The Fedora Commons has released version 3.2.1 of Fedora Repository.
Here's an excerpt from the announcement:
The current release of Fedora Repository is 3.2.1 is a minor upgrade that addresses a security issue discovered in Fedora 3.2. . . .
Included within is the long-awaited, web-based administrative client, initial integration with the emerging Akubra storage-abstraction layer, many useful bug fixes, and the experimental release of a Fedora decoupled from the familiar 'fedora' context path.
JISC has released DISC-UK DataShare Project: Final Report.
Here's an excerpt:
The DISC-UK DataShare Project was funded from March 2007-March 2009 as part of JISC's Repositories and Preservation programme, Repositories Enhancement strand. It was led by EDINA and Edinburgh University Data Library in partnership with the University of Oxford and the University of Southampton. The project built on the existing informal collaboration of UK data librarians and data managers who formed DISC-UK (Data Information Specialists Committee–UK).
This project has brought together the distinct communities of data support staff in universities and institutional repository managers in order to bridge gaps and exploit the expertise of both to advance the current provision of repository services for accommodating datasets, and thus to explore new pathways to assist academics at our institutions who wish to share their data over the Internet. The project's overall aim was to contribute to new models, workflows and tools for academic data sharing within a complex and dynamic information environment which includes increased emphasis on stewardship of institutional knowledge assets of all types; new technologies to enhance e- Research; new research council policies and mandates; and the growth of the Open Access / Open Data movement.
With three institutions taking part plus the London School of Economics as an associate partner, a range of exemplars have emerged from the establishment of institutional data repositories and related services. Part of the variety in the exemplars is a result of the different repository platforms used by the three project partners: DSpace (Edinburgh DataShare), ePrints (e-Prints Soton) and Fedora (Oxford University Research Archive, ORA)–all open source software. LSE took another route and is using the distributed Dataverse repository network for data, linking to publications in LSE Research Online. Also, different approaches were taken in setting up the repositories. All three institutions had an existing, well-used institutional repository, but two chose to incorporate datasets within the same system as the publications, and one (Edinburgh DataShare) was a paired repository exclusively for datasets, designed to interoperate with the publications repository (Edinburgh Research Archive). The approach took a major turn midway through the project when an apparent solution to the problem of lack of voluntary deposits arose, in the form of the advent of the Data Audit Framework. Edinburgh participated as a partner in the DAF Development project which created the methodology for the framework, and also won a bid to carry out its own DAF Implementation project. Later, the other two partners conducted their own versions of the data audit framework under the auspices of the DataShare project.
A number of scoping activities were carried about by the partners with the goal of informing repository enhancement as well as broader dissemination. These included a State-of-the-Art-Review to determine what had been learned by previous repository projects in the UK that had forayed into the data arena. This resulted in a list of benefits and barriers to deposit of datasets by researchers to inform our outreach activities. A Data Sharing Continuum diagram was developed to illustrate where the projects were aiming to fit into the curation landscape, and the range of curation steps that could be taken, from simple backup to online visualization. Later on, a specialized metadata schema was explored (Data Documentation Initiative or DDI) in terms of how it might be incorporated into repository systems, though repository development in this area was not taken up. Instead, a dataset application profile was developed based on qualified Dublin Core (dcterms). This was implemented in the Edinburgh DataShare repository and adapted by Southampton for their next release. The project wished to explore wider issues with open data and web publishing, and therefore produced two briefing papers to do with data mashups–on numeric data and geospatial data. Finally, the project staff and consultant distilled what it had learned in terms of policy development for data repositories in a training guide. A number of peer reviewed posters, papers, and articles were written by DISC-UK members about various aspects of the project during the period.
Key conclusions were that 1) Data management motivation is a better bottom-up driver for researchers than data sharing but is not sufficient to create culture change, 2) Data librarians, data managers and data scientists can help bridge communication between repository managers & researchers, and 3) IRs can improve impact of sharing data over the internet.
JISC has released the Sound Archives Film Image Repository Project's SAFIR Final Report.
