Here are the latest DSpace developments:
Technical team
Let’s take a look under the hood at the technical team's work. This team, consisting of Chin U. Kim and Gabe Galson, has been working on an upgrade from DSpace 6.2 to 6.3. The idea is to get DSpace to the highest available version before going live, giving the Services and Metadata teams access to every available out-of-the-box feature. Upgrading before going live also lets us get familiar with this process, and lets us execute it without having to worry about site downtime. Upgrading is not a simple process and post-upgrade customizations built atop one’s repository must often be re-implemented, or re-engineered. The good news is the upgrade was successfully executed last week! Kudos to Chin U. Kim for figuring out this process's quirks and pulling off the upgrade without a hitch. With the upgrade complete, Gabe can continue configuring the system so that it matches the Metadata and Services groups’ specifications.
Project planning
The technical team + Annie Johnson (Unlicensed) also called a meeting with high level stakeholders to determine how much customization the DSpace interface can and should be given before go-live. Gabe presented several options to the group:
Skinning with Blacklight, the framework used to create our new Library Search (this could look something like Columbia’s IR).
Extensively customizing DSpace (this could look something like DukeSpace)
Using an out-of-the box DSpace theme (i.e., this example repository).
Chad Nelson (Unlicensed) and his team will investigate these three options, determining which is best in light of the Services and Metadata groups’ needs, as well as the constraints under which the development team is working. To facilitate this investigation the Services group and Metadata group will each prioritize a list of system features, which the developers can use to assess each option’s pros and cons. This in turn will let the project team finalize a timeline.
Stay tuned for more updates!
Here are the latest DSpace updates:
The Metadata group has finished defining its crosswalks. These determine how external systems (including Symplectic Elements, ProQuest ETD Administrator, and ContentDM) will deposit item metadata into DSpace. The completion of this work will allow Gabe to create the actual crosswalks, which must be coded in XML. A direct submission form is also being defined and implemented. This will allow researchers to deposit directly into the repository.
The technical team continues to investigate and implement enhancements requested by the Services and Metadata groups.
The Services group continues to guide the IR’s configuration, while group members continue drafting policy. So far the group has produced and reviewed policy statements covering the following areas: the IR’s purpose and mission, the scope of its intellectual content, the user communities allowed to contribute, privacy concerns, and copyright considerations. That’s a lot of conversation, and a lot of writing! All of this will soon have to be standardized, collated, and presented to the public through some sort of user interface. The good news is we have only a few areas left to tackle, including ADA & accessibility concerns, metadata policies, and a digital preservation strategy.