Page 40 - Building Digital Libraries

Choosing a Repository Architecture

more important than conforming to models and standards successfully used
in environments where needs may be different than in your own library. So
long as resources and metadata can be transformed to a usable form and
converted to a desired form in the future, your library can implement a
system and expect to be able to migrate in the future.

Building the Requirements List

The answers to the questions above will enable you to build a preliminary
requirements list. Requirements are ultimately driven by user and staff
workflow. For a repository to be successful, users must be able to discover
and use resources the way they need, and staff must be able to maintain
the system and the resources it contains. A useful requirements list must
reflect how technical, staffing, financial, and user realities can address the
needs the repository exists to meet. The processes for ingesting, describing,
establishing linkages between, using, and maintaining resources must be
realistic as well as feasible.
A requirements list should reflect what is minimally needed, with
desired functionality listed separately. The list below outlines a few features
that are relevant for most repositories.

General

• Accepts content in formats required by the user community
• Performs acceptably under anticipated growth and usage
for life of product

• Maintains appropriate security for resources and metadata
• Ensures appropriate privacy
• Monitors system and resource health
• Accessible to staff and patrons with disabilities
• Interface offers user experience appropriate to materials

Metadata

• Support for descriptive, technical, structural, and adminis-
trative data necessary to discover, identify, use, relate, and
manage resources. Support for necessary vocabularies is
highly desirable.
• Customize metadata to meet local needs
• Allows for systematic use of metadata

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