Here's an excerpt:
The SAFIR project has achieved what it set out to do, to begin the task of building a multimedia repository infrastructure for the University of York. The project has successfully implemented software for the storage layer (Fedora Commons), along with an interface (Muradora) and has populated that repository with a pilot collection of images. It has implemented a degree of access control, developed metadata profiles, recommendations, policies, licences and copyright clearance procedures, implemented a basic level of interoperability and gathered knowledge and expertise. SAFIR has been a success although there is much more work ahead at York. There is a balance to be struck between taking time to consult and absorb best practice in order to make the best, sustainable decisions and the pressures of immediate needs and project deadlines. Having a JISC deadline has kept the project focussed and although we have tried to ensure that the right decisions were made, we may have sacrificed "best possible" in order to meet an immediate need, for example in our metadata profile decisions or our use of Muradora as an interface. In choosing open source software, in particular Fedora Commons, our development and implementation path is made longer, but the benefits of increased flexibility, building sustainable in-house skill and working in the wider context were seen to outweigh the benefits offered by a commercial solution. Whether this was the right decision remains to be seen, but the enthusiasm and commitment of the Digital Library team have galvanised around that decision. We have already faced a number of technical delays because of unforeseeable issues with the software and we must continue to ensure that sufficient development time is allocated to tasks. We have significant concerns about the maturity and support of some of the software tested for the project. Managing expectations and working with users is an ongoing process and requires significant attention.
Jennifer L. Marill and Edward C. Luczak have published "Evaluation of Digital Repository Software at the National Library of Medicine" in the latest issue of D-Lib Magazine.
Here's an excerpt:
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Library of Medicine® (NLM) undertook an 18-month project to evaluate, test and recommend digital repository software and systems to support NLM's collection and preservation of a wide variety of digital objects. This article outlines the methodology NLM used to analyze the landscape of repository software and select three systems for in-depth testing. Finally, the article discusses the evaluation results and next steps for NLM. This project followed an earlier NLM working group, which created functional requirements and identified key policy issues for an NLM digital repository to aid in building NLM's collection in the digital environment.
DSpace and Fedora Commons have merged to form a new organization, DuraSpace.
Here's an excerpt from the press release:
The joined organization, named "DuraSpace," will sustain and grow its flagship repository platforms – Fedora and DSpace. DuraSpace will also expand its portfolio by offering new technologies and services that respond to the dynamic environment of the Web and to new requirements from existing and future users. DuraSpace will focus on supporting existing communities and will also engage a larger and more diverse group of stakeholders in support of its not-for-profit mission. The organization will be led by an executive team consisting of Sandy Payette (Chief Executive Officer), Michele Kimpton (Chief Business Officer), and Brad McLean (Chief Technology Officer) and will operate out of offices in Ithaca, NY and Cambridge, MA.
"This is a great development," said Clifford Lynch, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI). "It will focus resources and talent in a way that should really accelerate progress in areas critical to the research, education, and cultural memory communities. The new emphasis on distributed reliable storage infrastructure services and their integration with repositories is particularly timely."
Together Fedora and DSpace make up the largest market share of open repositories worldwide, serving over 700 institutions. These include organizations committed to the use of open source software solutions for the dissemination and preservation of academic, scientific, and cultural digital content.
"The joining of DSpace and Fedora Commons is a watershed event for libraries, specifically, and higher education, more generally," said James Hilton, CIO of the University of Virginia. "Separately, these two organizations operated with similar missions and a shared commitment to developing and supporting open technologies. By bringing together the technical, financial, and community-based resources of the two organizations, their communities gain a robust organization focused on solving the many challenges involved in storing, curating, and preserving digital data and scholarship," he said.
New Products
DuraSpace will continue to support its existing software platforms, DSpace and Fedora, as well as expand its offerings to support the needs of global information communities. The first new technology to emerge will be a Web-based service named "DuraCloud." DuraCloud is a hosted service that takes advantage of the cost efficiencies of cloud storage and cloud computing, while adding value to help ensure longevity and re-use of digital content. The DuraSpace organization is developing partnerships with commercial cloud providers who offer both storage and computing capabilities.
The DuraCloud service will be run by the DuraSpace organization. Its target audiences are organizations responsible for digital preservation and groups creating shared spaces for access and re-use of digital content. DuraCloud will be accessible directly as a Web service and also via plug-ins to digital repositories including Fedora and DSpace. The software developed to support the DuraCloud service will be made available as open source. An early release of DuraCloud will be available for selected pilot partners in Fall 2009.
Key Benefits of the DuraSpace Organization
DuraSpace will support both DSpace and Fedora by working closely with both communities and when possible, develop synergistic technologies, services, and programs that increase interoperability of the two platforms. DuraSpace will also support other open source software projects including the Mulgara semantic store, a scalable RDF database.
