Procedures Manual for entering data into the Dspace/West Collections virtual repository/database.
Logging into Dspace/West-Collections
To get to the Immigration & Memory database, you first have to register as a user of Dspace, and then login using your e-mail address and password. Register as a user by selecting the "My Dspace" tab. This will prompt to register as a user or if you have already done this, to login. Once you have logged in, you will see a display: "Mydspace: your name" and you will automatically have access to the Immigration & Memory collection (in Dspace, you'll notice this is referred to as a "Community"). As long as you have submitter status, you can start entering data. If you are an administrator of the oral history collection (which is the case for Shannon, Burton, Jenny, Brian, and Veronica) you have access to more system features.
Managing Work Flow
The DSpace? content is organized around Communities which can correspond to administrative entities such as schools, departments, labs and research centers. Within each community there can be an unlimited number subcommunities and an unlimited number of collections. Each collection may contain an unlimited number of items. This organization gives DSpace? the flexibility to accommodate differing needs of communities by allowing them to
Decide on policies such as:
- who contributes content
- whether there will be a review process
- who will have access
Determine workflow - reviewing, editing, metadata
Manage collections
Each community has its own entry page displaying information, news and links reflecting the interests of that community, as well as a descriptive list of collections within the community.
Notes on audio file format
The interviews were digitally recorded in Windows Media format. These files always need to be converted into mp3 format. Scott Volpe in Media Services is able to do this for us. Mp3 is a more standard and universally accessible format than Windows Media. Since interviews run about 30 minutes, the size of the audio files is small, and therefore they are easily downloadable by any user on any machine.
Oral History course assignments
History 294, taught in Fall semester 2006 by Dr. Burton Peretti, includes an oral history component. Students were assigned to each conduct a half hour interview with a local immigrant, preferably not a parent or family member. Approximately 25 interviews were completed. See the assignment here. Students submitted papers based on these interviews. Students interviewed subjects from all over the world, including Bulgaria, Ireland, India, Italy, and Puerto Rico.
How to upload files into Dspace and add metadata
Note: the following people will have "admin" status for Immigration & Memory repository: Shannon Doherty, Burton Peretti, Jenny Innes. Veronica Kenausis and Brian Kennison of the library are the administrators for West Collections.
A note about consistency
It will helpful in the long run to be consistent about how we upload and assign metadata from the very beginning. That's the idea behind the procedures manual. We need to consider how interviews will be searched, what metadata is necessary, how to title interviews etc. Luckily Dspace provides a structure that provides guidance, yet is "customizable" to our needs.
A Quick Review: Metadata
The term metadata means "data about data." Authors, scholars, librarians and information scientists use metadata to classify content for organization and retrieval.
Metadata of Dspace/West Collections
DSpace? uses a qualified version of the Dublin Core schema based on the Dublin Core Libraries Working Group Application Profile (LAP). Metadata elements in Dspace include contributor, date, unique identifying number ("identifier"), description, format, subject, title, type.
Review more detail/guidelines on each DSpace? metadata field/type here. These guidelines are helpful for clarifying the proper use/content for each field. It might be helpful to print out a copy for reference as you are entering oral history interviews into DSpace?!
Metadata of Immigration & Memory
We are interpreting the generic Dspace metadata fields to suit our purposes. Here are the metadata elements that we need to include for each item/interview:
- Name of Interviewer/contributor
- Interviewee name
- Title of item ("Oral history interview with __________")
- Date of interview
- Unique item number
- Name of person interviewed
- Time period
- Subject ("keywords"): Country of origin
- Subject ("keywords"): themes/historical elements/wars/events etc.
- Abstract (Description?)
- Sponsorship
- Creative Commons License specifications (for copyright and permissions)
- Permission form status and any restrictions
A Step by Step Guide to uploading and assigning metadata to files
Toward the top of your screen, you will see a graphical list of metadata categories that looks kind of like a chain link. These categories are:
Describe, Describe, Describe, Upload, Verify, License, License, Complete.
They represent the major functions. There may be several fields to enter for each one. For any fields not mentioned here, DSpace? automatically fills in the info (this is the case for accession date, URI etc.).
Screen 1
Screen title: "Submit: Describe your item"
Always put a check mark by the last selection, "the item consists of more than one file."
Why: you might be uploading an audio file, a Word document, a video file. While we are only uploading audio files at the moment, in the future we might have more than one file for each item record
Screen 2
"Submit: Describe your item"
Authors: Enter last name, first name of the interviewer in spaces provided
Title: enter "Oral History interview with [name of interviewee]?"
Series/Report No.: Here, enter in relevant semester and course number, like so: "Fall 2006/HIS 294" (enter in first "series" box, leave report no. box blank)
Issue Date: formatted like this: "25-Mar-2007"
Identifiers: specify "URI" from pull down menu. Dspace will automatically assign each interview a unique permanent (persistent) URL, or web address. This is useful for scholars, as they can refer/cite each interview separately.
Type: Select the type(s) of content you are submitting. Select "Learning Object" (this is because we will have multiple formats, not just audio files).
Language: English (United States)
Screen 3
Subject Keywords: Descriptive terms, phrases or subject headings that will aid in retrieving relevant items. Dspace help: "Please enter as many subject keywords as are appropriate to describe this item, from the general to the specific. The more words you provide, the more likely it is that users will find this item in their searches. Use one input box for each subject word or phrase. You can get more input boxes by clicking on the add more button. Your community may suggest the use of a specific vocabulary, taxonomy, or thesaurus. If this is the case, select your subject words from that list." PLEASE NOTE that we have not settled on a controlled vocabulary to use for the collection, but may in the future.
Abstract: Enter the abstract in form provided. Abstracts should be between 50 and 100 words long. An abstract should enable the reader to 1) quickly identify the basic content of the document, 2) determine its relevance to their interests, and 3) decide whether it is worth their time to read the entire document (Reitz, Joan, Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science, 2004-06, retrieved May 2, 2007 from: http://lu.com/odlis/
Sponsors: For sponsors/funders. Enter "President's Initiatives Fund"
Description: Leave blank.
Screen 4
Submit: Upload a File
Use the browse button to bring up the location of the source file and upload it from there. You can upload from a CD, flash drive, network drive, computer hard drive, etc.
Screen 5
Submit: Use a Creative Commons License
Click on the radio buttons indicating "No" and "No" for both questions. We want to encourage sharing and use, but we don't want others to use the content we've created for commercial purposes, and we don't want people to use it in any modified form. The Creative Commons license stipulates that we hold the copyright, but others may use or distribute our work, as long as they give proper credit to Immigration & Memory. Please review the "Creative Commons": http://creativecommons.org/license/ website for more information.
Once you have finalized the record, Jenny will go into Edit mode and add the following information:
1) Use pull-down menu to select a "Date" field to be included in the record. Enter the following: "Interview Date: xx/xx/xx"
2) Use pull-down menu to select a "Rights" field to be included in the record. Enter the following, as appropriate: "Permission form signed; no restrictions" or "Permission form signed. Restrictions: _________" If permission form not signed the oral history cannot be included in the database for ethical reasons.