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IS290-rmm Assignments

 

Resource and Metadata Management in Museums, Archives, and Research Collections: Tools and Practices

All assignments are due before class on the due date noted.

Assignment 1 due Mon 23rd Jan:

Log in to http://demo.collectionspace.org, click on My CollectionSpace, explore existing records. Click on Create New, try creating a record. Email your observations, comments to me and Leslie, or if you can get blog access, add your observations there.

Assignment 2: XML, REST, Started in lab on Wed 25th Jan, due Wed 1st Feb

This looks like a lot of work, but it really should not take much time. Once we get the tools set up, this is all pretty easy. You may find yourself playing with this, as it is really powerful, and surprisingly simple.

Note that the credentials to access services directly, are the same as the credentials you use to log in to the demo site (we tell what they are on the home page - how's that for secure ;-).

  1. Open some simpler CSpace schemas in tool, examine, understand. Group Schema, Vocabulary Item Schema, Person Schema, Intake Schema.
  2. Open example payloads, validate, understand. E.g., (use credentials for login described on demo.collectionspace.org intro page)
    1. List Groups: http://demo.collectionspace.org:8180/cspace-services/groups. Choose one and see details
    2. List Vocabulary Items in a vocabulary, like "Languages". http://demo.collectionspace.org:8180/cspace-services/vocabularies/urn:cspace:name(languages)/items
    3. List Intakes: http://demo.collectionspace.org:8180/cspace-services/intakes. Choose one and see details
  3. Use the REST services to make a change to a record you created in the UI
    1. Create a record of some sort in the UI. Choose something simple (not collection object).
    2. GET the payload for the item you created in the UI
    3. Use your XML editor to remove all but the "common" section, and ensure the resulting XML is well formed.
    4. Edit the XML to change some properties (start simple with a title, name, etc.).
    5. POST your edited XML payload to the corresponding CSpace REST resource, to create a new record.
    6. GET results to verify that your new record "stuck"
    7. Find it and view it in the UI to see the new record.
    8. Edit some field values in the UI
    9. GET the services payload, and edit it again with your XML Editor as above.
    10. Use PUT (not POST) to update the new record
    11. View in UI to confirm your changes.
  4. Open a JSON payload, like http://demo.collectionspace.org:8180/collectionspace/tenant/core/group/9d2ea3de-17df-41d5-910f, validate and pretty print with jsonlint
  5. Convert XML payload to JSON, validate and pretty print with jsonlint

Assignment 3: due Wed 22nd Feb

Choose area of focus: Identify focus of project activity, and sketch plan for customization and migration

Assignment 4: due Mon 27th Feb

Mapping background, and identifying key gaps and questions

  1. Analyze data model in existing collection
  2. Pick closest match(es) in CSpace
  3. Propose possible maps, and note mismatches
  4. Compare existing UX and CSpace UX
  5. Identify essential User Model and UX issues and questions for domain experts

Assignment 5: due Wed Mar 7

Review proposed metadata mappings and feedback from interviews; prepare wireframes, customization plan, and schema extensions

Assignment 6: begun in class Mon 12. Mar, due Mon 19. Mar (Note Change!)

Originally, this was to have been more ambitious. Since are shuffling lectures a bit, we will simplify this assignment, and take up the advanced topics a little later.

ETL Basics:

  1. Load CSV input source (Interactive in class). Use Names.csv.
  2. Define an adhoc export schema, based upon the same metadata model used for Names.csv.
    1. Set up a repeating element for each name
    2. Populate the fields from the columns of the Names.csv input file.
  3. Run to produce output

Note that we will defer the work to use a specified schema file until a little later, when we can produce results for the voucher table itself.

What you will turn in:

  1. Your output XML file.
  2. A brief write-up of observations on ETL. Complaints about the tool are fair, but only if placed in the context of the alternatives you would have used to produce the same output.

Bonus points for anyone who can produce an additional column like I did for a "displayName" that combines the first and last names, separated by a space. The java expression to combine two  strings with a space separator was: string1 + " " + string2.

Assignment 7: due Wed Mar 21

Capture and document the work done in Monday's workshop, and be prepared to discuss this as we consider how to formally document your ideas on the wiki.

What you will turn in: Email us your notes and sketches from Monday. Be prepared to show us (and one another) your notes and sketches from Monday.

Assignment 8: due Mon Apr 2

Prepare formal documentation of the UX proposals, and data model proposals, on the public wiki. We will send links to the materials to Holly, in advance of her visit (planned for Wed Apr 4).

You will also solicit feedback on the public mailing list for CSpace community discussion, with targeted invitations to individuals in the community (to be provided by Chris Hoffman's Informatics team).

What you will turn in: This work is done on the public wiki, so we will review the pages you (as a group) have edited, at the beginning of class on the due date.

Assignment 9: due TBD

Incorporate feedback from Holly and the community. We'll have to see how long it takes to get responses from people, and how significant the requested changes (if any) are.

What you will turn in: Again, we will review and discuss the edits to the wiki.

Assignment 10: due TBD

We'll see when there is down time between the UI and review work, and will do some more ETL work on the voucher data we got from the current system.

Assignment 11: due Mon 16 Apr

Building on a two-day lab on Reporting the previous week, you will produce a report that provides a first pass on a voucher label, based upon the information in a voucher.

  1. Configure for reader
  2. Connect to CSpace, browse tables
  3. Author report to produce a label for a given voucher

We may do this in several passes, to produce a very basic report as a first step, and then refine it in the lab time over the next several weeks.

What you will turn in: the iReport job (details to come), and an output PDF file for your report.

Assignment 12: due Mon 7 May

Final write-up of the migration and mapping exercise, with observations on the tools, the process, and the particulars of the work. More details to come.