An Institutional Repository for the University of Pretoria

Ina SmithDSpace Platform Manager

University of Pretoria

20 May 2005DITCHE Conference & Workshop

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

Institutional Repository

• Set of services• Management & dissemination of digital

materials• Organisational commitment• Stewardship• Long-term preservation• Organisation, access, distribution

Approaches

• Digitally born resources• Digitisation

“Champions”

• Africana & Special Collections• Architecture• Scholarly Publications• Veterinary Science

Evaluation of software

• EPrints• Greenstone• DSpace• Fedora• MyCoRe• CDSware• ARNO• Innopac Millennium• WebCT

Why Open Source?

• Promote collaboration• Promote knowledge sharing• Benefit all – not only the vendor• Belongs to all – lots of support• No marketing

Why Open Source?

• Flexible• Openness and creative thinking• Open for scrutiny• Searchable & retrievable via the WWW• Used by institutions with minimal

resources• Uses world standards and open standards

Why DSpace?

• MIT & Hewlett Packard• Archiving & permanent (long-term)

preservation• Easy retrieval• Scalability• Supports full text• Good separation of data and metadata• Supports OAI

Why DSpace?

• Availability of code• Integration into portal• Well defined workflow• Lucene Search Engine• Taxonomic Structure• UP IT Architecture• Open source• GAP Authentication

DSpace Architecture

Three layers with components– Storage layer: Physical storage of

metadata and content– Business logic layer: Manage content,

e-people, authorisation, workflow– Application layer: Communicate with

outside, e.g. Web User Interface, Metadata Harvesting

National & International DSpace Support

• Informative & active web-site• 100+ instances running• Active mailing lists• Enthusiastic community of developers• DSpace wiki – sense of community,

visibility

DSpace Open Source Software License

• Open Software License V. 2.1http://www.opensource.org/licenses/osl 2.1.php

• Open Source Initiative (OSI)http://www.opensource.org/index.php

“ a non-profit corporation dedicated to managing and promoting the Open Source Definition for the good of the community, specifically through the OSI Certified Open

Source Software certification mark and program. “

DSpace for Digital Archiving

• Institutional Repositories• Learning Object Repositories• E-theses• Electronic Records Management• Digital Preservation• Publications

System Requirements

• Linux• Sun Java Compiler• Tomcat (Java servlet engine)• Ant Java build tool: generate .jar or .war files• PostgreSQL (Relational Database

Management System)• Mail Server

About DSpace

• DSpace Stable 1.2.2 May 2005• Version.major.minor• Minor releases: bug fixes, no migration of

data• Major releases: changes to database,

migration needed• Versions: restructuring of architecture,

significant data migration

Default Look & Feel

UPSpace Look & Feel

Information Model

Top-level Community (e.g. Faculty)

Sub-Community (e.g. Department)

Collections (e.g. Pretoriana, Freedom Struggle)

Top-level Communities

Top-level Community

Collections within Top-level

Community

Items in DSpace

• Articles (preprints & postprints) • Technical reports • Working papers • Conference reports • E-theses • E-books

Items in DSpace

• Datasets: statistical, geospatial, etc. • Images: visual, scientific, etc. • Audio files • Video files • Learning objects • Reformatted digital library collections

An Item in DSpace

• Metadata• Files (Bitstreams) with digital content• Many formats are accepted• Largest file 500 MB video (Infosys)• File formats e.g. xml, tiff, jpeg, wav, mov,

qt

Thumbnails

Roles in DSpace

• DSpace Administrator• Collection Administrators• Submitters• Reviewers• Metadata Editors• Approvers

Permission policies in DSpace

• Set permission policies for various collections (read, remove, add, write)

• E-person can be removed from Collection • Items in Collections can only be viewed by

authenticated persons

Workflow

Submit

Accept

Reject

Edit Metadata Commit DSpace

Submission

• Default Submission Interface• Community/ Collection Specific Interface• Mandatory fields: Title, Language• Distributed input

About Metadata

• Descriptive information about an object or resource

• E.g. title, subjects, keywords, author/s, date

Metadata in DSpace

• Qualified DC Metadata• 15 Elements + Qualifiers• Edit DC Registry• Add / delete elements/qualifiers (not

recommended)• Mandatory / Optional fields

Harvesting Metadata

• OAISTER• Search Engines e.g. Google

Bitstreams

• Bitstream Registry

Persistent Identifiers

• CNRI Handle System• Valid citations• Unique handle for each item• E.g. http://hdl.handle.net/1849/171

1849 = Naming authority assigned by handle system to e.g. UP

171 = Unique local name assigned to an item in the repository

Lucene Search Engine

• Simple, high performance, powerful search engine

• Open source• Features

– Boolean searches– Phrase and proximity searching– Relevancy ranking– Field searching– Advanced and basic search– Browse by Community/Collection, Author, Title,

Date

Managing the Project http://www.ais.up.ac.za/edu/dspace

Evaluation

Proposal

Needs Analysis

Design

Development

Implementation

Evaluation

Evaluation

• DSpace on UPDev• DSpace on UP Q&A• DSpace on Portal Server• Evaluation Instrument Program Usability• Evaluation Instrument Design

Reflection & Communication

• DSpace Listserve dspace@kendy.up.ac.za • DSpace web www.ais.up.ac.za/edu/dspace • Update documents & policies• Meetings• Community of Practice

Marketing

• Meetings• UP Library Community • Faculties & Departments• UP Dept. of Marketing• UPSpace E-Newsletter• New staff orientation program• Online brochure• Statistics to Faculties• Support from UP Management

Training

• Information Specialists• Cataloguers• End-users

User Support

• Help landline 8/5• Online help 24/7

– Viewlets e.g. Macromedia Captivate, PPT, Open Office

• Tutorial• User policy• Pamphlet• E-mail dspace@up.ac.za

Policy Issues

• Submission• Communities and Collections• Responsibilities & rights• Licensing, copyright, privacy, intellectual

property• Preservation support• Withdrawals• Workflow• System back-up and availability

Copyright, Rights & Licensing

• License stored with each item• Submitter “Grants License”• Default DSpace License• Community/ Collection License• Copyright note when creating Community• DC Element Rights• DSpace StyleSheet: © University of

Pretoria

IT Support & Back-up

• Dept. of Information Technology• Back-up report• DSpace• Master .tiff images

Limitations

• Limited resources e.g. scanner• Java expertise

The way forward …

• Federated Search Engine• Emerging IR software• Long-term budget• Migration of digital objects• Repository size• Bandwidth• Collaboration e.g. DISA• Collaboration between institutions

The way forward …

• Register with – Open Archives Institute– DSpace Wiki– OAISTER

Conclusions

• Great “digital” libraries will last• Comfortable with change, open source• Traditional library activities

Curator shipCollection DevelopmentQuality Assurance etc.

The WWW can be a library …

Success …

“Courage to explore

Knowledge to exceed

Technology to excel”

Thank you!

ina.smith@up.ac.za

Tel.: +27 12 420 3082

Many thanks to TENET for this opportunity!