Northwestern University Libraries is currently running Samvera applications in production. Three of these are developed, maintained, and managed by the Repository & Digital Curation workgroup, * Arch, an Institutional Repository, based on Hyrax 2.4.1 * AVR, Northwestern's audiovisual repository, based on Avalon 6.3 * DONUT, the staff-facing ingest interface for the digital object repository, based on Hyrax 2.4.1 In developing and deploying these applications, we have encountered (and mostly overcome) numerous stumbling blocks relating to performance, scalability, customization, and assumptions about the deployment environment and infrastructure on which the apps will run. While we have found it possible to shoehorn the Samvera stack (as it exists today) into our Amazon Web Services cloud-based deployment environment, we have also started to investigate the rewards and compromises involved in taking a cloud-first approach to our next generation of tools. We have identified several basic tenets for this approach so far, * If AWS offers a native Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution for a particular problem, use it (e.g., choose ElasticSearch/Cloud Search over Solr) * Avoid virtual server instances that run 24x7 waiting for requests/work * Do not assume there is a local filesystem to work with * Optimize startup time so that units of work can be spawned and killed as needed * Constantly assess and reassess every unit of work for scalability, repeatability, and idempotence * Keep data portable and code adaptable, but don't over-stress about vendor lock-in In this presentation, members of the Repository Development & Administration Team will present on lessons learned from 7 years of working with Samvera, Avalon, and Hyrax, what the future holds for our next round of in-house development, and the opportunities & compromises our cloud-first approach creates regarding our use of and contributions to the larger Samvera community., and A presentation at Samvera Virtual Connect 2019 described thus
Keyword:
Cloud services, Samvera, and Virtual Connect 2019
Subject:
Samvera Community
Creator:
Klein, Michael B
Contributor:
Quinn, Brendan, Schober, David, Arling, Adam, Shaw, Karen, and Northwestern University
A lightning talk at Samvera Virtual Connect 2018 described thus and Avalon Media System is working towards a release to integrate with Hyrax in support of time-based media formats. This includes creating a Work type to support the needs of audio and video formats and provide an upgrade path for those who have been using Avalon in it’s previous releases as a standalone Samvera product. Join us for a look at the new Audiovisual Work type, specifically how we’re transitioning descriptive metadata from MODS XML to RDF. A video recording of this session is available at the 'Related URL' below.
Keyword:
Avalon, Samvera, Virtual Connect 2018, Lightning talk, Hyrax, and Metadata
Subject:
Avalon Media System and Samvera Community
Creator:
Hardesty, Juliet L and Young, Jennifer
Contributor:
Indiana University, University of Utah, and Northwestern University
A lightning talk at Samvera Virtual Connect 2018 described thus and IIIF Presentation 3.0 pushes beyond only images to support time-based media. This presentation will explain the new possibilities and how the Avalon team is helping to bring those to Hyrax.
Keyword:
Hyrax, Lightning talk, Avalon, Virtual Connect 2018, International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), and Samvera
A presentation given at Samvera Connect 2018 described thus, An overview of modern front-end UI component architecture and patterns. Will showcase case studies in development and implementation decisions in Avalon Media System (platform, React/Redux application built on top of Hyrax in AWS). Will make a case for why UI component architecture is important in community-driven, open-source development, how it can directly benefit the Samvera community moving forward. A video recording of this session is available at the 'Related URL' below., and Hyrax/Webpacker/React) and Northwestern University's Digital Collections application (platform
Keyword:
Architecture, Connect 2018, Samvera, and User experience
Over the past two years, Northwestern University Libraries has moved its repository infrastructure and applications to Amazon Web Services. Our initial solution, presented at Samvera Connect 2017, involved AWS CloudFormation, several different deployment platforms, and a lot of manual intervention. In our second phase, we have adopted a fully automated build/configure/deploy system to stand up Fedora, Solr, PostgreSQL, Redis, a Cantaloupe IIIF server, an Avalon Media System instance, a secure CloudFront streaming media distribution, and two Hyrax applications using Terraform, Docker, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and a whole bunch of homegrown tools and hacks. This presentation will provide an overview of our current system, and hopefully jumpstart some discussions of how these tools can be adopted, standardized, and reused among other members of the Samvera community. A video recording of this session is available at the 'Related URL' below., A presentation given at Samvera Connect 2018, originally titled "My Life in Ops, and Docker, Terraform, AWS, and Learning As We Go", described thus
For the past year, Avalon Media System has worked alongside members of the IIIF Community to co-develop the specifications for IIIF Presentation API version 3. This version moves beyond the two-dimensional image plane to include audio and video within the scope of media which can utilize IIIF to describe and manage content for use and re-use both with Avalon and by any viewer capable of presenting an object with a IIIF manifest. Avalon is excited about the possibilities for incorporating shareable structural metadata, as well as the ability to incorporate metadata along the timeline of time-based media. We will provide an overview of IIIF and the application of IIIF to AV content, including structural metadata and other features derived from the IIIF API. A video recording of this session is available at the 'Related URL' below. and A presentation given at Samvera Connect 2018 described thus
Keyword:
International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), Avalon, Connect 2018, and Samvera
Subject:
Avalon Media System and Samvera Community
Creator:
Arling, Adam, Keese, Brian, Whitaker, Maria, and Colvard, Chris
Contributor:
Indiana University, University of Utah, and Northwestern University
A presentation at Samvera Connect 2019 described thus and Northwestern University Libraries (NUL) became a Hydra Partner in early 2012. Over the past 7+ years, we produced bespoke applications locally using the Hydra/Samvera codebase, worked on many iterations of a stand-alone grant-funded Hydra/Samvera product with another Partner institution, contributed effort to the development of Hyrax, implemented Hyrax as a component in a larger repository ecosystem, and shifted our repository services to the cloud. As we have evolved, we have gone through many changes in our local culture, in our user needs, in our codebase, and with our talent. One of the organizational culture changes is the shift of NUL to a learning organization. This change has made us more risk tolerant than in the past. It has allowed NUL to solve its local need of large-scale fast ingestion and description using novel approaches and technologies (Elixir, AWS services, Lambdas, etc). This presentation will discuss how these organizational changes and approaches to technology projects made us privilege the value of Samvera as a community of shared values and ideas over its shared codebase.
Join us for an update on Avalon metadata in Hyrax. The Avalon Media System is an open source system for managing and providing access to collections of digital audio and video. The project is led by the libraries of Indiana University Bloomington and Northwestern University and is funded in part by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. We are working to incorporate Avalon descriptive, technical, and structural metadata into Hyrax, the open-source repository front end from the Samvera Community, creating an AudiovisualWork that can be added to Hyrax as a gem alongside other work types (like GenericWork and Image). We will share our progress so far, including mappings for bibliographic import functionality and how things look different between Avalon 6 and Avalon in Hyrax. Avalon in Hyrax will also be available as a standalone Hyrax application so we are both letting the Hyrax in and letting the Avalon out! Come see how these two critters are getting along! and A presentation at Samvera Connect 2019 described thus
Keyword:
Hyrax, Metadata, Avalon, Samvera, and Connect 2019