Tag Archives: dLibra

Announcing 10th “Digital Libraries” Workshop

In March 2015 we are planning to organize in Poznań 10th “Digital Libraries” Workshop. The scope of the workshop will include:

  • Presentation of dLibra 6.0
  • Presentation of new version of Digital Libraries Federation Portal
  • Presentation of “dLibra Repository” – system dedicated for institutional repositories
  • Discussion about formats of digital objects in the context of data quality and accessibility for end users
  • Discussion about solutions for small memory institutions – cloud platforms on the example of LoCloud.pl, role of regional digital libraries.

The workshop will be held in Polish. More details about dates and agenda will be available later on this site. If you are interested in shaping the workshop agenda, please contact us.

PSNC trainings gain professional accreditation PLA

http://www.flickr.com/photos/denniswong/2406135310/
Source: denniswong

Professional Accreditation of Polish Librarian Association is the evaluation of educational programs directed to librarians and information scientists, made by independent experts pointed by the Polish Librarian Association (PLA, pol. Stowarzyszenia Bibliotekarzy Polskich). Experiences and solutions practiced by acclaimed Anglo-Saxon LIS organizations (eg. ALAALIACILIP) are the inspiration. On the accreditation’s website there is an information that libraries, universities, continuing education agencies and training companies can apply for it. Grading system and standards worked out by PLA relate to short educational forms generally defined as “training service” such as eg. internship, seminary or training course.

PSNC is known for initiatives which aim to promote knowledge about digital libraries. An example of such activity is a “Digital Libraries” workshop which is organized since 2004. Apart from mentioned workshop, PSNC accomplishes also some trainings for dLibra software users and provides two e-learning courses: “Digital repositories for small memory institutions” and “Cooperation with Europeana”. All of three mentioned services were reported to the accreditation process. On the 4th July 2013 a session of the Professional Accreditation Committee PLA took place under the leadership of Ewa Kobierska-Maciuszko. During the debate, reports from the training services evaluation were examined. With great pleasure we inform that all 3 services received accreditations what is bound with gaining a 3-years valid certificate confirming high quality of those services.

Digitlab

Digitlab is an especially adapted operational system based on Linux Ubuntu. The main aim of its creation was to create a complete system which can be used for collections digitization with the usage of free and widely available tools. The system was based on Ubuntu in version 12.04 LTS and prepared with a tool called Remastersys. It can be downloaded as an ISO image and tried by recording it on pendrive or DVD without the necessity of installation on the computer.

Digitlab is an element of work results of project ACCESS IT Plus. ACCESS IT Plus. Among installed programs there can be found inter alia: ScanTailor (a tool for processing scanning results), gscan2pdf (scanning, creation of PDF&DjVu files with a support for Tesseract), magicktiler (tool enabling the creation of Zoomify images), the engine of OCR Tesseract with a support for Polish language, German Gothic fonts and much more. Apart from utility tools mentioned above, users will also find exemplary digital libraries created on base of DSpace, GreenStone and dLibra software. The full list of software installed in Digitlab system is published here.

In order to check the Digitlab possibilities , the usage of at least 4GB carrier and software such as Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator (Linux) or Universal USB Installer (Windows) or any other tool enabling to create a bootable carrier from downloaded ISO image is indispensable. In both those programs, apart form recording the image of the system, there can be created a disc space in which all changes made by the user will be saved if the system turn on with pendrive. While creating this space, it should be remembered that the bigger the space, the longer the time of system starting with pendrive is. Except turning on with pendrive, Digitlab may also be installed on computer and use it in work as a basic operational system.

The default language of the system is English. Additionally there are some other languages installed: Croatian, Serbian, Greek, Albanian, Turkish and Polish. All applications which were not installed from system packages, were placed in the catalog “/usr/apps/”. System can be successfully used for scholarships and daily work. The ISO image can be downloaded here.

Image which was used in this post comes from Missye Katolickie journal. It was published in 1882 and is available in Digital Library of Greater Poland.

How to install and use DjVu plugin?

DjVu format is currently the most popular way of publishing digital objects in Polish digital libraries. It gives several interesting possibilities, which makes it to be considered as a serious alternative to PDF format. The main disadvantage of this format is the fact, that to read DjVu documents additional software is required – this format is not supported natively by the most popular operating systems. To help users with installation of such software necessary to view DjVu files, we have prepared a short video material showing how to do it. If you have troubles using DjVu publications, take a look at our video material and other short educational movies for users of the dLibra Framework Web Application.

