ADT Technical Committee Meeting

Tuesday7 February 2006

13.00-17.00

Baillieu Library, MelbourneUniversity

Minutes

Attendance: Tony Cargnelutti [Chair, Minutes] (UNSW), Peter Green[ADT-ARIIC Technical Consultant] (CurtinU),Vicki Roberts (CQU), Tony Boston (NLA), JamesBrunskill (UWaikato). In attendance for Item 1: Andrew Wells

Apologies: Shahid Gul (UniSA), Peter Kennedy (UCanterbury), Fred Piper (UNSW), Mark Huppert (ANU), Heather Todd (UQ).

  1. Welcome/Introductions:
  2. Tony welcomed everybody to a new chapter in the ongoing development of the ADT Program. Tony announced that Fred Piper, ADT Technical Manager, had left UNSW on 31 January
  3. Andrew Wells also welcomed everybody; announced that Tony Cargnelutti would be leaving UNSW on 17 February, and as a consequence leaving the ADT Program. Andrew and other members of the committee acknowledged the long standing efforts of the ADT team at UNSW – from the original concept, to developing and supporting the program to what it is now
  4. With all UNSW staff associated with the Program leaving, Peter Green, and others expressed concernas to the immediate and ongoing continuity, support and development of the Program. Andrew Wells affirmed UNSW’s commitment to the Program and assured the committee that ongoing stewardship and all required technical support would continue, that Howard Amos, UNSW Library Director of Information Technology would ensure the expected support would be in place
  5. Tony asked all past and new committee members to introduce themselves, and for new members to provide brief bios to be included in the minutes. See end of minutes
  1. Minutes of Previous Meeting:
  2. Tony asked everyone to read brief description of the new ADT Program Database [tabled, see Appendix 3] before dealing with the details of the previous meeting export
  3. Minutes of the previous meeting accepted. It was agreed that outstanding action items from the minutes, Item 3 – Review of Technical Specifications document, be transferred to a new work list document [see Appendix 1], and that this new document provide the core technical work for the next 12 months
  1. Review of ADT-ARIIC Expanded & Redevelopment Project:
  2. Tony tabled an outstanding ADT-ARIIC Project worklist [see Appendix 2]. Most of the few outstanding items were due to the wind up of DSTC in late 2005. Tony and Peter recommended thatthe agreed items on this list should be added to the new work list
  3. Tony reported that the new expanded ADT Program Database had gone into production and replaced the now old site at 12.00noon Monday 6 February. The version of MetaSuite used for production was v.6.0Gold, and this would be replaced in due course by the latest version, now MetaSuite v.6.0.3 after final testing at UNSW
  4. Tony and Peter went through all outstanding specifications plus new items of works, and with agreement from the committee, added them to the new work list in Appendix 1
  5. Tony reported that the project had gone very well and was a success. The project has built on the existing ADT Program to provide a comprehensive metadata repository of all Australian PhD and Masters [Research] theses. The repository is a unique service and provides high valued outcomes to the Australian research community, and beyond
  6. Tony was also pleased to announce the first New Zealand theses being added to the Program courtesy of the University of Waikato. There was discussion on whether NZ would also be adding the National Library’s Te Puna records. James Brunskill will follow up on this and report back to the next meeting
  7. It was decided that only active sites be included on ADT website-search interface irrespective of ANBD records being there
  8. Tony took the opportunity to acknowledge the very good work of ADT-ARIIC Project Team – Peter Green, Fred Piper and Fiona Bathgate. He also acknowledged the critical technical and data work by Tim Hespe and Mallika Tin-Loi, both from UNSW, in ensuring the success of the expanded database
  1. Report on ADT-ARIICProQuestTrial:
  2. Tony tabled a separate report on this trial. The report is available on the ADT Program site from the News & Projects link: Despite the difficulty in developing a workable model based on the original grant proposal the trial was very successful. It provided good opportunity for both institutions and ProQuest to test a range of processes and operational issues, with ProQuest being able to considerably modify its Digital Commons application to suit Australasian requirements
  1. Formal wind up of the ADT-ARIIC Project:
  2. Tony announced the formal wind up of the Project as of this meeting. There are 2 outstanding items to be finalised – the Escrow Agreement, and final software payment for MetaSuite v.6.0.3. These will be put in place as soon as possible. However this is dependent on circumstances beyond the control of the ADT Project Team due to wind up of DSTC, the software vendor, at end of 2005
  3. Tony will put together a final report on the Project for DEST by 17 February
  1. Discussion/Issues/Planning for the new ADT Technical Committee:
  2. Discussion and concern again turned to continuity, stewardship, support and development of the Program.
  3. Tony recommended that Peter Green take over as chair of the Technical Committee as of end of the meeting for next 2 years. Michael Woodseconded. The vote was unanimous. Congratulations to Pete. All members agreed that this would ensurethe necessary continuity, main advocacy and representation on behalf of the ADT. Tony also recommended that Peter take his place on the NDLTD Board and as Chair of the NDLTD Membership Committee. Agreement was unanimous. Tony to contact Ed Fox, Director of the NDLTD. Tony also recommended that Peter attend ETD2006, particularly in his new role – the ADT is seen as a key innovative program within the international community and it is important that attendance and involvement continues
  4. Future meetings – it was agreed that the face-to-face meetings continue once per year, around VALA and Online, and that 2 scheduled additional teleconferences be held
  1. Other Business:
  2. Michael Wood alerted the committee that the copyright issue had flared up again. An issue that continues to come and go, often fuelled by misinformation, confusion and ignorance of facts. It was agreed that Peter follow on Derek Whitehead’s offer to provide additional written advice to go onto the site as soon as possible
  3. Tony thanked everyone again and sees this new committee charged with taking the ADT Program to its next stage of evolution, and that an exciting and rewardingfuture is ahead

