Dspace 6 vs other solutions

[J.Dornbusch]

Hello
I am trying to determine what would be the right research data management solution for my institution. There are comparison grids on the internet but they are often outdated.
The data will be in tens of Gos of all types, including office or pdf files as well as low and high resolution images, videos, quantitative data, shapefiles, XML-TEI...
We need to add specific metadata standards and controlled vocabularies, to assign DOIs, to fine-tune access rights, to interface with other applications following semantic web standards. We would like to have powerful search capabilities (full text search in data and metadata, facetting, stemming...), perhaps on-the-fly OCR processing. Authentication would be with Shibboleth but not only. We will use Omeka-S as a front end for the general public, knowing that Omeka S already has modules to interface with Dspace and Fedora.
After considering Dataverse, we finally found it too little extensible, although we liked some features like the "explore" button that projects an item into a third-party data visualization interface.
We now hesitate between Dspace and Fedora 4 + the new Islandora "Claw". An advantage of Dspace is that we would  quickly deploy the turnkey interfaces. I have the feeling that Dspace 6 offers a level of functionality comparable to that of Fedora, for example regarding versioning, scalability...
Does Dspace have some limitations compared to Fedora ? Is Dspace suitable for a large-scale data repository, with lots of custom feature requests and integration to other tools ?

I am interested in any advice or resource that would help us in this choice.

Regards,
J.Dornbusch
https://www.ehess.fr/en

[Christian Völker]

Hello,

my feeling is that solutions can easily be too big and powerful. See how many really large institutions rely on DSpace.

If one day you feel that you have grown out of DSpace and you have longterm workforce available to learn to develop on a platform like Fedora, then migration from DSpace to Fedora will be one of your smallest concerns.

However going the steep way and starting with Fedora when you dont have implemented any such solution until now is prone to bad experience for all people involved. How will they trust you and take a second attempt together with you to switch back to DSpace?

Really, introducing a critical electronic platform in an institution is not so much about technology, it is about understanding peoples requirements. Does this sound like trite wisdom? It doesnt make it be less true.

Bye, Christian

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[Tim Donohue]

Hello J,

It's hard to make broad comparisons between DSpace and Fedora as the systems are so very different in nature.  And which system you use should likely be heavily based on your local needs, expertise, and goals.

Fedora is a highly flexible data storage architecture/platform, with native linked data support.  It natively speaks RDF, and the storage of all objects within Fedora can be highly customized based on local needs.  However, few institutions use Fedora directly (as it requires a lot of resources to plan out your local Fedora data model, develop interfaces against it, etc).  Instead, most institutions that use Fedora actually choose to use either Samvera (used to be called Hydra) or Islandora, which are full repository solutions (with their own pre-built data models and user interfaces).  Samvera provides applications based on Ruby on Rails, while Islandora is essentially a flavor of Drupal (drupal.org) that is built on a Fedora backend.
* https://samvera.org/

* https://islandora.ca/ 

DSpace is an out-of-the-box repository application, with a mind towards allowing institutions to more quickly manage their digital content and disseminate it on the web (i.e. optimized for SEO). It has a built in data model which is similar in nature to Samvera or Islandora, but is *not* based on Fedora. To make it easier to work with and install, its metadata is based on Dublin Core. The metadata is customizable, but it is not hierarchical (like RDF), and instead is limited to the format: [schema].[element].[qualifier] (you can create as many custom schemas, elements or qualifiers as you wish however).  DSpace is generally considered an easier application to install/maintain (than those mentioned above), which is why it is the most widely used repository application worldwide (with over 2,000 known institutions using DSpace). DSpace is a Java web application (with a database backend), and is scalable to support large numbers of objects. (Fedora is similarly scalable)

As for which is more tailored for a data repository, it also likely depends heavily on your needs/goals.  As noted, Fedora is more flexible, but that flexibility requires a lot of management/staff to maintain and support. DSpace is less flexible in terms of data model or metadata, but is generally easier to maintain with less staff.  There are some larger scale data repositories built on both platforms (see below). You could consider contacting one (or more) of them to talk about their experiences with either platform.

