Information Today
Volume 18, Issue 1 — January 2001
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Stanford Selects TEAMS Solution for Digital Library Initiative 

Artesia Technologies, Inc. has announced that its TEAMS digital asset management solution has been selected to serve as the content management framework for a major initiative being planned by Stanford University Libraries. According to the announcement, this project is expected to address several of the most pressing challenges facing academia, including the exponential growth of published material, new demands for ubiquitous access that are being driven by the development of the wired—and soon to be wireless—classroom, and the growth in distance learning. 

Working closely with colleagues among the research libraries in the Digital Library Federation, Stanford plans to utilize TEAMS to create an environment using off-the-shelf technologies for effectively managing rich media content and its associated XML-based metadata within petabyte (one quadrillion bytes)-sized archives so that it may be accessible via a variety of means. 

“Developing systems capable of capturing, preserving, and delivering vast amounts of digital content is the core challenge for research libraries within the digital age,” said Michael Keller, university librarian and director of academic information resources at Stanford. “We expect that Artesia’s TEAMS software will play a significant role in our effort to establish the base technologies required to overcome these most critical barriers to electronic library access. Through its implementation, we plan to expand Web-based access to the university’s extensive collection of media resources to the entire Stanford community and improve our ability to work collaboratively with other organizations as well.” 

Stanford University Libraries expects to use the TEAMS software as a core element of its “Dark Cave” project, which is intended to create a production implementation of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model. According to the announcement, TEAMS will provide Stanford with a robust infrastructure for addressing each aspect of the OAIS model, including ingestion of content with associated metadata, content management and preservation, and distribution. Stanford plans to develop this project in order to establish protocols and apply emerging standards for managing and accessing petabyte-sized digital libraries that can be used to support a wide range of research activities. 

According to the announcement, one of the issues that the project expects to address is the current lack of powerful filtering mechanisms that are needed to improve an end-user’s ability to access relevant content across massive databases. TEAMS includes a number of Web-based search-and-retrieval tools that support searching across all media types by browsing keywords associated with each asset, by using text within the asset or its descriptive properties, or by using Boolean criteria. 

“When you look at the history and association between Stanford and Silicon Valley, you recognize the importance of university resources in nurturing and enhancing great minds,” said Sebastian Holst, vice president of marketing at Artesia Technologies. “As such, we are very pleased that the university has chosen TEAMS as part of its resource framework. Based on our experience with Library of Congress’ National Digital Library, we’re confident that TEAMS provides the Web-enabled access and enterprise-class architecture needed to seamlessly integrate media resources with the rest of the collection. We’re proud to be a part of this initiative.” 

Source: Artesia Technologies, Inc., Rockville, MD, 301/548-4000; http://www.artesia.com

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