[Asis-l] Course on BUILDING A GEOSPATIAL DIGITAL LIBRARY at the D-LIB CENTER

[francesca borri]

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BUILDING A GEOSPATIAL DIGITAL LIBRARY
The course will take place at the D-Lib Center,
Area della Ricerca, CNR, via G. Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy 
on 20-21 June 2003

For information on registration, please look at the following address:
http://dlibcenter.iei.pi.cnr.it/ 

Abstract
 
This course will be of interest to individuals or institutions with
geospatial digital content which they would like to publish for
structured search and retrieval over the Web. The course is based on
software developed by the Alexandria Digital Library Project (ADL;
http://webclient.alexandria.ucsb.edu), which facilitates the creation
and management of distributed digital library collections. ADL
collections can operate stand-alone for use by individual users, or
optionally and seamlessly switch into a distributed mode for web-based
information sharing and publication.

Geospatial collections are typically heterogeneous in content and can
span items as diverse as maps, historical photographs, field data,
remotely sensed images or archaeological data.  The ADL software allows
structured search and retrieval on such heterogeneous data collections,
combining the simplicity of Dublin Core with the specificity of a full
Boolean query language. The aim of the course is to familiarize
participants with the overall technology and with the specific
procedures and software involved in setting up a stand-alone or
distributed ADL node.  As a case study, we will focus on a collection of
USGS Digital Raster Graphics (DRG) maps.  However, the technology we
present is much more general: it can be applied to collections of any
georeferenced library objects and, further, to collections of any
objects to which a structured discovery technique can be applied. Based
on Open Source components and open protocol standards (including
Java,Tomcat, XML, JDBC, SQL), the ADL software is freely available and
can be installed on all common software and hardware platforms.
 
Outline of course

In this course we cover the basic steps and procedures in creating a
geospatial library node from existing content that may or may not yet be
online.  We also demonstrate how to integrate this node with other
collections on the Internet to create distributed collections of
complementary content.  Using the example of a set of USGS Digital
Raster Graphics (DRG) maps, we examine two case studies of users with
very different needs, a) a user with content she wants to organize and
publish, either for personal use or for public consumption, but no
online metadata or collection objects yet; and b) an institution with a
large existing online catalog in the form of a relational database (e.g.
MARC, Oracle) as well as a mix of online and offline collection objects.
The following outline provides a more detailed summary of the course
content: 

1.	Introduction and problem background
2.	Brief demonstration of existing digital library nodes based on
ADL technology
a.	ADL at the California Digital Library, a production library node
with approximately 2,500,000 georeferenced collection items which
demonstrates the scalability of the ADL technology
b.	A federated library of distributed nodes for combined access to
the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, San Diego (3 collections:  and
historic photographs, oceanographic datasets, seamount geomorphology),
and the Environmental Informatinon Lab at the University of California,
Santa Barbara (2 collections of remotely sensed images, Landsat and
MODIS).
c.	A stand-alone node on a laptop computer at the course site for
search and retrieval of USGS Digital Raster maps.  
3.	Overview of systems architecture 
a.	Overall ADL architecture
b.	Server
c.	Middleware
d.	Client(s)
4.	Case study of a collection using USGS Digital Raster Graphics
maps 
a.	Create collection metadata
b.	Create metadata mappings
c.	Collection database design
5.	Populating collections.
a.	Populating metadata
b.	Access mapping
c.	Populating reports 
6.	Software configuration
a.	Work flow of components the installer configures or otherwise
interacts with
b.	Database selection and setup
c.	Middleware configuration
7.	Collection access modes
a.	Stand-alone operation, local access only
b.	distributed operation
8.	Searching collections for digital objects. 
9.	Viewing digital collection objects and metadata

Francesca Borri
________________________________________
ISTI-CNR
Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell'Informazione
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
Via G. Moruzzi 1
56124 Pisa - Italy
Tel: +39 050 315 3470
Fax: +39 050 315 3464
Email: francesca.borri at isti.cnr.it
________________________________________