Creating and Describing Collections of Digital Resources

SLU ID 20-002 | RERUM Collection Management System

Background

It is currently possible to generate ad hoc collections of digital resources using site-specific carts (bookbags), browser extensions, or snipping tools. However, these methods have several shortcomings. Most do not allow the creation of digital resources for non-digital or undigitized objects. Some do not have native interoperability and must heavily rely on plug-ins that obscure the data and its provenance. In many cases, these solutions do not maintain detailed version histories and their implementation is not simple.

Overview

Researchers at Saint Louis University have developed a platform for creating and describing collections of digital resources (e.g., collections of books, archives of thematically related objects, families of manuscripts, etc.) that maintains the original ownership of distributed documents and resources while correctly encoding annotations and references and allows for reuse.

Benefits

The potential benefits of this technology include:

• Larger support and plugin community over existing technology and will grow as more information is added

• Stronger and more robust object mapping over existing technologies

• More additives to system are easy while using Rerum templates

• Injecting new visualizations for specific data types is easier as it functions within one user interface

Applications

Potential applications of this technology include:

• Digital humanities

• Creating and maintaining digital art collections

• Documenting corporate historical artifacts

Opportunity

Saint Louis University is seeking partners to further develop and commercialize this technology.