Introducing Symposia:

“The digital repository that thinks like a librarian”

What is Symposia?

• An digital repository product– Manage digital collections that capture and

preserve the “born digital” intellectual output of the institution

– A solution for institutions who do not have the resources to develop and maintain open-source solutions

Features

• Collect digital output– Distributed contribution

• Authorized community members submit their own content

– Describe it• Qualified Dublin Core, METS

• Store it– Organize it

• hierarchy of communities and collections

– Preserve it– Index it

• Distribute it– Public search interface– Interoperation with other systems and services

• Metafind links repository, library catalog, other databases• OAI-PMH Data provider

– Material can be kept confidential when desirable

All types of digital assets

• Papers• Thesis• Honors projects• Library guides• Simulations• Learning objects• Digitized collections• Institutional Records• Minutes of Meetings: Board of Trustees, Friends

of the Library, etc.• AND MORE

Key Components of Symposia

• Public search interface• Distributed submission interface• Management client

Public Search Interface

• Web-based search and discovery of the repository contents

• Keyword searching, including full text• Targeted searching (e.g., search within a

single community, and search within title or subject, etc.)

• Browsing the IR structure • Community, Subcommunity and Collection

pages• Digital Items’ Qualified Dublin Core metadata

descriptions, links to described digital objects

Public Interface

Keyword and targeted keyword

searches

Public Interface

Search results

Public Interface

Community page

Name and Logo

Subcommunities

Collections

Description of the Community

Public Interface

Digital item description

Link to digital object

Public Interface

Digital object

Distributed Submission Interface• Distributed work flow: communities manage their own

material• Web-based• Authorized members manage the submissions for their

communities– Submit digital objects and descriptions

• One digital item at a time• Multiple digital items in one submission

– Review for appropriateness– Edit description– Publish submissions (make them publicly accessible)– A member may be authorized for one or more tasks

• Easy to submit– Like sending an email with an attachment– Automatic extraction of metadata and full text from PDF

and DOC files

Submission Interface

Submission Interface

Select file(s)

Submission Interface

Select collection if need be, then

Confirm Submission

Submission Interface

Modify/Input metadata,

then Submit

Submission Interface

Added to “My Submissions”

Management Client

• For “super-users” who can manage all – Communities– Collections– Digital items

• Input digital items and enhance those submitted by community members– Enhance metadata– Input administrative metadata– Automatic extraction of metadata and full text from PDF and DOC

files• Management of Members• Manage public web search interface configuration files• URL Checker• Statistics• Logins and authorizations• Java-based

Repository Hierarchy

Community, Subcommunity

Collection

Digital Item

Digital Item: Descriptive Metadata

Guided editing

Digital Item: Descriptive Metadata

XSL Transformations

Digital Item: Summary

Digital Objects

Digital Object: Details

Digital Item record: Digital Object details

Full text automatically extracted (PDF and

DOC)

Digital Object: Administrative

Metadata

<mets:rightsMD> <mets:sourceMD

> <mets:digiprovM

D>Applies to specific digital object

Digital Item: View

METS

Digital Item: URL

Handle™ assigned

What is Handle™?

• Support for assigning persistent identifiers to documents using the Corporation for National Research Initiatives' (CNRI) Handle System (TM) (http://www.handle.net/faq.html) is incorporated in Symposia.

• Persistent identifiers facilitate finding documents as they are cited elsewhere.

• Innovative will continue to work towards long-term preservation goals as technology and best practices develop in this area.

Digital Item: Status

Modification history

Digital Item: Password

Change, View

Password

Management Client

Collections record: Members

& Roles

Key Benefits

• Increase visibility of institution– Increase citation of research

• Uniform Resource Identifier assigned to digital items

– Branding the institution

• Prestige– For institution– For members (e.g., faculty)

• Increase availability of digital assets– Google-ability

• Safeguard digital assets– Preserve in perpetuity

• Digital assets stored in one place– Not on individual hard drives– Not on personal web pages

Thank you!