Presentation 1
Making the Migration, Moving Legacy Collections into Hydra
In an effort to reach a more sustainable technology landscape and provide better access to our users, Cornell University Library has undertaken a large initiative to aggregate many of our digital collections into a Hydra environment. As a first step we are tackling migration of our text-based collections, which currently reside in DLXS (a legacy system developed by University of Michigan). Since Cornell is also a HathiTrust partner, we initially evaluated collections in terms of their viability for deposit into HathiTrust, with the hope of integrating the two systems. We were excited at the prospect of leveraging Hathi's excellent preservation infrastructure and shared cost model for storage, while allowing for customization of the user interface through Blacklight. However, what seemed conceptually simple at the outset quickly grew in complexity, given that the collections created in DLXS were not tailored toward large, inter-institutional repositories like HathiTrust. The collections required significant "retrofitting" to be deposit-ready, and the skillsets of the assembled project team were not sufficient to do this work. We revised our goals: the remaining items would be pushed into Hydra, with the understanding that given the right combinations of skills, a future effort could be mounted to deposit these additionally into HathiTrust.

In our presentation we will discuss the variables that have informed our decisions (including a checklist developed to evaluate legacy collections for HathiTrust ingest), as well our workflow for moving collections into Hydra. We will also discuss our unified SOLR index, which we intend to use across all of the digital collections slated for Hydra. Lastly, we will identify the types of skills (and ultimately, staff) required to bring this effort to fruition, and our plans for moving forward.

Presenters: Danielle Mericle (Cornell University), Steven Folsom (Cornell University), Michelle Paolillo (Cornell University)

Presentations 2 & 3 - Overview
Exploring Motivations and Evaluation Techniques for DAMS Migration
In recent years, cultural heritage organizations (CHOs) have begun re-assessing Digital Asset Management Systems (DAMS) based on the changing needs of users, the expanding skill sets of staff, and the proliferation of web-based content management tools. As CHOs engage in this process, some choose to migrate from one DAMS to another. This panel will focus on the process of DAMS migration from several perspectives. The first presentation draws upon survey results to understand why CHOs are choosing to migrate from one DAMS to another. The second presentation uses a case study to demonstrate how one CHO selected a new DAMS and is implementing a migration strategy.

Presentation 2
Motivations for DAMS Migration

Based on results from "Identifying Motivations for DAMS Migration: A Survey," this presentation will discuss themes and features desired in future DAMS. It outlines specific topical areas that will inform future system and workflow development and governing body/vendor relations. Presenters will conclude by reviewing lessons learned from the project as well as discussing future areas of research related to this study.

Presenters: Santi Thompson (University of Houston), Ayla Stein (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign)

Presentation 3
Selection Methods and DAMS Migration Implementation

In the Summer of 2014, the University of Houston Libraries formed the DAMS Task Force to identify a system that can support the growing expectations of the UH Digital Library. This presentation will focus on the two core activities that the task force completed: needs assessment and DAMS evaluation. The presentation will discuss how task force members compiled the results of the assessment, established DAMS evaluation criteria, and used the approach to select a new DAMS. It will also reflect on the important role that collaboration, project management, and strategic planning played in this team-based approach to DAMS selection.

Presenters: Annie Wu (University of Houston), Andrew Weidner (University of Houston)