Re-Imagining the Stack:

Minimal Computing at Scale in the Digital Library

Dawn Childress, UCLA Digital Library
@kirschbombe

Mapping Maupassant's Bel-Ami

  • ​Originally built in Wordpress
  • Wanted: out of the CMS - collaborative, open, flexible - exposure to DH/tech skills
  • Resulted in Boulevardier framework (fork in GitHub!)

Re-Imagining the stack

Adoption of solutions like Boulevardier for classroom projects in lieu of yet another Drupal site, but...

  • How might digital libraries make use of minimal computing?
    -- What gains might we see at the enterprise level?
    -- Where can we reduce technical infrastructure, especially related to maintenance and labor costs?
  • More fluid front-ends ➝ experimenting with Angular
  • Minimal workflows ?

"Automate like you are going to live forever, document like you are going to die tomorrow" - Michael Sperberg-McQueen

Minimal + Adaptive?

  • Cuba: adaptive technology to meet the needs of community
  • Model based on Cuba's sneakernet
  • Laptop with Collective Access + Wifi hotspot
  • Move to minimal infrastructure external drive
  • External drive can be copied & shared
  • ... and copied and shared ...

Cuba ➝

Thank you!

Dawn Childress, UCLA Digital Library Program

@kirschbombe