Introduction:
The problem of version identification can only be solved if the repository platforms that people use are able to identify version status and version relations of the objects that they store to the outside world.
The repository software community, including those who design the software, code for it and implement it within their institutions, are in a position of being able to improve this situation by continuing to improve the packages people use and promoting their fullest and most efficient and effective usage.
VIF recommends that repository software developers take into consideration the results of the VIF requirements exercise and the related VERSIONS survey results, which identified the specific problems end users have encountered when trying to identify different versions on objects in repositories. It is our hope that by improving awareness of the variety of approaches both in the off-the-shelf software and local implementations, better versioning practice will follow.
Top Seven Recommendations:
Links above:
- Enable Linking of records and consider how major repository software handles versioning
- Look at the benefits of a FRBR structure
- Make Essential Versioning Information transparent through repository software
- Enhance deposit workflow for version information capture , including searching of other internal and external titles to reduce duplication.
- Support Sharing Standards in the form of application profiles.
- Broaden the language used in repositories to deal with multimedia better. Repositories should deal with multimedia and so on natively.
Further recommendations:
- Support identifiers that identify individual objects and items, not just item records. Remain aware of the RIDIR project for work on Identifiers.
- Investigate watermarking or retrospective and automated filling in of properties fields within documents. An example of successful watermarking can be seen in ArXiv.
- Integrate thumbnail preview technology into repository software, enabling users to identify visual media more quickly.
- Examine implementing the VALREC tool as a way of users identifying versions of text documents, as well as verifying the content of any given version.
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