DSpace is a open source software system for institutional repositories. The application was built in 2002 by MIT and Hewlett Packard (see article by MacKenzie Smith, 2002 for more information) and very soon became a number one application used by research universities for institutional repositories. Currently, DSpace powers over 3,000 repositories worldwide.
Wichita State University Libraries started developing SOAR: Shocker Open Access Repository powered by DSpace in 2006 and has been continued building the repository ever since.
DSpace diagram explains how DSpace works: starting with submission of items (metadata and files) into the system, organizing the items to collections. The latter then grouped in communities, e.g. colleges, departments, centers, etc. The system is easy to manage, e.g. edit metadata and files; update the names of collections and communities, import and export data in bulks and change it manually. DSpace has rich functionality, e.g. supporting embargo, user requests; collection subscription and more. End users can browse communities and collections by date, author, title, subject, and type of material. DSpace discovery system supports full text search. DSpace uses Solr as a part of Discovery as index to speed up access to content metadata and data about access to DSpace. Powerful statistical module provides statistics of view and download, top authors, titles, countries and cities visits on each page of the public interface (scroll down a page and click on "Show Statistical Information" button.
The system can be authenticated if needed. It recognizes and manages a large number of file format and mime types (see Metadata and Format Registries). Any unrecognized format, can be added to registry and identified.
SOAR content is distributed by handle.net globally. The repository is registered with DuraSpace registry (ID 4061), ROAR: Registry of Open Access Repositories (ID 1218), Open DOAR registry (ID 1097) and others.
SOAR is a general purpose repository. It includes all kind of formats and types of scholarly contents: textual materials, images and videos; faculty and student research, institutional research, reports, and data; published and unpublished. Many universities, especially research ones, use DSpace the same way as we to provide access to the organization intellectual output and to preserve it for a long time. Usage of DSpace is dictated by the needs of organization. For example, large universities may have more than one instance of DSpace. Learn more about DSpace use cases at: https://duraspace.org/dspace/about/use-cases/ .
Some notable DSpace powered institutional repositories:
Apollo, the University of Cambridge institutional repository
DASH: Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard
DSpace @ MIT
Deep Blue at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor
eCommons at Cornell
IDEALS at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
IUScholarWorks at Indiana University
K-State Research Exchange (K-REx)
KU ScholarWorks at University of Kansas
MARS: Mason Archival Repository Service at George Mason University
NC State Publications at North Caroline State University
The OAKTrust Digital Repository at Texas A&M
ScholarsBank at University of Oregon
Contact Dr. Susan Matveyeva if you want to establish a new collection or submit your work(s) to existing collection.
