Contract Programmer, Repository Registry

Description

The Orbis Cascade Alliance seeks a qualified programmer to perform the following work by 2014 September 30 through a Personal Services Contract with the Alliance.

Description of Overall Project
The Archive Engine West grant began 2011 October 1 as the Cross-Search and Context Utility and was scheduled to conclude on 2013 December 31. Although the aims of the Archive Engine West grant have largely been fulfilled, there is a strong a need to better integrate into the Alliance’s Strategic Agenda. Thus, the extension project addresses infrastructure, digital content metadata, preparing to potentially become a DPLA Service Hub, and integration with the Orbis Cascade Alliance’s Strategic Agenda and new organizational structure. The grant extension concludes of 2014 December 31.

Scope of Work
Create a sustainable infrastructure for repository records used by AEW and NWDA’s EAD infrastructure. To be completed by 2014 September 30 based on existing specifications (see below).

Qualifications
Skilled at modern web programming standards and UI design. Experienced in ASP.NET and the C# language. Knowledge of the Windows Internet Information Server as a platform for ASP-based interfaces. Demonstrated knowledge of XML as well as digital library metadata standards and systems.

Demonstrated record of trustworthiness and completing projects on time and at or under budget through contacts with past clients.
Evidence of adequate liability insurance.

Compensation
Negotiated

Application: Due by close of business August 1, 2014 to Jodi Allison-Bunnell, jodiab@orbiscascade.org

Letter of application that includes a not to exceed price for the project
Portfolio of projects completed
Three client references
 
Specifications
Objective: Create a sustainable infrastructure for repository records used by AEW and NWDA’s EAD infrastructure.

Timeline: To be completed by 2014 September 30.

Repository records storage and management is  a new module for the NWDA utility site, a password-protected site accessible only to members at https://nwda.orbiscascade.org/tools/Login.aspx. The members currently use the tools linked to this site to validate and upload their Encoded Archival Description (EAD)-based finding aid documents to the NWDA back-end database.  After the work described here is completed, NWDA members should be able to log into the utility site and edit their repository records as well, then have that information be displayed for all their finding aids on the NWDA site, http://nwda.orbiscascade.org.

Repository records are currently encoded via embedded XML elements into each XML-based EAD document hosted on the NWDA site. Keeping this information complete and up to date for each individual document is a maintenance issue that limits the usefulness and accuracy of the metadata. The aim of this project is to move from this approach to a more flexible and easily maintained one  that produces better user outcomes. Once the repository records are in a central registry, the XSLT stylesheet for rendering the EAD documents to HTML will reference  the registry records instead of the encoded information in the EADs.

The production utility site is hosted on a dedicated hardware server running the Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard operating system.  The web server is Microsoft IIS 7 and the site software is written in Microsoft C# and ASP.NET.  Perl, PHP, Python, Javascript, and SQLite are used as back-end scripts and support for some functions and can be used for this project as well, if desired.  The original development environment was and continued support has been done with  Visual Studio 2010 Professional. 

The source code for the utility site will be provided to the developer for installation on an appropriate local server available to them, with the expectation that the code for the repository registry will be developed against this and then returned for integration into the production code base.  Documentation, both external to and within source code, will be provided by the developer. 

Repository records should contain the following fields:
• Name of repository with parent institution (e.g. Heritage Resources, Western Washington University)
• Email
• URL of repository
• Phone number
• Fax number
• Complete mailing address: address, city, state, ZIP
• Narrative for planning an in-person research visit OR URL to website that provides this information
• Narrative that provides an overview of collection and collection strengths OR URL to website that provides this information
• Narrative that describes how researchers request copies OR URL to website that provides this information
• Institutional logo

The data listed above has already been collected from NWDA members.

The repository records should be constructed such that they can be referenced by XSLT stylesheets for display as the following EAD fields:
• Name of repository: