DSpace and DSpace-CRIS Intent to Investigate Merger Announcement

[Maureen P. Walsh]

Dear DSpace Community,

 

I am writing to let you know that the DSpace Leadership Group has approved a measure to investigate a potential merger of DSpace-CRIS into DSpace.

 

Additionally, DSpace Governance has authorized the formation of two planning groups to undertake this investigation, one focused on strategic issues related to a potential merger, and one to develop a technology roadmap for potentially combining the codebases. Each planning group will report to DSpace Steering. At the conclusion of the planning groups’ work, DSpace Governance will vote again on whether to proceed with a merger of DSpace-CRIS into DSpace.

 

What is DSpace-CRIS?

For many in the DSpace community, DSpace-CRIS needs no introduction, but others may be less familiar.  DSpace-CRIS is an open source extension of DSpace developed for the Current Research Information System (CRIS) use case. DSpace-CRIS has the institutional repository as its core component but broadens DSpace functionality and expands its data model. DSpace-CRIS is built and maintained by 4Science, a DSpace Platinum Registered Service Provider and a major contributor to the core DSpace codebase. Many members of the DSpace Program and DSpace Governance are DSpace-CRIS users. You can learn more about DSpace-CRIS on the Lyrasis wiki.

 

Why is the DSpace Program considering a merger of DSpace-CRIS into DSpace?

Since DSpace adopted Configurable Entities in version 7, the use cases met by DSpace (with Entities enabled), and DSpace-CRIS have begun to overlap significantly. This is exemplified by the number of DSpace community requests for features which already exist in DSpace-CRIS.

One result of this is that desirable features developed for DSpace-CRIS must be ported to DSpace—an inefficient duplication of effort. Another potential consequence is that DSpace and DSpace-CRIS may begin to compete with one another, an outcome that neither DSpace Governance nor the DSpace-CRIS user community want.

With a merger, all resources previously dedicated to the development, maintenance, and support of DSpace-CRIS would become available to DSpace. We would move faster together and become more resilient and competitive in the repository marketplace.

Additionally, in the shorter term, a merger could also allow for the quick adoption of several DSpace-CRIS features which empower users, including enhanced statistics (and reporting) and the ability to customize Item/Entity display pages from the Admin UI.

 

What is the timeline for the investigation of a potential merger?

The planning groups will form and begin their work during this calendar year. Their investigation will take place concurrent with DSpace 9.0 development, and the results of their work will inform any timeline for executing a merger, should it proceed.

 

Any potential merger of the DSpace and DSpace-CRIS codebases will take place no sooner than with the DSpace 10.0 release (tentatively scheduled for April 2026), if then.

 

How does this affect DSpace 9.0 development?

As mentioned above, the earliest any potential merger of DSpace and DSpace-CRIS codebases would occur is DSpace 10.0.

 

However, the potential for a future merger impacts on-going development of the DSpace 9.0 release (tentatively scheduled for April 2025), as we want to avoid new feature development that would make a potential merger more difficult. As a result, DSpace 9.0 will likely be a smaller release in terms of major new features. DSpace Leadership has approved the following priorities for DSpace 9.0 development:

 

• Improving Performance / Scalability in general
• Easier Installation and Upgrades
• Code Cleanup / Maintenance
• Modularization
• Bitstream persistence URLs (if it does not interfere with a potential merger)
• Accessibility Fixes and other major bug fixes
• Features or fixes that make a potential merger easier

Note: Volunteer contributions that would interfere with a potential merger will not be accepted for DSpace 9.0.

 

How can I provide feedback or ask questions about the investigation of a potential merger?

 

If you would like to provide feedback to DSpace Governance or have questions about the intent to investigate a merger of DSpace-CRIS into DSpace, please contact us at dsp...@lyrasis.org.

 

Thank you,

Maureen Walsh, on behalf of DSpace Governance

Chair, DSpace Leadership and Steering Groups

Maureen P. Walsh
Associate Professor
Scholarly Sharing Strategist

The Ohio State University
University Libraries
355A Thompson Library
1858 Neil Avenue Mall, Columbus, OH 43210
614-292-3330 Office
wals...@osu.edu

Pronouns: she/her