Presentation given by Sinead Redmond and Rebecca Grant at HEAnet in Douglas, Cork on 6th November 2014.

1. Interdisciplinary Processes at the
Digital Repository of Ireland
Sinead Redmond, Software Engineer, An Foras Feasa
Rebecca Grant, Digital Archivist, Royal Irish Academy

2. Presentation Synopsis
• Introduction to DRI
• DRI Structure
• Problem statement
• Problem solution
• Solution outputs

3. Mission
DRI is a trusted digital repository for Humanities and
Social Sciences Data
-linking and preserving the rich data held by Irish
institutions, with a central internet access point
-Our Cultural & Social Heritage
-Exchequer funded; HEA PRTLI 5, €5.2M
-RIA (lead), NUIM, TCD, DIT, NUIG, NCAD
-Partners: academic, cultural, social, industry
-Sep 2011 – Sep 2015

4. Stakeholder
Advisory Group
International
Advisory Group
Management
Board
Core
Implementation
Team
Management,
Operations Policy,
Infrastructure Rollout
Requirements
DRI Structure
Demonstrators,
E&O

5. DRI strands and Work Packages

6. Issues with Strand and WP structure
• Strands and Work Packages divided by area of expertise and required
work to be done
• Led to ‘hiving off’ of specialist areas
• Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the DRI and its goals, it
became apparent that structures to allow for interdisciplinary work
and communications were needed
• Interdisciplinary Working Groups and Taskforces were set up

7. Metadata
Guidelines
Workflows
Data Protection
IP & Copyright
DRI Task Forces
Business
Models
TDR – Trusted
Digital
Repository
Irish Language
Organisational
Liaisons

8. The Metadata Taskforce
The goal of the Metadata Task Force
• to oversee and steer the successful implementation of metadata
deliverables in the DRI Implementation Plan
• to, in conjunction with WP7, input into the design of the data
model
• to help manage and resolve a range of metadata-specific issues
that DRI will need to address during the lifecycle of the project.
• to advise on the policy and technical issues pertaining to the
production of policy and ingestion guidelines to DRI.

9. The Metadata Taskforce
Strand 2 (Policy)
• Rebecca Grant (Digital Archivist, RIA)
• Dr. Aileen O’Carroll (Policy Manager, NUIM)
• Charlene McGoohan (Requirements Analyst, NUIM)
• Dolores Grant (DRI-IRL Digital Archivist, RIA)
• Catherine Ryan (Digital Librarian, RIA)
• Jenny O’Neill (Data Curator, TCD)
Strand 3 (Design and Implementation)
• Agustina Martinez Garcia(Software Engineer, NUIM)
• Sinead Redmond (Software Engineer, NUIM)
Strand 4 (Rollout – Access, Support and Development)
• Dr. Seathrún Ó’Tuairisg (NUIG Demo Project leader)
• Dr. Una Walker (NCAD)
• Dr. Rósmáire Ní Cholla (Digital Curator, NUIG Demo Project)
• Marta Bustillo (Metadata Cataloguer, TCD)

10. 10
Common Metadata standards in Ireland

11. 11
Selection of fields
• Balance between facilitating search of the repository, and not
wishing to discourage depositors with onerous ingest
requirements.
• Overall metadata policy/strategy aims to reduce barriers to sharing

12. Simple Dublin Core Qualified Dublin Core Encoded Archival Description
http://dublincore.or
g/documents/dces/
http://dublincore.org/documents/
2000/07/11/dcmes-qualifiers/
http://www.loc.gov/ead/index.html
Mandatory
Title, Type, Rights,
Creator, Description,
Date
Mandatory
Title, Type, Rights, Creator,
Description, Date Issued, Created
Mandatory
Title of the Unit, ID of the Unit,
Conditions Governing Use, Origination,
Physical Description, Scope and Content,
Date of the Unit, Level
Recommended
Language,
Contributor
Relation,
Source,
Coverage,
Subject
Recommended
Language,
Contributor
Relation Is Version Of, Has Version. Is
Replaced By, Replaces Is Required By, Requires,
Is Part Of, Has Part, Referenced By, References,
Is Format Of, Has Format
Source,
Coverage Spatial, Temporal, DCMI Point,
DCMI Box
Subject
Recommended
Language of the Material,
Related Material,
Separated Material,
Alternative Form Available,
Geographic name
Subject,
Name, Personal Name, Family Name,
Corporate Name

13. The Workflows Working Group
The goal of the Workflows Working Group
• The aim of the Workflow Group is to identify areas within the data
lifecycle (data creation, processing, analysis, preservation, access
and reuse) that require coordination and input across strands.
• Preliminary discussions have identified the following areas that
require coordination between strands:
• User roles - addressed and documented by WP7 Access
Controls (user and data workflow).
• Ingest Workflow (including collection manager approval,
deposit agreement (uploading and check box), end-user
agreement/licence - all of which are informed by policy and
the IP Copyright Task Force)

14. The Workflows Working Group
• Audit Workflow (data workflow)
• Preservation workflow (data workflow - an automated
process)
• Data workflows (edit an object (how does impact on
DOIs?), embargo dates (is the metadata published?),
metadata is open but how to handle thumbnails, snippet
view and search with restricted content.)

15. The Workflows Working Group
Strand 2 (Policy)
• Rebecca Grant (Digital Archivist, RIA)
• Dr. Aileen O’Carroll (Policy Manager, NUIM)
• Charlene McGoohan (Requirements Analyst, NUIM)
• Jenny O’Neill (Data Curator, TCD)
Strand 3 (Design and Implementation)
• Agustina Martinez Garcia(Software Engineer, NUIM)
• Sinead Redmond (Software Engineer, NUIM)
• Kathryn Cassidy (Software Engineer, TCD)
• Eoin Kilfeather (PI, DIT)
• Anna Deegan (Graphic Designer, DIT)

16. The Workflows Working Group – example output

17. Solutions implemented for interdisciplinary collaboration
• Taskforces
• Meetings
• Trackers
• Plone
• Telcos via Skype
• Google Drive

18. UAT with DRI stakeholders
• Initial requirements gathering undertaken with 40 stakeholder
institutions
• Provided guidance on requirements which fed into work of
Metadata Taskforce and Workflows working group, for example
which metadata schema needed to be supported
• Reconvened key stakeholders to provide initial feedback at UAT
workshops
• Pilot Repository launched in May 2014 to wider stakeholder group,
given opportunity to interact with the pilot and asked for comments

19. UAT with DRI stakeholders
• This process is key to ensuring that our ongoing validation and verification
processes that take place project-wide reflect the needs and expectations of
our stakeholder community
• Ensures ongoing engagement with the people and institutions who
generously gave of their time to complete the requirements gathering process
• Feedback on the pilot, particularly UI and workflows influenced next phase of
development.

20. Summary and conclusions
• We have described the development of the innovative
interdisciplinary processes and procedures put in place during the
building of the DRI
• We have explained how these are implemented to ensure that a fit
for purpose digital repository for the humanities and social sciences
is delivered by the end of the project
• We have discussed the creation of taskforces and working groups
across the project, illustrated by the example of the Metadata
Taskforce and the Workflows Working Group, and examined some
of their outputs
• Finished by describing the ongoing validation and verification
processes, including user acceptance testing and stakeholder
consultation, that take place project-wide to ensure the final delivery
of a repository that fulfils the needs of the Irish community of data