University of Michigan
Digital Library eXtension Service
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OVERVIEW
SEARCH ENGINE
SUPPORT
CLASS MIDDLEWARE
ON-CALL SUPPORT
TRAINING
RELEASE SCHEDULE
FEES
ELIGIBLE SUBSCRIBERS FOR UM DLXS
SUPPORTED ENVIRONMENTS
HOST SERVICES
CONTACTS AND FURTHER INFORMATION
OVERVIEW
The University of Michigan Digital Library eXtension Service (UM
DLXS) offers a suite of resources designed to aid educational and
non-profit institutions mount a variety of types of digital library
collections. The University of Michigan conceived the SGML Server
Program (SSP) in 1996 to serve a growing need for institutions like
Michigan to put encoded text collections online. Since that time,
a number of changes have taken place in the search engine marketplace,
and the University of Michigan has strengthened its digital library
production operations. The newly reconfigured UM DLXS replaces the
SSP and offers both a search engine and a set of tools for mounting
digital library resources. The search engine, XPAT, is specially designed
to handle large and highly structured documents and metadata such
as that found in digital library efforts. The tools that UM DLXS makes
available are designed to tap the power of the XPAT engine for broad
classes of resources consistent with digital library activities. The
University of Michigan UM DLXS is a cost-recovery operation; fees
charged by the UM DLXS are intended to cover ongoing development,
maintenance, and support activities directly associated with the UM
DLXS.
SEARCH ENGINE
The XPAT engine is an SGML/XML-aware search engine
that the University of Michigan has deployed with an extremely diverse
set of digital library resources. XPAT is based on the search engine
previously marketed by Open Text as OT5(TM), and sometimes referred
to as "Pat" and "Pat5.0." The University of Michigan has licensed
the code in order to undertake distribution and support, as well as
to add functionality. Because of XPAT's origins and the extent to
which it has been employed in University of Michigan digital library
projects, we are confident about the search engine's reliability,
its core functionality, and many aspects of its scalability. As currently
distributed, XPAT provides excellent support for word and phrase searching,
indexing of SGML elements and attributes, basic valid and well-formed
XML support (without Unicode), fast retrieval, and open systems integration.
As part of the UM DLXS, the University of Michigan Digital Library
Production Service has launched a continuous development process in
which we hope to add a number of features to XPAT. The capabilities
being pursued are:
- the addition of "regular expression" searching (e.g., internal
wild-cards)
XPAT is licensed by the University of Michigan
on a per-computer basis, with an initial one-time fee of $15,000 for
the first instance of the search engine. [1] Support
for XPAT is available as part of the UM DLXS (see below); XPAT is
also available without support. Please see below for pricing information.
SUPPORT
Support for the XPAT engine is offered solely through
membership in the UM DLXS. The XPAT engine is extremely versatile,
and while documentation for a wide range of applications is provided
as part of the licensing, the University of Michigan is only able
to support those digital library applications undertaken within the
Digital Library Production Service (DLPS) with the XPAT engine. Support
(and pricing for support) for XPAT is designed around this core set
of applications. The mechanisms for support are discussed further
below.
CLASS MIDDLEWARE
The UM DLXS distributes significant additional
software as free, Open Source software. This DLXS software is based
on the evolving DLXS content "classes." The UM DLXS seeks to enable
digital library activities. To this end, significant resources are
devoted to developing and supporting access mechanisms for many types
of collections found in the digital library (e.g., page image based
books with associated OCR, and SGML/XML encoded books and journals).
Current classes include a class for monograph length books and journals
(both modern and historical), a class for images and image metadata,
a class for finding aids (available in a prototype form), and a class
for bibliographic information. A large and growing set of behaviors
(such as types of searches and browses) is applied to these classes.
Both the classes and behaviors are being documented, and information
is available online (see http://docs.dlxs.org).
Middleware to support these classes and behaviors is distributed freely
through the UM DLXS, and support for this middleware is provided as
a component of an ongoing support contract. This class-based approach
has replaced previous collection-specific middleware distributed by
DLPS. DLPS is committed to a continuous process of developing this
middleware, adding functionality as needs are identified and as the
WWW matures as a delivery mechanism.
ON-CALL SUPPORT
On-call support is provided primarily through e-mail,
though telephone and postal contacts are provided for member institutions
as well. A table of UM DLXS contacts is provided below. We typically
provide an e-mail acknowledgement of all e-mail received at DLXS
Help within 24-hours of receipt. We are not able to provide a
timetable for resolution of problems, but we are sensitive to the
fact that the tools and services made possible by the UM DLXS are
used in production services, and that prompt resolution of problems
is critical to the viability of these services. E-mail queries go
to a group of staff members to ensure that problems are widely communicated,
and that the most appropriate DLPS staff member receives the question.
Office staff, who are more readily available, receive telephone queries
and subsequently relay queries by e-mail to groups of staff to ensure
a prompt and appropriate response.
