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This is a draft outline of what will be covered in this section. Future version will include screen shots and examples.

Homepage Overview

  • For example: http://demo.dspacedirect.org/
  • Provides a good overview of the basic features DSpace offers:
    • Side Menu
      • Search
        • Based on where you are in system, this also lets you search an individual Community or Collection
      • Browse By options
        • Based on where you are in the system, these also let you browse an individual Community or Collection
      • My Account
        • Options to login & register (more info below)
      • "Discover" works by authors/subject/dates
        • Based on where you are in the system, these lists will change to become Community/Collection specific
      • RSS Feeds
        • Based on where you are in the system, these links provide RSS/Atom Feeds specific to an individual Community or Collection
    • Content Area
      • Introductory Text (customizable)
      • "Top-level" Community listing (just displays the very top of the hierarchy)
      • Recently Added Items
        • This listing also appears on individual Community or Collection pages (at which point it is Community/Collection specific)

Communities & Collections

  • For example: https://demo.dspacedirect.org/community-list
  • Important to understand the difference between Community & Collection
    • Collections only contain Items (works or documents). In other words, you always add an Item to a Collection
    • Communities are used to "organize" Collections.  Communities can contain other Communities (sub-communities) or Collections (but CANNOT contain Items).
      • Often Communities are used to "mirror" the organizational structure within an institution (colleges, departments, research units, etc).
      • Communities can also be used to assign rights to specific groups (can give a department control over their own Community)
  • How-To: Create a new Community
    • Login as an Admin
    • Click "Create Community"
    • Community level "metadata" (only the "Name" is required) - Any of this info can be edited/changed at a later time
      • Name: the name of the Community (REQUIRED)
      • Short Description: A short "blurb" about this community (only displayed during search/browse as a very basic description)
      • Introductory text:  The longer description about the Community displayed on its homepage (may include basic HTML if you want to add formatting, e.g. bold text, hyperlinks, etc)
      • Copyright text: If this Community needs a special note regarding copyright, one can be added (may include basic HTML). For example, if all works in this Community are copyrighted by a particular publisher/department it can be noted here.
      • News: Optional news section which will be displayed below the introductory text.
      • Logo: Optionally, a Community can have its own logo
    • Click "Create"
    • Once created, you are immediately moved to the "Edit Community" interface, so that you can assign roles if you wish.
      • For Communities, the only "Role" is Administrator.  An "Administrator" has full rights (add/update/delete) on this Community and any Sub-Communities, Collections or Items that are contained within the hierarchy under this Community.
    • Click "Return"
  • How-To: Create a new Collection
    • Browse to the newly created Community. 
    • Notice the "Context" menu has different options (HINT: The "Context" menu's options change based on where you are in the system.)
      • Edit Community
      • Export Community (only for Admins - exports all content/metadata into a Zip file)
      • Export Metadata (used for bulk/batch metadata editing in a CSV)
      • Create Collection
      • Create Sub-Community  (A Sub-Community is just a Community that happens to be within another Community...it's no different than a normal Community)
    • Click "Create Collection"
    • Collection level "metadata" (nearly identical to the Community metadata). Only a few (minor) additions:
      • License: If this Collection requires its own custom deposit license (i.e. it needs to be different from the site-wide deposit license), you can enter that license text here. It will be displayed during the deposit process instead of the normal deposit license. (This option is rarely used)
      • Provenance: An Administrator-only field which can be used to describe or add notes about the history/provenance of this particular collection. It is never visible to users.
    • Click "Create"
    • Again, once created, you are immediately moved to the "Edit Collection" interface, so that you can assign roles if you wish.
      • Assign Roles: Collections offer additional Roles (all are optional):
        • Administrators - people who have full rights (add/update/delete) on this Collection and any Items contained in this Collection
        • Submitters - people who can deposit new content to this Collection
        • Default read access - people who can view/download any new content added to this collection (not retroactive - changing this does NOT automatically change view/download rights on existing items in the Collection)
        • Reviewer roles: There are three roles which have to do with reviewing newly deposited content (before it becomes publicly available). All are optional.  If you enable multiple steps, they will always occur in the order that they are listed (and people added to that step will receive an email whenever new content is added that needs review)
          • Accept / Reject step
          • Accept / Reject / Edit Metadata step
          • Edit Metadata step
      • Content Source:
        • Optionally, a Collection can be setup to "harvest" all of its content from an external location (via OAI-PMH and/or OAI-ORE).  This is rarely used, unless your DSpace is aggregating content from other locations. 
      • Curate:
        • This tab offers some basic "curation" / reporting scripts that can be run across your content.  By default only a few reporting scripts are available (unless you have DuraCloud backups available) 
          • Profile Bitstream Formats : Report what file formats are contained in Items within this Community/Collection
          • Check for Required Metadata : Double check all Item metadata, ensuring all required fields are filled out.
          • Check Links in Metadata : Double check all URLs in Item metadata, ensuring all links are still valid (and none throw a 404 Not Found error)