DuraSpace is mission-focused. The organization will be associated with its broader mission of working towards developing services and solutions on behalf of diverse communities rather than focusing on single-solution product development. This change in orientation can be characterized as moving beyond the software and toward the mission.
DuraSpace will bring strength and leadership to a larger community and amplify the value brought by each organization individually. With both organizations working in unison, there can be significant economies of scale, synergies in developing open technologies and services, and a strong position for long-term sustainability.
The Fedora Commons has released Fedora 3.2.
Here's an excerpt from the announcement:
Included in Fedora 3.2 is the long-awaited, web-based administrative client, initial integration with the emerging Akubra storage- abstraction layer, many useful bug fixes, and the experimental release of a Fedora decoupled from the familiar 'fedora' context path.
Read more about it at "Fedora Repository 3.2 Release Notes."
The Islandora project has released version 3.1 of Islandora, a Drupal module that allows Drupal to act as a front-end to Fedora. (Thanks to LoomWare.)
John Robertson of JISC CETIS has overviewed developments in major digital repository software in his "Repository Software Update" post.
Here's an excerpt:
Over the past couple of months I've had a chance to hear updates from a number of repository software developers (at a Fedora training day, at DEV8D and on a number of blogs). Albeit slightly delayed by holidays, here's a bit of a snapshot of where ePrints, DSpace, Fedora, Microsoft's repository are at. There's a lot more information about Fedora than the others as I've heard a couple of updates from them. The usual caveat that I may have misunderstood what some of these are or how developed they are should apply. Much of this development is building up to releases at Open Repositories 2009.
The Northwestern University Library has made a digital video available about their Mounting Books Project.
Here's an excerpt from the abstract of a presentation on the project that will be given at Open Repositories 2009:
The Northwestern University Library undertook a software development project to create an automated workflow to enable files from its Kirtas book scanner to be both linked to the OPAC with a page viewer application, and ingested into its Fedora repository as archivally sustainable and reusable digital objects. The web-based Book Workflow Interface (BWI) software utilizes jBPM for management and web services for key creation components. It also features an AJAX interface to support drag-and-drop creation and editing of METS-based book structures. The BWI system ingests locally scanned texts as well as texts digitized by external partners or vendors.
The Repositories Support Project has released the "Repository Software Survey, March 2009," which analyzes the CONTENTdm, Digital Commons, DigiTool, DSpace, EPrints, EQUELLA, Fedora, intraLibrary, Research-Output Repository Platform, Open Repository, and VITAL digital repository systems.
The Fedora Commons has published a new issue of its HatCheck newsletter.
Among the news items is a short article on Fedora 3.2, which is anticipated to be released on 5/5/09, and another short article on Project Wunderkammer, which is "a platform for development of museum collections management systems."
The Repositories Support Project Podcasts has launched a podcast series.
Here are titles of the initial podcasts:
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.
The DSpace Foundation, the Fedora Commons, Sun Microsystems, and SPARC are offering a free All About Repositories Webinar Series.
Here's an excerpt from the press release (see it for a list of the first webinars):
Got a repository? Would you like to understand more about what repositories are and how they operate? This spring DSpace Foundation, Fedora Commons, Sun Microsystems and SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition) will offer a free About Repositories Webinar Series to provide professional learning opportunities for repository managers, developers, curators and decision makers. The seminar series will kick off on Feb. 18 at 9:00 a.m. PT with DSpace and Fedora: A Collaboration Update presented by Michele Kimpton, Executive Director, DSpace Foundation, and Sandy Payette, Executive Director Fedora Commons.
Each month a new topic or issue of interest to repository communities will be presented in a one-hour online format. All About Repositories Webinar Series will be web cast for synchronous event access, and will also be made available through DSpace, Fedora, Sun and SPARC web sites as an open educational reference for repository users and developers.
Future web seminars will focus on topics such as web services, and will take an in-depth look at some of the top implementations from the Innovation Fair held at the November 2008 SPARC repositories meeting. . . .
Pre-registration is required for all seminars at http://www.education-webevents.com/.
The Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories has released a SWORD plugin for Open Journal Systems, which was developed by Scott Yeadon and Leo Monus. The plugin requires "a significant amount of patching to DSpace," and it is recommended that testing be done with Fedora. A new version will be released next year that may eliminate the need for DSpace patching.
The DSpace Foundation and Fedora Commons have received a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support planning for DuraSpace.
