Publishing and unpublishing

Owned by
Garrett, Chad G
Last updated: Oct 27, 2021 by
MM Hanke
10 min read

Assets in the DAMS can be made publicly accessible through different endpoints:

  • the Collections Portal, a separate computer system providing a ‘view’ on select digital assets, with browsing and search functionality aimed at patrons. Content curators decide which assets can be made publicly available
  • the HRDI platform
  • as IIIF manifest-only, e.g. for use on the Primeros Libros de las Américas portal or in Spotlight

Upon publishing of an asset to either endpoint, a subset of the asset's metadata is copied from the DAMS to the public access portal. In addition, the publishing software component applies some changes to the metadata, to create a more user-friendly display on public endpoint.

An asset's components (image(s) and metadata) published to any endpoint from the DAMS will remain in the version that is current at the time of publishing. Later changes to metadata and/or digital objects in the DAMS will not be carried over to any of the publishing endpoints until you un-publish and re-publish the asset.

The public URL for a published asset on the Collections portal follows this pattern: https://collections.lib.utexas.edu/catalog/<PID>

Public access

Publicly accessible content and metadata is available to anyone on the internet. It can for instance be shared, downloaded, copied and indexed by search engines or metadata aggregators. Per Policy, Content Curators have to make sure that assets and their metadata are intended and suitable for public access, given copyright status, privacy rules and other applicable standards and regulations.

PUBLIC MEANS PUBLIC

  • The Collections Portal provides no mechanism to enforce viewing or acknowledging license terms, nor is there a record that a member of the public have read and accepted any kind of license attached to content.
  • Neither the DAMS nor the Collections Portal provide a mechanism to automatically add a digital signature or 'watermark' to content.
  • For image-based content and audio content published as MP3 file, the Collections Portal provides no mechanisms to restrict or control download of published files (e.g. images, IIIF manifest files, PDF).
  • For AV content served as streaming media, the Collections Portal has no mechanism in place to enforce 'strict' Digital Rights Management.

Content owners can decide between different options to make content and/or metadata available in the Collections Portal by selecting a value for "Rights - Restriction on Access" in the DAMS MODS input form or by assigning the respective value to the accessCondition[@type="restriction on access"] element in metadata for batch ingest.

Currently only the values "Public access" and "Metadata only" are implemented for the publishing process.

  • Public Access: Allow the whole world see the object images and metadata for an asset
  • Metadata Only: The Metadata is the only component of an asset that will be visible to the world

What is published?

Currently, content stored with one of the following content models can be published to the Collections Portal: Large Image, Book, Issue, Audio, Video.

Large Image

The publishing software component uses a JPEG 2000 (JP2) derivative image that is automatically created from the OBJ datastream upon ingest. The JPEG 2000 derivative is made available to the Libraries' IIIF image server, which for instance serves images to the embedded viewer on the Collections Portal asset landing pages.

A subset of the asset's metadata in the DAMS is copied to the search index of the Collections Portal. The publishing software component applies some changes to the metadata during the copying process, to create a more user-friendly display on the Collections Portal. The DAMS metadata remains unchanged by this process, however. Check the metadata technical documentation for a particular metadata element for more information on whether the element is copied to the Collections Portal and how the data is transformed in the process.

Book/Issue

Book and Issue assets in the DAMS consist of an asset representing the entire analog object (book or issue), and of associated child assets that represent pages.

Only book/issue-level assets can be published; it is not possible to separately publish individual pages of a book/issue. It is also not possible to store or publish descriptive metadata on the level of page assets associated with a book or issue. The DAMS allows to store OCR data for each page in a book/issue and in aggregated form for the entire book or issue. The OCR data currently cannot be published to the Collections Portal.

The publishing software component collects the JPEG 2000 (JP2) derivative images for the pages associated with the book/issue level asset. The derivative images are automatically generated from a page asset's OBJ datastream upon ingest. The JPEG 2000 derivatives are made available to the Collections Portal's IIIF image server, which serves images to the embedded viewer on the Collections Portal asset landing pages. The order in which the page images of a book/issue are displayed in the Collections Portal viewer is determined by the page order specified in the DAMS.

A subset of the book/issue-level asset's metadata in the DAMS is copied to the search index of the Collections Portal. The publishing software component applies some changes to the metadata during the copying process, to create a more user-friendly display on the Collections Portal. The DAMS metadata remains unchanged by this process, however. Check the metadata technical documentation for a particular metadata element for more information on whether the element is copied to the Collections Portal and how the data is transformed in the process.

