Explore the Digital Collections Repository
UVa Repository Frequently Asked Questions
About Fedora™
Repository Development Documentation
Prototype Content Models Undergoing Testing
October 15, 2007: A New Version of the UVA Collectus Digital Object Collector Tool source code is available for download
December 21, 2007: Version 3.0 beta 1 and Version 2.2.1 of Fedora™ are available for download through the Fedora Commons web site
In the summer of 1999 The UVa Library developed a prototype for a digital
object repository management system that was intended to be the foundation
for our digital library system. This system is based on the Flexible Extensible
Digital Object Repository Architecture (Fedora™)
developed by Carl Lagoze and Sandra Payette in the Digital Library Research
Group at Cornell University. We reinterpreted their ideas to build the first
practical implementation of the architecture.
In early 2001 we built an “alpha” testbed that included 500,000 data objects
including digital images and a wide variety of XML objects. We developed a
variety of disseminators that provide a rich set of functionality for electronic
finding aids, TEI-encoded etexts of letters and books, and for XML-encoded
structured collections of art, architecture and archeology images, and a set
of social science data. We also implemented three different object models
for images, one for multiple files for the various resolutions of a single
scan, one for single-file wavelet-encoded images and one for page images that
uses a single compressed TIFF file. In all three cases, the user sees the
images from one abstract point of view and is spared the requirement of knowing
their format.
In the summer of 2001 we completed initial stress testing of our implementation
using software that simulates simultaneous users requesting a realistic mixture
of different requests. On a Sun Ultra80 two-processor workstation, simulating
20 simultaneous users making requests with an average delay of 300 milliseconds,
response time averages are approximately one half second per request. Note
that for most of the XML object transactions this includes a server-side rendering
of the XML into HTML, a relatively processor-intensive action. We then scaled
our testbed up by duplicating the existing objects repeatedly, running the
user tests at 1,000,000 and 10,000,000 objects. At 10,000,000 objects we were
averaging between 1 and 2 seconds per request. All of this testing was being
done from a laptop machine in an office across campus from the machine room
that houses the server, so real network conditions for at least on campus
access were included in the test.
In fall 2001 we applied for and received a $1,000,000
grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop an implementation
of the Fedora™ system with Cornell University' Digital Library Research
Group. In March 2002, once staffing was complete, we began work on the Fedora
system architecture, as well as our first phase prototype implementation of
a Fedora-based Digital Library Repository containing almost 10,000 images
and over 100 electronic texts.
Three prototype digital collection search and delivery interfaces for searching
and browsing image and electronic text collections were presented to the Library
staff for review of the functionality and design in summer 2003. The services
were developed as a collaborative effort between a number of Library units,
and with the input from several committees that addressed questions of functionality
and user requirements. This was not a demonstration of a complete system or
a final release, but a demonstration to solicit input on the design, functionality
and usability, as well as collect suggestions for improvements and additional
functionality. Almost 150 individual comments were received, which were distilled
into a series of categories for prioritization by staff from many areas of
the Library.
The development priorities were incorporated into the alpha release
of the Repository, which was tested by the UVa community in 2004-2006 (see the October 2005 D-Lib article).
The Repository provides access to digital images and electronic texts,
and includes Collectus, a digital object collector tool to support digital image and text use in instruction
and research. The content includes:
- All new electronic texts produced by the Library's Digitization and Publishing Services to date;
- Ten volumes comprising two editions (1814 and 1904) of the Journals
of Lewis and Clark in full text and as page images; plus nineteen volumes
dealing with westward exploration from UVA's Special Collections available
as a combination of full-text and browsable page images (work sponsored
by an American Studies grant also funded by
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation); and
- Over 10,000 images from the UVa Fine Arts Library Visual Resource
Collection and the McIntire Department of Art Visual Resource Collection
for the instruction of architectural history, art history, and landscape
architecture.