TRAINING
As a part of UM DLXS, the University of Michigan
offers inexpensive workshops for participants, guiding programmers
and digital collection managers in the application of the UM DLXS
code base in putting collections online. Current plans (based on previous
demand) are to offer these workshops at no charge, with transportation,
food, and lodging being handled by the participants. We are able to
accommodate one representative from each member institution for each
workshop, but will consider special requests for more than one representative
on a space-available basis. We will initially offer two workshops
each year, one in the winter and one in the summer. More workshops
will be offered based on demand. For more information, see http://www.dlxs.org/training/workshops.html.
RELEASE SCHEDULE
We make every effort to deliver UM DLXS products
to member institutions as quickly as possible while at the same time
investing considerable energy in testing each product. We also solicit
feedback from a number of user communities (including DLXS participants)
to ensure that the products meet basic needs. We will continue to
detail products and release schedules online at: http://www.dlxs.org/products/products.html.
FEES
Costs to subscriber organizations will consist
of one-time fees for the software license, and an ongoing cost for
support as part of the UM DLXS. A one-time cost of $15,000 is charged
for licensing XPAT. This entitles the subscribing institution
to install XPAT on a single server. [2] Additional
copies of the search engine will be available to the licensing institution
at a reduced rate. Support for the search engine will be charged
at a rate of $5,000 per year, regardless of the number of installations
of the search engine. Support is made available to a single designated
representative of the institution. The rate of $5,000 per year is
applied to the first representative/membership within an institution;
additional memberships within a single institution are charged at
a lesser rate. [3] Should an institution
choose to discontinue participation in the UM DLXS, it may continue
to use XPAT and is still bound by the terms of the license for the
XPAT engine. An institution that has ceased its membership in UM DLXS
may also keep middleware received under its membership, but is no
longer entitled to updates of middleware or support for that middleware.
XPAT |
first
instance, per single computer |
$15,000 |
XPAT |
subsequent
instances, per single computer |
$12,000 |
UM
DLXS membership |
first
representative, per year |
$5,000 |
UM
DLXS membership |
Each
additional representatives within an institution, per year |
$3,000 |
ELIGIBLE
SUBSCRIBERS FOR UM DLXS
The University of Michigan is legally entitled
to sell the XPAT engine to other institutions or organizations in
the "vertical market represented by other academic institutions and
non-profit/not-for-profit organizations." As part of the process of
purchasing the XPAT engine, an institution or organization will be
required to provide evidence of its non-profit status (e.g., 501 (3c)
certification). It is worth noting that while the XPAT engine is extremely
versatile, the primary focus of the Digital Library Production Service
is in creating and sustaining digital library applications, and thus
the service will be focused on those applications. For example, DLPS's
primary "classes" of resources (supported through the XPAT engine)
are monographs (current and historical), bibliographic resources,
and image collections; future efforts will focus on journals and encyclopedic
reference works. We invite the participation of all types of non-profit
organizations, but can best support those with missions consistent
with those described here.
SUPPORTED
ENVIRONMENTS
The UM DLXS and XPAT are currently available for
a number of popular UNIX environments. Participants must acquire and
install server hardware and a web server (typically Apache), as well
as Perl and some other open-source utilities. (Please see the document, DLXS
System Requirements for additional details.) We have a continuing
commitment to supporting additional platforms and environments for
XPAT and DLXS, but are not able to test all platforms, and hope we
can work with DLXS partners to expand supported environments. Please
contact DLXS
Help to inquire about the availability of XPAT binaries for other
operating systems, support for new platforms, or to share with us
your experience testing DLXS on new platforms.
HOST SERVICES
The University of Michigan Digital Library Production
Service also offers host services for digital library collections.
These services, previously a part of the SSP, are not a part of the
UM DLXS. (The UM DLXS is oriented specifically to support local collection
access mechanisms.) We would be pleased to discuss host services with
interested institutions. Among the arrangements currently supported
are fee-for-service host services for licensed collections, contract
services for non-profit publishers wishing to disseminate publications
on a subscription basis, and no-charge arrangements for hosting freely
available digital library collections. For more information, please
contact John Weise (see below).
CONTACTS, CONTRACTS, AND FURTHER
INFORMATION
February 25, 2009
[1] The University
of Michigan is bound under contract to pay a portion of each fee to
Open Text.
[2] The University
of Michigan will not implement mechanisms to police institutions,
but evidence of a violation of the XPAT contract will result in suspension
of the institution's license and forfeiture of XPAT. The University
of Michigan is contractually compelled to enforce compliance with
the terms of the XPAT license through our agreement with Open Text.
[3] For example,
if a large institution wishes to install additional search engines
in other parts of the organization at the lower rate, it must either
use a single designated representative for all support, or it may
pay fees for additional representatives and thus secure support for
each of these representatives.
For more information about DLXS, please send email to DLXS
Info or contact John Weise at 734.764-8074.
