The OhioLINK saga

Back on October 25 I mentioned vaguely my raison d'etre for working at USC in the fall. They invested in a software called Documentum, to which they are migrating their digital archives. OhioLINK was interested in this process, as OhioLINK used Bulldog to build the Digital Media Center (DMC) and Bulldog was bought by Documentum to enable them to enter the digital/media arena.

I tracked progress at USC as they grappled with the various aspects of migration: database structure, metadata, ingest forms, search capabilities, etc. It wasn't an easy task, and I supplied reports to that effect to Anita and to Peter Murray, newly appointed but not on duty until January 2005. Peter was hired to turn the DMC into the new, expanded Digital Resource Commons or DRC. I put Peter in touch with people at USC so he could query them about Documentum.

Meantime with OhioLINK's budget growing lean, the powers-that-be researched the possibility of open access software in lieu of the very expensive Documentum software. I was hoping for DSpace, as I have a little familiarity with it. But it looks like the choice will be Fedora, developed at Cornell and University of Virginia. Needless to say this OhioLINK decision takes me in new directions. Time to learn about Fedora!