Chronicle article: 6 Institutions Will Help Fine-Tune a Popular NewArchiving Program

[Ann Okerson <ann.okerson@yale.edu>]

Of possible interest.

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This article is available online at this address:

http://chronicle.com/free/2003/01/2003013001t.htm

              - The text of the article is below -

  Thursday, January 30, 2003

  6 Institutions Will Help Fine-Tune a Popular New Archiving
  Program

  By DAN CARNEVALE
  
  Six major research universities announced this week that they
  are working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to
  fine-tune an MIT program for archiving scholarly works called
  DSpace, which has become wildly popular in academe in just a
  few months.
  
  The six institutions are Columbia University, Cornell
  University, Ohio State University, the University of
  Rochester, the University of Toronto, and the University of
  Washington at Seattle. Together with MIT and the University of
  Cambridge, they will form a group called the DSpace Federation
  and test the archiving software. The software is free and open
  source, which means the users can read and change the source
  code so they can customize it to their liking.
  
  MIT designed DSpace with Hewlett-Packard Laboratories to allow
  professors to store reports and other research documents in a
  searchable digital archive. Eventually, MIT officials hope,
  professors will be able find scholastic research as easily as
  college students search for MP3's of their favorite music.
  
  About 2,000 institutions, libraries, and other organizations
  have downloaded DSpace since its release in November. MIT
  officials tapped the six research universities that are now
  part of the DSpace Federation to use the software and report
  back on how it works and how to make it better. No particular
  problems with the software have surfaced, but officials at MIT
  want to perform a systematic test on the software to see what
  problems could pop up.
  
  MIT received a $300,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon
  Foundation to form the federation. That's in addition to a
  $1.8-million grant from the Hewlett-Packard Company to create
  the software.
  
  MacKenzie Smith, associate director of technology for MIT's
  libraries, said DSpace doesn't come with explicit instructions
  on how to use it, so it's up to the institutions to experiment
  with it and see what it can do.
  
  "When it comes to you, it's an empty box," Ms. Smith said.
  "They're testing it, and they're also improving it."
  
  DSpace is free to download now. But Ms. Smith said the
  federation will discuss whether it's necessary to add a fee
  for people to use the software.
  
  Susan Gibbons, director of digital library initiatives at the
  University of Rochester, said because the software is open
  source, the institutions in the federation will take the lead
  in finding out what DSpace is capable of. "There isn't a
  company behind it that you can call when you have problems,"
  she said. "MIT will see where they hit roadblocks and where
  did they have problems."
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Copyright 2003 by The Chronicle of Higher Education