Josh, None of those pieces is an IR, but do you think that when taken as a whole they could comprise an IR?
Yes. I think it’s very healthy to think of the IR as a set of services, rather than a single software product. And I really like the idea of using your catalog as the discovery environment. (That’s what we do…) That said, I have to say that... a. your approach doesn’t sound like less work overall (and in fact it might be more?) b. it raises the question of how your institution might support this over the longterm It might still be viable, especially if it jibes with your institutional technology strategy and staff capacity. Have you also considered moving to a cloud IR, such as DSpaceDirect<http://dspacedirect.org/> or hosting from Atmire<https://www.atmire.com/services/dspace-hosting>? - Tom On Oct 25, 2017, at 2:16 PM, Josh Welker <wel...@ucmo.edu<mailto:wel...@ucmo.edu>> wrote: Hi Bryan, I agree that a repository is more than documents, and in this model we would still do metadata, indexing, etc. It would just be handled by a different piece. Instead of having one system that does it all (like DSpace), we'd use the library catalog for metadata and indexing, backup tools for preservation, and this homegrown solution just for hosting publicly accessible files. None of those pieces is an IR, but do you think that when taken as a whole they could comprise an IR? Joshua Welker Information Technology Librarian James C. Kirkpatrick Library University of Central Missouri Warrensburg, MO 64093 JCKL 2260 660.543.8022 On Wed, Oct 25, 2017 at 3:59 PM, Bryan Brown <bjbr...@fsu.edu<mailto:bjbr...@fsu.edu>> wrote: Josh, Theres nothing wrong with what you are describing if its all your institution needs, but I would be careful about promoting that as an IR. An IR is much more than a bunch of documents. The metadata modelling, preservation features and indexing that you want to leave out are what makes it a repository. Also, the infrastructure you are describing may lack flexibility in the future if you decide you want to add new features to it. Bryan J. Brown Repository Developer Technology & Digital Scholarship Division Florida State University Libraries ________________________________ From: Code for Libraries <CODE4LIB@LISTS.CLIR.ORG<mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTS.CLIR.ORG>> on behalf of Josh Welker <wel...@ucmo.edu<mailto:wel...@ucmo.edu>> Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2017 2:51:34 PM To: CODE4LIB@LISTS.CLIR.ORG<mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTS.CLIR.ORG> Subject: [CODE4LIB] Lightweight IR infrastructure We're a mid-sized university library (10,000 fte) trying to get an IR off the ground to showcase student and faculty research. We've had a DSpace instance running for several years, but we use so few of its features that DSpace ends up being more trouble than it is worth. In particular, it's very frustrating to deal with metadata editing, file management, the Handle URL system, and HTML/CSS theming. I am considering leaving the DSpace model in favor of our "IR" just being a glorified FTP site that MARC records in our catalog can point to. I might even build a tiny frontend using some scripting language to add IP authentication, URL redirect stuff, or a Google Scholar interface, but that's really it. No metadata modelling, no preservation features, no indexing. Does anyone have experience using a very small, file-based (as opposed to database-driven) application as a foundation for an IR? Are there any problems I should anticipate? Joshua Welker Information Technology Librarian James C. Kirkpatrick Library University of Central Missouri Warrensburg, MO 64093 JCKL 2260 660.543.8022
