Re: [digital-curation] Digital Repository Solutions

[Tom Cramer]

Chris,

If you're looking at Fedora as an option, I recommend you look at Hydra and Islandora. Both are Fedora front-ends (Hydra using Ruby on Rails, Islandora using Drupal) that can simplify the process of using Fedora as well as providing useful user interfaces. 

Just this month, several members of the Fedora community launched an effort to dramatically enhance and modernize Fedora, with streamlining the install & operational profile being a primary objective. This is obviously several quarters away from fruition, but work has begun. See https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/FF/Fedora+Futures+Home for more details. 

You may also want to consider Archivematica as one additional option; from your two line description of requirements, it looks like a possible fit for your needs. 

Best regards, 

- Tom

 | Tom Cramer

 | Chief Technology Strategist & Associate Director 

 | Digital Library Systems & Services

 | Stanford University Libraries

 | tcr...@stanford.edu

On Dec 18, 2012, at 4:50 AM, Chris Fryer wrote:

Hello all,

I'm new to the group and I'm sure this is a question that is fairly common to all involved in Digital Curation, but I thought it best to canvass everyone's opinion.

I am currently evaluating digital repository open source software (DSpace, EPrints, and Fedora) in order to establish a digital repository for Northumberland Estates.

 

There is an obvious demand for these types of digital preservation solutions but the installation and configuration of such software can be complicated, plus there are additional costs associated with the development and maintenance of these digital repositories.

 

I am basically looking for alternative digital preservation Storage Container solutions suitable for ingesting digital archival files. Considering our resources, it has to be relatively simple to install and configure.

Are any members of the group encountering similar challenges and what solutions have you applied?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Christopher Fryer

Digital Curator and Assistant Records Manager

Northumberland Estates

 

Email: Chris...@alnwickcastle.com

Phone: 01665 511151

Website: http://www.alnwickcastle.com

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[Tom Creighton]

All three of those you mentioned provide good functionality depending
on what you are looking for. How hard to install and manage depends
to a large extent on your available expertise. In the case of DSpace,
the one with perhaps the largest installed base, it's not unreasonable
to have it up and running in a few days if you know something about
systems. I managed to have a functional system running in the Amazon
cloud within a total of about 8 hours and with no prior knowledge of
the system. That included building the system from source and doing
some minor customization. However there are easier approaches. For
example, if you are willing to pay just a little more you can get a
preconfigured AMI that enables you to just create a virtual machine in
Amazon's EC2 and then run it. That said, you'll still have to learn
how to customize it. I would recommend investing the time to
understand it yourself, even if you contract with someone to help you
get started.

All three systems have good user support groups and forums. As I
looked at them it seems that while Fedora has the most raw
functionality, it does not have as much of the user experience ready
for you out of the box and seems to be more difficult to get going
with from scratch. EPrints is easy enough to get running, but seems
more limiting in terms of functionality. However these evaluations
were quick and somewhat superficial so I will quickly yield to others
who might have more detailed analyses. That said, you can find
comparisons or evaluations online for these different systems.

Other systems are coming along. Archivematica looks promising, but is
not yet ready for prime time. Perhaps it will be in the next six to
twelve months, but I think there are some inherent limitations that
need to be addressed. Nothing that can't be addressed, just that
haven't been.

Good luck in your search. Don't be afraid to try DSpace. It has lots
of information online. Some of it is a bit inconsistent, but it is
possible to work through it.

tc

[Gus Urban]

Plone also

2012/12/19 Chris Fryer <christop...@gmail.com>

Thanks for your reply Tom.

I have already looked at implementing Fedora along with either Hydra (I attended the recent Hydra event at LSE here in the UK) or Islandora but we don't currently have the resources and expertise to implement such a solution.

My aim was to try and uncover any other solutions which I might be unaware of. We decided to deploy DSpace, but the installation proved tricky for our IT department. So I'm currently evaluating alternative approaches.

Archivematica is a potential resource which I may also look to implement.

All the best,
Chris

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/digital-curation/-/YkpDqLrZiiAJ.

[Edward M. Corrado]

For our University, we use the Rosetta digital preservation system but
that isn't open source and I wouldn't call it simple even if it is
well designed.

That said, I am involved with a few E-print installs and find it very
easy to use. If you want or need it to look much different then what
you get out-of-the-box there is a learning curve, but the out of the
box version is fine for many users. Also, E-Prints has a good
following in the UK (for some reason it is not used as much in the
USA) and I imagine that would help when it comes to community support.

Edward

[Tom Creighton]

Chris,

You are getting lots of advice here. That's because there are several
good choices available. For example, at FamilySearch we have a fairly
large repository that we manage using Tessella's SDB product. I
thought I'd at least follow up and clarify my comments about
Archivematica. The primary issues have to do with the fact that it is
not quite a released product. But it certainly doesn't take long to
try it out and see how far along it is. As Tom Cramer points out, it
is something to consider.

Good luck,

tc

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 5:50 AM, Chris Fryer

[Declan Fleming]

Hi - you might want to look at Nuxeo and Alfresco, especially at the work being done on CollectionSpace (Nuxeo) and the Research Hub (Alfresco) at Berkeley.

We're digging into Hydra on top of our own DAMS, but we've got devs and strong systems support.

Declan