May 2, 2013
An introduction to DSpace
Module 1 - Introduction
• By the end of this module, you will …
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Understand what DSpace is, and what it can be used for
Know the history of DSpace
Understand the role of the DuraSpace, and how it works
Understand the open source development model used by DSpace
Know how DSpace is licensed, and what this allows you to do
What is Dspace?
• DSpace is a platform that allows you to capture items in any
format – in text, video, audio, and data. It distributes it over
the web. It indexes your work, so users can search and
retrieve your items. It preserves your digital work over the
long term.
• DSpace is typically used as an institutional repository. It has
three main roles:
• Facilitate the capture and ingest of materials, including metadata about
the materials
• Facilitate easy access to the materials, both by browsing and searching
• Facilitate the long term preservation of the materials
What are the benefits of using DSpace?
• Some example benefits:
• Getting your research results out quickly, to a worldwide audience
• Reaching a worldwide audience through exposure to search engines such as
Google
• Storing reusable teaching materials that you can use with course management
systems
• Archiving and distributing material you would currently put on your personal
website
• Storing examples of students’ projects
• Showcasing students’ theses and disertations
• Keeping track of your own publications/bibliography
• Having a persistent network identifier for your work, that never changes or
breaks
• No more page charges for images. You can point to your images’ persistent
identifiers in your published articles.
What can DSpace be used for?
• DSpace can be used to store any type of digital medium.
Examples include:
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Journal papers
Data sets
Electronic theses
Reports
Conference posters
Videos
Images
What does DSpace look like?
http://www.dspace.org/images/stories/dspace-diagram.pdf
A brief history of DSpace
• The beginning: 2000
• The DSpace project was initiated in July 2000 as part of the
Hewlett Packard-MIT alliance.
• Software releases:
• Multiple versions – from 1.0 to the current 4.0
The Dspace Foundation and Beyond
• The DSpace Foundation was formed in 2007 as a non-profit
organization to provide support to the growing community of
institutions that use DSpace. The foundation’s mission is to lead
the collaborative development of open source software to
enable permanent access to digital works.
• In 2009 the DSpace Foundation and the Fedora commons
organization led to a joining of organizations to form DuraSpace.
• Current DuraSpace services include
- DuraCloud
-DSpaceDirect
-Professional Development
The Mission of DuraSpace:
Committed to our digital future
• Core aims:
• Provide a global, strategic collaboration to sustain Dspace and Fedora
• Develop and manage a strong network of service providers and training
resources
• Provide leadership and innovation for open technologies
• Build and support an active community of developers and users
• Ensure DSpace integrates using open standards
• Manage and co-ordinate the DSpace platform roadmap and software
releases
The community development model
• Open source software
• BSD licence
• Community development model
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Source code control repository (SVN)
Committers – 22 from around the world
Community welcome to submit bug reports, patches, feature requests
Email lists for support
Exercise
• Start computer
• Navigate to your “community” in the UH System
Repository
• Explore your “community” and make note of
questions you might want addressed
Module 2 – Help and Support
• By the end of this module, you will …
• Understand the help available from the DSpace community
• Understand the help available as part of the DSpace software
• Understand how to deal with Internal Server Errors produced by the
DSpace system
• The DSpace Ambassador Program
Help Structures – Email
• Email Lists are a way to interact with a vast community of
DSpace users from repository administrators to technical
experts
• DSpace Tech: Use this list to ask questions on installation, technology
and technical issues
• Subscribe by going to http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech
• DSpace General: Use this list to ask questions or join discussions about
non-technical aspects of building and running a DSpace service
• Subscribe by going to http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-devel
• DSpace Dev: Use this list to share ideas and discuss code changes to the
open source platform and shape the future of DSpace
• Subscribe by going to http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/dspace-general
Help Structures – Websites
• The DSpace website
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Help & Support
Up and coming events
News
Technical manuals/API
http://www.dspace.org/
• The DSpace wiki
• contribute back to the community with your own experiences
http://wiki.dspace.org/
DSpace System Documentation
• The Dspace documentation is available here
https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSDOC/All+Documentation
• Online Help and Support is available here
https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONF53/Getting+Help+
And+Support
If The Worst Happens
• When DSpace encounters an error, an Internal System Error
page will be displayed
Provide User Support
Module 2 - Exercise
• Look at the About ScholarSpace pages to explore
possibilities for your own Community’s About page.
