SPEC Kit 335: Digital Image Collections and Services · 189
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS
Digital Project Support Framework
http://digital.wustl.edu/create/Digital_Project_Framework_Rev_L.doc
Adhering to metadata and formatting standards can help ensure the long-term
preservation of a digital project's content, but a project's presentation is less durable. In
fact, ongoing developments in data mining and analysis techniques virtually ensure that a
given project's presentation will be updated continuously at a local level. Projects that
invest in durable, preservable content provide the stable arena in which exploratory and
innovative approaches to presentation become possible. Consequently, Washington
University encourages projects to invest in durable, preservable content, and to view the
upkeep of presentation as a built-in cost of digital projects.
6.2.4 Hosting
Hosting refers to what computer servers are used for the project. Servers, including
backup systems, constitute a significant cost of a digital project. There are three general
types of hosting:
Local hosting–Hosted on local servers (project-specific, faculty, or student
machines).
School hosting–Hosted on school servers.
Library hosting–Hosted on library servers.
External hosting—Hosted on a server not sponsored by a Washington University
entity.
6.3 Digital Asset Repository
Previous sections of this document have stressed the need for a Digital Asset
Repository, which will hold standardized content that need not be part of any digital
project or collection per se. Such a repository would preserve not only isolated digital
objects created for classroom use, for example, but could also store stabilized data for
projects that have less stable presentations. The Repository should, in other words, act as
a clearinghouse for members of the university community who create digital content that
meets the Repository's metadata and formatting standards.
The Digital Asset Repository will:
Promote the use of standardized content
Ease the problem of search and retrieval
Promote the re-use of digital assets across multiple projects
Ensure that even local (Class 1) projects have means to be preserved for the
long term
Encourage project developers to think in terms of content vs. presentation
Help students quickly learn to design digital projects by providing them with
pre-digitized content
The Digital Asset Repository will meet the needs of a wide range of the university
community, from faculty and students creating single digital objects to larger research
projects that would like to design their own presentations of their data while having the
data housed elsewhere.
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