An integrated framework for discovering digital library collections

Information seekers are generally on their own to discover and use a research library’s growing array of digital col- lections, and coordination of these collections’ development and maintenance is often not optimal. The frequent lack of a con- scious design for how collections fit together is of equal concern because it means that research libraries are not making the most of the substantial investments they are making in digital initiatives. This paper proposes a framework for a research library’s digital collections that offers integrated discovery and a set of best practices to underpin collection building, federated access, and sus- tainability. The framework’s purpose is to give information seekers a powerful and easy way to search across existing and future collections and to retrieve integrated sets of results. The paper and its recommendations are based upon research undertaken by the author and a team of librarians and technologists at Cornell University Library. The team conducted structured interviews of forty-five library staff members involved in digital collection building at Cornell, studied an inventory of the library’s more than fifty digital collections, and evaluated seven existing Open Archives Initiative (OAI) and federated search production or prototype systems. The author will discuss her team’s research and the rationale for their recommendations to: present a cohesive view of the library’s digital collections for both browsing and searching at the object level; take a programmatic (rather than project-based) approach to digital collection building; require that all new digital collections conform to library-developed and agreed-upon OAI best practices for data providers; and implement organizational structures to sustain the library’s digital collections over the long term.

OBIA:An Open Biomedical Imaging Archive

With the development of artificial intelligence(AI)technologies,biomedical imaging data play an important role in scientific research and clinical application,but the available resources are limited.Here we present Open Biomedical Imaging Archive(OBIA),a repository for archiving biomedical imaging and related clinical data.OBIA adopts five data objects(Collection,Individual,Study,Series,and Image)for data organization,and accepts the submission of biomedical images of multiple modalities,organs,and diseases.In order to protect personal privacy,OBIA has formulated a unified de-identification and quality control process.In addition,OBIA provides friendly and intuitive web interfaces for data submission,browsing,and retrieval,as well as image retrieval.As of September 2023,OBIA has housed data for a total of 937 individuals,4136 studies,24,701 series,and 1,938,309 images covering 9 modalities and 30 anatomical sites.Collectively,OBIA provides a reliable platform for biomedical imaging data management and offers free open access to all publicly available data to support research activities throughout the world.OBIA can be accessed at https://ngdc.cncb.ac.cn/obia.

The Way to Open Access-French Strategies to Move Forward

In France, the movement in favour of open access to scientific research output is getting increasingly coordinated and supported at the political level. The CNRS, a leading research organization in Europe and signatory of the Berlin Declaration, has an evident strategic role to play in this development. Various initiatives that have emerged in the French academic world in recent years have led, for example, in early 2005 to the joint announcement, by four major research institutions, of a common policy to promote open access to published material and other types of digital resources, and to set up institutional archives. The article highlights some key issues of this policy, gives an overview of the current and past CNRS involvement in open access and describes the principal functions, as well as the related challenges, of the future institutional repositories.