Learning by Doing

The Digital Archive for Chinese Studies

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Facts and Figures

• Founded in the summer of 2001

• Institute of Chinese Studies, Heidelberg Univ.

• 630.000 files = 9 GB = 1300 metadata entries

• Selective + harvesting approach

• Network of researchers: selection

• 2 part-time student workers:– Download– Metadata creation

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

The Chinese Web

• Public discourse never accessible bevor– Dissident web-sites, discussion boards

• Important up-to-date information– Newspapers, government sites

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

The Hole in the Structure

• Chinese National Library– No internet archive– Censorship

• Internet Archive– Arbitrary harvesting at irregular intervals– Data destruction on owner‘s request– No full text search

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Legal Position

• Download of everything, unless access restricted and explicitly prohibited

• Free access from within HD Uni‘s campus

• Otherwise restricted to password owners

• Negotiations on protest by copyright holder:– Payment– Further access restriction– Deletion of files

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Collection policy

"The Digital Archive for Chinese Studies (DACHS) aims at identifying, archiving and making accessible Internet resources relevant for Chinese Studies. Special emphasis is given to the social and political discourse as reflected by articulations on the Chinese Internet. [...]"

(Mission statement)

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Identification of resources

• Human information network– Scanning of mailing-lists by specialists– Internet research by scholars

• Integration of external collections

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

• High grade of

specialisation

• Flexibility

• Use of background

knowledge

• Small fraction

of Internet

• Chance of selection

• High amount of

human labour

Pros and Cons

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Resource allocation

• Selection – unpaid researchers (?h/w)

• Download – paid student workers (8h/w)

• Metadata creation – paid students (8h/w)

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Download

• Metaproducts Offline Explorer – more than one page– Site structure is retained

• Microsoft Internet Explorer – single page– Alterations of site structure

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Metadata creation

• Framework: developed from OAIS information model and library‘s catologing system

• Entries made for single documents, E-Journals, websites or whole collections

• Contains information for users, as well as technichal and administrative data

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Access

• Project‘s homepage– Using a basic classification system

• Library‘s catalogue– Searching the metadata entries

• To come: full text search engine– diversity of file types, encodings, mass of docs

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Security issues

• Dedicated and climatized IT-room• UPS

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Security issues

• Dedicated and climatized IT-room• UPS• Software raid level 1• Daily ADSM backup to University Computer Center• Additional backup to University of Karlsruhe

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Security issues

• Dedicated and climatized IT-room• UPS• Software raid level 1• Daily ADSM backup to University Computer Center• Additional backup to University of Karlsruhe• Virus scan on download• Daily virus scan of the complete archive• Hourly update of virus definitions

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Future

• Improvement / fine tuning of the metadata set according to the needs of the collection

• Further establishment of the “information network”

• Testing and implementation of a metadata harvester

• Testing and implementation of a search engine

• Promoting the project

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Future

• Improvement / fine tuning of the metadata set according to the needs of the collection

• Further establishment of the “information network”

• Testing and implementation of a metadata harvester

• Testing and implementation of a search engine

• Promoting the project

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Future

• Improvement / fine tuning of the metadata set according to the needs of the collection

• Further establishment of the “information network”

• Testing and implementation of a metadata harvester

• Testing and implementation of a search engine

• Promoting the project

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Future

• Improvement / fine tuning of the metadata set according to the needs of the collection

• Further establishment of the “information network”

• Testing and implementation of a metadata harvester

• Testing and implementation of a search engine

• Promoting the project

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Future

• Improvement / fine tuning of the metadata set according to the needs of the collection

• Further establishment of the “information network”

• Testing and implementation of a metadata harvester

• Testing and implementation of a search engine

• Promoting the project

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross

Contact

Digital Archive for Chinese Studies

http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/dachs/

Jennifer Gross

jenny@gw.sino.uni-heidelberg.de

Archiving Workshop, Oxford, 28.11.03, Jennifer Gross