Susanne Dobratz

DINI institutional repository certification and beyond

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to provide an overview on certification of institutional repositories as a means to support open access in Germany and a description of the DINI Certificate 2006 developed by DINI, the German Initiative for Networked Information. Design/methodology/approach – The “DINI certificate for document and publication repositories” shows potential users and authors of digital documents that a certain level of quality in operating the repository is guaranteed and that this distinguishes it from common institutional web servers. The certificate can also be used as an instrument to support open access. Findings – Repository certification will not be the main factor in achieving open access to academic information globally, but it can support the spread of institutional repositories and enhance visibility of the “institutional repository”‐service. Research limitations/implications – The DINI Certificate as a “soft” certificate aims towards interoperability of digital repositori...

Open archives activities and experiences in Europe: an overview by the Open Archives Forum

Open Archives Forum is a forum for exchange of experience about all aspects of an Open Archive approach including workshops, dissimination (spread information, create interest within new communities), organisational Validation (explore Business Models, issues of Ownership) and technical Validation (deployment of OAI technical framework, create an information space on projects, software, implementations, services and interoperability issues)

SGML/XML-based electronic theses and dissertations: Existing projects and standards

Abstract Over the past few years, electronic publishing has entered the realm of scholarly works and communication. Institutions have seen a gradual change from the “traditional” paper copy texts to an electronic, digital format. Masters and doctoral students now have the capability to create an electronic thesis or dissertation (ETD) that integrates multimedia, sound, pictures, and animation. The emergence of new technologies enables students to go beyond the creation of an electronic version of the paper copy, they now have the capability to express their artistic design by creating a multimedia ETD. This article addresses issues connected with the development of standards, copyright, and format, along with an overview of several ETD projects.

The Use of Quality Management Standards in Trustworthy Digital Archives

Quality management is an essential part in creating a trustworthy digital archive. The German network of expertise in Digital long-term preservation (nestor), in cooperation with the German Institute for Standards (DIN), has undertaken a small study to analyse systematically the relevance and usage of quality management standards for long-term preservation and to filter out the specific standardisation need for digital archives. This paper summarises the results of the study. It gives an overview on the differences in understanding the task “quality management” within different organisations and how they carry out appropriate measures, such as documentation, transparency, adequacy, and measureability in order to demonstrate the trustworthiness of their digital archive.

Qualitätssicherung durch das DINI-Zertifikat

Seit 1999 arbeitet die Deutsche Initiative fur Netzwerkinformation (DINI), vor allem uber die Arbeitsgruppe Elektronisches Publizieren daran, den Aufbau von Dokumentenservern in Deutschland voranzubringen und Best-Practice-Beispiele zu etablieren sowie internationale Standards in die deutschen Entwicklungen einzubringen. Mit dem DINI-Zertifikat fur Dokumenten- und Publikationsservice wird versucht, ein einheitliches, qualitativ hochwertiges Niveau in organisatorischer und technischer Hinsicht zu erreichen, mit dem Ziel, die Interoperabilitat und die Vernetzung deutscher Dokumentenserver zu verbessern.

nestor: Network of Expertise in Long-term STOrage of Digital Resources - A Digital Preservation Initiative for Germany

As in other countries, longterm preservation of digital resources has become an important issue in Germany in recent years. Nevertheless, coming to agreement with institutions throughout the country to cooperate on tasks for a long-term preservation effort has taken a great deal of effort. Although there had been considerable attention paid to the preservation of physical media like CD-ROMS, technologies available for the long-term preservation of digital publications like e-books, digital dissertations, websites, etc., are still lacking. Considering the importance of the task within the federal structure of Germany, with the responsibility of each federal state for its science and culture activities, it is obvious that the approach to a successful solution of these issues in Germany must be a cooperative approach. Since 2000, there have been discussions about strategies and techniques for long-term archiving of digital information, particularly within the distributed structure of Germany’s library and archival institutions (see [2] or [3]). A key part of all the previous activities was focusing on nestor: Network of Expertise in Longterm Storage of Digital Resources

Die neue Q-Serie: eine Ergänzung des edoc-Angebotes

Seit Juli 2008 bietet der edoc-Server als zusatzliche neue Dienstleistung fur Dissertationen die Publikation in der Q-Serie an. Die Q-Serie beinhaltet neben dem OpenAccess-Publizieren auf dem edoc-Server die Moglichkeit, eine im Corporate Design der Humboldt-Universitat gestaltete, gedruckte Fassung der Dissertation in den Buchhandelsvertrieb einzubringen und uber digitale Vertriebsplattformen zu verbreiten. Eine Publikation in der Q-Serie ist fur den Autor kostenpflichtig. Was ist die Q-Serie ?

Der edoc-Hostingservice für andere Dokumentenserver

Der Betrieb eines eigenen Dokumentenservers bzw. ein Institutional Repositories scheint heutzutage zum „guten Ton“ zu gehoren. Aber geht der Trend wirklich dahin, dass jede Institution auch die technischen und organisatorischen, de facto die gesamten finanziellen, Anstrengungen unternehmen muss, um einen eigenen Service inkl. Server aufzubauen? Laut DINI-Website existieren inzwischen ca. 138 Dokumentenserver in Deutschland. Ein Teil dieser existiert nur virtuell als eigenes Portal zu den Publikationen der jeweiligen Organisation. Was ist demnach der Sinn eines Dokumentenservers, oder anders gefragt: Welche Funktion ubernimmt ein Dokumentenserver heute innerhalb einer wissenschaftlichen Einrichtung oder eines Verlages? Ein Dokumentenserver spiegelt zum einen durch die Anzahl und Vielfalt der Publikationen die wissenschaftliche Breite und Tiefe einer Organisation wider. Zum anderen spiegelt er ein spezielles Gesicht seiner Einrichtung wider , welches nicht nur die Qualitat der wissenschaftlichen Arbeit nach ausen darstellt, sondern auch die moderne Nutzung von Informationstechnologien reprasentiert.

Kriterien für vertrauenswürdige digitale Langzeitarchive: Der nestor-Kriterienkatalog und weitere Ansätze

Digital information has become an essential part of our cultural, scientific and social heritage. Scientific knowledge, historical documents and cultural achievements are now frequently- and sometimes exclusively - found in machine-readable format. Repository organizations for long-term memory storage are now facing new challenges in connection with their mission to collect and preserve digital holdings. The criteria established by Germanys »Network of Expertise in Long-Term Storage of Digital Resources« (nestor) offer a framework for developing trustworthy long-term repositories and guidance for the evaluation of sustainable conservation measures.

Open-Source-Software zur Realisierung von Institutionellen Repositorien : Überblick

Institutional repositories are a fundamental instrument for the implementation of open access using either the green road or the golden road.This article provides an overview of the software systems currently being used in Germany to operate institutional repositories and sheds light on these systems in terms of the currently valid (2007) certification for document and publication services established and administered by the non-profit association DINI (German Initiative for Network Information). Software given particular attention includes Opus, DSpace, EPrints, MyCoRe, and Fedora.