The University of Iowa Libraries uses an alternate model providing a number of different web servers across a number of different platforms

The library's data center, located in the main library, needed to be relocated during the evacuation. Fortunately, the library's disaster response plan was updated just four months earlier and ready to be put to the test. This paper presentation will discuss which elements of the plan were most helpful as well as lessons learned. Two important gaps in the plan were the need to identify a communications point person who could be isolated from operational responsibilities and the need to adapt to members of the disaster response team needing to leave in the middle of implementation. In particular, as the waters rose, staff members who lived on the west side of the river had to go home before the last bridge closed, and we had never anticipated choosing disaster response team personnel based on whether or not they had to cross a bridge to get home. The paper will conclude with a status update on moving to hosted servers and decommissioning the library's data center.

The panel will discuss the need for this distributed digital library and the project’s objectives, as well as some of the challenges faced. Topics will include lessons learned, best practices, and the connections between automated text mining, storytelling technologies, expert recommendations, and studies to disseminate insights for special populations and for disaster recovery.

In addition to access through the growing distributed network, the archived data will be hosted and made accessible through the Internet Archive Data Center in San Francisco. As required, metadata or data will be stored and replicated around the network, respecting security and privacy requirements for sensitive information. The project is being designed to support studies by social and behavioral scientists, scholars, and policy makers, as well as the general public.

We often receive questions about the technical side of both platforms, usually (to our dismay) from libraries who already assume they don't have the IT resources to pursue their own crowdsourcing initiatives. But we found that the software makes up only half of the recipe for success. Do you have compelling content? A long-term commitment to engaging with your users? Are you ready to promote your project far and wide? If so, then deploying a crowdsourcing initiative may be easier than you think.

Our very small development team, which consisted of a healthy mix of technologists and other stakeholders, worked closely and collaboratively on all aspects of the site. We’ll talk about customizing open-source software--how we scaled up functionality and scaled back design to improve user experience and production-level workflows--and how that process served to gently introduce collaborative software practices, such as using Git for version control, into a small, but agile, organization ready to grow. Finally, we'll share our transcription starter kit of forked Scipto and Omeka code and associated documentation for those interested in doing it themselves.