If a PDF datastream is available at the Book/Issue level, you can publish this file to the Collections Portal (see instructions for manual publishing) as an additional download.

Content Curators must consider the following aspects before deciding to make PDF derivatives available for download:

  • PDF derivatives for paged content can have a large file size. Large downloads on the order of several hundred megabytes can be inconvenient to users and lead to heavy load on the server.
  • The PDF derivatives created by the DAMS or by Digital Stewardship are not vetted for compliance with accessibility standard.

Audio

The publishing software component uses a derivative audio file that is either automatically created from the OBJ datastream upon ingest, or provided by the DAMS user. The derivative audio file is served through the AV player component embedded on the Collection Portal asset landing page.

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED

An Audio transcript is required for publishing: See Content models#AUDIOContentmodel for details.

NO DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

By default, Audio content is published by making an MP3 derivative file available to the Portal's AV player component as a progressive download. The MP3 file can downloaded in full by members of the public with relative ease, with no technical hurdles to protect the content.

Audio content can instead be published as streaming media, which adds a limited technical hurdle against a simple download of the complete audio file. If you prefer to deliver audio content as streaming media, you need to externally create an MP4 derivative and ingest it into a datastream labeled PROXY_MP4. Please submit a DAMS support ticket for details on this step.

The DAMS and Collections Portal have no mechanism in place to enforce 'strict' Digital Rights Management for AV content, and there is no mechanism to add a watermark to content.

A subset of the asset's metadata in the DAMS is copied to the search index of the Collections Portal. The publishing software component applies some changes to the metadata during the copying process, to create a more user-friendly display on the Collections Portal. The DAMS metadata remains unchanged by this process, however. Check the metadata technical documentation for a particular metadata element for more information on whether the element is copied to the Collections Portal and how the data is transformed in the process.

Video

The publishing software component uses a derivative video file that is automatically created from the OBJ datastream upon ingest. The derivative video file is served as streaming media through the AV player component embedded on the Collection Portal asset landing page.

VIDEO CAPTIONS/TRANSCRIPT REQUIRED

Video captions are required for publishing: See Content models#VIDEOContentmodel for details.

NO DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

Video content is published as streaming media, which adds a limited technical hurdle against a simple download of the complete video file.

The DAMS and Collections Portal have no mechanism in place to enforce 'strong' Digital Rights Management for AV content, and there is no mechanism to add a watermark to content.

A subset of the asset's metadata in the DAMS is copied to the search index of the Collections Portal. The publishing software component applies some changes to the metadata during the copying process, to create a more user-friendly display on the Collections Portal. The DAMS metadata remains unchanged by this process, however. Check the metadata technical documentation for a particular metadata element for more information on whether the element is copied to the Collections Portal and how the data is transformed in the process.

Requirements for publishing assets

The publishing software component performs a number of checks on a DAMS asset to determine if it can be published. Publishing will succeed if the following requirements are met:

  • Asset has Large Image, Book or Publication Issue content model
  • Asset has JPEG2000 (JP2) derivative datastream
  • Asset has required MODS metadata elements

The publication process enforces conformance with the DAMS Metadata guidelines for the following metadata elements:

  • Asset has either a valid creation date (dateCreated) or issuance date (dateIssued)
  • Asset metadata value for the name of the content language is contained in the list of Reference Names specified by ISO 639-3
  • Asset metadata value for the repository name is contained in the list specified in the documentation

JPEG2000 derivative

A JP2 datastream will be necessary for any asset to be able to be published to the front end. The DAMS will automatically generate a JP2 datastream upon ingest for book page images, publication issue page images, and large images. The publication process will not succeed if no JP2 datastream is present.

Mandatory MODS elements

See the documentation on mandatory MODS elements on the Wiki. The publication process will not succeed if mandatory elements are missing.

Valid date

If a dateCreated or dateIssued date is valid, then a keydate will be generated from it. However, if either value is "undated" that will also be acceptable.

Valid language name

The publishing process checks the names of languages against the list of language Reference Names provided by SIL: https://iso639-3.sil.org/code_tables/download_tables.

The first letter of the language must be capitalized.

If the asset does not contain linguistic content, use "not applicable" (no capitalization).

