-alone operation). We
>are very keen on *not* locking you into Greenstone!
>
>One factor that needs to be taken into account in practice is the
>effort and resources required to learn about, install, maintain, and
>use a DL system. Earlier, Hussein asked "why the obsession with one-
>size-fits-all?": but in a world of severely limited resources it
>seems to me that a general-purpose system has practical advantages
>over trying to get to grips with a panoply of special tools.
>Greenstone may not make bake bread or knit sweaters (yet! -- of
>course, we're working on that ;-)) but for many applications it may
>well be more practical and cost effective for a university librarian
>in a developing African country than installing a specialized package.
>
>Anyway, while my viewpoint is clearly very different from Hussein's
>"devil's advocate" position I'd just like to assure you that the
>Greenstone team is listening attentively to its users -- including
>this discussion! -- and is ready to help in decisions as to what is
>practical and what more could be done together in terms of
>customization in the case of additional user needs.
>
>cheers
>ian
>
>On 21/04/2008, at 7:54 AM, Hussein Suleman wrote:
>
> > hi folks
> >
> > to answer Renate's question, here are some sample systems and
> > sample use
> > cases for DL-type problems, off the top of my head (which means
> > this is
> > just for illustration and by no means complete or even to be
> > considered
> > a recommendation):
> >
> > if you are looking for all-in-one packages:
> >
> > Greenstone: heritage or archival collections.
> >
> > DSpace, EPrints: institutional research paper repositories
> >
> > ETDdb, DSpace+Tapir, Vital: electronic theses and dissertations
> >
> > Zope+Plone, Joomla!, MediaWiki, Tiki-Wiki, OpenCMS, Drupal, etc.:
> > where
> > hyperlinked pages are needed - can be used to provide some services
> > and/or in conjunction with other DL systems
> >
> > if you are looking for piecemeal solutions:
> >
> > Fedora: robust asset management for larger system - usually requires
> > lots of (programming) work, but there are workflow managers (like fez)
> > that can be used in conjunction with it
> >
> > Lucene/Nutch: for text indexing
> >
> > SRB/iRODS: distributed asset storage/management
> >
> > there are numerous other open source repository tools listed in the
> > OSI
> > guide to institutional repository software
> > (http://www.soros.org/openaccess/software/). there also are many
> > experimental DL tools available - i would however stay away from those
> > for production systems :)
> >
> > ttfn,
> > ----hussein
> >
> > =====================================================================
> > hussein suleman ~ hussein at cs.uct.ac.za ~ http://www.husseinsspace.com
> > =====================================================================
> >
> >
> > Renate Morgenstern wrote:
> >> Colleagues,
> >>
> >>> I agree that there are very few operational
> >>> examples of institutional repositories using
> >>> Greenstone (on the Greenstone example page cited
> >>> by Peter, perhaps the Indian Institution of
> >>> Science Publications Database and the theses and
> >>> publications collections at the University of
> >>> Namibia would qualify - Renate could tell us
> >>> about the latter).
> >> UNAM's EDT database is not an institutional repository in the
> >> sense that
> >> users deposit their theses into it. We receive the print and the
> >> electronic copy of the theses submitted to the Postgraduate Study
> >> Centre. The library then adds records into a database (CDS/ISIS),
> >> from
> >> where it can be searched with WWWISIS. This database is then imported
> >> into Greenstone from which the digital library is built.
> >> The UNAM Publications database was created when UNAM had its 10th
> >> anniversary - it holds publications by staff members published
> >> between
> >> 1992 and 2002. No full text was available from authors - so it is
> >> just a
> >> bibliographic database. We wanted to update it, but was/is a
> >> problem to
> >> get information from staff members.
> >> However, we have an institutional repository running on DSpace. Here
> >> authors can submit publications interactively. Unfortunately it is
> >> not
> >> used widely, and if somebody wants something to be included, staff
> >> send
> >> their files to the librarians who then has to deposit on their
> >> behalf.
> >> I would not compare Greenstone with DSpace - their intended use is
> >> different and one should use both for their purpose.
> >> Perhaps Hussein can tell this list about other applications which
> >> can be
> >> used to develop and build digital libraries.
> >> Regards
> >> Renate
> >>
> >>> My point was only that such
> >>> usage should not be excluded out of hand, and
> >>> that it might be of particular interest in some
> >>> African countries, including as a transitional or mixed solution.
> >>>
> >>> Best regards, John
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> eiflgreenstone at lists.eifl.net
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John B. Rose
1 Bis, Rue des Châtre-Sacs
92310 Sèvres
France
Email: <john.rose1 at free.fr>
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