Choosing an Open Source
Digital Collection Software Solution:
Eprints
DSpace
Drupal
Omeka
Joseph Fisher
Database Management Librarian @ UMass Lowell
Digital Commonwealth Executive Committee
Student in the University of Arizona SIRLS
Graduate Certificate Program in Digital Information
Management (DigIn)
digin.arizona.edu
Objective
Five stages of implementation:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Installation (DSpace)
Branding
Collection setup
Item ingest
User Interface
LAMP
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Linux
Apache
MySQL
PHP/Perl
• Eprints
• Omeka
• Drupal
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Linux
Tomcat
PostgresSQL
Java
JSP/XSLT
DSpace
• EPrints
• DSpace
• Drupal
• Omeka
EPrints
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University of Southampton, UK
First released (v 2.0) 2002
Current version 3.2.7 (v3 2006)
Linux / Windows (Perl)
“EPrints is … the easiest and fastest way
to set up repositories of open access
research literature, scientific data, theses,
reports and multimedia.”
EPrints : Key Features
• software links to the SHERPA/RoMEO database so
authors can easily verify their publisher policies
• LCSH framework included that can be manually
expanded
• Supports internal and external authority files or
auto-fill from previous database entries.
• Multiple item import and export options
• Thumbnails and preview images of search items
EPrints: Branding
Step 1: /usr/share/eprints3/archives/archivename/cfg/subjects
Step 2:
Step 3: $ bin/import_subjects archivename filename
Step 1: /usr/share/eprints3/archives/archivename/cfg/subjects
Step 2:
Step 3: $ /bin/import_subjects <archive id> -xml
Collection “Division” Setup
EPrints: Item Ingest
EPrints Conclusion
• Easy to install, easy to brand, best for a single
subject-specific repository
• Designed for documents, though now supports
multiple file types
• Easy embargo, default thumbnail and preview
• Some preservation support – History module for
tracking changes, METS export plugin
• V3 does enable easier development of plugins
(20-30 listed per year)
EPrints: Challenges
• Not all Dublin Core fields provided (relation,
source, contributor, coverage)
• Lack of theme options
• Possible with Views to create custom
collection space within a repository?
• Statistics? Permissions? Plugins?
• Documentation not well developed
• EPrints
• DSpace
• Drupal
• Omeka
DSpace
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HP-MIT Libraries Alliance (2002)
DuraSpace (2009)
Current version 1.7.1 (2.0 due in Oct.)
Linux / Windows (Java)
“DSpace preserves and enables easy and open
access to all types of digital content including
text, images, moving images, mpegs and data
sets.”
DSpace : Key Features
• Preservation support: Bit integrity checker, format
registry, item history, handles, DuraCloud backup
• Discover faceted seach/browse interface
• Qualified Dublin Core base or MODS thru xmlui
• Embargo capability
• OAI-PMH harvesting, both data and service supplier
• Manakin XMLUI provides flexible though challenging
customization capability (multiple custom archives)
Dspace: Installation
Prerequisite Software :
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Linux or Windows
Oracle Java JDK
Maven (Java build tool for stage 1)
Ant (Java build tool for stage 2)
PostgreSQL or Oracle
Tomcat
Perl
JSPUI: Java Server Pages User Int.
XMLUI : Manakin (default theme)
/dspace/config/xmlui.xconf
Stop / Start Tomcat
Kubrick theme
@Mire Mirage Theme
http://demo.dspace.org/xmlui
Changing home page XMLUI
/dspace/config/news-xmlui.xml
New Preservation Tool: 1.7
OAI Harvesting
DSpace: Conclusion
• Very functional out of the box with easy branding
• Increasing preservation management support
(PREMIS support coming in v2.0)
• Good documentation, training materials, and
broad support base
• Platform is versatile and flexible with ability to
customize collection interfaces
• OAI-PMH/ORE/SWORD (postponed)
• SOLR-based statistics engine
• Metadata registry, option to add new schemas
DSpace: Challenges
• Research Projects:
– Discovery faceted search
– Embargo
– DSpace Statistics
– Thumbnails
– XMLUI Customization
• EPrints
• DSpace
• Drupal
• Omeka
Drupal
• Became Open Source project (2001)
• Current version 7 (Jan. 2011)
• Content Management Framework (CMF)
• LAMP / Windows (PHP)
• “Drupal … allows anyone to easily publish,
manage and organize a wide variety of
content on a website. .”
Drupal: Key Features
• Numerous themes
• Extensive module availability:
– Custom Control Kit (CCK) – allows creation of
fields for input and display
– Faceted Search
– Image administration
– Advanced Search
– Views – create customized lists and queries
– OAI-PMH module
Drupal: Conclusions
• Flexible and versatile but takes time and effort
to put all the pieces together
• Large, varied, and active community of users
and developers with good documentation
• Limited only by module availability, of which
there are nearly 8,000 (back to version 4.x)
• Challenges: modules are managed individually
and the entire structure manually constructed
• EPrints
• DSpace
• Drupal
• Omeka
Omeka
• Center for History and New Media at George
Mason University (2008)
• LAMP / Windows (PHP)
• V 1.3.2 (2011)
• “Omeka is a free, flexible, and open source webpublishing platform for the display of
library, museum, archives, and scholarly
collections and exhibitions.”
Omeka: Key Features
• “Designed with non-IT specialists in mind”
• “as easy as launching a blog”
• Over a dozen themes
• Over 30 Plugins:
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OAI-PMH Harvester
Exhibit Builder
LC Subject Headings
Comments
Social Bookmarking
Item Relationships
Omeka.net
• Cloud web hosting
• Five tiers:
– 500MB for free with 1 site, 4 plugins, 4
themes
– Tier 1 = $49 for 1GB, 2 sites, 6 plugins
– Tier 4 = $999 for 25GB, unlimited sites and
plugins
Omeka: Conclusion
• Extremely easy plug and play functionality
• Exhibit plugin enables easy customized
collection interfaces
• Immediate metadata field additions
• Limited user and development base, but still
new and growing
• Very easy OAI-PMH capability
Why Open Source?
Mission:
Open source is a development method for software
that harnesses the power of distributed peer
review and transparency of process. The promise
of open source is better quality, higher reliability,
more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to
predatory vendor lock in.
The Open Source Initiative (OSI)
http://www.opensource.org/
Lower Cost !!??!!
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Server
Technical-savvy staff
Programmer?
Time
Choice Criteria
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Institutional Repository or Digital Archive
Ease of use
Metadata flexibility
OAI Harvesting
File format support
Multiple collection interface customization
Popularity / Reputation
Size of active community
Development commitment
Insource
Outsource
“…two major problems …
First, the core mission of for-profit service providers is not to
preserve and provide access to significant digital objects. It is,
however, to generate a profit and stay in business….
Second, if an outsourcing trend takes hold and gains
momentum, then cultural institutions are at great risk of losing
their own value proposition and viability as institutions in the
digital age.”
Tyler O. Walters, Katherine Skinner.
“Economics, sustainability, and the cooperative model in digital preservation.”
Library Hi Tech (28.2) 2010
Librarians of the World Unite!!
We have nothing to lose!!
Control the means of Production!!