Valid repository name

Acceptable values for the Owning Repository field (physicalLocation):

  • Alexander Architectural Archives, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin
  • Architecture and Planning Library, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin
  • Architecture and Planning Library Special Collections, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin
  • Benson Latin American Collection, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, The University of Texas at Austin
  • Fine Arts Library, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin
  • Human Rights Documentation Initiative
  • Perry-Castañeda Library Maps, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin
  • Primeros Libros
  • Walter Geology Library, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin
  • University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin
  • (HRDI partner institutions)
  • (Primeros Libros partner institutions)

How to publish an asset

Manual publishing

  1. Navigate to the DAMS landing page for the asset you want to publish.
  2. Click on the "Manage" tab.
    If the asset has a content model that allows for publishing, you will see a sub-tab labeled "Publish".

  3. Click on the sub-tab link labeled "Publish".
    You will see a table of the available publishing endpoints and the publishing status, detailing whether an asset is available on a particular endpoint.

  4. Select the radio button for the publishing action you want to perform.

  5. Select additional datastreams you want to publish, for instance a video transcript, or a PDF derivative of a paged content asset.

  6. Click the button labeled "Submit"
    A green message box will appear, saying that your publish request has been sent.
    You will receive an email message with information about the status of your publish request.
    If you published to the Collections Portal, the asset will be accessible on the Portal under the URL https:// collections.lib.utexas.edu/catalog/<PID>

    You should receive a status notification approximately 15 minutes after pressing the "Publish"/"Unpublish" button. The notification contains either an error message or a confirmation that the publish request was processed successfully.

    If you do not receive an email within ca. 15 minutes, please submit a trouble ticket to the DAMS managers.

Batch publishing

If you want to publish larger numbers of assets (>10), please submit a service request with the DAMS managers.

Please include a list of PIDs of the assets that are ready for publication. This could be a status email for a successful batch ingest. You can also use the Python script for generating an asset status report to create a list of PIDs. The script is available from the following URL: https://github.austin.utexas.edu/mmh4428/dams_user_tools

Verifying publication

To verify that your publication worked, go to https://collections.lib.utexas.edu/ and check if you can search and access your published item. The public URL for a published asset follows this pattern: https://collections.lib.utexas.edu/catalog/<PID>. Ensure that no images are visible if you published metadata-only records. Check that your data is what you want it to be. If you need to change your metadata then simply edit your MODS in the DAMS, un-publish the item and re-publish to make those changes visible to the world.

In the DAMS, the publication status of an asset can be checked by navigating to the asset's "Publish" page, accessible from the "Manage" tab (https://dams.lib.utexas.edu/islandora/object/<PID>/manage/publish). If the asset has been successfully published to the Collections Portal, the "Publish" page will show an asset's status as published on the publishing endpoint selected.

If you need to check the publication status of multiple assets in a subcollection, you can use a Python script to generate an asset status report. You can find the script under the following URL: https://github.austin.utexas.edu/mmh4428/dams_user_tools

How to unpublish an asset

Unpublishing assets will result in an error message when a user tries to access the Collections Portal landing page of a previously published asset. Unpublishing assets permanently should be avoided, unless there is serious reason to do so (e.g. copyright infringement or severe privacy concerns). In this case, consider re-publishing an asset as a metadata only record to keep the Collection Portal URL accessible.

Manual unpublishing

  1. Navigate to the DAMS landing page for the asset you want to unpublish.
  2. Click on the "Manage" tab.
    If the asset has a content model that allows for publishing, you will see a sub-tab link labeled "Publish".
  3. Click on the sub-tab link labeled "Publish".
    You will see a table of the available publishing endpoints and the publishing status, detailing whether an asset is available on a particular endpoint.
  4. Select the radio button for the unpublishing action you want to perform.

  5. Click on the button labeled "Submit".
    A green message box appears, saying that your request has been sent.
    You will receive an email message with information about the status of your unpublish request.

    You should receive a status notification approximately 15 minutes after pressing the "Submit" button. The notification contains either an error message or a confirmation that the unpublish request was processed successfully. If you do not receive an email within ca. 15 minutes, please submit a trouble ticket to the DAMS managers.

Batch unpublishing

If you want to unpublish larger numbers of assets (>10), please submit a service request with the DAMS managers.

Please include a list of PIDs of the assets that need to be unpublished. You can use the Python script for generating an asset status report to create a list of PIDs. The script is available from the following URL: https://github.austin.utexas.edu/mmh4428/dams_user_tools

Purging a published asset

If an asset is published, then users will not be able to purge the object until the asset is unpublished successfully.


🙋 Click here to create a DAMS service request