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This page addresses the most commonly-asked questions about DSpace. See = also the TechnicalFAQ page for= anwers to technical questions about DSpace.
A groundbreaking digital repository system, DSpace capt= ures, stores, indexes, preserves and redistributes an organization's resear= ch material in digital formats. Research institutions worldwide use DSpace = for a variety of digital archiving needs - from institutional repositories = (IRs) to learning object repositories or electronic records management, and= more. DSpace is freely available as open source software you can customize= and extend. An active community of developers, researchers and users world= wide contribute their expertise to the DSpace Community.
Anyone who uses DSpace can get involved, in a number of different ways: = programming, defining feature requirements, writing documentation, testing = new features , sharing your design or marketing expertise. Get involved by = jo= ining the DSpace mailing lists, = adding your projects, experiences, and comments to the DSpace Wiki, and collaborating with other DSpace community members.
The MIT Libraries and Hewlett-Packard (HP) originally developed DSpace 1= .0. But, it quickly became a collaborative project from institutions = around the world. These days, it's built/maintained primarily by volunteers= , under the support of Lyrasis. The system is now freely available t= o research institutions world-wide as an open source system that can be cus= tomized and extended.
DSpace is freely available as open source software. The DSpace Community= manages the code base and releases new versions of the software. An active= community of developers, researchers and users worldwide contribute their = expertise to the DSpace Community.
See also Does the DSpace project have a supporting organization?=
DSpace is the first digital repository to address the myriad issues inhe= rent in a multi-disciplinary archive, including:
DSpace is designed with a flexible storage and retrieval architecture ad= aptable to a multitude of data formats and distinct research disciplines, k= nown as "communities." Each community has its own customized user portal th= at can use the community's own practices and terminology.
The success of any open-source project lies with the community contribut= ing its collective energy, knowledge, enthusiasm, and effort. DSpace is dev= eloped and supported by the user community, with the help and guidance of <= a class=3D"external-link" href=3D"https://www.lyrasis.org/" rel=3D"nofollow= ">Lyrasis.
For a brief history of DSpace project support, see our NOTICE in the codebase.
Yes. The DSpace system is freely available as open-source software (see = locations below), under the terms of the BSD distrib= ution license. We have also tried to find good open-source tools to pac= kage with the DSpace application, all freely available under an open-source= license (although not all the same license as the one for DSpace itself), = so that you get a complete system along with the part that we created.
Open-source systems like DSpace are available for anyone to download and= run at any type of institution, organization, or company (or even just an = individual). Users are also allowed to modify DSpace to meet an organizatio= n's specific needs. The BSD distribution license= describes its specific terms of use.
DSpace is freely available as open-source software fromGitHub. For more information on the most recen= t release of the software see the Rele= ases.
DSpace is freely available as open-source software from GitHub. If you are familiar with Git, you can also download the lat= est code via our GitHub Code Repository.
Yes, you can customize and extend the system to suit your organization's= needs. DSpace was designed to make adapting it for individual organization= s as easy as possible. See the section on how to contribute on the DSpace Wiki for informa= tion on submitting code changes to DSpace. Each application is different, b= ut most organizations need to customize the authentication system, for exam= ple, to work with existing systems. Some organizations may want to substitu= te the open-source tools supplied with DSpace with different ones (for exam= ple, replacing PostgreSQL with mySQL or Oracle).
O'Reilly & Associates has a very helpful web site devoted to open so= urce: http://opensource.oreilly.com/.
DSpace accepts all manner of digital formats. Some examples of items tha= t DSpace can accommodate are:
Each DSpace service is comprised of Communities =E2=80= =93 groups that contribute content to DSpace =E2=80=93 and Communities in t= urn each have Collections, which contain the content items= , or files. In a university environment, for example, Communities= strong> might be departments, labs, research centers, schools, or some othe= r administrative unit within an institution. Communities determine their ow= n content guidelines and decide who has access to the community's contribut= ions. An administrator on the DSpace team, usually the DSpace User Support = Manager, works with the head of a community to set up workflows for content= to be approved, edited, tagged with metadata, etc. Collections belong to a community or multiple communities (for example, research = collaborations between two communities may result in a shared collection) a= nd house the individual content items and files.
