[Dspace-general] RAD compilant?

[Richard Davis]

Gord Ripley wrote:

> Our Special Collections Librarian has asked whether Dspace is RAD 
> compliant. Does it allow for 'multi-level archival description'? The 
> answer may be obvious; I haven't looked far.

Can't speak for RAD specifically, but our recent deliberations suggested 
that the DSpace hierarchy of
Community->(Sub-community*)->Collection->Item
maps convincingly to ISAD(G)'s
Series->(Sub-series*)->File->Item
(whuch structure can also be implemented in EAD).

You /may/ need to customise DSpace tables and forms considerably if you 
want to store extensive metadata at Community or Collection level, but 
you can set default metadata values for Items within Collections.

N.b. though that DSpace's "Item" may comprise multiple "files" (that is, 
computer files, aka digital objects. It has been suggested these might 
map to a "piece" within an ISAD(G) "item" - if you need that level of 
descriptive detail.

HTH

Richard

-- 
/
\ Richard M Davis
/ Digital Archives Specialist
\ University of London Computer Centre
/ Tel: +44 (0) 20 7692 1350
\ mailto: r.davis at ulcc.ac.uk
/