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Good Stuff on the Horizon: a Duke Digital Repository Teaser…

Folks,

We have been hard at work architecting a robust Repository program for our Duke University community.  And while doing this, we’re in the midst of shoring things up architecturally on the back end.  You may be asking yourself:  Why all the fuss?  What’s the big deal?

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Well, part of the fuss is that it’s high time to move beyond the idea that our repository is a platform.  We’d much prefer that our repository be know as a program.  A suite of valuable services that serve the needs of our campus community.  The repository will always be a platform.  In fact, it will be a rock-solid preservation platform- a space to park your valuable digital assets and feel 100% confident that the Libraries will steward those materials for the long haul.  But the repository is much more than a platform; it’s a suite of service goodness that we hope to market and promote!

Secondly, it’s because we’ve got some new and exciting developments happening in Repository-land, specifically in the realm of data management.  To start with, the Provost graciously appointed four new positions to serve the data needs of the University, and those new positions will sit in the Libraries.  We have two Senior Research Specialists and two Content Analysts joining our ranks in early January.  These positions will be solely dedicated to the refinement of data curation processes, liaising with faculty on data management best practice, assisting researchers with the curation and deposit of research data, and acquiring persistent access to said data.  Pretty cool stuff!

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So in preparation for this, we’ve had a few things cooking.  To begin with, we are re-designing our Duke Digital Repository homepage.  We will highlight three service areas:

  • Duke Scholarship: This area will feature the research, scholarship and activities of Duke faculty members and academic staff.  It will also highlight services in support of open access, copyright support, digital publishing, and more.
  • Research Data:  This area will be dedicated to the fruits of Duke Scholarship, and will be an area that features research data and data sets.  It will highlight services in support of data curation, data management, data deposit, data citation, and more.
  • Library Collections: This area will focus on digital collections that are owned or stewarded specifically by the Duke University Libraries.  This includes digitized special collections, University Archives material, born digital materials, and more.

For each of these areas we’ve focused on defining a base collections policy for each, and are in the process of refining our service models, and shoring up policy that will drive preservation and digital asset management of these materials.

So now that I’ve got you all worked up about these new developments, you may be asking, ‘When can I know more?!’  You can expect to see and hear more about these developments (and our newly redesigned website) just after the New Year.  In fact, you can likely expect another Bitstreams Repository post around that time with more updates on our progress, a preview of our site, and perhaps a profile or two of the new staff joining our efforts!

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Until then, stay tuned, press ‘Save’, and call us if you’re looking for a better, more persistent, more authoritative approach to saving the fruits of your digital labor!  (Or contact us)