On 14 Nov 2007, at 11:17, Peter Cliff wrote:
> Martin Morrey wrote:
>> I would have thought it was quite a normal function of a repository
>> system to have hidden/closed collections of materials, or indeed
>> collections to which only specific groups of users have access.
>> There should be absolutely no need to have a separate instance of
>> the repository system to achieve this.
> That is quite a sweeping statement! When ever there is "absolutely
> no need", often someone will find one. ;-) Security, reassurance of
> the separation, ease of management/maintenence. Some people want to
> present what is essentially a Web site as the public face of their
> repository - search and retrieval only - hiding all of the admin
> stuff (a potential security risk) behind firewalls and the like.
Richard Jones wrote a paper about the implementation of the Imperial
College repository along these lines - a public facing open access
repository coupled with a private, firewalled, repository that is
highly integrated into an administrative environment. See http://eprints.imperial.ac.uk/handle/10044/1/493
> Some people want to have a repository for all the rubbish (the
> filing cabinet stuff) which they keep hidden and need to be able to
> tell the users of it that it'll be kept hidden, and one for the good
> stuff - the showcase, the display cabinet - like in the physical
> world. I once had a friend who kept all his fantasy fiction books in
> the spare room where no one would see them and all the books he
> deemed good to show off on a shelf in his lounge. You could argue
> there was absolutely no reason why he would need a separate instance
> of his shelving system, but he did... ;-)
I keep all the books I am most proud of in my bedroom and all the
oversize books downstairs in the lounge. It's because I do all my
entertaining in the kitchen - food! wine!
> Maybe it depends on what you define the "repository system" as - is
> it a single piece of software, is it an architecture diagram for the
> Institution's information system, or something else?
That way lies danger - once you redefine a repository to be just a
database or an entire information environment then (I believe) you
lose the point of it.
--
Les
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