Digital repositories store and organize digital resources to ensure their long-term preservation and access. They address the dilemma of how digital scholarship can remain discoverable and accessible over time. Repositories aim to be sustainable, authentic, interoperable, and allow reuse of materials in new contexts and applications. They aggregate content at institutional, regional, national and international levels to support research. UConn will launch repository services in 2013 to provide managed digital storage and preservation for university archives, research data, and other scholarly outputs.

1. Digital Repositories:
The Dataset of the Humanities
Greg Colati
Archives, Special Collections and Digital Curation, UConn Libraries
Digital Media/Innovative Collaborations
Storrs, CT
April 5, 2013

2. Cyberinfrastructure and the Cultural Record
“Digital cultural heritage resources are a fundamental
dataset for the humanities…
… combined with computer networks and software
tools, [they] now shape the way that scholars discover
and make sense of the human record…
… [and] the way their findings are communicated to
students, colleagues, and the general public”
"The Report of the American Council of Learned Societies Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for
the Humanities and Social Sciences." American Council of Learned Societies (2006).
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3. The Dilemma of Modern Scholarship
How do we insure that resources that
support scholarship and research that exist
in digital form today, will reliably exist and
be discoverable in the future?
?
2013 2???
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4. Digital Repositories store and organize data…
 Digital representations of analog
originals
 Born digital objects with no
“original” analog form
 Still Images
 Data Sets
 Documents
 Moving Images
 Complex objects
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5. .. allow it to be used in one environment…
The British Library URL: http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/leonardo/leonardo_broadband.htm

6. … re-used in another.
The British Library URL: http://www.bl.uk/ebooktreasures/

7. Four “–ity”s of the Digital Repository
 Sustainability
 The digital object can be maintained and accessed
over time
 Authenticity
 Digital object is reliably true to the original
 Interoperability
 The ability of one standards-based object to be
used in any other standards-based system
 Reusability
 Objects can be used in ways not related to original
purpose
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8. Reuse
http://neatline.org

9. Mash up
http://viewshare.org/

10. Tell a Story
http://Omeka.org

11. Non-consumptive analysis
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12. Everything can be data…
"When it was made simple, counted in bits, information
was found to be everywhere"
-James Gleick, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood (2011)
"It is not just about the data, it is about the story"
-Arianna Huffington (2012)
… and used to tell a story.
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13. Five Equations of the Cultural Record (2013)
Content = Data
Analog = Non-existent
Unconnecte = Invisible
d
Reusable = Valuable
Storytelling = Visualization
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14. National/International Aggregators
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15. A Few Regional or Statewide Aggregators
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16. The Digital Repository:
Not just for published works, for YOUR work:
 Research data
 Pre- and post- prints
 Collateral data not included in final products
 The raw material of scholarship
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17. The Digital Stacks
Managed Storage:
Data storage accessed by the data owner through a
management interface provided by a unit that provides
tools for data management including:
 metadata management (descriptions and keywords)
 rules-based discovery and use either locally or
externally
 visualization
 preservation services (e.g. fixity checking, migration,
redundancy, versioning)
In other words: a Library
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18. The Digital Attic
Unmanaged Storage:
Provided through a network share or other connection
to a space where:
 the content owner has complete responsibility for the
content.
 No automated preservation or management tools
 Usually supported by some form of backup and
disaster recovery.
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19. Why Use a Digital Repository?
 If your data:
 Has long-term value for scholarship or reuse
 Will be accessed by people external to your
project/department/UConn
 Managed storage services provide:
 Rules-based access to a variety of audiences
 A set of basic discovery and presentation tools
 Custom access and management tools based on Open
APIs
 Persistent and citable unique identifiers (Handles, DOIs)
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20. UConn Digital Repository Services
 Available Fall 2013
 Homer Babbidge Library and Archives and Special
Collections at the Dodd Center
 Value added digital library services
 Centrally managed and curated storage for all
disciplines
UConn Repository Services are provided
through the Connecticut Digital Archive, a
partnership between UConn Archives and
Special Collections and the Connecticut
State Library, and hosted at the Homer
Babbidge Library
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21. 2013-14 Content Concentrations
• University Archives
Special
Collections • Manuscript
Collections
• Selected Early
Research Adopters
Data
• Library Supported
• GIS Data Sets
MAGIC
• Map resources
UConn Repository Services
UConn • Any content
are provided through the Digital
Connecticut Digital Archive Humanities • Any tools
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22. Additional Service Offerings
 Digital capture and reformatting
 Metadata creation for new content
 Legacy content migration
 Legacy metadata migration
 Custom presentation interfaces
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23. Questions?
Greg Colati
Senior Director, University Archives, Special
Collections, and Digital Curation
Thomas J. Dodd Research Center
University of Connecticut Libraries
860-486-4501
gregory.colati@uconn.edu
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