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Developing a Quality Culture
For Digital Library Programmes
Author & Presenter
Brian Kelly
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
Co-Authors
Marieke Guy
UKOLN
Hamish James
AHDS
Email: [email protected]
URL: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/>
UKOLN is supported by:
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Contents
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Background
The QA Focus Project
Work to date
Future Activities
Links with the Wider Community
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Background
In many digital library programmes there has been a
philosophy based on use of open standards to:
• Avoid application lock-in and platform dependencies
• Minimise migration costs
• Provide long-term access to scholarly resources
But:
• Little policing of compliance with open standards
• Adoption of "let a thousand flowers bloom"
This approach:
• Probably sensible approach in mid 1990s (Gopher?)
• Not desirable now:
 Web is the killer application; XML is killer format
 Need to maximise access; support M2M apps; ...
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QA Focus
JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) has
funded QA Focus project to:
• Support its Information Environment digital library
programmes
• To development a QA (quality assurance)
methodology which can be applied to future
programmes
QA Focus:
• Provided by UKOLN and AHDS
• Project manager is Brian Kelly; team members are
Marieke Guy (both UKOLN) and Hamish James
and Gareth Knight (AHDS)
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Developmental Culture
Possible approaches towards QA and compliance with
standards:
• Policing approach
• Developmental approach
QA Focus takes a developmental approach:
• Explains reasons for standards & best practices
• Provides lightweight methodology for supporting
use of standards and best practices
• Encourages community to share its approaches
• Seeks to encourages uptake of its methodology
within institutions as well as by projects
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QA Focus Methodology
The developmental approach being taken includes:
• Surveying community to identify areas of best
practices & in which improvements can be made
• Providing advice in appropriate areas
• Commissioning cases studies which describe the
approaches projects have taken in complying with
standards and best practices
• Documenting tools and architectures for:
 Implementing standards & best practices
 Monitoring compliance
• Providing examples of policies
• Advising funders on approaches for future
programmes
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Areas
QA Focus is addressed the following areas:
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Web
Digitisation
Metadata
Software development
Service deployment
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Surveying the Community
Initial set of findings available from
<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/surveys/web-10-2002/>
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Documentation: Advice
Advisory briefing
documents are being
produced
These are:
• Brief, focussed
documents
• Informed by
findings of the
surveys
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Documentation: Case Studies
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Case Studies are
being commissioned
These are:
• Written by
projects
themselves
• Describe the
solution adopted
to a particular
problem
• Include details of
lessons learnt –
not just a press
release!
Self Assessment Toolkit
Further Deliverables
We are developing a self-assessment toolkit
The toolkit will consist of:
• Examples of
QA procedures
• Documented examples
of use of testing tools
• Self-assessment
questionnaires
• Advice on standards
and best practices
• Case studies
• FAQs
• …
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Promoting Use Of ComplianceChecking Tools
As an example of approach
which provides easier access
to testing tools, see the
,tools approach deployed
on UKOLN Web site.
This approach:
• Applies to all resources on
Web site
• Covers HTML and CSS
validation and various
other tests
• Some recursive apps
(,rvalidate)
• Easily implemented with
single line redirect
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Policies
How do you know what you should do if you don't
have documented polices?
Policy example
Policy: Web Standards
Standard: XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.0
Architecture: Use of SSIs and text editor
Exceptions: Automatically-derived files
Checking: Use ,validate after update
Audit Trail: Use ,rvalidate monthly and
document findings
You may find it useful to develop similar policies
yourself – for example, a policy of the accessibility of
your Web site
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Next Work Areas (1)
Metadata
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Is the metadata format syntactically correct?
Do cataloguing rules exist?
Does the metadata comply with cataloguing rules?
Have default values been left?
Does the project have an appropriate architecture
for creating and managing metadata?
• What mechanisms are in place for checking
metadata?
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Next Work Areas (2)
Software Development
• What is the purpose of the software?
• What documentation exists?
• Does the output from the software comply with
appropriate standards?
• How will the software deliverable be deployed?
• What steps have been taken to ensure that the
software can be easily deployed in the delivery
environment?
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Next Work Areas (3)
Service Deployment
• Where will the project deliverables be deployed in
a service environment?
• What steps have been taken to ensure that the
service delivery environment matches the
development environment?
• What legal, IPR, … issues are there in moving
from a project to a service environment?
• What funding issues may there be in deploying
the project deliverables?
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The QA Focus Methodology
The QA Focus methodology we will be recommending:
• Projects should provide policies which document
standards they will use, the architecture used to
implement the standards and the approach to
checking compliance
• Advice should be provided which explains the
standards, approaches to checking compliance
and implementation architectures
• Case studies should be provided which describe
examples of implementation
• Projects should make use of a self-assessment
toolkit to validate their QA procedures
• This methodology should be embedded in
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Working With The Wider Community
We feel the methodology we propose:
• Is lightweight and easy-to-understand
• Can benefit a wide range of communities, and
not just project developers in the IE programme
We also feel:
• Our approach will benefit by working with the
wider community
We therefore:
• Are making our resources freely available
• Welcome contributions from the wider community
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Conclusions
To conclude:
• There is a clear need for QA in order to
 Develop interoperable digital library services
 Obtain value-for-money from investment from
public funds
• QA needs to be addressed from the start of project
work
• QA therefore needs to form part of contractual
agreements between project developers & funders
• The QA Focus methodology provides an approach
to supporting QA in digital library programmes
• We welcome feedback and the opportunity to talk
with possible collaborators
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