Introduction To Greenstone

Daniel Francis

daniel@admin.udsm.ac.tz

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Greenstone Overview
Digital Library collections building and distribution software Issued under the terms of the GNU General Public License Freely available, Open Source Software (OSS) First developed in 1996 by the New Zealand Digital Library Project at the University of Waikatos Computer Science Department

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Greenstone Overview
Aims to empower users, particularly in universities, libraries, and other public service institutions to build their own digital libraries (to avoid being read-only societies)

The Greenstone developers hope that the software will encourage the effective deployment of digital libraries to share information and place it in the public domain

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Greenstone Overview
Current production version UNESCO Distribution of humanitarian collections on CD-ROM Training Workshops Human Info NGO, Antwerp, Belgium Information For All Programme (IFAP) Through establishment and coordination of the Southern African Greenstone Support Network (SAGSN) eIFL.net

Distribution and Promotion Partners 4 4

Greenstone Overview
What Greenstone
You cannot use Greenstone to automate your library, e.g., circulate your books using computers Greenstone IS NOT Library Automation software Greenstone IS NOT Scanning software Greenstone ALLOWS you to BUILD Digital Libraries. It is not a Digital Library in itself Greenstone cannot be used for scanning. You first have to scan your materials elsewhere AND THEN upload them into Greenstone Greenstone IS NOT a Digital Library

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Greenstone Requirements
Server is platform independent Runs on Linux, Windows, Solaris, MAC OS X Java Run-time Environment (JRE) Version 1.4 or above required Required for Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI) Must be installed before installing Greenstone ImageMagick

Needed in order to build image collections

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Greenstone Requirements
C++ compiler Perl A Web Browser

Visual Studio or GCC Needed only if you wish to compile the source code

Installe d automati cally

For Readers to access digital library/collections

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Greenstone Features
Search
Boolean Full text Cross-collection Wildcard

Collections can be served on CDs/DVDs

Comes with installer Allows user to run from CD or install on Hard Disk

Automatic creation of access structures

Se arch Bro wse

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Greenstone Features
Access controls Password protection at document/collection level Easy to install Graphical User Interface for building/managing collections - Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI) Supports multiple file types, e.g., DOC, PDF, MP3, JPG Interoper able 9 9

Greenstone Features
Easily customisable
Supports protocol both as client and as server

z39.50 protocol support

In Librarian Interface In User/Reader Interface

Supports multiple languages Supports several metadata sets

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Greenstone Features
Customisable metadata
Includes metadata editor

Metadata-driven digital libraries

Generic Hierarchy List

Provides several ways to build collections Flexible browsing facilities

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Greenstone Features
Large User Base Large Technical Support Base

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Applications
Multi-format digital collections Text Image Audio Bibliographic Collections Text Image Audio Institutional Repositories Text Image Audio

Video

Video

Video

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The Upside of Greenstone

Open Source Software Large User Base Large Technical Support Base Easy to use/get going Distributable Collections Long-term document preservation features Interoperable 1 4

The Upside of Greenstone

Multilingual Multiplatform Fairly mature Minimal System Requirements Highly configurable General Purpose DL software
Flexible Metadata Support

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The Downside of Greenstone

Complicated URLs

Access Controls

Workflow process is implied (in GLI) & not built-in

Collection locking

Item-centric

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Greenstone Use:The Facts

Source: http://www.greenstone.org/factsheet

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Support

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Support Networks
African Digital Library Support Network

Greenstone Support for South Asia

Greenstone Support for South America

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User/Technical Support Resources

Documentation Manuals
On Greenstone Site: Demo collections Tutorial Exercises Wiki FAQs

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User/Technical Support Resources

Help
Librarian Interface User Interface

Online Help in:

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User/Technical Support Resources

Mailing Lists

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Greenstone 3

A complete redesign and reimplementation of Greenstone Research version of Greenstone (not recommended for production use) When complete, will retain all advantages of Greenstone 2
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Greenstone 3
Incorporates all features of current system

Backward compatible (can run and build existing collections without any need for modification)

Further Information:

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Greenstone Interfaces

User/Reader Interface

Librarian Interface

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T A M H h c u i e c l g e t h D s i l L s l y i U b n C s l g u e u s r a t v l o s i m a S i v u s i a p e n p b w y o l r e o w t f e

