auroraDL is an OpenSource, multiscript, standards-oriented, data-driven and modularized metadata creation, searching, display, digital library and work tool project.
The project has several goals: to make available an easy-to-maintain, complete, and expandable digital assets management tool for creating XML and SQL records; to provide end-users with options for their retrieval displays and to enable them to annotate and otherwise use the digital collections more effectively and more efficiently in their work, ultimately to change the dynamics and relationships of people, data, and system designers.
The search engine use MySQL and is not terrifically sophisticated at this point. There is a full-text engine for searching private and public notes created by users. Researchers and designers can download the source code and manipulate as they wish. Kindly inform the project of your ideas, concerns, bugs, and benefits on the wiki that will be posted here.
This is the pre-release version, used for discussions at the Boston Public Library, Simmons College, and University of California-Davis History Project. Constructive comments, wish-list of ineractions, and observations are welcome.
Send ‘em here.
auroraDL uses VRA Core 4.0, supports local needs XML, end-user enrichment of records, several types of end-user retrieval visualization and interactive interfaces to publish collections directly for classroom websites or .pdfs. See the retrieval set display options (html)
and output templates (html) here.
Users can design their own schema and data structures and integrate them into Aurora's existing structure. The technical manual describes how.
Note that this release has some features disabled to encourage end-users to learn about the program in test mode. The fully active program will be released in late November, 2008.
You will need J/Connection installed on your computer.
Source code, user and technical documentation, systems analysis and other documents are released in parts:
- Aurora metadata record creation application. Download the zipped folder and unzip. Navigate to the folder
and double-click on Aurora.jar. See the ReadMe.txt file for more info.
- aurora.jar
- resource files and folders
- User and technical documentation
- Search interfaces
- Search across languages, single terms or phrases. This part is still in development.
- Search the current growing collection by keywords and select your own display interface (html);
or build a search from various fields (html).
- A stand-alone application for preprocessing and postprocessing of records - drag-and-drop, annotate, and create websites and .pdf files for brochures, class websites, and so on. This is still under development.
- Build-a-collection tool: a collection builder tool to build a digital collection on-the-fly and edit as you wish will be posted here shortly.
- Create your own educational materials that link to the resources in Aurora and to your library's collection.
This utility offers review or self-grading options and automatically creates remedial readings for students.
Mostly complete, but still in development.
Collaborations are welcome- Search engine models
- HCI
- Integration of DLs in education
Thanks to collaborators Martha Mahard (Simmons) for testing VRA Core application,
Tom Blake (BPL - Digital Imaging Lab) for providing tens of thousands of highest quality images, and others.
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Requirements:- Apache Tomcat
- MySQL version 5
- Java Runtime Environment (for end-users)
- Java 1.5 (for developers
- Connector/J 5.1.6 [included in the download]
- The AuroraDL Project folder [updated release 1.1b, Dec 04, 08] (zipped)
This update parses subject tracings for single works, uses .jpg for image and thumbnail defaults.
Multilingual Support:
-
All resources (thesauri, screen labels, etc.,) are stored in UTF-8 text files; user annotations are stored in UTF-16.
- Follow the guideline
and translate the resources in your target language. Store them in a folder named with the ISO639-3 language
code for that language (e.g., "eng" for English) and the program is ready to go.
Some features:- Automatic thumbnail creation
- Automatic determination of original (jpeg) and thumbnail dimensions
- Create metadata records for any number of images (literally thousands) in a single folder with a single command
- Flexible search features
Collection Builder Tools:
To make the contents of the collection more useful and tailored to individual needs,
search results can be fed to
- Collection builder webform (link) that uses templates and options to create an entire website
- Lightbox to select your images, annotate them at the individual, group, and collection level
- Output to web site or as .pdf
Notes:
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Please read the updated version of the user and technical manuals for version 1.1b. (to be released Dec 15, 2008)
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