DSpace-based Data Repositories:

• DataDryad: https://datadryad.org/  (This system is a custom, open source product based on DSpace that is tailored more towards data repository needs)
• Edinburgh Data Share: http://datashare.is.ed.ac.uk 
• University of Minnesota: https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/166578

Fedora-based Data Repositories:

• University of Alberta, Education & Research Archive: https://era.library.ualberta.ca/ 
  
• University of Michigan, Deep Blue Data: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/data/ 
  
• ICPSR: https://www.datalumos.org/  and https://www.openicpsr.org/openicpsr/ 

I hope that gives you a decent overview from which to continue your research.

- Tim

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Tim Donohue
Technical Lead for DSpace & DSpaceDirect
DuraSpace.org | DSpace.org | DSpaceDirect.org

[J.Dornbusch]

Hello Tim,

Thank you very much for this detailed presentation ! And thanks to Christian for his advice.
In our case, we have considered Islandora because we have a lot of projects under Drupal. But something bothers me: Islandora runs with rather old versions of Drupal (7.x) and Fedora (3.x), and the new major version ("Claw") is under development.
I think at first we will be able to meet our customization requirements with DSpace.

Thanks again ! J.Dornbusch

[Sean Carte]

Hi Joachim

We're currently implementing DSpace-CRIS with CKAN integration to extend our DSpace repository so that we can accommodate RDM. It might be worth having a look:

https://dspace-cris.4science.it/

Sean

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[Jordan Piščanc]

Hi Joachim

We have also recently moved our IR to DSpace-CRIS/GLAM with CKAN integration and some 4Science Add-ons.
We apreciated also it's personalization.

You can see it on
https://www.openstarts.units.it

Regards,
Jordan

______

Jordan PIŠČANC

IR-CRIS IT Manager
Università di Trieste

www.openstarts.units.it
arts.units.it
ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3601-8360

[Bram Luyten]

To remove any doubts that DSpace can handle:

- arbitrary amounts of bitstreams in an item

- arbitrary size of bitstreams

https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10871/14881

- single item

- multiple TBs chopped up into 17GB bitstreams

Of course, with that magnitude INGESTION and download/access by users is not trivial.

Another one of our clients, taking the angle of putting research publications and datasets into the same repository:

https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/

A bit more general, but here's a very comprehensive, recent, community-sourced overview of repository solutions:

https://ablwr.github.io/blog/2017/08/09/collection-management-system-collection/

Direct link to the comparison spreadsheet

best regards,

Bram

Bram Luyten 250-B Lucius Gordon Drive, Suite 3A, West Henrietta, NY 14586 Gaston Geenslaan 14, Leuven 3001, Belgium ***New address Apr 2017*** atmire.com

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[S. Mornati (gmail)]

Hello J,

there is an optimal solution to exploit all advantages of DSpace while also fulfilling more complex need such as those you mentioned, from implementing a variety of metadata standards and semantic web compliancy, to enhanced seaching and navigating features, assign DOIs, performing OCR on the fly etc.
As Jordan Piščanc already pointed out, there is an extension of DSpace called DSpace-CRIS that is able to fulfill all those requirements without the need for developing further software.

Please have a look at: https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/DSPACECRIS/DSpace-CRIS+Home

and don't hesitate to contact me for any further detail (disclaimer: 4Science also supports DSpace-CRIS).

Best, Susanna

Susanna Mornati

4Science, www.4science.it

DSpace, DSpace-CRIS, DSpace-GLAM service provider

office: Viale Achille Papa 30, World Join Center Tower, 20149 Milano, Italy

tel.: +39 02 3971 0421

mobile: +39 366 6300 998

email: susanna...@4science.it

skype: susanna.mornati

hangouts: susanna....@gmail.com

linkedin: susannamornati

orcid: 0000-0001-9931-3637

--

[J.Dornbusch]

Thanks Susanna.
There are particular concerns that make us hesitate between Dspace and Fedora.
First, many of our projects have a very specific data structure: one can not separate data from metadata, there is no associated media : eg, bibliographic records, film catalogs.
In addition, archivists require that data can be organized in a hierarchical "classification scheme".
But I find no notion of sub-collection in Dspace.
At last, I fear that some complex metadata standards can not fit into the flat metadata model of dspace.
Do you think these problems can be overcome?
Thank you for your help.
Joachim

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[Cortese Claudio]

Dear Joachim,

starting from DSpace-CRIS, we have developed also an extension of DSpace, called DSpace-GLAM, with a flexible data model, specific for cultural heritage management. 

