Digital Collections and Content

In 2002 the Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded the
University of Illinois a research and demonstration National Leadership
Grant (NLG) to implement a collection registry and metadata repository
for digital content created or developed as part of past, present, and
future NLG programs. As part of this effort IMLS has given us
permission to survey NLG projects that include a significant
digitization or digital content component. Your project, (AAAA), IMLS
Grant Number (BBBB), has been identified by IMLS as belonging to this
category.
We are asking you to help by completing a brief online survey at:
http://imlsdcc.grainger.uiuc.
edu/survey/.
You will be asked to log in. Your log in information is below:
Login: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Password: XXXXXXXXX
The survey will help us verify, update, and augment key administrative,
content, and technical information about the digital collection
associated with your project. Selected of this information will appear
in our IMLS NLG Collection Registry, which is located at
http://imlsdcc.grainger.
uiuc.edu/collections/. (You will be given a further opportunity to vet
and edit as needed the record describing your project’s collection
before it is added to the publicly available portion of the IMLS NLG
Collection Registry.)
The IMLS NLG Collection Registry is intended as a resource for both end
users and current and future IMLS grantees. It went public in February
2005 at Web-Wise. Since then, the registry has received media
attention in several blogs, including Diglet and Librarian in Black.
It was also “Resource of the Week” recently on the blog Resource Shelf.
This publicity has brought attention to NLG project collections through
the Collection Registry, and including your project will help a broader
audience become aware of your project’s collection.
The introduction to the survey provides more detail about why we are
requesting the information and how data collected will be used and
safeguarded. Your participation in the survey is completely voluntary,
and you should feel free to leave blank any questions you do not wish
to answer. You may also contact the University of Illinois
Institutional Review Board (IRB) office (email: [email protected], voice:
217.333.2670) for information about your rights in University of
Illinois approved research.
You are welcome to call IRB collect if you identify yourself as a
research participant.
For more information about our project, including the text of our grant
proposal, please see our website at
http://imlsdcc.grainger.uiuc.edu. If
you have questions, don_' hesitate to contact our project coordinator,
Amy Jackson (e-mail: [email protected], voice: 217-244-7809).

Again, you can access the survey here:
http://imlsdcc.grainger.uiuc.
edu/survey/.
We estimate total time for completing the survey will be approximately
30 minutes. Thank you for participating in this important effort!

Sincerely,

Timothy W. Cole
Professor of Library Administration
Principal Investigator, IMLS Digital Collections and Content Project
Amy Jackson
Project Coordinator, IMLS Digital Collections and Content Project

OMB NO. 3137-0051, EXPIRATION DATE: 09/30/2006
IMLS Digital Collections and Content Project
Survey

Email Cover Letter for

P.S. You have been contacted because you are listed as the Principal
Investigator on this grant project. If you are no longer in this
position,
or there is someone else you think would be a more appropriate contact,
please let us know.

Survey 1: NLG Project and Collection Information
What is your name?

Part A: Basic Information About Grant Proposal
We would like to have the most up to date information about your National Leadership
Grant project. Information shown below is taken from your original grant proposal and/or
your project web site. Please verify or fill in information about your project and correct
any out of date or incorrect information.
1. What is the name of the grant project?

2. What is the name of the institution responsible for administering the grant?

3. What is the top level URL for the grant project?

3a. Is there an additional URL which provides descriptive information about your project
and/or your digital collection?

4. Who is the current contact person for the grant project?

5. His/Her email address?

Proceed to Part B
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© 2004 IMLS DCC. Last updated on 11/30/06 4:05p
Hosted by Grainger Engineering Library and Information Center .
OMB NO. 3137-0051, EXPIRATION DATE: 09/30/2006

Part B: Information about Digital Collection and Content
In this section we are gathering some basic information to include in the collection
registry, a database of collections of digital content created through National Leadership
Grants. This information will be used to create a brief record(s) describing your project's
collection. We will contact you to verify and provide more detailed information about
your collection before the collection registry is made publicly accessible.
6. By what name should the overall collection created by your NLG project be known?

7. Is this collection divided into sub-collections (for example, type of material or subject
area)?
Yes
No (please skip to question 9)
8a If you answered yes to question 7, what is the organization of these sub-collections
based on? (Please check all that apply)
Topic Area
Type of material
Administrative unit (for example, the owning institution)
Other (Please explain):

8b. How many sub-collections are within your overall collection?

