Services for eVols Communities
University of Hawaii at Manoa Library
The UHM Library administers eVols at UHM. Outlined below are the range of services the Library provides to eVols Communities.
The eVols Basic Service includes both Core Services and Management Services:
- Core Services offer a fully functional system where eVols Community members can submit, preserve, and access items in eVols.
- Management Services include providing ongoing support for eVols Communities, responding to customer inquiries, and supplying system monitoring, back-up, and recovery.
Additional services may be offered at a later date through a eVols Premium Services on a fee-for-service basis.
eVols Core Services
Submission Services
eVols offers faculty and researchers a flexible, easy-to-use submission process. A faculty member or designee simply completes a brief submission form and grants permission for eVols to distribute and preserve the work.
An authorized submitter to eVols can do the following:
- Register with eVols and edit his/her user profile
- Post a submission to a specified Collection
- Enter metadata for a submission, using standard forms with Community-specific default values
- Include additional metadata
- Bundle multiple files of various formats in a single submission
- Allow the system to identify formats of submitted files, with user override
- Associate the Creative Commons license with the submitted files
- Grant a non-exclusive license to the host institution to distribute a submission in accordance with the specified distribution policy and translate it for the purposes of preservation
- Receive updates on the progress of an item through the submission workflow process
- View past and pending submissions in a personalized "My eVols" page
Content Workflows
Communities can use a customized workflow process to control how new submissions are reviewed and approved for that Community's Collections. When we initially set up a eVols Community, we will establish these submission workflows, as well as the reviewer, metadata editor, and coordinator roles for each Community.
Through the submission workflow process, reviewers, metadata editors, and coordinators can:
- Augment and approve submissions in the workflow process
- Review the content of the submission for appropriateness to the Collection and make the decision to route a submission back to the submitter or give approval
- Check the submission's metadata for completeness and obvious errors, edit errors, and make the decision to route a submission back to the submitter or give approval
- Augment the submission's metadata
- View, select, and perform workflow tasks from the "Pending Workflow Tasks" section of his/her personalized "My eVols" page
Core Repository Services
eVols provides storage and preservation management services to ensure the longevity of deposited materials. Users should be assured that content submitted in supported formats will be accessible even when the original application in which it was created is obsolete and the means to access it are inoperable.
Note that UHM faculty, researchers, departments, labs, and centers do not have to download or run eVols on their servers. The UHM Library runs and maintains the eVols servers for all UHM Communities. You use a web-based submission and search interface to access eVols.
For each submission to a eVols Collection, eVols:
- Provides persistent storage, including appropriate back-up and recovery procedures
- Assigns a unique persistent identifier that will not change and is appropriate to cite in other works
- Supports a range of service levels for preservation and notifies users of eVols's preservation constraints
- Stores provenance information
- Maintains an auditable history and record of changes to the archive
Core Repository Quotas
A community's initial storage quotas are based on the size of the eVols Community as determined by the UHM Library. Thereafter, the quotas will be reviewed on an annual basis, at which time UHM Library reserves the right to alter the quotas as dictated by demand and resource availability. Communities with greater storage needs will need to contact eVols administration at sspace@hawaii.edu.
Here is the current storage allocation for eVols Communities:
| eVols Quotas | |||
| Community Size | Small | Medium | Large |
| Number of Submitters | <50 | 51 - 149 | >150 |
| Number of Documents per Year | 300 | 600 | 1000 |
| Average File Size | 1 MB | 1 MB | 1 MB |
| Annual Storage Limit | 300 MB | 600 MB | 1000 MB |
| Total Storage After 5 years | 1.5 GB | 3.0 GB | 5.0 GB |
eVols Management Services
Community Management Services
Services are provided by UHM Library to help faculty and researchers manage their Communities in eVols. These services include consulting and applied services tailored to each eVols Community at UHM. Library staff will provide guidance in developing a Community or Collection's workflow process, metadata requirements, and distribution policies, as well as launching a custom eVols Community homepage. A standard set of online reports will also be made available to each Community to help manage its Collections.
The UHM Library will manage all aspects of the Community set-up process, including:
- Planning and scheduling new Community and Collection set-ups
- Leading the initial Community meeting to discuss and explain set-up requirements
- Implementing a custom workflow for the submission process including metadata defaults
- Customizing eVols Community and Collection home pages
- Training Community users and coordinators
- Assisting with ongoing Collection set-ups
- Coordinating bulk loads of historic content and metadata
End-User Support Services
See the eVols FAQ page for answers to routine eVols support questions.
If you're a UHM researcher who wants support information, please contact us at sspace@hawaii.edu.
System Management Services
These services are the back-office support for eVols, working to ensure optimal system performance and high availability. The UHM Library will provide a comprehensive set of technical services for eVols system operations, including:
- Performing system monitoring, testing, and debugging
- Performing system administration
- Monitoring and upgrading eVols utility programs and middleware
- Developing approved system enhancements
- Performing bulk loading of historic content and metadata
- Maintaining a registry of known content and metadata formats for preservation purposes
Contact your Community's eVols administrator or write sspace@hawaii.edu if you have questions about eVols policies.
Appreciation is given to the University of Oregon and Massachusetts Institute of Technology for providing some of the information on these pages.