Creating a Comparison Matrix

Charles Bailey has published a very helpful bibliography (Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography, v.1), from which the resources below were gleaned.  In addition, I have been adding resources to Mendeley, a research management tool: Digital Curation, Digital Library Best Practices & Guidelines, Digital Library Systems, and Metadata.

I have added a few more open source items, and a lot of proprietary systems I discovered thanks to Mr. Bailey’s rich resource.  I am constructing a matrix of features for comparison, borrowing from the reports above and my initial chart, based mainly on features that are most important for our needs:

  • Product
  • URL
  • Owned by/Maintained by
  • License type
  • Runs on (OS)
  • Database
  • Server Software
  • Interoperability with Digital Repository Systems
  • Works with (what other software)
  • Programming Lang
  • Additional hardware or software required
  • Hosting available
  • OAI-PMH?
  • Rights management
  • Manage Restricted Materials
  • User submission
  • Set processing priorities
  • Manage processing status
  • Localization options
  • Formats supported
  • Image file import (TIFF, JPEG, etc.)
  • A/V file import
  • Text file import (TEI, PDF, etc.)
  • Image file management w/ associated metadata
  • A/V file management w/ associated metadata
  • Text file management w/ associated metadata
  • Batch edit
  • DC type
  • METS
  • MODS
  • MARC
  • Imports (MARC , EAD, Tab Delimited/CSV
  • Batch Import (MARC, EAD, CSV)
  • Exports (MARC, EAD, MADS, MODS, METS, Dublin Core, EAC, Tab Delimited)
  • Batch Exports (MARC, EAD, MADS, MODS, METS, Dublin Core, EAC, Tab Delimited)
  • Easy Data Entry
  • Spell Check
  • PREMIS?
  • Other Schemas
  • Create description record from existing record and automatically populate fields
  • Item-level Description
  • Link accession and description records
  • Link accession record to multiple description records
  • Link description record to multiple accession records
  • Hierarchical – fonds, collection, sous-fonds, series, sub-series, files, items and link with its parts in the hierarchy.
  • Ability to reorganize hierarchies
  • Flexibility of Data Model
  • Templating/default fields
  • Controlled vocabularies
  • Authority Records
  • Link authority record to unlimited description records
  • Link description record to unlimited authority records
  • Compliance to Archival Standards
  • Data validation
  • Backup/Restore utility
  • Integrated Web Publication
  • Public search interface
  • Advanced search (by field)
  • Faceted Search
  • Browse levels
  • Search results clearly indicate hierarchical relationships of records
  • Records linked to other parts of hierarchy
  • User Access and Data Security Function
  • Control who can delete records
  • User permissions management
  • Control when record becomes publicly accessible
  • Feeds
  • Install Notes
  • Forum/List URL
  • Bug tracker URL
  • Feature Req URL
  • Trial/demo/sandbox
  • Training available
  • Technical support provided by developers
  • User Manuals (user, admin)
  • Context-specific help
  • Page turning
  • Developer customization available
  • User customization permitted
  • What reports
  • Customize reports
  • Repository statistics
  • Plugins
  • UTF

2 Comments

  1. Vira says:

    How’s this matrix coming? I’d love to see what your findings are. 🙂

  2. clbean says:

    Heh! Me too!

    Sorry – I have been side tracked while I get a Drupal site implemented at work by October 10. I’ll be back on track after that.

    Thanks,
    Carol