Dear Friends,To come
In conversations with members and strategic partners the question about how is this intent to merge with LYRASIS is different from the previous intent to merge in 2016 continue to come up. In my view there are two distinct parts to the explaining how 2019 is different from 2016: the due diligence process and organizational evolution.
Organizational Evolution
Our organizations are increasingly working toward similar strategic goals. We don’t want to compete for a limited pool of funding and staff resources. We also feel strongly we can have a greater impact in our field by amplifying our collective tech voice together than we can apart.
Over the last 2-3 years, our missions, goals, and cultures have purposefully grown closer together. For example, the It Takes a Village (ITAV) project created an opportunity for DuraSpace and LYRASIS to collaborate. ITAV provided leadership and created new understanding of the needs and potential models for support of open source software (OSS). LYRASIS’ experience with the ArchivesSpace and CollectionSpace communities and DuraSpace’s experience with DSpace, Fedora, and VIVO contributed to the ITAV outcomes and bolstered the body of knowledge around supporting open technologies and community governance.
In addition, both organizations have been working on innovation and thought leadership initiatives and wish to formalize, grow, and spread these efforts internationally. We feel we can do that through joint investments in the new LYRASIS Leaders Circle and Catalyst Fund that will convene our members internationally, promote sharing ideas and use cases, and fuel collaboration on Research and Development, and prototyping to test ideas and eventually turn them into solutions for our members to use.
It is also clear, based on the consolidations in the for-profit space serving our communities, that we will be stronger and more sustainable together, giving us a larger staff plus investment dollars to assess and create viable alternatives to proprietary products in a not-for-profit environment with a large portfolio of community supported open solutions.
Other evolutionary considerations based on feedback from our communities are based on the success of our current open source technologies. Community needs for flexible supports are increasing. In order to bolster our efforts to compete we require a nimble community home for projects with staff expertise and a mature community development process.
Due Diligence Process
Because our communities have also matured since 2016 we were able to establish a fact-finding dialog during the six-week due diligence period after the Boards announced the intent to merge on January 24, 2019 that has been both robust and informative.
To date, DuraSpace Executive Director Erin Tripp has met with the Fedora Steering Group, VIVO Leadership Group, DSpace Leadership Group, Certified DuraSpace Partners of DSpace, and began meeting with individual platinum and gold members to share information and answer questions. We will also held an open informational webinar:
“Amplifying Impact: LYRASIS and DuraSpace Town Hall Meeting”
- Wednesday, February 20, 2019, 12:00pm ET
- Information
- Register here
As Dean of Virginia Tech Libraries (more) Tyler Walters suggests that from a library perspective, working with a one-stop organization that can provide services and support ensures that member dollars will be better leveraged.
A FAQ is available online (add updated link https://duraspace.org/faq/) that contains many of the questions and answers asked by our members and partners.
As always, thank you for your continued support of our work on this and other initiatives aimed at providing enduring access to the world’s digital heritage.
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Erin Tripp
Executive Director
A Members-Only Summit
Our annual Member Summit will be held on April 10, 2019 in St. Louis. A reception, following the CNI Spring Member Meeting, will be held on April 9th. Invitations will be sent to representatives of each member organization the first week of February.
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