Consistency? What's that?

I absolutely love, love, love metadata. For whatever reason, assigning names, subjects, dates, and the rest makes my heart go pitter-patter.

The problem? I'm a bit over-analytical. Sometimes you can really think yourself into a hole when decided how to organize things.

At first I tried to apply metadata similar to the way The Arizona Memory Project has done. The problem, though, is with my collection, that wasn't a great fit. I need to be able to say, for example, "What kind" of hero the object is about, for example, "real-life," or "comic-book." Those aren't normal subject headings. I did also try to use the LCSH as much as possible in Drupal and DSpace. In these two CMS, we can enter the subjects free-hand, so I was able to do that. With EPrints, you select from previously supplied subject terms. I had originally thought I was going to be able to use LCSH and the Name Authorities, but I misread: EPrints had the LC Classification previously installed. That was absolutely incompatible with my collection! The closest I could get to assigning a subject to the song "The Ballad of Paladin," for example, was History-- United States. That narrows it down.

So with EPrints I went back to some of the items, such as Type of Hero, that I created in Drupal (used in addition to the free-hand). So, I guess I'm sort of consistent (which doesn't sound very consistent at all).

The best part is, though, I feel as though I'm getting a little better at devising taxonomy each time I try. And it's still F-U-N!!

Installation: Almost Impossible

OK, Jim, I chose to accept my mission and installed eprints. And I'm glad I did. But, boy, I earned my paycheck!

I think I had more trouble installing this than Drupal. And I kept making the same mistake over and over, entering one password when I should have been entering the other. So, I guess I'm the goof-up, but it doesn't mean it took me any less time to install.

I also pretty much sucked at branding eprints into something cool, though I will say that I really got to know the files and directories, having to go through them to look for all mentions of the "logo.gif" and changing them to my new logo, Luke Skywalker. Oh, I guess Jim Phelps wouldn't know anything about Luke Skywalker. He's an orphan who carries a sword that shoots laser beams, almost kissed his sister, discovered his dad was really alive when his dad cut his hand off, and then saved the galaxy. Anyway.

After having looked at other eprints sites, I know that a lot of cool things could be done with the branding, look, and feel. I hate to say it, because I still have a grudge against Drupal that goes beyond this class, but Drupal has the best look and feel to it. DSpace is still the most intuitive from the administrator end for me, and eprints the least. I do feel that if I worked with eprints a while, I could do pretty well with it. But if I had to work with one right now, and be pretty much responsible for it, I'd probably put eprints at the bottom of the list and go for DSpace.

A gaggle of CMS options

Wow-- I don't think I ever realized how many CMS options were out there. When I first started the DigIn program, I heard a lot of people talking about Fedora. I wasn't sure what it was, though I was pretty sure it had nothing to do with hats. I'm still not sure I understand exactly what Fedora is, though at least I understand it better, as well as other content management systems as well.

It's pretty exciting to see the work being done to help store, organize, preserve and allow access to content. Digital objects that might otherwise remain in obscurity are now (potentially) available for others. Not only that, but the CMSs I've seen can add value as well. As much as DSpace is more intuitive to me, I see that Drupal really has a lot of flexibility and functionality, a combination website / CMS. It offers various modules and allows people to interact with the objects and each other.

It's also pretty daunting. With so many CMSs out there, interoperability is a big issue. As is preservation, of course. But the glimmer of hope in the data deluge is that we're aware of the problem and trying to stay ahead of the danger.

DSpace Rocks! DSpace Rocks!

Unbelievably, I had absolutely no troubles with the installation. Bruce's directions are always dead on, but I don't always follow them without making mistakes... heh heh heh. In fact, when installing Drupal, I had so many problems and had to clog up D2L with all kinds of goofy questions. This week was a breeze. I think it was partly due to the fact that I broke up the installation-- I didn't try to do it all in one sitting. Also, partly luck.

As for whether I could do it without any IT help, heck no! That is, I would have to have some kind of help, even if it were to Google the instructions. Hopefully I won't lose the instructions Bruce made, because they may come in handy some day.