Yes. Currently DSpace has a Item Exporter which supports exporting digit= al content, along with its metadata, in a simple XML-encoded file format (w= here each item is exported into a separate directory). See the "Item Import= er and Exporter" section of the DSpace Documentation's System Administratio= n chapter for more details.
There are also basic packagers which allow exporting using the METS standard. For more information on these, see the "Package Imp= orter and Exporter" section of the DSpace Documentation's System Administra= tion chapter (see above link).
References:
Yes. Currently DSpace supports importing content in batch using a variet= y of options:
References:
Yes, as of DSpace 7.x, we have a full featured REST API which can be used to access any of the data withi= ng DSpace. You can use any programming language to access this API an= d integrate with other systems>
DSpace requires that a persistent identifier is assigned to each digital= object (Item, Collection, Community). Because the developers wanted a solu= tion which will work for a very long time, the identifier system had to be = independent of any underlying network protocols, such as HTTP.
DSpace uses the Handle System from CNRI (Corporation for N= ational Research Initiatives) as the persistent identifier for each dig= ital object. Handles are resolved to actual URLs via a resolution service. = The Handle resolver is an open-source system. Handles in DSpace (and elsewh= ere) are currently implemented as HTTP URIs, but can also be modified to wo= rk with future protocols. The Handle system is also able to support existin= g bibliographic identifiers such as ISBN or ISSN.
In the current version of DSpace, Handles are used as internal identifie= rs. By default, DSpace utilizes a 'dummy' (non-external) Handle prefix of '= 123456789' when assigning Handles to new objects. If an organization wishes= to obtain a valid Handle prefix (which can be resolved from external locat= ions), one can be purchased from the Handle System sit= e for a small annual service fee.
It should be noted that if an organization has a policy requiring the us= e of another persistent identifier system, it is possible to use it as the = public or external persistent identifier to the resource. In such a case, t= he public identifier - for instance, a URN - could resolve to a DSpace-gene= rated page which contains metadata about the resource - including the Handl= e-based persistent link to the resource itself.
Future versions of DSpace may support multiple internal persistent ident= ifiers. However, this work is still under investigation, and we are looking= for developers and institutions willing to volunteer to help with this pro= ject.
DSpace itself does not guarantee the preservation of your digital materi= als. However, DSpace software is suited to play a central role in your over= all digital preservation strategy. Keep in mind that your local digital pre= servation strategy should likely include a backup/restore plan, along with = virus checking, etc.
DSpace allows you to identify two levels of digital preservation: bit pr= eservation, and functional preservation. Bit preservation ensures that a fi= le remains exactly the same over time - not a single bit is changed - while= the physical media evolve around it. Functional preservation goes further:= the file does change over time so that the material continues to = be immediately usable in the same way it was originally while the digital f= ormats (and physical media) evolve over time. Some file formats can be func= tionally preserved using straightforward format migration, such as TIFF ima= ges or XML documents. Other formats are proprietary, or for other reasons a= re much harder to preserve functionally. No one can predict the formats all= users will choose for their research material. They use the best tools for= their purposes, and research institutions will get whatever formats those = tools produce. For this reason, DSpace allows you to choose three levels of= preservation for a given format: supported, known, or unsupported.
It is important to note that, although DSpace provides some default valu= es for Supported, Known and Unknown formats, your institution should determ= ine the appropriate values based on your local preservation strategy.
DSpace also provides other tools to help you to meet your preservation g= oals:
References:
You can find DSpace system documentation on the DSpace.org website or on the DSpace Resources wiki page= .
The DSpace Community of developers support one another and exchange idea= s and solutions on the DSpace mailing lists. Before you post a question or = problem, check to see if your question has been answered already.
You can report bugs and suggest enhancements through GitHub Issues:
(If you aren't sure where to report the issue, just choose either. We ca= n move the ticket to the proper location later if we need to do so)
Bugs will be fixed as soon as possible, within the limits of the DSpace = team's technical support resources. The team considers all enhancements, an= d if an enhancement is accepted, adds it to the enhancement list for develo= pment as time and resources allow. Of course, any users working with the op= en-source code are welcome to fix a bug or make an improvement to the syste= m. See our DSpace = Contribution Guidelines to learn how.
DSpace has a very active = community of developers which contribute expertise and support through = the DSpace-Tech mailing list, and the DSpace= wiki. To work with the DSpace system you'll need local technical resou= rces (hardware, technical experts, and so on) to really take advantage of t= he system. The DSpace web site offers technical documentation, = and you can join the DSpace-Tech mailing list, = to ask questions or post solutions.