Greenstone User/Reader Interface

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Greenstone User/Reader Interface

Default Interface Default Interface Customised Interface Customised Interface

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Greenstone User/Reader Interface

Customised Interface Customised Interface Customised Interface Customised Interface

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Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

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G E J A R I r a v n e a s v c m p i y a l o h l u t i t a b d e c b o a e a l s m l u e a s d a n I e i a n m g t e e E t m r n a e f g d n a l t c i t e s a o h f u , e

Greenstone Librarian Interface

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Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

Creating a new Collection New from the Select File

Menu Specify a Collection title You may optionally enter a description for your new collection You may base your new collection on an existing one by utilising the given facility

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Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

Download files/web pages for your collection Gather source files from your local machine Enrich content with metadata Design searching & browsing facilities

Create (or build) the collection

Format the output of your collection

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Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Download Panel

Allows you to download files from the Internet

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Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Gather Panel

The WORKSPACE AREA shows you the files & folders on your computer while the COLLECTION AREA shows you the content that is already in your Greenstone collection The Gather Panel allows you to upload content into your collection by simply dragging & dropping files and/or folders from the WORKSPACE AREA into the COLLECTION AREA

COLLECTION AREA

WORKSPACE AREA

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Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Enrich Panel

Allows you to assign metadata to the documents within your collection. A single field can have multiple values, e.g., in the given example the author has two values and the subject has three values. To achieve this, press the Enter or Return key after typing in one of the values 3 5

Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Design Panel

Document Plugins These are Perl programs that parse input documents, extracting metadata from them For example, the PDFPlugin is needed in order to process PDF files They can be configured to suit particular needs through the Configure Plugins feature 3 6

Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Design Panel

The UnknownPlug Used to process file types for which there are no plugins Only extracts very basic metadata all other elements, e.g., filename, filesize, must be manually assigned

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Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Design Panel

The UnknownPlug Cannot extract text and so added files cannot be searched. Files are therefore accessed through browsing or searching on assigned metadata For example, to process mp4 (video format) files, enter (?i)\.mp4$ in the process_exp field 3 8

Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Design Panel

Search Indexes This section allows you to specify the metadata fields that you wish to use to search for resources within your collection Search indexes can be built using one or a combination of fields

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Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Design Panel

Browsing Classifiers Are used to create a collections browsing indexes These can be simple lists or complex hierarchical structures

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Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Design Panel Classifiers Browsing

In GLI

In Reader Interface

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Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Format Panel

General Allows you to specify a title for your collection Upload an image for your collection on the home page Enter (or edit) the description for your collection. This is usually a statement of the purpose and coverage/scope of your collection 4 2

Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Create Panel

Allows you to build the collection Any errors encountered during the build process will be displayed

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Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Format Panel

Search Allows you to edit the labels for the available search indexes or fields To change labels, edit desired field under the Display text column

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Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Format Panel

Format Features Upload an image for your collection on the home page Enter (or edit) the description for your collection

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Greenstone Librarian Interface (GLI)

The Format Panel

Cross-Collection Search Allows you to search across a number of collections within your digital library Simply click on a collection to select or deselect it

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Access Controls
Limit access to particular documents Document-level

Password protection at:

Collection-level Limit access to complete collections

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Access Controls
For document-level protection enter, e.g.:

Password protection:
private_documents You can also use authenticate collection For collection-level protection enter, e.g.: Enter Open collections collect.cfg file for editing authenticate document

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Customisation
Look Done mainly through ,Macro files, Images, & and Feel Done GLI) mainly through ,Macro files, Images, & LookGLI) Feel and Format statements (in Format statements (in

Program functionality modifying C++ and Perl source code that is freely Can be altered by Can be availablealtered by modifying C++ and Perl source code that is freely available Program functionality Requires some level of knowledge of HTML Cannot be done using an HTML editor since the pages are not Cannot be done using an HTML editor since the pages are not static static 4 9

References
Han Yan (2004), Digital Content Management: the Search for a Content Management System , University of Arizona Library Rajas ekhar Witten I. an (2007), http://www.gre enstone.org Witten I. et al (2006), Greenstone Users Guide, Waikato University Schr eibm Consortium of Academic and an Research Libraries in Illinois, Bran colin i

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