 

Adding/Submitting Items

  • Items are what you will be working with the MOST (after you get your Communities/Collections setup).  They contain metadata and, optionally, bitstreams (files).
  • Two ways to submit an Item to a Collection
    • From your "Submissions" page (in the "My Account" box).
    • OR, browse to a Collection that you have rights to deposit into, and click the "Submit a new item to this collection" link
  • How-To: Submit an Item
    • It is a multi-stage process.  
      • You can "Save & Exit" at any time (your changes are also auto-saved each time you transition to a new page).  You can restart any unfinished submissions from your My Account "Submissions" page
      • You can also move backwards if you realized you forgot something in a previous step
      • NOTE: These deposit steps can be tweaked/changed/rearranged, but any changes must be performed by DuraSpace (for an additional fee, depending on the extent of the changes)
    • Step 1: Initial Questions
      • Captures some basic info to determine what metadata to ask the user for
    • Step 2-3: Describe (x 2)
      • Captures the basic metadata about this new item on two pages.  Only Title & Date are required  (Date is auto-captured though, unless you say the item was previously published)
      • Behind the scenes this metadata is all stored as Qualified Dublin Core
    • Step 4: Upload
      • Optionally, upload one (or more) files to this item.
        • File Description can just be used to optionally describe the file contents (e.g. "Presentation slides" or "Video of talk")
      • Optionally, add an embargo date.  If an embargo date is added, then the file will not be downloadable/viewable until after that embargo date has passed.  (Administrators can still access the file)
    • Step 5: Review - just review everything previously entered (with an option to modify anything)
    • Step 6: License
      • This is the deposit license which all users must agree to before they can deposit their item.
      • NOTE: An electronically-signed copy of the deposit license is actually stored within the deposited item.  (The copy is "signed" with the name of the user who agreed to the license & the date)
    • Step 7: Complete
      • Once complete, one of two things will happen:
        • IF the Collection has one or more "Review steps" enabled, then the Item will go into an "approval workflow".  It will not be publicly available until the review is complete.  If the item is rejected the submitter will be notified
          • The submitter can check the status of the review process from their My Account "Submissions" page
        • If no "Review steps" are enabled, then the Item is available immediately.

Editing Items

  • How-To: Editing an Item
    • Browse to an Item (while logged in as an Admin)
    • Click "Edit Item" from the "Context" menu
    • "Item Status" tab
      • Basic info about the item in question
      • "Authorizations" - Edits the permissions on this Item. (Not recommended to tweak unless you know what you are doing.)
      • "Withdraw" - Immediately withdraws the Item.  Withdrawing essentially hides the item and temporarily removes it from the DSpace archive. However, the item still exists, and can be restored by "reinstating" it.
      • "Move" - Moves the Item to a different Collection
      • "Make it Private" - Marks the item as Private. It is still in the archive but it is only accessible to Administrators until it is made public again.
      • "Permanently Delete" - Immediately deletes the Item. As noted, this is a permanent action and cannot be undone. The item is fully removed from the system.
    • "Item Bitstreams" tab
      • Allows you to add/remove Bitstreams (files) to/from the Item
      • You can also reorder Bitstreams, if multiple exist.  This lets you determine which bitstream is listed first on the Item page.
      • Bundles: In DSpace, Bitstreams (files) are kept in "Bundles" (essentially just groups of files).  There are three main Bundles which DSpace handles automatically:
      • ORIGINAL : These are files which were uploaded when the Item was created/deposited.  These are also the files that are available for download/viewing within DSpace.
      • LICENSE: This is a "hidden" bundle which stores an electronically signed copy of the deposit license (which was signed when the Item was deposited).  It is only viewable to Administrators.
      • THUMBNAIL : If one (or more) of the files in the "ORIGINAL" bundle were images (BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG), then DSpace will automatically generate a Thumbnail version for display. The auto-generated thumbnail is stored in this Bundle. Note that thumbnails are generated via a service that runs overnight, so thumbnails for ideas added will not appear until the following day (i.e. allow for up to a 24-hour time period to elapse before thumbnails may be generated and available).
      • TEXT : If one (or more) of the files in the "ORIGINAL" bundle were common textual formats (HTML, Word, PowerPoint, PDF, Plain Text), then DSpace will automatically generate a plain text version of the document (for its search within document feature). The auto-generated plain text file is stored in this Bundle.
    • "Item Metadata" tab
      • Allows you to directly edit the Qualified Dublin Core metadata associated with this Item.
      • BE CAREFUL. It is assumed you know what you are doing. Metadata changes here are not validated in any way. So, anything you save will be accepted as-is.
      • You'll also notice here that there are several hidden metadata fields that are automatically generated/updated by DSpace (namely "dc.description.provenance" and "dc.date.accessioned")
    • "View Item" tab
      • If you've made any changes in the above tabs, this tab lets you "preview" what the new Item page looks like. That way you can quickly fix problems if you notice anything.
    • "Curate" tab
      • Similar to Communities & Collections, you can also run basic "curation" / reporting scripts on individual items.