“Digitization in cultural and local administration institutions”

At the end of April in Wrocław a workshop titled “Digitization in cultural and local administration institutions” was organized by Digitalizacja.pl and Wrocław Institute for Professional Activity. As a part of this workshop Tomasz Parkoła and Adam Dudczak from PSNC were also speaking.  They presented the set of software dLibra/dMuseion/dArceo/dLab supporting institutions in digitization and on-line publishing of collections and e-learning courses on digitization and building digital libraries designed for employees of small cultural heritage institutions, available in the Digital Libraries Federation portal.

Which digital library software systems are used in Poland?

Number of digital libraries registered in the DLF Digtial Libraries Database reached recently 80, and if the dynamics of growth will be as good as it is, then by the end of the year this number may even reach 100. Beacuse of this we have decided to prepare a basic analysis showing, which software is presently used in Poland as a basis for digital libraries.

As a base data we took the conents of the mentioned Digital Libraries Database of the Polish Digital Libraries Federation (data snapshot taken on 2011/08/22). From this data before the analysis we have removed Polish Internet Library (32 071 objects), whis was created as a ministerial project with dedicated financing and was active from 2002 to 2007. This digital library was created in a way significantly different that any other library connected to the Federation, nad chances for repeating such project nowadays are really low. Additionallu in the analysis we were not able to include the information about the number of objects from “Ziemiańska Biblioteka Cyfrowa” and “Teledetekcja Środowiska“, because the software they use is not providing such information.

The table below contains the list of used digital library systems (in alphabetical order) together with the list of their deployments (in order respective to the number of available objects).

Name of the system / List o deployments Number of publications
dLibra 697 683
Wielkopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 138 668
e-biblioteka Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 78 000
Jagiellońska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 63 747
Małopolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 59 745
Kujawsko-Pomorska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 44 743
Cyfrowa Biblioteka Narodowa 31 008
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego 27 573
Śląska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 27 148
Elbląska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 25 567
Zachodniopomorska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 21 098
Biblioteka Multimedialna Teatrnn.pl 20 079
Biblioteka Cyfrowa – Regionalia Ziemi Łódzkiej 17 972
Bałtycka Biblioteka Cyfrowa 12 884
Pomorska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 12 446
Podlaska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 12 289
Świętokrzyska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 11 835
Zielonogórska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 8 905
Dolnośląska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 8 583
Wejherowska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 6 041
Radomska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 5 594
Cyfrowy Dolny Śląsk 5 209
Podkarpacka Biblioteka Cyfrowa 5 158
Chełmska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 4 859
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Polskiego Instytutu Antropologii 4 538
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Ośrodka KARTA 3 816
Biblioteka Cyfrowa UMCS 3 229
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Politechniki Łódzkiej 2 867
Mazowiecka Biblioteka Cyfrowa 2 754
Internetowa Biblioteka Wzornictwa 2 554
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Politechniki Warszawskiej 2 420
Pedagogiczna Biblioteka Cyfrowa 2 094
Krośnieńska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 1 970
Iławska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 1 952
Bialska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 1 867
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego 1 679
Nowohucka Biblioteka Cyfrowa 1 674
Gdańska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 1 662
Opolska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 1 623
Morska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 1 481
Cyfrowe archiwum KK NSZZ Solidarność 1 357
Cyfrowa Ziemia Sieradzka 1 249
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Politechniki Śląskiej 1 165
Księgozbiór Wirtualny Federacji Bibliotek Kościelnych FIDES 1 033
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Instytutu Łączności 847
Sanocka Biblioteka Cyfrowa 736
Rolnicza Biblioteka Cyfrowa 640
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Politechniki Lubelskiej 506
Tarnowska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 447
Repozytorium Cyfrowe Poloników 407
Bibliologiczna Biblioteka Cyfrowa 337
Czytelnia Wirtualna Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego Jana Pawła II 253
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Uniwersytetu Warmińsko-Mazurskiego 236
Publiczne Archiwum Cyfrowe Agnieszki Osieckiej 231
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Fundacji Ormiańskiej KZKO 214
Biblioteka Cyfrowa ORE 193
Repozytorium Cyfrowe Instytutów Naukowych 183
Cyfrowa Biblioteka Diecezjalna w Sandomierzu 122
Armarium. dominikańska biblioteka cyfrowa 88
Kolbuszowska Biblioteka Cyfrowa 74
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Politechniki Koszalińskiej 30
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Zachodniopomorskiego Centrum Doskonalenia Nauczycieli 4
dMuseion 1 227
Cyfrowe Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie 1 227
DSpace 1 535
Repozytorium Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza 884
Repozytorium Politechniki Łódzkiej CYRENA 647
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Książnicy Stargardzkiej 4
EPrints 1 946
Cyfrowa Biblioteka Druków Ulotnych Polskich i Polski Dotyczących z XVI, XVII i XVIII Wieku 1 403
Dziennik Ustaw RP na Uchodźstwie 298
Computer Science Journal 95
Repozytorium Instytutu Biochemii i Biofizyki Polskiej Akademii Nauk 80
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Katedry Lingwistyki Formalnej Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 70
Greenstone 24
Baza Rozpraw Doktorskich Uniwersytetu Przyrodniczo-Humanistycznego w Siedlcach 24
Custom software 6 119
Wirtualne Archiwum Polskich Ormian 2 793
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Politechniki Krakowskiej 2 693
Czytelnia kwartalnika “Bezpieczeństwo i Technika Pożarnicza” 248
Biblioteka Cyfrowa Małopolskiego Towarzystwa Genealogicznego 180
ICM – DIR – Zasoby Polskie 121
Otwórz książkę 84
Ziemiańska Biblioteka Cyfrowa  ?
Teledetekcja Środowiska  ?
VTLS Virtua 9 282
Akademicka Biblioteka Cyfrowa KRAKÓW 9 282
WordPress 9
Biblioteka Humanistyczna 9
Total: 717 825

