Slick&Simple, Safe&Awkward, and Kah-lunky!!

After dealing with Omeka this week I have enough CMS's and data curation tools under my belt to categorize. There are three categories: Slick&Simple, Safe&Awkward, and Kah-lunky!!

Kah-lunky: This term is reserved for the tools that make you wish you could go back to the hammer, spike, and stone tablet to post your information. Jhove and Harvester inspired this feeling in me. In the middle of troubleshooting (in the case of Jhove) or just plain giving up on the mess my repository was turned into (in the case of Harvester), I decided that if either of those needs to be part of my present ecosystem, I am going to have to leave that ecosystem and rejoin my amoebic brethren in the calm and brothy prehistoric sea.

Safe&Awkward: Hello Dspace! Oh...I'm sorry, did I say that too quickly? Or with too much excitement?

Slick and Simple: This would be Drupal, Eprints, and Omeka. Very impressive and fun to use. A little scary for newbies, but as I am going on my fifth CMS, I am not a newbie anymore. I'm a researcher!

Robot4583 at your service...beep beep

Cataloguing was a big concern for me in Eprints. This is because I had already entered every item in other repositories: some in Drupal, some in Dspace, a few in both. So in the interest of being consistent with those previous entries I looked into importing the metadata from those CMS's into Eprints.

In Drupal, this simply did not seem possible because I didn't use Views for my collection. It could be that if I created a view for it, I could export it, and I may try that in the future. I expect there are modules to make this all work better but when you are evaluating systems on the time span that I am, you don't necessarily ever reach this step.

In Dspace I was able to export my collection to a zipped folder, but I couldn't get the hand of batch importing into Eprints if that is even possible. (It should be.) So instead I manually uploaded all 4 or 5 files (including one classified as "other" and therefore requiring a description, which I made DspaceBundleDescription for each) from each dspace item from that bulk export, then manually added title (copied and pasted from dublin core xml doc), abstract, creators, and status. All this me from having to enter details. I also started adding keywords (listed as subject in the Dspace-exported dublin _ore xml doc). And I selected Plain Text for format for the DspaceBundleDescription "Other" doc for each item, and also selected "Additional Metadata" for the dublin core xml docs.

Nonetheless I still had to then detail the record, adding at the very least: Title, Creators, and Status (I selected Submitted). All then had to be approved by me.

Eprints gave me many areas where I had to repeat identical metadata in this collection and this definitely led to human error. I minimized this as best I could by opening the Dspace-exported dublin_core.xml doc for each record and pasting from it and also constantly referencing it as I described the item in Eprints. But this felt like it should be unnecessary, and was certainly less foolproof than a computerized entry system.

One day, they'll sort out repositories so that humans only have to do what humans are good at: enter new concepts. For now, though, this is Robot4583, signing off.

What is this repository about again?

Well my installation of a third CMS and the creation of my 8th or 9th repository is complete...and I am beginning to feel a little weary of puppet resources.

I did enjoy this installation, however. So many defaults accepted! I am normal! My configuration has been anticipated and all but arranged!

Interesting that you have to go to the CLI monitor to make design changes. It seems like it shouldn't be that way, and yet, it makes the line between the designer and the content manager very clear, especially when the content is entirely distinct from the design, as is the case with many repositories. The user interface is better organized than Dspace, whose creators seem to have never heard of tab menus, and less confusing than Drupal, whose creators got a little too high on menus. And the continued expectation of communion with the command line puts everyone in their place, which seems more attractive as I work with users who expect a mile when given an inch in design options.

So it's more attractive and belled-and-whistled than Dspace yet simpler than Drupal. Not incredibly modular, but easy to introduce without a tutorial. Overall I may like Eprints better than Drupal or Dspace for a few collections I am working on, which makes me see how important it is to evaluate before you launch. You can't very well change the delivery vehicle when the resources are already on the train!