Flexible Design for Simple Digital Library Tools and Services

The design of Digital Library Systems (DLSes) has evolved over time, both in sophistication and complexity, to complement the complex nature and sheer size of digital content being curated. However, there is also a growing demand from content curators, with relatively small-size collections, for simpler and more manageable tools and services for managing content. The reasons for this particular need are driven by the assumption that simplicity and manageability might ultimately translate to lower costs of maintenance of such systems. This paper builds on previous work in order to assess the flexible nature of the proposed design approach ---the explicit adoption of a minimalistic approach to the overall design of DLSes. A two-axis evaluation strategy was used to assess this proposed solution: a developer-oriented survey assessed the flexibility and simplicity; and a series of performance benchmarks were conducted to assess the scalability. In general, the study outlined some possible implications of simplifying DLS design; specifically the results from the developer-oriented user study indicate that simplicity in the design of the DLS repository sub-layer does not severely impact the interaction between the service sub-layer and the repository sub-layer. Furthermore, the scalability experiments indicate that desirable performance results for small- and medium-sized collections are attainable

Reflections on Design Principles for a Digital Repository in a Low Resource Environment

Low resource environments are characterised by a lack of technical skills, facilities and funding. In such environments, building digital repositories of historical and heritage collections is particularly dicult, exacerbated by the desperate need for digital preservation. This paper analyses design principles for digital repositories and their suitability for low-resource environments. A case study is presented to illustrate how adopting the positive principles in support of low-resource environments can support the creation of a heritage-oriented digital repository appropriate to its environment