http://library.manoa.hawaii.edu/scholarspace/overview.html
Module 3 – The Structure of DSpace
• By the end of this module, you will …
• Understand what a community is
• Understand what a collection is
• Have seen example structures that are used in typical DSpace
repositories
• Know how to create communities
• Know how to create collections
The DSpace Community
• Each DSpace service is comprised of Communities –
the highest level of the Dspace content hierarchy
• Communities may be:
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Departments
Labs
Research Centres
Schools
• Each community contains descriptive metadata
about itself and the collections contained within it
The DSpace Collection
• Every community in turn have collections which
contain items or files
• Collections can belong to a single community or
multiple communities (collaboration between
communities may result in a shared collection)
• As with communities, each collection contains
descriptive metadata about itself and the items
contained within it
Example Structures
• Structures may be based around organisational units:
Community
Collection
Items
Department
Research Group
Items
Department
Item Type
Items
Faculty
School
Items
• Structures are hierarchical:
Community
Sub
Community
Collection
Item
Department
Sub
Department
Research
Group
....
Creating a Community
• To create a community, you must be an administrator and
signed into DSpace
• Creation of a typical Community Involves:
• Choosing the type of community
• Top level community
• Sub Community
• Completing the descriptive metadata for the community
• Configuring the community’s authorisations (access rights)
Creating a Community
• Sign into Dspace as an administrator
• Select ‘Community & Collection’ from the browse menu
• Select ‘Create Top-Level Community’ from the Admin Tools menu
• Compete the descriptive metadata for the Community
• Click ‘Create’ to complete the Community
Creating a Collection
• To create a collection, you must be an administrator of the
parent community
• Creation of a typical collection involves:
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Selecting the parent community of the collection
Answering some initial questions about the collection
Entering the descriptive metadata for the collection
Setting the collections authorisations (users who can submit new items)
Configuring the workflows for the collection (see Workflows)
Configuring the collections authorisations (access rights)
Creating a Collection
• Navigate to the parent Community of the collection to be created
• Select ‘Create Collection’ from the Admin Tools menu
• Select the appropriate statements that apply to this collection
Creating a Collection
• Compete the descriptive metadata for the Collection
• Select the users who can submit to the Collection and the ‘Next’
• Click ‘Update’ to complete the collection creation process
Exercise: Discussion
• Repository Structure
Exercise: Create a Test Structure
• Using some of the ideas from the earlier discussion
create a test structure in your DSpace repository
• Create top level community
• Create a collection within this community
• Assign a user permission to submit to this collection
Module 4 – Items in DSpace
• By the end of this module, you will …
• Understand what an item in DSpace is, and what it is made
up of
• Know about bundles and bitstreams
• Know how the standard submission interface works
• Have submitted an item into a DSpace repository
What is an item?
• An item is made up of:
• Metadata
• Bundles (e.g. ORIGINAL / LICENCE / TEXT)
• Bitstreams
The standard submission interface
• A typical submission:
• Choose a collection to submit to
• Answer some initial questions
• Enter some metadata
• Upload some files
• Verify the submission
• Agree to the deposit licence
Discussion
• Are you planning on doing all of the submission or will you
allow individuals to submit?
• Where are you providing your users with documentation
and help in the submission process?
Exercise
• Submit an item to your repository
• Enter a collection you have created
• Perform a submission using a test item supplied to you
Module 5 – User Accounts
• By the end of this module, you will …
• Understand why user accounts are required, and how to
create a user account.
• Understand what groups are and how they are created.
• Know how to make a user account a DSpace administrator
• Have created an initial administrative user
DSpace user accounts
• User accounts are required in order to grant privileges to
different users
• If not logged in, you are considered to be an anonymous user
• If you have a user account, privileges can be granted to you to allow you
to interact with DSpace
• Some users will be ‘administrators’ and have access to all functions in
DSpace
Creating users
• To create a user (self-creation)
• Click on MY ACCOUNT – Register link
• Click on Using the UH Web Login Service … link
OR
• Enter email address in the box at bottom of the page and click Register
button.
• New users have no privileges
DSpace Groups
• Combine users into logical groups
• Assists with the management of users
• Assign privileges to group not individuals
• Groups can be members of other groups
• E.g.
• Computer Science staff group
• Faculty staff group
• All staff group
Special groups
• Two special groups:
• Anonymous:
• No users in this group. This group is used when the user is not logged in.
• Administrator
• Contains users who should have full administrator access.
Administration
• Overall Administration for the UH System Repository will be
handled as part of the service contract.
