The DLA Infrastructure

The Software

The DLA (Digital Library Architecture) is a piece of the Penn Libraries' software infrastructure that enables the web delivery of our digital content and digital records. It was developed by the Penn Libraries, using open source applications like Lucene, Solr, and Cocoon, and relies extensively on XML and XSLT. Developed in a generalist manner, it is meant to deliver various library content, like images, book facsimiles, or sound files, as well as metadata records (for instance our EAD finding aids collection, or VCAT, the catalog that describes our physical DVD and VHS video collection). In fact it also allows for the delivery of "database-like" data, like our staff directory, or the list of upcoming workshops offered by the library. Every collection delivered through the DLA is enabled out of the box with features like facet browsing, search with relevance ranking, RSS and Media RSS feeds, and OAI metadata exposure. The delivery of each collection can be customized through the use of a "branding file" that controls the look-and-feel of the interface, and enables the choice of collection-specific facets, collection-specific fields to display in the result lists, and other collection-specific features.

The People

Many Penn Libraries people have contributed to the DLA since its inception. Some have been engaged in the core development of the project, while others got involved during the development of a specific DLA collection. The DLA participants come from many different Library Departments, including: IT and Digital Development Dept., Information Processing Center, Public Services, Collection Development & Management, SCETI, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, and Departmental Libraries. In all cases, we would like to thank everybody very much for their contribution.

Current Core DLA participants:
Peter Cline, Heather Glaser, Dick Griscom, Marissa Hendriks, Delphine Khanna, Regan Kladstrup, Andrea Loigman, Patty Lynn, Chuck McCallum, Dennis Mullen, Rachelle Nelson, Katherine Schultz, Jon Shaw, Katia Strieck, Laurie Sutherland, Leslie Vallhonrat.

Previous Core DLA participants:
Igor Asnis, Barbara Cavanaugh, John Ockerbloom, Mirko Visontai.

People involved in specific DLA collections or projects:
Karen Anello, Elizabeth Beck, Frank Campbell, Maureen Callahan (Penn Museum Archives), Michelle Chesner, Judith Currano, Jim Duffin (Penn Archives), Lynne Farrington, Arthur Kiron, William Kopycki, Elizabeth Martin, Mary McConaghy (Penn Archives), Doug McGee, Holly Mengel, Constance Mood, David Nelson, Chris Lippa, Shawn Martin, Nicholas Okrent, John Pollack, Vinay Ramaswamy, Lynn Ransom, Nancy Shawcross, Christal Springer, Jordon Steele (Biddle Library), Anu Vedantham.

DLA Oversight Group:
Martha Brogan, Beth Camden, Marjorie Hassen, David McKnight, Mike Winkler.

Other participants:
Stephanie Alarcon, Grover McKenzie, Martin Oestergaard, Doug Smullens.