Digital Project Policies and Procedures
Mass Storage Guidelines

Digital projects at the University of Oregon Libraries will be stored on the library's mass storage unit (MSU). Digital projects may include library materials that are being digitized for preservation and access purposes, such as historic photographic collections; library materials that are being digitized to provide wider access, such as electronic reserves; and collections that may be purchased in electronic form and require large quantities of digital storage, such as geographic data. Some digital projects will represent discrete collections while other collections, like electronic reserves, may be ongoing projects experiencing regular growth to accommodate requests for new materials.

Project Approval and Administration

Each digital project will have a library project manager, an owner of record for the project folder on the MSU. The library project manager should discuss her proposal with the Digital Collections Advisory Group, before seeking approval from Library Administration. Once a digital project has been approved by Library Administrtion, the library project manager will work with Systems staff to prepare space and folders on the MSU.

Should a library project manager be unable to complete a digital project, the Digital Coordinator will work with the project manager's department head and/or Library Administration to identify a new project manager.

Collaborative Projects

Digital projects frequently will involve collaboration between the University of Oregon Libraries and agencies or groups elsewhere on campus or beyond. Collaborative projects will always have a designated library project manager. The library project manager communicates with Systems and ensures that all project staff are following project and library guidelines. The library project manager may request that individuals external to the library be given access to some of the project folders to facilitate project work. Library Systems will make determinations about access to project folders by external partners on a case-by-case basis.

Project Space Requirements

Library staff developing digital projects should work with Systems staff during the development of their proposal to estimate the amount of digital storage space needed for the project. Because of the large size of digital projects, the MSU will be used both as a production tool and as a static storage medium once the project is complete.

Library staff developing proposals will need to have a clear understanding of the material to be digitized, the resolution(s) needed for the images, quality of color of the images as it relates to file size, etc., plus be knowledgeable about the size of the collection to be digitized.

Systems staff will monitor space usage and allocation on the MSU. This allows Systems staff to adjust folder allocations and make projections about the capacity to undertake new projects, as well as recommend the purchase of additional MSUs when needed.

MSU Folders and Permissions

After receiving approval for a digital project, the library project manager sends a request to the Systems Department to create a project folder. The name of the project may become part of the URL for public access to the digital project, using one of the library's Web servers as the base of the URL. The project manager creates the name for the folder following the guidelines that the name should:

Reflect the content of the project.
Be reasonably short (three to fifteen characters)
Use lower case characters.
Not contain blank spaces.
Not contain non-alphanumeric characters (except hyphens).

The project manager also provides the name(s) of other library staff who need to have read/write permissions for this folder to be able to add, remove, change or update information in the folder. Read/write permissions will be reviewed periodically by the project manager and Systems staff. Additional read/write access can be provided at the Work sub-folder level described below.

Systems staff will create the project folder on the MSU. Each project folder will have four sub-folders:

Archive: this folder holds a permanent copy of the images for each project. There may be multiple versions of each image, depending on the quality and resolution(s) needed. Images in the Archive folder will not be accessible to the public.
Public Gallery: this folder contains a copy of each image that will be made available on publicly accessible Web pages, finding aids, Web pages, and copies of documents, such as policies or standards, that can be made available to the public.
Admin: this folder is a shared folder that contains the working documentation for the project. Access to the documentation for each project in the Admin folder will be restricted to library staff. Documentation that can be made available to the public will have a copy in the Public Gallery.
Work: this folder is a shared folder that serves as a temporary staging area for archival copies of images while work is still in progress. Work on many digital imaging projects involves multiple levels of revision and automated processes to gather technical metadata. As a result of this level of complexity, the work is often very distributed. This folder provides an area where staff can store and organize files while work is ongoing. The project manager or designee will transfer files into the Archive folder as work is completed.

Library staff will not be able to create additional folders at this level or rename these four sub-folders. The project manager can create sub-folders in the Archive, Public Gallery or Admin folders. A larger group of project staff can create sub-folders in the Work folder.

Access to Project Folders

Library project staff will access project folders on the MSU through their library network account. The MSU will appear as a drive on staff workstations. Project staff will be able to save files into the folders, open and edit files, etc., using standard Windows techniques. The MSU will not allow telnet, ftp or direct Web access. Public access to materials on the MSU will be through the library's Web server.

The Admin folder is intended to hold documents that are not available to the public (primarily people outside the library). The Admin folder may contain working documents for the project, including policies, standards, drafts of public documents, and finding aids. If approved by the project manager, all library staff can be given read-only permission to files in this directory. Project managers may request a secure Admin folder, requiring a username/password for access.

In addition to containing working files, the Work folder will eventually contain a set of scripts (with very limited executable permissions) that will gather information about the attributes of files in the folder, generate tab delimited files to be used in metadata entry and md5 checksums that can be used to verify the integrity of files when they are transferred to the Archive folder. These checksums will continue to reside with the files, and will periodically be used for verifications over the course of the file's lifetime.

Digital Preservation and the MSU

With materials that are being digitized for preservation purposes, as with all digital assets, care must be taken to ensure that the files themselves are preserved. Preservation strategies relating to the MSU are primarily concerned with bitstream preservation, although consideration must be given to the related issues of format migration and normalization as safe-guards against obsolescence, as well as full preservation of the content.

The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) at NASA has published a document that is quickly becoming the accepted conceptual framework for an archival digital preservation system. The document, Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System, can be found on the CCSDS web site. Although the scope of the Reference Model applies to a broader digital preservation management system, many of the components of the framework have been taken into account in formulating these guidelines.

Maintenance and Data Migration

Systems staff will perform server and network maintenance on the MSU, insuring that the server is accessible both to library staff and the public. Systems staff will consult with project managers when scheduling hardware and software upgrades.

Data formats of both images and text documents are the responsibility of the library's Digital Coordinator. The Digital Coordinator will work with project managers to select data formats appropriate for a specific project. The Digital Coordinator will monitor developments and changes in standards and software for materials stored on the MSU. As new standards and/or software emerges, the Digital Coordinator and the project manager, if still available, will work with Systems staff to migrate current data to new formats and test the new formats and standards for adequate performance.

Access from the Public Gallery

All files in the Public Gallery will be openly available to anyone with Internet access. Access will be provided through current Web technology.

Project Completion

When a project reaches a completion point, the library project manager will notify the Digital Coordinator and Systems. At this point, the entire project folder will become read-only, with no updating to files in the Archive, Public Gallery or Admin folders. Additionally, at this point the Work folder will be removed. If necessary, write permissions can be re-instated. Alternatively, if there is no activity in a project folder for a year, Systems staff will contact the library project manager and Digital Coordinator to confirm completion of the project, at which time the project folder will become read-only. Moving a project into a completed status reduces the routine maintenance by Systems staff and allows verified backups to be completed less frequently.

adopted 10 October 2001
revised 10 April 2002
2nd revision August 2004

Maintained by: Sara Brownmiller, snb@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 11/26/2008

Digital Project Policies and Procedures Mass Storage Guidelines