Next table contains information about publicly available deployments of particular digital library software systems and about the total number of publications in digital libraries based on these systems.

Name of the system Number of deployments % share in the number of deployments Total number of publications % share in the total number of publications
dLibra 61 75,31%            697 683 97,19%
Custom software 8 9,88%                6 119 0,85%
EPrints 5 6,17%                1 946 0,27%
DSpace 3 3,70%                1 535 0,21%
WordPress 1 1,23%                      10 0,00%
VTLS Virtua 1 1,23%                9 282 1,29%
Greenstone 1 1,23%                      24 0,00%
dMuseion 1 1,23%                1 227 0,17%
Total: 81              717 826  

The last table shows, how at the moment looks the size of digital libraries based on particular systems:

Name of the system Number of deployments Size of the smallest deployment Average size of deployment Size of the largest deployment
dLibra 61              4              11 437      138 668
Custom software 8            84                1 020           2 793
EPrints 5            70                    389           1 403
DSpace 3              4                    512              884
— Below systems with just one deployment are listed —
VTLS Virtua 1 9 282
dMuseion 1 1 227
Greenstone 1 24
WordPress 1 10

We hope that persons looking for suitable digital library software will find this analysis useful.

Additional improvements in user interface of the WWW application of the dLibra 5.0

dLibra 5.0 is still under intensive development. One of the most important things, that we are working on, is the user interface of the dLibra Readers Application. By changing old mechanism and adding new features, with extensive use of Web 2.0 approach, we are trying to improve user experience, of this most often used part of the dLibra system.
Recently we have modified the search mechanism and interface, in which we have previously implemented some important changes, like thumbnails in search results view. Currently we have also changed mechanism of selecting ambiguous synonyms values and filtering by collections. On the attached screen we can see the current result.

Zawężanie wyników wyszukiwania

Selection of the ambiguous values is now visible on the left side of the search results page. For those, who have already used digital library based on the dLibra system, changes of values presentation can be noticeable; interface is also more friendly and intuitive. Other change allows a selection of more than one collection by which search results are narrowed.

We have also prepared some changes in content view interface. When viewing content on the bottom of the screen there is a new functional toolbar, in which there will be possibility to use few options from the user profile.

Przeglądanie treści publikacji

In relation to the previous version of dLibra there is also a change in view handlers selection – now each data format will have its default view handler and option of changing it to another (if possible) will be presented in the new toolbar.

The last thing, which is worth to mentioning, is some improvements to new publication creation mechanism in WWW application of the dLibra. New functionality was presented on dLibra Users Meeting at the PBC 2009 conference. Partly thanks to our users voices we have decided, before the dLibra 5.0 release, to prepare some improvements. One of attached screenshots shows the new interface of second step of publication creator.

Kreator dodawania publikacji przez WWW

Presented features are in test phase and can be changed before the final release. In the middle of August we are planning to stop the development of this dLibra version and start functional tests before the final release.