- Over 1,300 selected images from the collections of the Fowler Museum
of Cultural History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA),
- Over 400 images of paintings of Native Americans and cultural documentation
landscapes from the exhibition (and accompanying catalog) George Catlin
and his Indian Gallery, organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum
in 2002; and
- Jefferson Country - more than 3,000 images from a multi-year inventory
of buildings in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, compiled by Professor
emeritus K. Edward Lay from the School of Architecture.
The Digital Collections Repository moved from beta testing to full availability to the UVa community on February 1, 2007. New content is added monthly, and will eventually include other formats such as finding aids, printed music, video, datasets, audio, and GIS.
Continued Fedora Phase 2 development has been funded by a $1,400,000
grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Recent Articles
- Johnston, Leslie. “Development and Assessment of a Public Discovery and Delivery Interface for a Fedora Repository.” In D-Lib Magazine, vol. 11, Number 10 (2005). (http://www.dlib.org/dlib/october05/johnston/10johnston.html)
- "Fedora
Version 2.0 Open-Source Repository Supports XML and Web Services."
XML Cover Pages (March 18, 2005), 'Cover Stories'.
- "Fedora
2.0: A Powerful Open-Source Solution for Digital Repositories."
Summary report in D-Lib Magazine Volume 11, Number 3 (March 2005),
'In Brief'.
- Lagoze, Carl, Sandy Payette, Edwin Shin, and Chris Wilper. "Fedora:
An Architecture for Complex Objects and their Relationships." Forthcoming
in Journal of Digital Libraries, Special Issue on Complex Objects,
Springer 2005. (Draft online at http://www.arxiv.org/abs/cs.DL/0501012)
- Manafy, Michelle. "This
Fedora's Big Enough for Any DAM Project." EContent Magazine
(October 2003).
- Payette, Sandra and Thornton Staples, "The Mellon Fedora Project:
Digital Library Architecture Meets XML and Web Services," Sixth European
Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries. Lecture
Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 2459. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg
New York (2002): pp. 406-421.
- Staples, Thornton, Ross Wayland, and Sandra Payette. "The
Fedora Project: An Open-source Digital Object Repository Management System."
D-Lib Magazine (April 2003).
Staples, Thornton, and Ross Wayland. "Virginia
Dons Fedora: A Prototype for a Digital Object Repository." D-Lib
Magazine (July/August 2000).
Recent Presentations
- "The University of Virginia Digital Library Implementation." (PDF) Leslie Johnston, 2005 Fedora Users Conference.
- "Update on the Fedora Project," Sandra Payette, 2005 Fedora Users Conference .
- Program from the 2005 Fedora Users Conference.
- UVa Library Repository Interface and Tool Evaluation." Leslie Johnston, Spring 2005 Digital Library Federation Forum.
- "Digital Library Repository
Service Development at the UVa Library." Leslie Johnston, 2004
American Society for Information Science & Technology Conference.
- "Introduction to Fedora and its Applications" -- Basic
Concepts and Content
Models, Ronda Grizzle, Ross Wayland, and Chris Wilper, 2004 Joint Conference
on Digital Libraries.
- "A
Digital Library Architecture for UVa," Thornton Staples, Spring
2004 Digital Library Federation Forum.
- "The
Fedora Project," Sandra Payette, Fall 2003 Digital Library Federation
Forum.
- "Fedora
and Repository Development at UVa," Leslie Johnston, 2003 ASIST
DASER Summit.
- "Early
Development Experiences with Fedora," Thornton Staples, EDUCAUSE
Conference 2003.
- "The
Fedora Project," Thornton Staples, LITA 2003 National Forum.
- "Digital Library
Services at the University of Virginia Library," Leslie Johnston,
LITA 2003 National Forum.
- "The
Fedora Project." Thornton Staples and Sandra Payette, Spring 2003
Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) meeting.
UVa Library Reports
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The original
2001 Mellon Foundation grant application