Here's an excerpt from the press release:
Over the next six months funding from the planning grant will allow the organizations to jointly specify and design "DuraSpace," a new web-based service that will allow institutions to easily distribute content to multiple storage providers, both "cloud-based" and institution-based. The idea behind DuraSpace is to provide a trusted, value-added service layer to augment the capabilities of generic storage providers by making stored digital content more durable, manageable, accessible and sharable.
Michele Kimpton, Executive Director of the DSpace Foundation, said, "Together we can leverage our expertise and open source value proposition to continue to provide integrated open solutions that support the scholarly mission of universities."
Sandy Payette, Executive Director of Fedora Commons, observes, "There is an important role for high-tech non-profit organizations in adding value to emerging cloud solutions. DuraSpace is designed with an eye towards enabling universities, libraries, and other types of organizations to take advantage of cloud storage while also addressing special requirements unique to areas such as digital archiving and scholarly communication."
The grant from the Mellon Foundation will support a needs analysis, focus groups, technical design sessions, and meetings with potential commercial partners. A working web-based demonstration will be completed during the six-month grant period to help validate the technical and business assumptions behind DuraSpace.
The Fedora Commons has released Fedora 3.1.
It has also released Fedora 2.2.4, a maintenance upgrade to the prior version of the system.
Read more about it at "Fedora 3.1 and Fedora 2.2.4 Now Available."
Cornell University has launched its DISCOVER Research Service Group to support its data-driven science efforts.
Here's an excerpt from the press release:
Cornell University announced today the establishment of the DISCOVER Research Service Group (DRSG) to facilitate data-driven science at Cornell by developing cross-disciplinary data archival and discovery tools. DISCOVER will conduct pilot projects in selected strategic areas such as the development of data discovery portals using access-layer protocols now under development at Fedora Commons and the Virtual Observatory. . . .
Cornell's Department of Astronomy and the University Library, in partnership with the Cornell Center for Advanced Computing, will work closely with DISCOVER, which is comprised of research groups from multiple disciplines and core data management and curation staff. . . .
The overarching goal of the DISCOVER Research Service Group is to provide accessible paths for the curation, preservation, and mining of scientific data. Systems are needed to make data sets accessible physically over both space (over a wide network) and time (for the indefinite future) and also transparently, using modern Web-based tools that are expected to evolve.
The Robertson Library of University of Prince Edward Island has released Islandora, an open source Drupal front-end to the Fedora digital repository software.
Read more about it at "Drupal/Fedora Module from 'Islandora'."
Fedora Commons has published a new issue of its HatCheck newsletter.
Highlights include:
The Fedora Commons Wiki has been re-launched using Atlassian’s Confluence enterprise Wiki software.
Here's an excerpt from the announcement:
The new Fedora Commons Wiki provides a stable environment for developing Fedora software, documentation and communities. The new wiki features additional personalization and development tools for communication and tracking including a feature long-requested by the community–automated account registration with "Capcha." So it’s easy to join our community while making it difficult for spammers.
Please note that you do not need an account to read the Fedora Commons wiki—it’s open to everyone. You must register at the new wiki, however, if you want to add comments, articles, ask for help, or participate with other members of the community.
Thornton Staples, Director of Community Strategy and Outreach at the Fedora Commons, has posted a message on fedora-commons-users that identifies 22 new institutional users of Fedora, bringing the total number of identified Fedora institutions to 148. The Fedora Commons Community Registry lists all known Fedora institutions.
Fedora Commons has released version 2.2.3 of Fedora, which contains an important security fix.
Here's an excerpt from the press release:
Today Fedora Commons released version 2.2.3 of the popular Fedora software that includes the repair of a serious security defect and several bug fixes. Dan Davis, Chief Software Architect, Fedora Commons, explained, "Every installation of Fedora 2 should update to 2.2.3 due to the security update. There have been no exploits that have been discovered but it is important to maintain repositories at the latest security update level." Fedora 2.2.3 is strictly a maintenance update; new features may be found in Fedora 3.0 which was released for general availability on July 29th . Also, the license has been changed to the familiar Apache License 2.0 for Fedora 2.2.3. Fedora 2 will be maintained until August 2009 and thereafter be placed in an "end of life" status. At least one more release of Fedora 2 is planned though there may be additional releases to fix critical defects.
Fedora Commons has released version 3.0 Fedora, which "completes all general release features."
