Welcome to a new issue of Stew of the Month, a monthly blog from the Digital Services and Technologies (DST) division at the University of Maryland Libraries. This blog provides news and updates from DST. We welcome comments, feedback, and ideas for improving our products and services.
Digital Collections
Historic Maryland Newspapers Project
The Historic Maryland Newspapers Project continues work on Phase 5 of the grant with metadata collation of three families of titles from Maryland’s Eastern Shore. HMNP Assistants Alexis Woolford and Bridget Jamison organized these files and continued copyright research on the Phase 5 newspaper titles. Find us on social media @HistoricMdNews and see this instagram post from Juneteenth.
Hornbake Digitization Center
The Hornbake Digitization Center (HDC) has finished inventorying the AV equipment. We have over 600 pieces of audio/visual equipment. The purpose of this project is to inventory, assess, repair, and deaccession equipment. We are currently identifying equipment to be sent to Terrapin Trader.
Charlotte Conant and Dan Isaacson are currently working on digitizing 20 rare books from the German Expressionism collection. They have finished digitizing half of the books and once the project is finished the materials will be loaded to the Internet Archive.
HDC has sent the files and metadata for the Mayo Oral History project to be loaded into Avalon. Thank you to Josh and Lisa for their help with this project.
Digital Programs and Initiatives
Digital Preservation Update
Newsletters and blogs like this one often focus solely on new initiatives, projects completed, and “innovation,” at the expense of describing the other important activities that library workers undertake, month after month, year after year, in order to keep our collections and services healthy and available into the future. This month the Digital Programs and Initiatives department is pleased to be able to devote some of its space in this blog to highlighting the current state of digital preservation at UMD Libraries, an essential maintenance activity.
Digital preservation has been a formal service of DPI since 2012, although targeted preservation activities in the division have been going on even longer than that (for example, for the Prange digitization project which has been ongoing since the mid-2000s). DPI currently manages around 4.5 million digital files, weighing in at 350 TB. These files are primarily digitized versions of materials in our physical collections rather than “born-digital” materials, which are managed by a digital archivist in a separate Libraries’ program. The file formats for the preservation files of digitized materials are TIF for images, MOV (Quicktime) for video, and WAV for audio. These files are organized into batches, or sets of related files, of which there are currently 619. The average batch consists of around 7,300 files, totaling 450 GB — though for AV batches, the file count would be smaller, and the average file size much larger. DPI currently uses two storage locations to keep backups of these batches: The Academic Preservation Trust (aptrust.org), and Amazon Web Services’ Simple Storage Service (S3) provided through the UMD Division of IT.
The workflow for preservation is, on its surface, relatively simple, but is complicated by the scale of the endeavor. The first step in preserving digital files is to make an inventory of the assets to be preserved, including metadata such as size, file extension, and a content digest or checksum, which is an algorithmically generated signature that can be used to detect file corruption or changes over time. Once these metadata have been captured, a record is added to our digital preservation asset tracking system (PATSy), and copies of the files are sent to preservation storage using tools that include positive confirmation of successful transmission, facilitated by community standards such as BagIt. Once successful deposit in the cloud storage system has been confirmed, records are added to the PATSy database recording the backup location(s). If a file is needed later, the location can be looked up in the database, a copy restored from the backup location, and the file’s integrity confirmed using the checksum information previously captured.
Web Services
Amy Swackhamer, Web Services Librarian, has been working on an overhaul of the Libraries’ online calendar with streamlined and reorganized categories, and the ability to filter events by location. In addition, Amy is leading the migration (into the Drupal CMS) of the public user interface for digital collections — including the Bento search, the Archelon Common Search, and landing pages for certain individual collections. Both of these projects are scheduled for public release in August.
Lastly, the Open Scholarship Services section of the website has been greatly expanded.
IT & Facilities Operations
The DST and Facilities Helpdesk receive quite a few requests each month. Below are the number of opened and closed service requests our group received during June 2023.
- Helpdesk: 395 opened, 399 closed
- Facilities: 88 opened, 88 closed
Microsoft BitLocker Policy Enforcement
Microsoft BitLocker offers comprehensive encryption for computers running Microsoft operating systems such as Windows 10 and 11. By encrypting the entire disk, it significantly enhances security by safeguarding data from unauthorized access in case the device is lost or stolen. This encryption ensures that any information stored on the protected device remains unreadable without the required decryption key.
According to the USM IT Security Standards (available at https://www.usmd.edu/usm/adminfinance/itcc/USMITSecurityStandards.pdf), encryption is required for our computers.
User and System Services (USS) have extensively tested BitLocker for our Library computers and have not encountered any computing issues. On June 16, 2023, USS implemented the BitLocker policy for all our Staff Desktops. The policy is being gradually applied, and as of July 14, 2023, 77% of the desktop computers are now compliant. USS expects all desktop computers to be compliant by the end of December.
Here are the planned dates for encrypting other computer types:
- Windows Laptops: August 2023
- Macbooks: To be determined
- iMacs: To be determined
Software Systems and Development
Completed
Systems – Updated vCenter in the vSphere/ESXi cluster to address critical security vulnerabilities
In Progress
Websites – Continued laying the groundwork for upgrading to Drupal 10 for all Drupal websites.
Digital Collections – Began work on an OAI-PMH server implementation for metadata harvesting for Archelon.
Digital Collections – Continued work on Plastron batch loader updates for Archelon in support of a handle persistence service and content for the Advancing Workers’ Rights project.
Digital Collections – Continued work on the new website implementation in Drupal.
Digital Collections – Completed Proof-of-Concept website application for a WHCA Pool Reports curation and processing tool; Began production development of the application.
MD-SOAR – Continued upgrade to DSpace 7
Systems – Began updating ESXi hosts in the vSphere/ESXi cluster.
USMAI (University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions) Library Consortium
Initial Discussions Regarding our Aleph System started with Vendor – USMAI has been on the Aleph ILS system for about twenty years so having Ex Libris looking into our current setup is quite a step. It is our hope for a smooth transition of data into the new Alma / Primo VE system and a clear understanding of our current environment is key. We are currently on track for Migration kickoff date which will set for the end of August, 2023.
Personnel News
HMNP Assistant, Alexis Woolford has accepted a librarian position with Howard University. Congratulations to Alexis – we’re sad to see her leave, but so excited for this next stage in her career and wish her all the best!
Also, Congratulations to Hornbake Digitization Assistant, Ethan Lewis! He was accepted into an internship program at a film archive in England. We wish him the best of luck!
We’re Hiring!
Recruitment is open for just a little while longer for a Digitization Services Coordinator in our Digital Collections unit. Join us and help grow our digital collections. Best consideration date is Friday, July 21st.
Welcome!
DST is pleased to welcome the following individuals to the Libraries:
- Erik Jones joined the Consortial Digital Initiatives group as an Applications Developer on June 5th. Erik recently completed his Masters in Information Systems from UMBC. We’re excited to have him join our consortial team and bring new skills to our member campuses.
- Dan Bowling began as Lead DevOps Engineer and Hao Diep as DevOps Engineer, both on June 20th. These positions are newly organized within Software Systems Development and Research, following the departure of our two long-time systems administrators in December.
Conferences and Presentations
- Joseph Koivisto and Nima Asadi — along with Leah DiCiesare, Ben Shaw, and Lindsey Carpenter Inge — participated in a panel for the Libraries’ Research and Innovative Practice Forum on June 7. The panel — titled “ChatGPT and its Impact on Libraries” — focused on the emergence of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and the role that it plays in higher education. A recording is available at this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TAdSW9deeMYsIV13_vFDemHddXIvuVt2/view?usp=drive_link