Using DSpace-GLAM you can manage hierarchical metadata standards (such as the archival ones) and define all the entities relevant for describing the contexts of cultural objects, compliant to your favourite conceptual model.

You can have a look at our public demo https://dspace-glam.4science.it/https://dspace-glam.4science.it/ 

 

Don't hesitate to contact me for any further detail 

Best regards.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Claudio Cortese

Project Manager & Business Analyst

 

4Science SRL   www.4science.it

DSpace, DSpace-CRIS, DSpace-GLAM service provider

Via A.Papa 30 c/o WJC – 20149 Milano

Tel. +39-02-39710421 

Mobile +39-333-9340846

 

Itway Group SpA and Libanica SA

Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Qatar, U.A.Emirates, Nigeria

 

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Da: dspace-c...@googlegroups.com [dspace-c...@googlegroups.com] per conto di J.Dornbusch [joachim....@ehess.fr]
Inviato: venerdì 20 ottobre 2017 11.23
A: DSpace Community
Oggetto: Re: [dspace-community] Dspace 6 vs other solutions

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[Christian Völker]

Hello,

whereas Claudios more recent solution is certainly preferable, we have dealt with this in our instance of DSpace as follows:

<http://stadtteilgeschichten.net/handle/2339/2000?show=full>
This item is of dc.type „Konvolut“ which is a german term for omnibus volume. It was created first.

<http://stadtteilgeschichten.net/handle/2339/2004?show=full>
This is one of the items that is part of aforementioned „Konvolut“. Consequently, it is marked as dc.relation.ispartof http://hdl.handle.net/2339/2000 in metadata.

By dc.relation.ispartof, a back reference to the containing volume is available. However, if you want to know about the brethren of this item, there is no simple way to find all the content related to a Konvolut given the limitation of extended search. In the case shown, searching for the volumes title gives a satisfactory result.

<http://stadtteilgeschichten.net/handle/2339/1941/discover?query=St.+Pauli+wirbt&submit=Los>

Bye, Christian

> Am 20.10.2017 um 11:37 schrieb Cortese Claudio <Claudio...@4science.it>:
>
> Dear Joachim,
>
> starting from DSpace-CRIS, we have developed also an extension of DSpace, called DSpace-GLAM, with a flexible data model, specific for cultural heritage management.
>
> Using DSpace-GLAM you can manage hierarchical metadata standards (such as the archival ones) and define all the entities relevant for describing the contexts of cultural objects, compliant to your favourite conceptual model.
>
> You can have a look at our public demo https://dspace-glam.4science.it/https://dspace-glam.4science.it/
>
> Don't hesitate to contact me for any further detail
>
> Best regards.
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Claudio Cortese
>
> Project Manager & Business Analyst
>
>
>
> 4Science SRL www.4science.it
>
> DSpace, DSpace-CRIS, DSpace-GLAM service provider
>
>
>
>
> Via A.Papa 30 c/o WJC – 20149 Milano
>
> Tel. +39-02-39710421
>
> Mobile +39-333-9340846
>
>
>
> Itway Group SpA and Libanica SA
>
> Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Qatar, U.A.Emirates, Nigeria
>
>

> Da: dspace-c...@googlegroups.com [dspace-c...@googlegroups.com] per conto di J.Dornbusch [joachim....@ehess.fr]
> Inviato: venerdì 20 ottobre 2017 11.23
> A: DSpace Community
> Oggetto: Re: [dspace-community] Dspace 6 vs other solutions
>
> Thanks Susanna.
> There are particular concerns that make us hesitate between Dspace and Fedora.

> First, many of our projects have a very specific data structure: one can not separate data from metadata, there is no associated media : eg,bibliographic records, film catalogs.

[Tom Hutchinson]

Hi J,

DSpace can nest collections, these are called "communities". These can
go as many levels deep as needed. So for instance we have content
organized by institution, then department, etc. The same item can be
in multiple collections.

An item itself is flat. My understanding is that items can be made
hierarchical with DSpace-CRIS/DSpace-GLAM, though I have no experience
with them.

Best of luck in your search.

Tom