HDA and HDAQ

Libraries throughout the world have or are in the process of creating digital libraries. Some of the more prominent examples are the Library of Congress American Memory project and the Cornell University/University of Michigan Making of America. Other, lesser well-known examples come out of smaller institutions, such as Brigham Young University's Digital Library.

What many of these digital libraries have in common is the fact that the digital collection is often built around an existing collection of material by full time staff devoted to the project. Often, libraries will receive grants to digitize and make available a particular collection of materials. As an alternative approach, the Hekman Library decided to create a Digital Archive infrastructure regardless of the collection.

The HDA system works much in the same way as WebCat, the library's catalog. Library staff have a piece of client software with which they create catalog records for digital files. The main difference between the HDA and WebCat is that HDA records point to items that are actually contained within the HDA itself, while WebCat records point to items held in different locations throughout the Library.

Another difference between WebCat and the HDA is the number of Library staff devoted to entering and maintaining the data. Instead of devoting library staff time to entering items into the HDA, the Library has instead set up a system that allows participants to enter images and data. While there are some obvious dangers at allowing numerous non-librarians to enter data into a controlled library system, the Library has created a solution to help keep errors at a minimum: HDAQ.

HDA and Hyperion.

The system that the Hekman Library purchased for its digital archive is called Hyperion, a piece of software created to work in conjunction with the software used for the library's catalog, Unicorn (both created by Sirsi Inc.). Hyperion and Unicorn are both client-based software, with the intention that library staff will use the software to maintain the content of both WebCat and the HDA. However, since the Hekman Library does not have the capacity to hire librarians who can devote their full time workload to the HDA, a system was created to allow participants to help load the material.

HDA and HDAQ

The HDAQ is a web-based upload system that participants can log into, load images to be processed, and enter metadata (in consultation with the Electronic Services Librarian). After images and metadata have been entered into HDAQ, library staff are able to check the quality of the files, and once approved, upload them into the HDA.