See also our New Develope= rs Hub
In case you require professional assistance, consult one of the Registered DSpace Service Providers.
DSpace is written in Java, it will therefore run on any Operating System= (Linux, Windows, Mac OSX). DSpace is built on top of free, open-source too= ls, such as the Apache Web server, the Tomcat Servlet engine, and the Postg= reSQL relational database system.
See Performance T= uning DSpace
A person familiar with installing Java and database based open source ap= plications should be able to complete a prototype DSpace installation in a = few hours to a day. After this experience, and an additional day to a week = of exploring the software, a production installation should also take about= a day for the basic software in a standalone configuration. If customizati= ons or local integrations are required (for example, for user authenticatio= n), then additional time should be allocated according to the complexity an= d quantity of the changes required.
While the DSpace software itself requires very little maintenance, the u= sual IT overhead for data backup, etc. applies. It is also typical for expe= ctations and requirements to evolve once the instance is operational. Initi= al system usage often exposes areas for reorganization, metadata correction= , and the inevitable requests to remove prematurely or incorrectly deposite= d items. An ongoing maintenance estimate should incorporate IT time based o= n the expected size of the repository to backup, ongoing local development = based on the amount of customization, and repository content management bas= ed on the anticipated rate of deposit.
When you run into any trouble using or installing DSpace, a large commun= ity of users lies at your fingertips in the Mailing Lists. The Technical mailing list is the place to be= for technical troubleshooting, while more general questions about the soft= ware can best be posted to the Community Mailing list.
In case you require professional assistance, consult one of the Registered DSpace Service Providers.
Metadata is literally "data about data." It is descriptive information u= sed for querying. Some metadata can be done mechanically, such as file size= s, checksums, and full-text indexing, for instance. Other metadata is a hig= her order of human-made description such as titles, authors, unique identif= iers, and abstracts. DSpace uses a qualified version of Dublin Core metadata across all content. Some communities or collections may also hav= e tailored metadata available (such as MARC records for book collections, o= r FGDC records for geographic datasets). But even where that's available fo= r some items, we crosswalk more detailed metadata records into our Dublin C= ore vocabulary to ensure a common layer of descriptive specificity for brow= sing and searching across everything.
In this context support for a given metadata schema means that = metadata can be entered into DSpace, stored in the database, indexed approp= riately, and made searchable through the public user interface. This curren= tly applies mainly to descriptive metadata, although as standards emerge it= could also include technical, rights, preservation, structural, and behavi= oral metadata.
Currently DSpace supports only the Dublin Core metadata element= set with a few qualifications conforming to the library application profil= e. HP and MIT also has a research project called SIMILE which is inves= tigating how to support arbitrary metadata schemas using RDF as applied by = the Haystack research project in the Lab for Computer Science and some of t= he Semantic Web technologies being developed by the W3C.
DSpace supports the Open Archives Initiative's Protocol for Metadata Har= vesting (OAI-PMH) v2.0 as a data provider. = OAI support was implemented using OCLC's OAICa= t open-source software to make DSpace item records available for harves= ting. Many institutions running DSpace choose to register as a data provide= r with the Open Archives Initiative.
For technical information see, the technical documentation a= nd join the DSpace-Tech mailing list. For non-t= echnical questions and concerns, see the DSpace.org web site and join = the DSpace-Community mailing list for DSpa= ce related announcements and general discussion.
Other helpful resources include:
See the Lyrasis Registry of sites: https://registry.lyrasis.org/= . If your institution is running DSpace and isn't listed, please send u= s your information via the form on that page.
Yes, see the Service Providers page on DSpace.org for a li= st of consultants and organizations who can help you build and run your DSp= ace service.
No. We suggest you create a unique name for your repository. All the lan= guage in the user interface resides in one file, to make it easier to modif= y and translate. You just need to replace "DSpace" with the name of your re= pository in that file.
Research institutions worldwide use DSpace to meet a variety of digital = archiving needs:
There are many DSpace Use Case Examples on the DSpace.org= website.
There are several good resources available. Start by reading Paul Wheatl= ey's article "A way forward for= developments in the digital preservation functions of DSpace : options, is= sues and recommendations".
See support options listed on our Su= pport page