Digital Repository Software: VTLS Releases VITAL 4.0

VTLS has released VITAL 4.0, which utilizes the Fedora repository software.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

VITAL provides functions to allow easy access of digital resources by individuals, while enforcing proper curation and management policies for digital resources. Authentication and access control are an integral part of the capabilities of Release 4.0 of VITAL. These capabilities grant access where needed and restrict access where appropriate.

Some new features in Release 4.0 of VITAL include:

  • Access management for users and groups: The VITAL software provides an interface for creating users and groups, assigning users to one or more groups, defining the permissions for each group, and defining the permissions for each object and datastream.
  • Integration with QuikBib (TM): QuikBib (TM) provides researchers with the ability to select from 1000+ citation styles for formatting citations for bibliographies.
  • Authority lists: VITAL functionality has been expanded to include the ability to define certain metadata elements present in the repository as "authorities." This allows repository staff to ensure data consistency.
  • Support for consortia: VITAL functionality has been enhanced to support multiple institutions using a single VITAL instance. In this implementation, support has been added for a single copy of Fedora and a single VITAL Access Portal and allows for different skin modifications and configurations for each individual site.