7.3.1.1 In Section 6.1.4 Practical Aspects of Data Protection Strategies, the need to address the functional categories defined in the Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System (OAIS, ISO 14721:2003) is argued. The same issues apply to both large and small scale collections as this framework is critical to the development of modular storage systems with interoperable exchange of content. The following section which deals with small scale systems adopts the major functional components of the OAIS reference model to assist in the analysis of the available software and to develop recommendations for necessary development. They are Ingest, Access, Administration, Data Management, Preservation Planning and Archival Storage.
7.3.1.2 The system described consists of some form of repository software which manages the content, at least a minimum set of metadata, as well as hardware, with some recommendations on manual approaches to manage the data’s integrity. The hardware section outlines broadly two situations under which small scale storage systems may be implemented; a single operator digitising onto a single storage device, and a situation where more than one operator requires access to the storage device. Either system assumes compliance with all other components mentioned in the Guidelines, including appropriate analogue to digital converters,adequate sound cards,digital audio workstations (DAW) and appropriate replay devices.
7.3.1.3 The following information describes systems and software that might support a small scale collection as though an institution or collection were undertaking all the tasks.It is important to recognise that the approaches described below do not have to be undertaken by one collection.It is possible to find partners and commercial providers who might support some or all of the tasks described below. It is equally important to recognise that all of these tasks form the complete preservation and archival package and must be undertaken by someone whether locally managed or distributed.
7.3.2.1 A well designed piece of repository software will support a number of the functions identified in the OAIS. There are both commercial providers of the software and open source. The advantage of commercial software is the provider is expected to make the system work, however, these commercial systems have ongoing expenses and may lock the user into proprietary systems from which it is hard to escape. Open source software’s main advantages are that it is free, and the developers adhere to open standards and frameworks which will allow the extraction of content in future upgrades. Its disadvantage is that, though open source communities are helpful, support is the responsibility of the user. It is however, possible to find commercial providers who provide a support service for the open source solutions.
7.3.2.2 Most of these repository software systems will support the tasks identified in access, administration, data management and some aspects of ingest. At the time of writing preservation planning and archival storage is generally not supported by repository software, the former being very often technology or format specific, and the latter dependant on hardware. They are discussed separately in the following sections.
7.3.2.3 Two types of open source software are briefly described, however, this software is under constant development, and the claims and comments made below should be checked against the latest developments made by the software providers. The software described are DSpace and FEDORA.
7.3.2.4 The DSpace repository platform is a very popular and widely adopted repository within the higher education and research sectors, although knowledge of its use within the museums and cultural heritage sectors is limited but growing. One of the reasons for the popularity of DSpace is that it is relatively easy to install and maintain, and has a ready made user-interface that integrates data management and access functions within the system’s architecture. DSpace has a strong international developer community that has evolved to support DSpace and new features are being added constantly.
7.3.2.5 One of the strengths of DSpace is its integrated feature set enabling institutional users to quickly establish a repository and then start adding new items to the collection. This strength,however,is also one of its major weaknesses, in that DSpace has evolved into a monolithic software application, and complex code base, that introduces potential scaling and capacity constraints for some large institutional users. This presents no problems for most small to medium scale collections, and is probably not an issue for any digital audio collection. DSpace currently uses a qualified version of the Dublin Core schema based on the Dublin Core Libraries Working Group Application Profile (LAP)
7.3.2.6 FEDORA (Flexible Extensible Digital Object and Repository Architecture) is an increasingly popular repository system that is designed as a base software architecture upon which a wide range of repository services can be built, including preservation services. Compared to the speedy adoption of DSpace, FEDORA has been slower to gain adopters because it lacks a dedicated user-interface and access service out-of-the-box. There are a number of commercial and opens source providers of web-based front-ends for FEDORA.
7.3.2.7 The main strengths of FEDORA are its flexible and scalable architecture. The experiences of institutional adopters indicate that FEDORA can scale to cope with large collections, yet is sufficiently flexible to store multiple types of digital items and their complex relationships. There are few limitations to the features that can be added to FEDORA, whilst still remaining interoperable with other software applications and systems. It can be configured to support virtually any of the metadata profiles through METS ingest capabilities. The main disadvantage of FEDORA is the high level of software engineering expertise required to contribute to its core development, and it is not readily installed and implemented “out-of-the-box” (Bradley, Lei and Blackall 2007).
7.3.2.8 Tools have been developed to migrate content from DSpace to FEDORA and visa-versa, which theoretically negates any future compatibility issues and supports sharing and other workflows (see http://www.apsr.edu.au/currentprojects/index.htm )