Here's an excerpt from the press release:
Dan Davis, Chief Software Architect, Fedora Commons, explained, "We are pleased to offer a Fedora 3.0 that is a foundational step towards a model-driven content architecture." He went on to say, "Users will find it simpler to maintain and operate their repositories with version 3.0-it's more scalable and fits better into the Web."
Fedora 3.0 features the Content Model Architecture (CMA), an integrated structure for persisting and delivering the essential characteristics of digital objects in Fedora. The software is available at http://www.fedora-commons.org/ and at http://sourceforge.net/projects/fedora-commons. The Fedora CMA plays a central role in the Fedora architecture, in many ways forms the over-arching conceptual framework for future development of Fedora Repositories. Fedora 3.0 features include:
Overview of new Features in Fedora 3.0 Release
- Content Model Architecture—Provides a model-driven approach for persisting and delivering the essential characteristics of digital content in Fedora
- Fedora REST API—A new API that exposes a subset of the Access and Management API using a RESTful Web interface contributed by MediaShelf
- Mulgara Support—Fedora supports the Mulgara 2.0 Semantic Triplestore replacing Kowari
- Migration Utility—Provides an update utility to convert existing collections for Content Model Architecture compatibility
- Relational Index Simplification—The Fedora schema was simplified making changes easier without having to reload the database and significantly increasing scalability
- Dynamic Behaviors—Objects may be added or removed dynamically from the system moving system checks into run-time errors
- Error Reporting—Provides improved run-time error details
- Multiple Owner as a CSV String—Enables using a CSV string as ownerID and in XACML policies
- Java 6 Compatibility—Fedora may be optionally compiled using Java 6 while retaining support for Java Enterprise Edition 1.5 deployments
- Relationships API—API-M has been extended to enable adding, removing, and discovering RDF relations between Fedora objects
- Revised Fedora Object XML Schemas—The new schemas are simpler, supporting the CMA and removing Disseminators
- Atom Support—Fedora objects can now be imported and exported in the Atom format
- Messaging Support—Integrates JMS messaging for sending notification of important events
- Validation Framework—Provides system operators a way to validate all or part of their repository, based on content models
- 3.0-Compatible Service Releases—New versions of the OAI Provider and GSearch services are compatible with Fedora 3.0. The GSearch release also enables messaging support for GSearch, which allows for more robust and seamless integration with the Fedora repository.
- Many new enhancements—see the Release Notes:
http://www.fedora-commons.org/documentation/3.0b2/
userdocs/distribution/release-notes.html.
The DSpace Foundation and Fedora Commons have announced that they will collaborate on future digital repository initiatives.
Here's an excerpt from the press release:
Today two of the largest providers of open source software for managing and providing access to digital content, the DSpace Foundation and Fedora Commons, announced plans to combine strengths to work on joint initiatives that will more closely align their organizations' goals and better serve both open source repository communities in the coming months. . . .
The collaboration is expected to benefit over 500 organizations from around the world who are currently using either DSpace (examples include MIT, Rice University, Texas Digital Library and University of Toronto) or Fedora (examples include the National Library of France, New York Public Library, Encyclopedia of Chicago and eSciDoc) open source software to create repositories for a wide variety of purposes. . . .
The decision to collaborate came out of meetings held this spring where members of DSpace and Fedora Commons communities discussed multiple dimensions of cooperation and collaboration between the two organizations. Ideas included leveraging the power and reach of open source knowledge communities by using the same services and standards in the future. The organizations will also explore opportunities to provide new capabilities for accessing and preserving digital content, developing common web services, and enabling interoperability across repositories.
In the spirit of advancing open source software, Fedora Commons and DSpace will look at ways to leverage and incubate ideas, community and culture to:
- Provide the best technology and services to open source repository framework communities.
- Evaluate and synchronize, where possible, both organizations' technology roadmaps to enable convergence and interoperability of key architectural components.
- Demonstrate how the DSpace and Fedora open source repository frameworks offer a unique value proposition compared to proprietary solutions.
The announcement came on the heels of an event sponsored by the Joint Information Systems Committee's (JISC) Common Repository Interface Group (CRIG) held at the Library of Congress. The event, known as "RepoCamp," was a forum where developers gathered to discuss innovative approaches to improving interoperability and web-orientation for digital repositories. Sandy Payette, Executive Director of Fedora Commons, and Michele Kimpton, Executive Director of the DSpace Foundation, reiterated their commitment to collaboration and encouraged input and participation from both communities as work gets underway.
