Note: the Digital Object Architecture Project includes the CNRI Repository.

CNRI's program of research and development in digital libraries has a number of inter-related activities that overlap and build upon each other. The work includes development of core technology that is used in several testbeds and implementation projects, with funding from a variety of sources.

The Digital Object Architecture Project continues the architectural work of the DARPA-funded Computer Science Technical Reports Project (CSTR).

The project focuses on the development of an infrastructure of services that provide access to distributed and secure digital objects. Digital objects are networked objects that are instantiated by an infrastructure service we call a repository. Digital objects provide access to their content using an extensible and secure dissemination mechanism. Disseminations can be thought of as high level types that are uniquely distinguished by a combination of operations, and types of data the latter are performed on. Disseminations consist of mobile code called Servlet that can be designed, implemented, and registered with the digital object infrastructure by anyone with the proper permissions. Any digital object with the appropriate rights can automatically use registered servlets. This extensible dissemination mechanism enables digital objects to accommodate a wide variety of possible content, from complex to simple, static or dynamic, and from permanent to real time data. Disseminations have few operational limits and enable digital objects to dynamically generate or acquire their content.

Current ongoing research includes the development of dissemination registry, infrastructure searching, security and scalability.

Support for the Digital Object Architecture project is provided by DARPA, the Library of Congress, and the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), through DARPA grant MDA972-92-J-1029.

Technology

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows the principal system components. CNRI's research concentrates on the concept of digital objects, the Handle System for identifying digital objects, and the Repository for storing them and making them available over the Internet. The Registry is a specialized repository that is used to authenticate digital objects.

The Handle System is a system for providing persistent names for Internet resources. It is a highly reliable, high performance, distributed system.

The Repository provides network based storage and access to digital objects. All access to digital objects passes uses a simple repository access protocol and is subject to access controls established by the manager of the repository.

The Registry is a specialized repository that provides secure registration and authentication of digital objects.

Partners

CORDRA/ADL. CNRI is designing a registration system for the ADL CORDRA project, to be known as the ADL Registry or ADL-R, and deliver it for use at the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). This effort will enable the discovery and reuse of learning content held in repositories distributed across the DoD.

Defense Virtual Information Architecture. The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and CNRI are working to extend and transfer CNRI's Digital Object Architecture work into a prototype digital library implementation.

Additional Information

• Kahn, Robert & Wilensky, Robert. "A framework for distributed digital object services"; International Journal on Digital Libraries (2006) 6(2). [doi:10.1007/s00799-005-0128-x]. Reproduced with permission of the publisher.

• Henry Jerez, Giridhar Manepalli, Christophe Blanchi, and Larry Lannom, "ADL-R: The First Instance of a CORDRA Registry", D-Lib Magazine, February 2006. [ doi:10.1045/february2006-jerez ]

• Giridhar Manepalli, Henry Jerez, and Michael L. Nelson, "FeDCOR: An Institutional CORDRA Registry", D-Lib Magazine, February 2006. [ doi:10.1045/february2006-manepalli ]

• Talk by Dr. Robert Kahn on the Digital Object Architecture and it's importance to the future of the Internet. [Windows Media Format, 240 MB]

• Christophe Blanchi, Jason Petrone, "Distributed Interoperable Metadata Registry", D-Lib Magazine, December 2001. [ doi:10.1045/december2001-blanchi ]

• Christophe Blanchi, Jason Petrone, "An Architecture for Digital Object Typing", White Paper, CNRI, September 2001. [ hdl:4263537/4096 ]

• Robert E. Kahn and Vinton G. Cerf, "What is the Internet (And What Makes It Work)", prepared by the authors at the request of the Internet Policy Institute, December 1999.

• Sun, Sam, "Handle System Namespace and Service Definition", TWIST '99, Irvine, California, August 19, 1999.

• "Managing Access to Digital Information" Cross Industry Working Team (XIWT), July 1999.

• Sandra Payette, Cornell University; Christophe Blanchi, CNRI; Carl Lagoze, Cornell University; Edward A. Overly, CNRI, "Interoperability for Digital Objects and Repositories: The Cornell/CNRI Experiments, D-Lib Magazine, May 1999. [ doi:10.1045/may99-payette ]

• Laurence Lannom. "Handle System Overview". ICSTI Forum, No. 30, April 1999.

• William Y. Arms, "A national library for undergraduate science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education: needs, options, and feasibility (technical considerations)". In: National Research Council, "Developing a national digital library for undergraduate science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education". Washington D.C.: National Academy Press. 1998.

• "Implementing Policies for Access Management" by William Y. Arms, D-Lib Magazine, February 1998. [ doi:10.1045/february98-arms ]

• William Y. Arms, "Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) and Clifford Lynch's five questions on identifiers". ARL Newsletter, October 1997.

• "An Architecture for Information in Digital Libraries" by William Y. Arms, Christophe Blanchi, Edward A. Overly. D-Lib Magazine, February 1997. [ doi:10.1045/february97-arms ]

• "Uniform Resource Names: A Progress Report" by the URN Implementors. D-Lib Magazine, February 1996. [ hdl:cnri.dlib/february96-urn_implementors ]

• "A Design for Inter-Operable Secure Object Stores (ISOS)" by Carl Lagoze, Robert McGrath, Ed Overly, Nancy Yeager. Cornell Computer TR95-1558.

• "Implementation Issues in an Open Architecture Framework for Digital Object Services" by Carl Lagoze and David Ely. Cornell Computer Science Technical Report TR95-1540.

• Lagoze, Carl, "A Secure Repository Design for Digital Libraries", D-Lib Magazine, Decmeber 1995. [ doi:10.1045/december95-lagoze ]

• "Key Concepts in the Architecture of the Digital Library" by William Y. Arms, D-Lib Magazine, July 1995. [ doi:10.1045/july95-arms ]

• "A Framework for Distributed Digital Object Services" by Robert Kahn and Robert Wilensky, May 1995. [ hdl:4263537/5001 ]