Managing Permissions (EPeople & Groups)

  • Under the "Administrative" menu, there are tools to add individual EPeople & Groups (which can then be used in Community or Collection "Roles").
  • How-To: Add a New EPerson (as an Administrator)
    • Click on "People" -> "Click here to add a new E-Person."
      • Email (Both the user's email address and also their username)
      • Name (First & Last)
      • Telephone (optional, only available to Administrators)
      • (Other fields not necessary to fill out)
    • Find the newly created user & Click on it
      • Press the "Reset Password" button.  An email will now be sent to the user's email address, which lets them setup a password in DSpace. 
  • How-To: Register a New Account
    • Logout of system
    • Click on "Login" link
    • There's a link to "Register" as a new user.  This lets anyone setup an account with your DSpace.  However, new accounts will not have any special permissions until you give their account special permissions. (So, even if a user sets up an account, they won't be able to do anything in your system until you allow them to.)
    • NOTE: If you are using LDAP or Shibboleth with DSpace, new user accounts will be automatically created the first time a user logs into DSpace via LDAP/Shibboleth.  So, once they login, a DSpace E-Person will be automatically created which is associated with their LDAP/Shibboleth account.
  • How-To: Add a New Group (as an Administrator)
    • INFO: Groups can be used to manage permissions across several individuals. You can choose to create as many (or as few) groups as you wish to help you manage DSpace permissions.
      • Synchronizing Groups with Shibboleth or LDAP: If you are using Shibboleth or LDAP, you can ask DuraSpace to setup a mapping between Shibboleth Groups (i.e. IdP Roles) or LDAP Groups (i.e. LDAP Organization Units or "OU") and internal DSpace Groups.  This provides an automated way to "sync" group membership between an external system (LDAP or Shibboleth) and DSpace's internal Groups. DSpace does NOT do this mapping automatically. It needs to be configured (by DuraSpace) for specific Groups.
    • Login as an Administrator
    • Click on "Groups" -> "Click here to add a new Group."
      • Name (Each group needs to have a name. Names can include spaces, so name it something that describes the group. E.g. "Mathematics Department" or "Staff" or similar
      • Add members to the group. Groups can contain individual EPeople or other Groups.
    • Click Save.
    • HINT: You'll notice in the Group listing a lot of groups named "COLLECTION_" or "COMMUNITY_".  These groups are internal groups that DSpace creates for different Collection or Community Roles.  They are essentially "special" groups which are directly associated with a particular role in a particular Colllection or Community.  (These special groups are also accessible when editing roles on Communities & Collections – see above).
  • Once you have created user accounts (E-People) and Groups, you can use those to assign permissions within specific DSpace Communities or Collections (see the "Assign Roles" tab when editing a Community/Collection).
    • In addition, by adding EPeople or Groups to the DSpace "Administrator" group you can give users Site-wide Administrator permissions (add/edit/delete anything in the system).

