Table of Contents
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Problem and Value Statements
Problem Statement
Since its founding, Harvard Library has been a guardian of the University’s memory and a gateway to the world's knowledge. We currently host an array of discovery systems that use different design approaches, organizational priorities, and technology standards. Scholars and the public expect to be able to find trustworthy information and discover resources easily regardless of the system that is managing and providing access to it.
Solution Business Value
By enabling rich cross-collection search, this project will offer end users intuitive, contextual discovery of special collections, archives and digital collections, through a mix of conversational interfaces, browsing that emphasizes the visual nature of materials when appropriate, and recommendations for similar or related resources, all informed by ongoing user research.
Alignment with Harvard Library Multi-Year Goals and Objectives
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Sprints | Outcome | Responsible Parties |
|---|---|---|
| Sprint 1 | Gained foundational understanding of back end, and established collaboration practices with each other and other HUIT and LTS colleagues. | Technical Project Team |
| Sprint 2 | Investigated front end frameworks and decided on React, diagramed a draft front end architecture, and "made real" step 3 (semantic retrieval) in order to help begin the front end work. See recording of demo here. | Technical Project Team |
Sprint 3 | Initialize front end development (big win: to work with fastapi for semantic retrieval), finish deploy of semantic retrieval, and experiment with one LLM generative feature and finish indexing the Finding Aids. See recording of demo here. | Technical Project Team |
Sprint 4 | Continuing work on front end, making it deployable on dev and finishing back end generative AI features work. Planning for usability testing. | Technical Project Team |
Definition of Done
Discovery platform, including access to digital assets, is released on production environment and in use by Harvard constituents and the public.
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