Samvera Community Newsletter August 2025
Heather Greer Klein
In this issue:
Registration is Open for Samvera Connect 2025 in Mexico City
Apply for a Samvera Connect 2025 Scholarship by August 11th
Seats are still available! Hyku/Hyrax Developer Training Camp in Pittsburgh this October
It’s easy to nominate a fellow community member for the 2025 Julie Allinson Award
Success! Hyku 7 is funded, details and next steps
“Doc Days of Summer” Documentation Work Days is August
Hyrax 5.2 Released
Working and Interest Group meetings for the month of August
1 – Registration is Open for Samvera Connect 2025 in Mexico City
We’re excited to announce that registration is now open for Samvera Connect 2025, taking place October 20 - 23 at El Colegio de México in Mexico City!
Visit the event website for full details and the latest updates:
Register now for Samvera Connect 2025
Registration Rates:
Early Bird (through September 5): $200 USD
General (September 6 - 30): $250 USD
Your conference registration includes:
Access to all sessions on Tuesday, October 21 and Wednesday, October 22
Buffet-style lunch both days, including a traditional Taquiza with vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options
Coffee breaks with light snacks throughout the day
A Tuesday evening reception near the conference hotel with drinks and hors d’oeuvres
A half-day unconference and Partner Meeting on Thursday, October 23, including coffee and snacks
Complimentary van transportation between the conference hotel and venue each day
Samvera Connect 2025 t-shirt
Pre-Conference Workshops Monday morning, October 20
Add workshops to your registration for an additional $20 USD fee. All workshops include a coffee break with snacks.
Sessions include:
All Things Allinson Flex: A Technical Deep Dive into Flexible Metadata in Hyrax
Flexible Metadata in Hyku
Samvera 101: Community and Technology
Travel and Hotel Information
We’ve secured a block of rooms at the BelAir Unique Hotel, our designated conference hotel. Complimentary shuttle service between the hotel and venue will be provided each day. We’re waiting on a new group reservation link for online reservations, which will be shared soon.
Program at a Glance
Monday, October 20: Half day of pre-conference workshops
Tuesday, October 21: Plenary sessions + evening reception
Wednesday, October 22: Plenary sessions + evening dine-arounds
Thursday, October 23: Half day of unconference sessions + Partner Meeting
We’re thrilled to gather in person this year and are grateful to our hosts at El Colegio de México for helping create a welcoming, affordable event that celebrates both community and the vibrant culture of Mexico City.
2 – Apply for a Samvera Connect 2025 Scholarship by August 11th
The Samvera Board will award two scholarships to attend the 2025 Samvera Connect conference in Mexico City, from Monday, October 20th to Thursday, October 23rd, 2025.
The application is open to all Samvera Community participants. Priority consideration will be given to:
applicants who are unable to attend without financial assistance;
applicants who have never attended an in-person Samvera Connect conference;
applicants who have submitted a presentation or lightning talk, or would be willing to submit a presentation or lightning talk if awarded the scholarship.
The Scholarship Award will provide funding for:
conference registration and any workshops;
accommodation up to five nights at the conference hotel;
up to $500 in reimbursement for airfare or other travel related expenses.
Apply for a Samvera Connect 2025 Scholarship
The deadline for applications is Monday, August 11th, 2025. Applicants will be notified of decisions by August 15th, 2025.
3 – Seats are still available for the Hyku/Hyrax Developer Training Camp in Pittsburgh this October
Are you familiar with Ruby on Rails and looking for professional development? Would your institution benefit from local Hyrax or Hyku technical expertise?
Join our Hyku/Hyrax Developer Training Camp in Pittsburgh this October for a low-cost, high impact opportunity for cohort-based training to demystify the Hyrax and Hyku technology stack and introduce the fundamentals of community code contribution.
There is no registration fee for this training opportunity. The costs for content development and revision, development environment creation, delivery from a professional onsite trainer, and three days of lunches are all being covered by contributions from both the Samvera Foundation (paid for through Samvera Partner annual dues) and the Sustaining Hyku community project.
In exchange, the Samvera Board is asking that each attendee’s institution commit to providing 80 hours (one two week sprint) of volunteer developer participation in Hyrax and/or Hyku community maintenance sprints in 2026.
See all the details including a high level syllabus, and sign up on the training event wiki page.
4 – It’s easy to nominate a fellow community member for the 2025 Julie Allinson Award
The Award Selection Committee invites you to nominate a Samvera Community member for the Julie Allinson Award, the Samvera Community's award to recognize those who make others feel welcomed, supported, and who help us reach community goals.
The purpose of this award is to recognize an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the Samvera Community. The award honors the late Julie Allinson, a beloved Samvera Community member who was an incredible mentor, teacher, contributor, and friend.
Individuals nominated should have made a demonstrable impact in the Community in the past 12 months, in any of the following ways:
Outstanding support of individuals in the Samvera Community through mentoring or teaching;
Meeting Community challenges through technical creativity;
Fostering inclusivity and a welcoming Community;
Championing Community contribution to meet shared challenges.