• The UHM System Administrator will give each designated
repository community manager administrative privileges.
• The community administrator will then be able to add new EPersons and give them certain privileges.
Exercise
• You have all be given administrative privileges. Register a
fictitious new E-Person.
• Edit this new account.
Module 6 – User Management
• By the end of this module, you will …
• Understand the concepts of authentication and
authorization
• Fully understand user and group management in DSpace
• Have added and removed users from groups
Authentication and Authorization
• Authentication
The process of establishing the identity of a user
• Authorization
The granting of privileges to a user to perform an
action on a resource
User creation & management
• User creation
Covered in “An introduction to users and groups”
• User management
Modify users
Administer menu -> E-People -> Select E-person -> Edit
• Delete users
Administer menu -> E-People -> Select E-person -> Delete…
User creation & management
• User creation
Covered in “An introduction to users and groups”
• User management
Modify users
Administer menu -> E-People -> Select E-person -> Edit
• Delete users
Administer menu -> E-People -> Select E-person -> Delete…
User creation & management
Group management
• Administer menu -> Groups
• Create new groups ‘Create New Group’ button
• ‘Edit’ or ‘Delete’ groups
• Users or groups can be members of groups
Exercise
• Create a new user
• Log in to ensure they are an administrator
• Remove them from the Administrator group
• Log back in to ensure the user is not an administrator
anymore
Module 7 – Metadata
• By the end of this module, you will …
• Understand the purpose of metadata
• Know how DSpace encodes and stores metadata
• Know how the metadata registry works, and how to edit a
metadata schema
• Have added a new term to an existing metadata schema
What is metadata?
• From Wikipedia:
• Metadata is "data about data", of any sort in any media. An item of metadata may describe an
individual datum, or content item, or a collection of data including multiple content items.
• Metadata (sometimes written 'meta data') are used to facilitate the understanding,
characteristics, and management usage of data. The metadata required for effective data
management varies with the type of data and context of use. In a library, where the data are the
content of the titles stocked, metadata about a title would typically include a description of the
content, the author, the publication date and the physical location.
• In the context of a camera, where the data are the photographic image, metadata would
typically include the date the photograph was taken and details of the camera settings (lens,
focal length, aperture, shutter timing, white balance, etc.). On a portable music player such as an
iPod, the album names, song titles and album art embedded in the music files are used to
generate the artist and song listings, and are considered the metadata.
• In the context of an information system, where the data are the content of the computer files,
metadata about an individual data item would typically include the name of the field and its
length. Metadata about a collection of data items, a computer file, might typically include the
name of the file, the type of file and the name of the data administrator.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metadata
Types of metadata
• The are two broad types of metadata
1.
Descriptive metadata
The title is “A brief
history of time”
2.
Administrative metadata
The item was deposited
on 28th May 2008 at 20:25
Encoding metadata
• Metadata is encoded using metadata schemas
• DSpace uses Dublin Core by default
• Schema = ‘dc’
• Qualified Dublin Core
• Elements
• E.g. Title / Creator / Subject / Description
• Qualifiers
• E.g. Title.main / Title.subtitle / Title.series
• E.g. dc.identifier.citation
Various metadata schemas
• Dublin Core
• MODS
• VRA
• FGDC/CSDGM
Exercise
• Review the metadata section of the example
Community/Collection Guidelines
• Select a test item and edit that items metadata
Module 8 – Identifiers
• By the end of this module, you will …
• Understand what persistent identifiers are, how they work
and the benefits to using them in a DSpace repository
environment
• Understand what a handle is – the persistent identifier
currently used in DSpace
• Have an overview of how we apply for a handle
• Have seen a handle in use
Persistent Identifiers
• The use of location based identifiers such as the Uniform
Resource Locator (URL) often leads to problems in
accessibility to resources with time
• Often when accessing a resource via a hyperlink users
receive a “404 - page not found” error
• Persistent identifiers are an attempt at solving the issues
surrounding resource identification and long term
preservation
• A persistent identifier allows the resource to be uniquely
identified in a way that will not change if the resource is
renamed or relocated
Persistent Identifiers
• This means that a resource can be reliably referenced for
future access by humans and software
• Caveat: Persistence is heavily dependant on organisation
policy i.e. persistence of an object is only effective if an
organisation maintains and manages this persistence
• Different systems in use for persistent identifiers
• Persistent Uniform Resource Locators (PURLs)
• Digital Object Identifiers (DOI)
• Handle – Used by DSpace
The Handle
• In a handle system, resource address is identified by a
unique handle assigned by a common registration service
http://hdl.handle.net/2160/568
Registration Service
Handle Prefix
Local Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net
2160
568
Reserved handles
• You can reserve a set of handles for specific collections
Module 9 – Item submission workflows
• By the end of this module, you will …
• Understand the purpose of workflows
• Be able to describe the three different workflows available
in DSpace and when each might be used
• Be able to create, modify or remove a workflow step from a
collection
• Have created a workflow, submitted an item into the
collection with the workflow, and completed the workflow.