Meeting closed at 16.30

Next meeting: April 7 2006 – to be confirmed / Diane Costello to be consulted

ADT Technical Committee Members 2006-2007:

  • Tony Cargnelutti, UNSW (outgoing ADT Program Manager, Chair)
  • Peter Green, CurtinUniversity of Technology, Chair
  • ADT Program Manager, UNSW (vacant, TBA)
  • ADT Technical Support, UNSW (vacant, TBA)
  • Shahid Gul, University of South Australia
  • Vicki Roberts, CentralQueenslandUniversity
  • Michael Wood, DeakinUniversity
  • Deidre Lowe, University of Southern Queensland
  • Tony Boston, National Library of Australia
  • James Brunskill, WaikatoUniversity, NZ; graduated from same university with is BSc (Computer Science) at the end of 2003. He worked as a computer consultant for a local computer consultancy firm, and with ATC Training Centres before moving to the University of Waikato Library in Oct 2004. Since Sept 05 James has been employed as the library’s systems consultant and during that time has accomplished the installation and launch of the Australasian Digital Theses Program at Waikato ( and the successful migration of Waikato’s Bibliographic collections to Endeavor's Encompass software (
  • Peter Kennedy, University of Canterbury, NZ; has an LLb and a BSc (Chem) from the University of Canterbury and a DipLibr from Victoria University of Wellington. His Library career began in 1990 in the Law Library at the University of Canterbury. After 4 years there and 2 years as a Reference Librarian in the UC Central Library, Peter moved into the IT side of Librarianship and became the Assistant Manager of the Library's IT Department – where he remains today. Peter's role ranges from staff education through to project management and he has been responsible for the technical aspects of the Library's move into digitization and, in particular, the collection of digital theses.

Appendix 1

ADT Program: Technical Committee Work list 2006-2007

Item & Comments / Action / Date
1. Move MetaSuite v.6.0.3 into production.
Dependent on final testing. / UNSW & ADT-TC
2. Unique ID for OAI harvesting purposes
Possible use of the ANBD immutable and ADT URI.
Look at embedding ADT or ANBD as new metadata elements to ensure identity of the source.
3. Deletion of ADT only records for re-gathering/refreshing purposes.
This is due to the mix of ANBD records and ADT gathered records. ADT records are usually re-gathered daily to ensure links and currency whereas the AND records are static and only change with quarterly imports.
4. Manage logins / forgotten passwords.
This functionality available with MetaSuite v.6.0.3.
5. NBD records – quality control by local institutions & matching purposes.
Local institutions to be asked to review their ANBD records to ensure accuracy and consistency – changes to the records would come through the quarterly updates and replace existing records.
6. Link checker and data issues – individual institutions to provide consistent URIs.
It is expected that institutions manage and ensure relatively stable URIs. ADT central at UNSW have to be informed of local changes to directory structures if it compromises the harvesting process.
Local institutions to feedback on own views of ANBD + ADT datasets and feedback.
7. Full view of MetaSuite v.6.0.3 to be made available for all local institutional administrators. To be done when version is in production.
8. Reports.
UNSW to provide details of standard reports available. ADT-TC to advise if additional reports required.
9. Theses type display.
Sites using original ADT Software need to make change to PERL scripts to display. UNSW to provide example of the revised script.
New display decision based on revised ADT Metadata Schema / .
10. The central metadata repository must be able to harvest metadata from the ADT participant universities using the current ADT harvesting protocol.
11. To manage character encoding to facilitate display and search, and to be Unicode compliant.
12. Limit, combine or refine searches (e.g. by type of record, date, institution)
13.Be able to harvest thesis metadata from OAI-PMH compliant repositories (i.e. perform the role of a Service Provider) using OAI-PMH selective harvesting based on Set Membership where available, and post-filtering where Set Membership is not available. CQU to do initial testing and describe how it works.
The ADT Program database must allow its metadata to be harvested using the OAI-PMH (i.e. perform the role of a Data Provider) including harvesting based on Set Membership. Test and prove this works, and describe how it work. NLA, to do initial testing.
14. Provide SDI mechanisms for alerting users about new records (e.g. enable users to subscribe to an email alerting service, create an RSS feed, etc).
Available in limited form, need to write a cron job to automate service.
15. Provide search and retrieval services to other repositories and search engines via SRU interface.
Need to write specifications to trial with MetaLib. CQU to do this.
16. Provide OpenURL capabilities. Drop for moment – keep a watching brief on developments. Take up if appropriate.
17. Allow ADT Program metadata to be harvested by search engine robots – e.g.Scirus, Google Scholar, etc. Needs testing and specs written up for Scirus & Google.
18. Hyperlink URLs when they are contained in records.
Need PHP fix for this.
19. Review ANBD updates to ensure working as expected.
20. Build a new FAQ about all relevant processes to augment or replace original FAQ.
Look at developing an efficient process to revise all content and information about the ADT.
21. Issues for ongoing discussion:
  • Specify migration path from existing ADT software to new applications
  • Publish list of local applications supported by ADT Program – e.g. ARROW, DigitalCommons, ePrints, etc
  • Self submission vs. Mediated submission – publish information on the website/FAQ
  • Review locking of PDFs standard
  • Preservation issues – NLA to provide ongoing advice on way forward
  • Theses in Progress. Work with DDOGS to see if this is feasible

