Our
Vision of the Electronic Depository Program
Texas electronic
government information will be preserved and made
accessible for future researchers, just as printed
publications are preserved for future generations
today.
Building Blocks
The catalyst for the Electronic Depository Program
was a resolution passed by the Texas Library Association
Government Documents Round Table. Go here
to read the resolution.
Foundations
The Electronic Depository Program fulfills the mission
of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission
of preserving the government record for public scrutiny.
Go here
to read the Vision, Mission, and Philosophy of the
Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Texas
State Publications Clearinghouse
Texas
State Publications Depository Program - This legislatively
mandated program requires liaisons in state agencies
to deposit print publications in sufficient quantities
to ensure public access to these materials. Public
access to information published by or for the state
government is in accordance with the mission of the
Texas State Library and Archives Commission of preserving
the government record for public scrutiny. As more
and more government information in printed electronically
and on the Web, it is essential to preserve this information
in the same way printed publications are preserved.
Texas
Records and Information Locator Service
TRAIL
- Searches for specific state agency electronic publications
allows you to be specific in looking for information.
All state electronic publications have been "cataloged"
so that you can search by agency name, title of the
publication, assigned subjects, and keywords. Search
results can include various file types. In addition
to publication searches, the agency
information pages in TRAIL provide information
on state agency contact information, links to budget,
historical and constitutional authority information
for the agencies, and a link to the agency's main
web site. Go to the Electronic Depository section
of the TRAIL Web site by clicking here.
Government
Information Team
Government Information Team (GIT)
- GIT consists of a broad-based team of professional
librarians with experience in the following disciplines:
- archival preservation, cataloging, records management,
IT technologies, depository programs, and reference.
The Team will use research and consensus as part of
their decision-making process.
GIT Accomplishments: formulated "Collection Development
Plan" (see below) and created "Memorandum of Understanding"
(see below) for adoption by Collaborative Libraries
working on the Electronic Depository Program.
GIT
has also developed the "Preservation
Metadata Set". The Preservation Metadata Set defines
metadata elements which, in addition to the Dublin
Core metadata used in the TRAIL service, will be adopted
for use in the Electronic Publications Depository
system implemented by Texas State Library and Archives
Commission in cooperation with collaborative library
partners.
TLA Resolution
for Support of the Texas Z39.50 Implementors Group
Read the resolution here.
Standards
- Standards for the Electronic Depository Program
component of the Library of Texas are outlined in
two working documents:
1.
Collection Development Plan - Includes legal
definitions of "depository library" and "state publication",
as well as as descriptions of technical terms such
as MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions). The
Plan defines an
electronic depository library as "a library designated
to receive and store state electronic publications
for the purpose of providing continued public access
to said publications". A new version or edition
is defined as "a new version or edition (issue,
release, update) when significant changes to the original
publication are made. Examples of significant changes
include: changes in the content (data), changes in
the programming language, or the addition of sound
or graphics".
The following principles and objectives are also included
in the Plan: The people of the state of Texas have
a basic right to no-fee access to state publications.
It is the responsibility of state government to provide
access to state publications and to preserve state
publications for future access. All documents that
meet the statutory definition of a state publication
are considered worthy candidates of selection for
inclusion in the electronic depository collection.
Using the existing TRAIL system and the Dublin Core
element set that describes publications, selection
is based on two Dublin Core fields: MIME type and
Publication type.
MIME types: the first phase of project includes
HTML, PDF, word processing documents, spreadsheet
documents, slideshow documents, some Databases, text
files, zip files, and other similar (text-like) file
types. Later phases of project will include more difficult
MIME types, such as audio, video, mapping data, and
other complex file types.
Publication type: TRAIL defines 30 publication
types that are included in the first phase of the
project. When a state publication matches one of the
designated "MIME (file) types" and the "publication
type" matches one or more of the thirty (30) designated
publication types, the state publication will be included
in the Electronic Depository Program. Current planning
allows for weekly or bi-weekly capture of these pages.