The Award Selection Committee members for 2025 are:
Chris Awre (University of Hull)
Alicia Morris (Tufts University)
Robin Lindley Ruggaber (University of Virginia)
Members of the Award Selection Committee, previous awardees, and the Community Manager are ineligible for nomination. Self-nominees and nominations from a group are welcome. See past awardees here.
Submit your nomination using this short and easy nomination form
Your nomination will be shared only with the Community Manager and members of the Award Selection Committee. Nominations are accepted through September 1st, 2025.
The Committee will review the nominations, select the recipient, and announce the award. A US $200 will be presented to the award recipient. This award is funded by community contributions to the award fund. You can help keep the Julie Allinson Award funded for years to come by donating via the OASIS Open DonorBox.
5 – Success! Hyku 7 is funded, details and next steps
The Hyku Interest Group is thrilled to announce that we are able to move forward with our crowdfunded Hyku 7 work!
This work will enable essential improvements for the entire Hyku community, including:
Integration of Hyrax 5.1
Ruby and Rails upgrades with full dependency resolution to Rails 7.2
Comprehensive test coverage and spec development
These upgrades will significantly enhance platform performance, security, and reliability, setting us up for a successful cycle of community-led development this fall.
We were able to reach our goal for this effort thanks to Notch8 making a donation of development time to the funds we raised. The Hyku community is grateful to Notch8 for their commitment and support of this effort.
Thank you to the institutions whose contributions funded this work:
Amigos Library Services
Covenant Theological Seminary
Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI)
The Samvera Board
West Virginia University Libraries
The Hyku tech lead, Rob Kaufman, will complete the work in late August/early September.
Looking Ahead: Sustainable Hyku Development
Beginning in 2026, the Hyku Interest Group and the Sustaining Hyku grant steering group will launch a Hyku Development Fund to support ongoing platform maintenance, including predictable upgrades and security support, year after year.
Want to be part of shaping this effort? Join the next Hyku Interest Group call on Thursday, July 31 at 11:30AM ET / 8:30AM PT. Add the Hyku Interest Group meetings to your calendar.
6 – “Doc Days of Summer” Documentation Work Days in August
The Documentation Interest Group invites you to participate in the "Doc Days of Summer," a series of one-day virtual sprints focused on improving our community documentation! Whether you're a seasoned contributor or brand new to the Samvera Community, and no matter your role, these days are an opportunity to set aside time to work collaboratively and improve all types of community documentation.
Upcoming sprint dates:
Monday, August 11th, 2025
Thursday, August 21st, 2025
Wednesday, August 27th, 2025
See the Doc Days wiki page for details. You can sign up on the wiki, or just join us in the #documentation channel on Slack on each Doc Day.
7 – Hyrax 5.2 Released
We are pleased to announce the release of Hyrax 5.2. This release includes the following changes and features:
Valkyrie migration and Google Analytics improvements
Restore Rails 6.1 support
Full release notes are available at: https://github.com/samvera/hyrax/releases/tag/hyrax-v5.2.0
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through development and testing work:
Daniel Pierce
Randall Floyd
Nick Homenda
Julie Hardesty
Rob Kaufman
Brad Watson
Rebekah Kati
8 – Working and Interest Group meetings for the month of August
See all Samvera calls, meetings, and events on the Samvera Public Calendar
Weekly Samvera Tech call - all are welcome to the weekly call on Wednesdays at 12PM ET/9AM PT to discuss any and all technical issues from all versions of software, documentation requests, and open pull requests. Add the weekly Samvera Tech call to your calendar
Hyrax Interest Group - next meeting is Wednesday, August 13th at 11:30AM ET/8:30AM PT – Add the Hyrax Interest Group meetings to your calendar
Avalon User Roundtable - next meeting is Monday, August 18th at 1PM ET/10AM PT – Add the Avalon User Roundtable meetings to your calendar
Documentation Interest Group - next meeting is Tuesday, August 19th at 2:30PM ET/11:30AM PT – Add the Documentation Interest Group meetings to your calendar
Outreach & Engagement Working Group - next meeting is Wednesday, August 20th at 11AM ET/8AM PT – Add the Outreach & Engagement Working Group meetings to your calendar
Hyrax Fedora 6 Working Group - next meeting is Friday, August 22nd at 9AM ET– Add the Hyrax Fedora 6 Working Group meetings to your calendar
Samvera Metadata Interest Group - The next meeting is Tuesday, August 26th at 2PM ET/11AM PT – Add the Metadata Interest Group meetings to your calendar
Hyku Interest Group - the next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, August 28th at 11:30AM ET/8:30AM PT – Add the Hyku Interest Group meetings to your calendar
Repository Management Interest Group - each month’s meeting is scheduled by a vote in the #repository-management channel on Slack.
Monthly Samvera Partners call - all staff of Samvera Partner institutions are welcome to join the monthly call for discussion, demos, updates, and information about Samvera governance. Add the monthly Partner call to your calendar
Chat with Heather Greer Klein, the Samvera Community Manager, by scheduling time during Community Manager Office Hours