From: Lisa Schiff <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2012 23:21:07 +0000
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lisa Schiff
California Digital Library
University of California, Office of the President
(510) 987-0881
[log in to unmask]
http://xtf.cdlib.org
California Digital Library Announces Release of XTF Version 3.1
Oakland, CA, August 6, 2012 - The California Digital Library (CDL) is
pleased to announce the release of version 3.1 of XTF
(http://xtf.cdlib.org/), an open source, highly flexible software
application that supports the search, browse and display of
heterogeneous digital content. XTF provides efficient and practical
methods for creating customized end-user interfaces for distinct
digital content collections and is used by institutions worldwide.
Major features in the 3.1 release include:
* Improved schema handling for EAD finding aids. In addition to EAD
2002 DTD, XTF now provides support for search and display of:
o EAD 2002 schema and EAD 2002 RelaxNG finding aids
o Output from Archivists’ Toolkit and Archon
* Better OAI 2.0 conformance
* Dynamic site maps to support optimal search engine indexing
See the 3.1 change log
(http://xtf.cdlib.org/documentation/changelog/#3.1) for further
details.
XTF is a combination of Java and XSLT 2.0 that indexes, queries, and
displays digital objects and is based on open source software (e.g.
Lucene and Saxon). XTF can be downloaded from the XTF website
(http://xtf.cdlib.org/download/) or from the XTF Project page on
SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net/projects/xtf/), where the source
code can also be found.
The XTF website also provides a self-guided tutorial and a sample of
the default installation (http://xtf.cdlib.org:8080/xtf/search),
demonstrating the capabilities of the tool out-of-the-box. Both of
these resources provide a quick view of the capabilities of XTF prior
to download.
Offering a suite of customizable features that support diverse
intellectual access to content, XTF interfaces can be designed to
support the distinct tools and presentations that are useful and
meaningful to specific audiences. In addition, XTF offers the
following core features:
* Easy to deploy: Drops directly in to a Java application server such
as Tomcat or Resin; has been tested on Solaris, Mac, Linux, and
Windows operating systems.
* Easy to configure: Can create indexes on any XML element or
attribute; entire presentation layer is customizable via XSLT.
* Robust: Optimized to perform well on large documents (e.g., a single
text that exceeds 10MB of encoded text); scales to perform well on
collections of millions of documents; provides full Unicode support.
* Extensible:
* Works well with a variety of authentication systems (e.g., IP
address lists, LDAP, Shibboleth).
* Provides an interface for external data lookups to support
thesaurus-based term expansion, recommender systems, etc.
* Can power other digital library services (e.g., XTF contains an
OAI-PMH data provider that allows others to harvest metadata, and an
SRU interface that exposes searches to federated search engines).
Can be deployed as separate, modular pieces of a third-party system
(e.g., the module that displays snippets of matching text).
* Powerful for the end user:
Spell checking of queries
Faceted displays for browsing
Dynamically updated browse lists
Session-based bookbags
These basic features can be tuned and modified. For instance, the
same bookbag feature that allows users to store links to entire books
can also store links to citable elements of an object, such as a note
or other reference.
Examples of XTF-based applications both within and outside of the CDL include:
* eScholarship (http://www.escholarship.org), the University of
California’s open access scholarly publishing and research platform.
* Mark Twain Project Online (http://www.marktwainproject.org),
developed by the Mark Twain Papers Project, the CDL and the University
of California Press.
* Calisphere (http://calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/), a
curated collection of primary sources keyed to the curriculum
standards of California’s K-12 community, developed by the CDL.
* SNAC: The Social Networks and Archival Context Project (prototype)
(http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/xtf/search), linking together
descriptions of people from finding aids using the new standard
Encoded Archival Context-Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families
(EAC-CPF), developed by IATH, University of Virginia
(http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/staff.html#iath ), the CDL and
the UC Berkeley School of Information
(http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/staff.html#ucbsi).
* Various collections at the University of Sydney, Australia,
including: Frontiers of Science, University of Sydney Library
(http://frontiers.library.usyd.edu.au/); the Sydney College of the
Arts Archive (http://va.library.usyd.edu.au)
* The Encyclopedia of Chicago
(http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/), developed by the
Chicago History Museum, The Newberry Library, and Northwestern
University
* The Chymistry of Isaac Newton
(http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton/) and The Swinburne Project
(http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/swinburne/), Indiana University
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