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The newly established DSpace Development Fund supports the development of new features prioritized by DSpace Governance. For a list of planned features see the fund wiki page.

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We are initiating work to create a more robust embargo feature than the one that currently exists in DSpace. We've contracted with @mire to do the heavy lifting in terms of code work needed to meet our specific needs here at the University of Michigan. That work will start soon, so we'd like to invite others to tweak the feature set if there's something we've missed.


Without going into detail about the technical implementation, the basic feature set we are looking at, which will build on the current implementation includes the ability to provide

  1. Full embargo: no access to either the metadata or bitstream of an item until embargo period ends.  Items do not appear in search or browse results, even if a match exists; though the metadata and bitstreams are stored, it's as if the item and its bitstreams had never been deposited, or indexed.
  2. Partial embargo: metadata visible, some/all bitstreams inaccessible. In this case, items appear in browse or search indexes so searchers and browsers know an item and its bitstreams exist. However, they can't download/view bitstreams. (This is the behavior of the current implementation.)
  3. Group access to embargoed items: embargoed items (full or partial) are viewable and all contents are completely accessible to members of select groups.  This will address needs often expressed by archivists, who need a dark archive of materials in DSpace

So, when an item is under embargo:

  • Whether the metadata page and all metadata fields are still visible to the world (and through OAI-PMH) should be configurable at the Item level.
  • Whatever is viewable by an anonymous searcher and browser becomes part of the general search and browse indexes. Everything else is not.
  • None of an item's bitstreams, including full text indexed by the system, are readable to the world under either a full or a partial embargo. Collection Administrators or pre-defined groups can bypass that protection.
  • Any new bitstreams added to an item inherits that item's embargo settings.
  • Administrators can change embargo status: either add an embargo to a currently open item, or release an item early.
  • The presence of an embargo and its expiration date is visible in the administrative UI view of an item. Whether to display this to an end-user/non-administrator searcher or browser could be an option.

That's the basic idea, and I hope it's enough to give you a sense of where we're headed. The new embargo solution will be implemented for both XMLUI and JSPUI.

Again, we welcome comments on this and will do our best to incorporate your suggestions.

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