Scribd
Upload
81 views13 pages

The DSpace Course Introduction To DSpace

Uploaded by

Helen Jeans
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
81 views13 pages

The DSpace Course Introduction To DSpace

Uploaded by

Helen Jeans
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 13

The DSpace Course – Introduction to DSpace

Module: An introduction to DSpace


Module overview:
This module will introduce DSpace, its history, and the DSpace Foundation. The module will
introduce what DSpace is and what it can be used for. It will then describe the development of
DSpace over time, and talk about the DSpace Foundation which now oversees the running of
DSpace. The open source development model used by DSpace will also be described.

Module objectives:
By the end of this module you will:

1. Understand what DSpace is, and what it can be used for

2. Know the history of DSpace

3. Understand the role of the DSpace Foundation, and how it works

4. Know how DSpace software is licensed, and what this allows you to do

5. Understand the open source development model used by DSpace

6. Know how to log in to your course computer

Note
For the practical e ercise, please refer to our sheet Local i structio s for details of the
following:

 How to start your course computer

Page 1 of 13
The DSpace Course – Introduction to DSpace

What is DSpace?

What is DSpace?
DSpace is a platform that allows you to capture items in any format – in text, video, audio, and
data. It distributes it over the web. It indexes your work, so users can search and retrieve your
items. It preserves your digital work over the long term.

DSpace provides a way to manage your research materials and publications in a professionally
maintained repository to give them greater visibility and accessibility over time.

DSpace is typically used as an institutional repository. It has three main roles:

1. Facilitate the capture and ingest of materials, including metadata about the materials
2. Facilitate easy access to the materials, both by listing and searching
3. Facilitate the long term preservation of the materials

Page 2 of 13
The DSpace Course – Introduction to DSpace

What are the benefits of using DSpace?

What are the benefits of using DSpace?


 Getting your research results out quickly, to a worldwide audience
 Reaching a worldwide audience through exposure to search engines such as Google
 Storing reusable teaching materials that you can use with course management systems
 Archiving and distributing material you would currently put on your personal website
 Stori g e a ples of stude ts projects with the stude ts per issio
 Showcasi g stude ts theses agai with per issio
 Keeping track of your own publications/bibliography
 Having a persistent network identifier for your work, that never changes or breaks
 No ore page charges for i ages. You ca poi t to our i ages persiste t ide tifiers i
your published articles.

Page 3 of 13
The DSpace Course – Introduction to DSpace

What can DSpace be used for?

What can DSpace be used for?


DSpace can be used to store any type of digital medium. Examples include:

 Journal papers

 Data sets

 Electronic theses

 Reports

 Conference posters

 Videos

 Images

Page 4 of 13
The DSpace Course – Introduction to DSpace

What does DSpace look like?

What does DSpace look like?


At a very high level, DSpace looks like this:

 Web-based interface makes it easy for a submitter to create an archival item by


depositing files. DSpace was designed to handle any format from simple text documents
to datasets and digital video.

 Data files, also called bitstreams, are organized together into related sets. Each
bitstream has a technical format and other technical information. This technical
information is kept with bitstreams to assist with preservation over time.

 An item is an "archival atom" consisting of grouped, related content and associated


descriptions (metadata). An item's exposed metadata is indexed for browsing and
searching. Items are organized into collections of logically-related material.

Page 5 of 13
The DSpace Course – Introduction to DSpace

 A community is the highest level of the DSpace content hierarchy. They correspond to
parts of the organization such as departments, labs, research centers or schools.

 DSpace s odular architecture allows for creatio of large, ulti-disciplinary


repositories that ultimately can be expanded across institutional boundaries.

 DSpace is committed to going beyond reliable file preservation to offer functional


preservation where files are kept accessible as technology formats, media, and
paradigms evolve over time for as many types of files as possible.

 The end-user interface supports browsing and searching the archives. Once an item is
located, Web-native formatted files can be displayed in a Web browser while other
formats can be downloaded and opened with a suitable application program.

Page 6 of 13
The DSpace Course – Introduction to DSpace

A brief history of DSpace

The beginning - 2000


The DSpace project was initiated in July 2000 as part of the HP-MIT alliance (Hewlett Packard /
Massachusetts Institute of Technology). The project was given $1.8 million USD by HP over two
years to build a digital archive for MIT that would handle the 10,000 articles produced by MIT
authors annually.

Software releases
Releases of the DSpace software have taken places as follows:

 DSpace version 1.0 - 8th November 2002


 DSpace version 1.1 - 8th May 2003
 DSpace version 1.2 – 13th August 2004
 DSpace version 1.3 – 3rd August 2005
 DSpace version 1.4 – 26th July 2006
 DSpace version 1.5 – 25th March 2008
Page 7 of 13
The DSpace Course – Introduction to DSpace

The DSpace Foundation

The DSpace Foundation


The DSpace Foundation was formed in 2007 as a non-profit organization to provide support to
the growing community of institutions that use DSpace. The fou datio s issio is to lead the
collaborative development of open source software to enable permanent access to digital
works.

The DSpace Foundation employs four members of staff:

1. Michele Kimpton – Executive Director (formerly director of the Internet Archive)


[email protected]
2. Brad McLean – Technical Architect
[email protected]
3. Valorie Hollister – Community Outreach Manager
[email protected]
4. Laure L Espera ce – Webmaster (part time)
[email protected]

Page 8 of 13
The DSpace Course – Introduction to DSpace

The aims of the Foundation

The aims of the Foundation


The DSpace Foundation has several different core aims

 Develop and manage a strong network of service providers and training resources

 Promote DSpace via a monthly newsletter, website, marketing materials etc

 Build and support an active community of developers and users

 Ensure DSpace integrates using open standards

 Manage and co-ordinate the DSpace platform roadmap and software releases

Page 9 of 13
The DSpace Course – Introduction to DSpace

The community development model

Open source software


DSpace is open source software. That means that you can download, use, and modify DSpace
for free. The software is shared under a BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) licence.

The development model


The code for DSpace is kept within a source code control system
(http://dspace.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/dspace/). This system allows code to be added or
modified over time, whilst maintaining a track of all changes and a note of why the change was
made and who made it. This assists with the development of the software and ensures the
quality and traceability of the code. Any past version of DSpace can be downloaded from the
system in an identical state as originally distributed.

Co trol of the source code repositor is delegated to a s all group of co itters


(http://wiki.dspace.org/index.php/DspaceContributors). Only the committers have the ability to
change the code and release new versions. The committers work with the wider community of
DSpace users to fix bugs and improve the software with new features.
Page 10 of 13
The DSpace Course – Introduction to DSpace

Anyone who wants to is welcome to submit big fixes, new features or feature requests. The can
all be done through the SourceForge administrative system
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/dspace/).

Support is provided on an informal basis via email lists


(http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=19984). There are three lists:

1. DSpace-Tech for technical support

2. DSpace-General for general questions and announcements

3. DSpace-Dev for discussing development issues

For full details of support optio s see the odule How to get Help .

Page 11 of 13
The DSpace Course – Introduction to DSpace

Practical exercise

Start your course machine


Follow the i structio s o our local i structio s sheet to log i to our course co puter.

Page 12 of 13
The DSpace Course – Introduction to DSpace

Credits
 These notes have been produced by:

 Stuart Lewis & Chris Yates

 Repository Support Project

 http://www.rsp.ac.uk/

 Part of the RepositoryNet

 Funded by JISC

 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/

Page 13 of 13

You might also like