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Notes on improvements:

-need to insert lefthand links: demo site, documentation, About KB/assumptions/how to contribute/KB Basics page, others?  DSpaceResources page, Add IR & ETD Bibliography??? 

-pictures/screen shots ok? others?

-diagram revisions in process - should we re-title this "How does DSpace work" - still need to create a Prezi for it (script from footnotes? All About DSpace webinar? other sources?) 

--https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSDOC/Functional+Overview

--Stuart tutorials

-hungry for more section added - any other links and references? do we want this section to be a distinct yellow color box?

--semantics of the TOC

-themable and customizable look and feel screen shots - demo site? MIT, URL links in descriptor, Manakin, Manakin extreme

-how wiki's usually work - generated by community, try to make sur it is up to date and accurate, but because it is community managed it is not always gaurenteed to be 100%. if you see something out of date or erroneous, please update them or use the labels at the bottom of the page and use a comment to say "out of date" or "error on..." 

-insert links to: DSpace Course in relevant chapters, How-to guides in relevant chapters, Manakin stuff in relevant chapter

-add link on dspace v. fedora: http://www.duraspace.org/dspace_or_fedora

-add section on
what their application is NOT good for.  I'd like to do that for Fedora, too -- the temptation is to make our baby a superhero that can conquer all problems, but in practice, it's almost more useful knowing what an application doesn't do than what it does do, especially when in the early stages of evaluating it.  So that will also be a part of my proposed "What is Fedora?" page. 

The content in this chapter has not been reviewed.

What is DSpace?

In this section you will learn

What is DSpace?

Example of a DSpace home page using the default user interface (JSP) at the University of Zimbabwe.Example of DSpace home page using the customizable XML User Interface (Manakin) at MIT.

DSpace is an open source repository application that allows you to capture, store, index, preserve and distribute your digital material including text, video, audio and data.  DSpace provides a way to manage your materials and publications in a professionally maintained repository to give them greater visibility and accessibility over time.
There are over 1000 digital repositories worldwide using the DSpace application for a variety of digital archiving needs.  DSpace is most often used as an institutional repository - a platform that provides access to research output, scholarly publications, library collections, and more.

It has three main roles:

  • Facilitates the capture and ingest of materials, including metadata about the materials
  • Facilitates easy access to the materials, both by listing and searching
  • Facilitates the long-term preservation of the materials

The DSpace application has many customizable features and tools for managing digital content, enabling digital preservation and providing accessibility to your materials. As an open source application, there is a very active community of developers, researchers and users worldwide that contribute their expertise to enhance the DSpace application.

What can DSpace be used for?

DSpace can be used to store any type of digital materials, including:

  • Documents, such as articles, preprints, working papers, technical reports, conference papers
  • Books
  • Theses
  • Data sets
  • Computer programs
  • Visualizations, simulations, and other models
  • Multimedia publications
  • Administrative records
  • Published books
  • Overlay journals
  • Bibliographic datasets
  • Images
  • Audio files
  • Video files
  • e-formatted digital library collections
  • Learning objects
  • Web pages

What are the benefits of using DSpace?


Example of DSpace's built-in organizational structure of Communities and Collections.

Because DSpace is a turnkey repository application it may be deployed "out-of-the-box" as an institutional repository. The majority of DSpace users do little to no customization of the application beyond adding local branding.  DSpace allows you to:

  • Organize, describe and store your content easily through the built-in structure
  • Archive and distribute material you would currently put on your personal website
  • Get your materials out quickly, to a worldwide audience through exposure to search engines such as Google
  • Have a persistent network identifier for your work, which never changes or breaks

Additionally, DSpace allows institutional repositories to:

  • Preserve reusable teaching materials that you can use with course management systems
  • Store examples of students' projects (with the students' permission)
  • Showcase students' theses (again with permission)
  • Keep track of your own publications/bibliography

How does DSpace work?

Behind the scenes, this is a look at how DSpace works:



 

Hungry for more?

Need more general information before moving any further? Below is a list of materials that can help you learn more about DSpace.

General DSpace Information

Comparing/Evaluating Software Options

Repository Planning Guidance 

Know of other resources? Please add them here!

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