Minutes of July 11, 2002 Meeting

Present:

Grace Agnew, Ruth Bogan, Jeanne Boyle, Ron Jantz (recorder), Michael Joseph, Rhonda Marker, Ann Montanaro, Mary Page, Mary Beth Weber, Bob Sewell, Gracemary Smulewitz, Julie Still (via teleconference)

Reporting on Events and Activities:

• Grace reported on the status of the Moving Image Gateway (MIG) grant, indicating that the reviews so far are looking good. The Moving Image Gateway is a web portal for moving images that combines an archives directory with a union catalog. The project has been commissioned by the Association of Moving Image Archives and the Library of Congress and will be in partnership with Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Washington. RUL will do the data architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology will do the web pages, and the University of Washington with do the directory. The grant includes support for a database programmer at RUL. The Moving Image Gateway architecture involves a core data element registry, support for multiple metadata schema and the ability to add data elements for portal specific applications, such as e-learning. The data architecture proposed for the MIG is generally the same data architecture under development at Rutgers, so the grant would benefit both the moving image world and Rutgers directly. If the grant is received, a database programmer position under development for the RUL Systems Department will be funded for 21 months.
• Grace indicated that there will be a Digital Rights Management workshop in early September at the Georgetown Convention Center. The workshop will deal with requirements and issues of digital rights management. Leading stakeholders in academic research and education will be invited including RLG, ALA, OCLC, IEEE, etc.
• Ruth reported on the work that she, Grace, and Karen Wenk are doing with SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model). SCORM is a proposed metadata standard for sharing educational materials. Ruth and Karen will be actively participating in the SCORM registries working group, chaired by Grace Agnew, and will be looking at projects and partnership opportunities with other SCORM developers. Grace noted that both Vanderbilt and Carnegie Mellon have good open source instructional management content systems that support SCORM and that these might become competitors for some of the commercial systems that are available.

Goals for Data Architecture and Digital Architecture Working Groups

• Rhonda Marker (chair of the Data Architecture Group) reported on the goals for 2002 - 2003. The goals are 1) develop a core registry of metadata elements that will support interoperability and flexibility of digital projects at Rutgers University, 2) conduct an evaluation of educational metadata strategies. Propose a framework for supporting educational metadata initiatives, 3) recommend, propose, and/or develop a database implementation and a generic metadata scheme that will support digital projects in a wide variety of subject fields and diverse data objects, 4) data architecture conference: hold a libraries-wide conference on data architecture that will include presentations by leading figures who are developing innovative data architecture (2003), and 5) identify and meet with individuals and departments at RU that create digital projects, with the purpose of communicating objectives for sustainable data architecture. Provide the basic tools for achieving sustainable data architecture.
• Ron Jantz (chair of the Digital Architecture Working Group) reported on the goals for 2002 - 2003. These goals break down into two major areas: digital infrastructure and digital architecture. In the digital infrastructure area, the objective will be to put in place the processes and technology to address four key areas: server management, data management, platform development, and RUL security. Key elements in these areas include server inventory, data backup and refreshing, off-site backup, platform development, and an RUL wide security plan. In the digital architecture area, the key areas of work include: open source ingest and export of data, support for digital object creation and a digital architecture platform. The work of this group will build on the recommendations of the SCC Technology Team which issued an interim report in May on development platforms. It should also be noted that Ron Jantz will chair the Digital Architecture Working Group for the first year and Ann Montanaro will chair the group for the second year. Grace, Ron and Ann compiled a list of possible members. Grace will be inviting these members to participate in July.

Update on TAS Workflow Analysis Project

Grace reported on the Workflow Analysis Project. She summarized a handout that covered the definition of a process, what each TAS unit will need to do define the required processes, evaluating the processes, and the bottlenecks that one should look for in a process. TAS has a target date of August 31, 2002 to complete the analysis of processes within TAS. Grace stressed that this analysis focuses on the flow and not on the object or the person doing the work. Following the TAS workflow analysis, other technical services processes and units in RUL will undertake workflow analysis.

Mary Beth discussed the work she was doing with consultants to look at processes and workflow in both TAS and other RUL technical services units. The consultants are: 1) Dr. Tayfur Altiok, Professor and Chairperson, Dept. of Industrial Engineering, Rutgers, 2) Don Blohowiak, authority on change in the workplace and management; also the founder and principal consultant of the Lead Well Institute, which is based in Princeton, 3) Dr. Charles Fay, Director, Master of Human Resource Management Program, Rutgers, and 4) Dr. Jim Luxhoj, Associate Prof. and Executive Officer, Dept. of Industrial Engineering

Other Items

• With respect to the OCLC/RLIN evaluation, it was noted that representatives from these two organizations will be coming the week of July 15. Questions have been pulled together for their representatives to address.
• Ann Montanaro reported that Unicorn will be down for re-indexing for a week in mid-August after classes have ended. IRIS will be available in read-only format during this time.

Ron Jantz (recorder)
July 17, 2002