184 · Representative Documents: Managing Digital Assets
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS
Digital Project Support Framework
http://digital.wustl.edu/create/Digital_Project_Framework_Rev_L.doc
Digital Project Support Framework
Washington University Digital Implementation Group (DIG)
April 3, 2007
Revision J
1 INTRODUCTION
Recent years have seen the emergence of a number of scholarly digital projects on the
Washington University campus. These have ranged from small student projects to larger
faculty-driven undertakings such as American Lives. However, several obstacles to
further development of such work remain, including long-term preservation, short-term
support, a consistent knowledge base, common tool support, and integration of digital
materials into larger digital library or repository systems. These problems often limit
how these projects are valued as scholarly or pedagogical resources.
The primary purpose of this document is to establish a lingua franca for digital
projects at Washington University, integrating the perspectives of faculty, library staff,
and other interested parties in the University community. A significant step toward such
a common understanding is the recognition of the challenges that different members of
the community will face as they develop digital projects, and of our shared goals as we
develop a University digital library and related infrastructure. This document does not
attempt to establish specific procedures for accepting and developing digital projects, nor
standards that such projects should follow. Instead, it represents an agreement as to what
kinds of procedures and standards should be developed on a University-wide basis.
To that end, this document establishes different classes of digital projects as a
preliminary step to providing them appropriate support. Explicit criteria as to what
support any given project merits remain to be determined at a later date. Eventually
decisions regarding the level of support allocated to a proposed project should be made
on a consistent rather than an ad hoc basis. Furthermore, while the University Libraries
have committed to playing a central role in providing such support, this document is not
presented from the perspective of the Libraries, or any given school or division of the
University, but rather from the University level, so digital projects created by the library
would in no way be synonymous with “University projects” described in this document.
In conjunction with other institutional steps, this document also represents a
commitment to provide a greater level of support to projects at all levels, and is therefore
intended to increase development of digital projects, especially by faculty, and
specifically to encourage development of digital projects as a scholarly activity. At the
same time, it is intended to encourage this development in a disciplined way that will
help to ensure the successful execution of digital projects, and to most effectively
leverage the resources available for digital project development.
2 PROPOSAL PURPOSE
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