9. What topic area(s) are covered by the collection of digital content?

10. What type(s) of material have been digitized or created digitally? (check all that
apply)
Image
Text
Sound
Interactive Resource (resouces that require interaction from the user in order to be
understood, executed or experienced)
Moving Image
Other (Please explain):

11. Who is the primary audience(s) for the collection of digitized content? (check all that
apply):
General Public
Elementary School Students
Middle School Students
High School Students
K-12 Educational Community (Teachers, Adminstrators)
Undergraduate Students
Scholars/Researchers/Graduate Students
Scientists
Staff at Institution / Peers
Other (Please specify, and separate multiple audiences with semicolons):

12 Is access to your collection limited to a specific group(s) of users?
Yes If so, which group of users?
No
13. Was any digital content in collection developed prior to the NLG award?

Yes
No
14. Has/will digital content be added to collection after the completion of the grant
period?
Yes
No
15. Are there other online information resources at your institution or elsewhere that
might be useful in conjunction with your collection? If so, please name.

Do you have any additional information or comments on this section of the survey?

Proceed to Part C
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© 2004 IMLS DCC. Last updated on 11/30/06 4:05p
Hosted by Grainger Engineering Library and Information Center .
OMB NO. 3137-0051, EXPIRATION DATE: 09/30/2006

Part C: What Technologies Does Your Project Use?
We are collecting information about how your digitized content and descriptive metadata
is stored and structured. This information will help us assess the range of options for
sharing metadata and assist future National Leadership Grantees. Providing this
information in no way obligates you to provide item level metadata to the IMLS DCC
project.
16 What is the operating system on the server where digitized content is stored?
Windows NT / 2000 / XP
Linux
Other Unix system
Other (Please specify):
17. What web server system is your project using?
Windows Internet Information Server (IIS)
Apache / Tomcat
Other (Please specify):
18. Is your project tracking usage of your digital collection through transaction log data?
Yes
No
19. Is your project creating and maintaining descriptive metadata in digital form for
individual digitized items or groups of items within your collection? If no, please skip to
question 23.
Yes
No Please skip to question 23.
20. What schema(s) is(are) used for the item level descriptive metadata? (check all that
apply)
MARC

Dublin Core (simple or qualified)
TEI Header
VRA Core (Visual Resource Assoc Core)
Encoded Archival Description (EAD)
MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema)
Locally developed metadata schema
Other standard metadata schema (please specify):

21. How is the item level descriptive metadata stored? (check all that apply):
MS Access
Filemaker Pro
FoxPro
XML files
HTML meta tags
MySQL / SQL Server
Digital Library Management System (e.g. Content DM). Please specify:

Museum Collection Management System (e.g. Argus). Please specify:

Library Management System (e.g. Voyager). Please specify:

Other (please specify):

22. In this question we are interested in knowing what controlled vocabularies and/or
authority controls are in place for your item level descriptive metadata. In the able below
there are two columns. The left column is for the metadata element (such as ubject) or

value (such as personal name). The right column is for the controlled vocabulary (such as
the Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)) and/or authority control (such as the LC
Name Authority File).
What standard controlled vocabularies and/or authority controls are in place for your item
level descriptive metadata? Please specify the metadata element or value and the
associated vocabulary or authority control.
Metadata Element
or Value

Controlled Vocabularies / Authority Controls

Subject
Type of Material
Format of Material
Personal Names
Geographic Names
Other (Please
specify:)
Other (Please
specify:)
Other (Please
specify:)
Other (Please
specify:)
Other (Please
specify:)

23. What exposure to or experience -- if any -- with the Open Archives Initiative
Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) has your project had? (check all that
apply)
No exposure to OAI-PMH
Have read or heard presentations about OAI-PMH
Institution has plans to implement OAI-PMH

In use at institution (not for NLG project)
NLG project has plans to implement OAI-PMH
In use for NLG project
Other. Please explain:

Please add any additional information or comments on this section of the survey:

Submit Form
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© 2004 IMLS DCC. Last updated on 12/01/06 12:20p
Hosted by Grainger Engineering Library and Information Center .
OMB NO. 3137-0051, EXPIRATION DATE: 09/30/2006