Tony Cargnelutti

ADT Program Manager

February 2006

Appendix 2

ADT-ARIIC Project – Work list for Discussion/Resolution – Feb 2006

Issue / Action / Date
1. Unique ID for OAI harvesting purposes / DSTC/UNSW to finalise. FP/TH & Stephen Crawley. Possible use of the ABN immutable and ADT URI / 31 Dec05
Status: not completed due to issues with DSTC and lack of technical support.
2. Deletion of ADT only records for re-gathering/refreshing purposes / DSTC/UNSW
FP/Stephen Crawley / 31 Dec05
Status: not completed due to issues with DSTC and lack of technical support.
3. Manage logins / forgotten passwords / will need extra work from DSTC / Functionality available in MetaSuite v.6.0.1Gold / except Forgotten Passwords. TC to follow up with DSTC / 30 Nov05
Status: not completed due to issues with DSTC and lack of technical support. MetaSuite v.6.0.1 not installed and have gone directly to v.6.0.2. Being installed and tested Feb06. Move to production when appropriate.
4. NBD records – quality control by local institutions & matching purposes / FP to finalise testing of updates from NBD
TC to communicate with CAUL members regarding matching NBD & ADT records / 31 Dec05
Initiate process Dec05
Status: updates tested and all integrated. Outstanding issue is for all members to update/edit URI’s so NBD and ADT are the one and the same URI. To be done.
5. Link checker – individual institutions to provide consistent URIs / It is expected that institutions manage and ensure relatively stable URIs. ADT central at UNSW have to be informed of local changes to directory structures if it compromises the harvesting process.
TC to follow up / Ongoing
6. Full view of MetaSuite v.6.0 Gold for institutional administrators. This is now replaced by final version v.6.0.1Gold / FP to arrange as soon as version final version is available – then fully installed and tested / 31 Dec05
Status: this still to be done. Should be v.6.0.2 when in production
7. Reports – types required / ADT Project Team have decided to use standard reports to start with. FP to inform / TC to arrange wish list. For future consideration depending on future of DSTC and MetaSuite / Ongoing
8. Theses type display – for original ADT sites
New display decision based on revised ADT Metadata Schema / TC / FP to send out examples on how to modify original ADT Software for this purpose. / Jan06
Status: not completed and will be done by UNSW technical support by end of Feb06

Tony Cargnelutti

Sept05 / Revised Nov05 / Revised Feb06

Appendix 3

Australasian Digital Theses Program Database

A comprehensive metadata repository of Australian PhD and Masters [research] theses. To be augmented over time by New Zealand theses.

  • Access to 150,000 Australian PhD and Masters [research] theses
  • over 5,000 available full-text online
  • link directly to home institutions for access to non-digitised theses
  • unrestricted open access serving the national and international research community

Key enhancements:

  • expanded to approximately 150,000 records[1]
  • Quarterly updates grantee continued expansion and currency
  • records are supplied by the NBD and the ADT Program to ensure more complete coverage
  • improved search, display, store, export and print functionality; including browse, refining and alerts
  • improved management and reporting tools
  • all records point to the full-text or link to the home institution for direct access to non-digitised theses
  • fully OAI-PMH compliant [data provider, service provider, resumption tokens]
  • search and retrieve services to other repositories via SRU protocol
  • data upload function from the NBD

approximately 2% of records are inaccurate due to data quality; it is not possible to eliminate these at this stage as it would involve deleting valid records; there are a certain % of duplicate records as well

*some relevant records are not in the repository as they have never been supplied to the National Bibliographic Database [NBD] of the National Library of Australia [NLA]; capturing these is the long term plan

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ADT Technical Committee – 6 February 2006 - Minutes