[Dspace-general]

[Roy Tennant]

Although we are not a DSpace site, we have the same issue with batch 
uploading. If your data isn't already in a database, what do you do? To 
try to address that, we created a way that someone could fill out an 
Excel spreadsheet according to certain specifications, then we wrote a 
Perl program to parse that into the XML format we required. That at 
least allows someone with no technical background to be able to use 
batch uploading. They send us the spreadsheet, we parse it, send them 
back the file, and they upload it. The problem is that this process 
still impacts our staff, so we haven't pushed it very hard. But this 
may at least be a method to consider if the alternative is filling in 
multiple successive web forms, which will almost certainly take longer.
Roy Tennant
California Digital Library

On May 13, 2004, at 6:34 AM, Jason Simms wrote:

> Hello Everyone,
>
> From those of you who are using DSpace in any decent capacity, I would 
> like to know how you are actually tackling the process of entering 
> items into the repository.  For instance, we are in the process of 
> creating a digital collection of slides for a campus department.  The 
> process of entering the images into DSpace is laborious (not to 
> mention the workflow involved with simply digitizing and organizing 
> the physical slides in the first place), and I cannot think of any 
> time-saving methods.
>
> Everyone knows that the batch import tools have some issues of 
> usability and could be improved.  In any event, because this is not a 
> legacy digital collection, none of the images have metadata associated 
> with them, so the XML files would have to be manually created right 
> along with the directory structure for the batch import, which 
> therefore to my mind seems more time-consuming than simply entering 
> them individually through the DSpace web interface.  On this note, how 
> are people creating compliant XML files for use with the batch 
> importer, if indeed anyone is doing so?  By hand?  Specialized 
> Perl/shell tools?  Without some advanced knowledge of XML, 
> programming, UNIX commands, and related technologies, entering items 
> by this route is largely impossible, meaning that a highly competent 
> "technology" person probably must be in charge of entering the data, 
> or at least of tool creation.  Even if a useful script is built that 
> abstracts the data entering process so that anyone can do it, the end 
> result is a Perl or similar script that basically mirrors the 
> functionality of the web interface anyway.
>
> Of course, entering everything by hand through the web interface is an 
> exceptionally lengthy process, requiring several screens of clicking 
> and data entry.  Even with a fast worker, perhaps only one slide every 
> minute or so is a good time, and our collection is somewhere around 
> 8,000 images.  Without a full-time worker dedicated to only this one 
> job, the process quickly becomes almost insurmountable in any 
> reasonable timeframe.
>
> So, how are other institutions managing this troublesome process?
>
> --
> Jason Simms
> Computer Programming and Design
> University of Tennessee, Knoxville
> 865.974.8508
>
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