What is a workflow?
• A step in between submission and archiving
• Allows administrative input to submissions
• Workflows are assigned to collections
• Emails are sent, and the item appears in the relevant user(s) ‘My
DSpace’ workspace
Workflow scenarios
•Scenario 1: Head of research
I want to be able to see everything my
researchers deposit for quality control
purposes
Workflow scenarios
•Scenario 1: Repository manager
I want to approve everything that goes in to
the repository to make sure there are no
copyright issues or bad metadata
Workflow scenarios
•Scenario 1: Cataloguer
I want to be able to see everything my
researchers deposit for quality control
purposes
The three workflows
• DSpace has three workflow steps
1. Accept/Reject Step
2. Accept/Reject/Edit Metadata Step
3. Edit Metadata Step
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You can use any combination of the three
• Steps are worked through in order
• Which might be used in each of the previous scenarios?
How to create a workflow
• Created during the ‘Describe the Collection’ stage
How to create a workflow
• Edit a collection
• Find the ‘Submission Workflow’ section
• Click to ‘Create…’ a workflow step
How to create a workflow
• Select the correct users and/or groups
• Press ‘Update Group’
• Note: This creates a DSpace group
How to create a workflow on an existing
collection
• First you need to be logged in as an administrator, and go
to the collection where you wish to create a workflow for.
Click on the button ‘Edit…’ in the ‘Admin Tools’ box.
How to create a workflow on an existing
collection
• Then find the ‘Submission Workflow’ section and click on
step
How to create a workflow on an existing
collection
• Edit user and groups who can participate in workflow
Press ‘Update Group’
How to edit a collection workflow
• Edit a collection
• Find the ‘Submission Workflow’ section
• Click to ‘Edit…’ a workflow step
How to delete a workflow
• Edit a collection
• Find the ‘Submission Workflow’ section
• Click to ‘Delete’ a workflow step
Taking a workflow task
• Taking a workflow task:
• Once an item is in a workflow an email will be sent to the
relevant users and group members
Subject: DSpace: You have a new task
From: dspace@example.org
A new item has been submitted:
Title:
Workflow training package
Collection:
DSpace training materials
Submitted by: Stuart Lewis(stuart@example.com)
The submission must be checked before inclusion in the
archive.
To claim this task, please visit your "My DSpace"
page
Many thanks!
DSpace
Taking a workflow task
• Taking a workflow task:
• The item is in a pool in ‘My DSpace’
Taking a workflow task
• Preview the task
Taking a workflow task
• Taking a workflow task:
• Task options (dependant on the workflow step)
Exercise
• Create a new collection
• Assign a work flow to the collection
• Choose the ‘Accept/Reject Edit Metadata Step’
• Assign yourself as a member of the workflow group
• Submit an item to that collection
• Go to ‘My DSpace’ and complete the workflow
• If you have time, submit another item, and reject it to see
what happens
Module 10 – RSS Feeds, Alerts, and News
• By the end of this module, you will …
• Know how the RSS feeds work in DSpace
• Be able to set up and understand email alerts
• Know how to edit the news on the front page
• Have edited the news on the front page
RSS Feeds
• RSS feeds
• Site level (all new items)
• Community level (new items in all contained collections)
• Collection level (new items in that collection)
• Can be read in modern web browsers
• Can be subscribed to in news reader software
Alerts
• Alerts
• Created by users
• Created for a collection
• Emails sent each day for new items
News
• News on front page
• Top news
• Side news
• Edited via the ‘Administer’ menu and the ‘Edit News’ option.
• News items can include HTML
News
• Top News and Side News
Credits
• These slides are based on a DSpace Course produced by:
• Stuart Lewis & Chris Yates
• Repository Support Project
• http://www.rsp.ac.uk/
• Part of the RepositoryNet
• Funded by JISC
• http://www.jisc.ac.uk/