Retention of the selected publications will be permanent.
2.
Memorandum of Understanding · Purpose: to
establish the respective roles and responsibilities
of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission
and the University of North Texas Libraries (UNT),
in a partnership arrangement designed to ensure permanent
storage of and access to electronic state publications
for the State of Texas. General provisions included
in the plan: Texas government information is in the
public domain. Hardware, software, files provided
by TSLAC must be returned to TSLAC should a partner
withdraw. Partners will cooperate in disaster recovery
planning. Partner library responsibilities in the
plan: Provide free, open access to public. Provide
space, power, network connections, staff, bandwidth,
written procedures. Provide routine maintenance -
backups, security, upgrades, verifying and loading
files, etc. Assure persistent URLs. Notify partners
3 months in advance if withdrawing. TSLAC responsibilities:
Recognize partners as official sites. Provide links
to partner sites. Provide hardware/software for the
Electronic Depository program. Provide state document
files to partners. Establish an "archival" site. Assist
with staff training and initiate review of technology
for possible system upgrades. Implementation of the
Program (Putting Resources to Work) - Preservation
Metadata Components will be based on work of the National
Library of Australia. Most information supplied will
be by reporting liaisons or by an automated process.
Acquisition Harvest: will identify new, removed, and
changed items, make internal links relative, extract
metadata and index full text, and upload files and
MARC records to partner site(s). Completeness Issues
- Simple: Plain Text & PDF Files. Complex: HTML Files
incorporating text, images, scripts and links to continuation
pages. Bibliographic Access provided by the TRAIL
Z39.50 compliant GILS search engine, local partner's
catalog, MARC "surrogates" and other enhancements
based on local cataloging priority additional access
points.
Project
History/Timeline
May 2003 -
E.D.P.
PowerPoint presentation by Coby Condrey, Texas
State Library and Archives Commission, for the Second
Annual E-Records Conference: 'Records at Risk'.
The presentation is available in PowerPoint
or Adobe
PDF formats. Go to the Publications
& Presentations page of this web site for
more links to power point presentations and HTML documents.
April 2003
- TEXAS
LIBRARY ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE
"Freedom
in Action"
04-02 through 04-04, 2003
Oct. 2002
-
The software that allows
the TRAIL
service to harvest state agency electronic publications
has been loaded. This method will also be used to
archive electronic publications for the Electronic
Depository Project, and requires that liaisons
insert meta-tags into their state agency electronic
documents. Meta-tagging rules have been set out by
DIR in TAC
Title 1, Part 10, 206.2, and the TRAIL
site has developed a Web
page explaining the rules. A schedule of training
classes for the new system will be available in the
near future. Test harvests will be run until November
4th, which is the planned date to allow for public
access.
Oct. 2002 - Links
to the Technology Inventory and Assessment Study conducted
by Dr. William E. Moen, Dr. Kathleen R. Murray, and
the Texas Center for
Digital Knowledge, University of North Texas have
been added. The study employed a 75-question survey
instrument to measure the technology capabilities
of academic and public libraries that are members
of TexShare.
Links to the Executive Summary: PDF
format, MS
Word format. Links to entire study: PDF
format, MS
Word format.
July-Aug. 2002 - The
Electronic Depository Program system software is complete
and is now in the acceptance testing phase. The system
is on schedule for installation in July and full implementation
by the end of August.
Fall 2002 - Public
debut of service.
July 2002 - August 2002 - System
software completed and in the acceptance testing phase.
The system is being installed during the month of
July and full implementation is expected at the end
of August.
May 2002 - August 2002 - Installation
and testing of hardware and software; creation of
initial collection.
September 2001 - April 2002 - Bid
process and vendor contract negotiations (Blue Angel
Technologies).
Spring 2000 - August 2001 - Development
of project parameters, bid specifications & agreements
with partners.
Spring 2000 - GIT
formed, began planning.