Usage Statistics

  • DSpaceDirect supports two primary types of usage statistics:
    • Google Analytics (if enabled) - DSpace can use Google Analytics to track page views/accesses with the system. This is similar to using Google Analytics to tracking any other website.
    • DSpace Internal Statistics - DSpace also tracks its own basic Usage, Workflow & Search statistics.
  • DSpace Statistics are available site-wide, or on any specific Community, Collection or Item page.  Based on where you are in the system, you will receive a slightly different statistical report.
  • NOTE: By default, DSpace Internal Statistics are ONLY available to Administrators. If you desire, DuraSpace can instead make them publicly available for your site.  Unfortunately, at this time, there are only two options: private (Admin only) or public.
  • How-To: View Site-Wide DSpace Statistics
    • Browse to the homepage (logged in as an Admin)
    • Notice the "Statistics" box has three options:
      • DSpace Usage Statistics: At the homepage level, this gives a general count of "hits" for individual Items in the system.  The report is extremely basic at this time and only lists the title of the Item.
      • DSpace Search Statistics: At the homepage level, this provides a summary of recent searches performed via the DSpace search box.  There are also some historical reporting options.
      • DSpace Workflow Statistics: At the homepage level, this provides a general count of any approval workflows/reviews that have taken place.  There are also some historical reporting options.  NOTE: If you do not use Workflow Reviewer Roles on any Collections, this report will always be empty.)
  • How-To: View DSpace Community/Collection Statistics
    • Browse to a specific Community or Collection
    • The "Statistics" box has the same three options, but now the results will be specific to this Community/Collection (and provide extra details)
      • DSpace Usage Statistics: At the Community/Collection level, this report provides extra detail about accesses of this Community/Collection page.  You'll now get a summary of total hits to the Community/Collection homepage, along with monthly trends, and top countries/cities (where the hits are coming from)
      • DSpace Search Statistics: At the Community/Collection level, this provides a summary of recent searches performed via the DSpace search box (specific to this Community or Collection).
      • DSpace Workflow Statistics: At the Community/Collection level, this provides a general count of any approval workflows/reviews that have taken place (specific to this Community or Collection) (NOTE: If you do not use Workflow Reviewer Roles on any Collections, this report will always be empty.)
  • How-To: View DSpace Item Statistics
    • Browse to a specific Item
    • The "Statistics" box has just one option, but now the results will be specific to this Item (and provide extra details)
      • DSpace Usage Statistics: At the Item level, this report provides extra detail about usage of the Item.  You'll now get a summary of total hits to the Community/Collection homepage, along with monthly trends, number of file downloads and top countries/cities (where the hits are coming from)
      • NOTE: Items do not have Search/Workflow statistics as both of those statistical reports are only applicable to Communities & Collections.

Bulk/Batch Metadata Editing

  • DSpace's "Batch Metadata Editing" tool allows you to export sets of DSpace Item Metadata (all Items or just those in specific Communities/Collections) into a CSV file.  The metadata values/fields in the CSV file can then be edited using Microsoft Excel (or OpenOffice Calc).  Once editing is complete, you can re-import the modified CSV to apply the metadata changes into DSpace.
  • Step-by-step Tutorials:
  • How-To: Batch Metadata Editing basics
    • Batch Metadata Editing can be performed at a Community or Collection level
    • Browse to a specific Community or Collection. The "Context" menu will display an option for "Export Metadata".
    • Click "Export Metadata".  This will generate a CSV file that contains all the metadata for every Item within that Community or Collection hierarchy. 
      • WARNING: For extremely large communities or collections the export (and import) processes may take a long time (or cause your site to significantly slow down). Therefore, DSpaceDirect currently only allows you to modify 500 Items (i.e. lines in CSV) at a single time.  This 500 item limitation can be increased as needed, but it is not recommended (as it can cause performance issues with your site when using these tools).
    • Edit the CSV using either Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc
      • EXCEL WARNING: By default, Excel will not open a CSV in Unicode/UTF-8 encoding. This means that special characters may be improperly displayed and also can be "corrupted" during re-import of the CSV.
        • You need to tell Excel this CSV is Unicode, by importing it as follows:
          • Open Excel (with an empty sheet open)
          • Select "Data" tab
          • Click "From Text" button (in the "External Data" section)
          • Select your CSV file
          • Wizard Step 1
            • Choose "Delimited" option
            • In the "File origin" selectbox, select "65001 : Unicode (UTF-8)"
            • Click Next
          • Wizard Step 2
            • Select "Comma" as the only delimiter
            • Click Next
          • Wizard Step 3
            • Select "Text" as the "Column data format"
            • Click Finish
    • Perform your edits. Once finished, re-upload the changes to DSpace.
      • You can remove entire columns from the spreadsheet to make it easier to concentrate on editing just a few metadata fields. But, the 'id' (first) column MUST be kept.  
        • Removing an entire column with not delete that metadata (rather DSpace will just ignore it). Metadata values are only deleted if you leave the column header in place but clear out one or more values (rows in a column)
      • Many more editing tips are available via the tutorials linked above.
    • Click "Import Metadata" (under "Administrative" menu)
    • Select the CSV
    • Review the changes and save the changes.
      • WARNING: Please make certain that the changes displayed on the Review screen look correct.  Once you save, you will be unable to "undo" the changes without either re-editing to metadata (or if you deleted something entirely it may need to
    • NOTE: A more detailed walkthrough with screenshots of this entire process (and additional hints) is available in the Batch Metadata Editing tutorials linked above

 

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