ETD Software Options

1
ETD Software Options

• Hussein Suleman
• hussein_at_cs.uct.ac.za
• University of Cape Town
• October 2003

2
Overview

• ETD Management Requirements
• Issues beyond the Basics
• Options
• Advantages of OS DL Software
• ETDdb
• EPrints
• DSpace
• Greenstone
• Bottom Line

3
ETD Management Requirements

• Archiving of ETDs
• User interface to locate and access documents
  (Web-based)
• Administration interface to maintain archive
• Ability for students to submit documents
• Ability for university authorities to review and
  accept submissions

4
Issues beyond the Basics

• Preservation does the software support
  long-term maintenance of documents?
• Security how can we be certain that the system
  cannot be circumvented?
• Stability will it die when we need it most at
  the end of year/semester?
• Interoperability will it connect into other
  systems such as the library ILS or the NDLTD
  Union Catalog?
• Standards-compliance what does it adhere to?
• Cost does it?
• Hardware what do we need to run the software?
• Support how much staffing do we need to run it?

5
Options

• Use the ILS
• Write your own software
• Outsource management to a company or consortium
• Use an open source digital library (DL) software
  package
• ETDdb
• EPrints
• DSpace
• Greenstone

6
Advantages of OS DL Software

• Free!
• OAI compliance out-of-the-box
• Tested by many others already
• Community of use active support
• Closely tracks research and trends in information
  management and Internet technology
• Mostly tailored especially for document
  submission/review/archiving

7
ETDdb

• Early ETD management software created at Virginia
  Tech
• Perl Web server CGI scripts and Mysql database
  few prerequisities and simple to install
• Not very well maintained but used by many
  institutions and at VT for 5 years!

8
ETDdb Interface
9
EPrints

• Software to archive electronic pre-prints of
  journal/conference proceedings, but easily
  adaptable to ETDs
• Perl Web server scripts and Mysql database, plus
  a few Perl libraries
• Needs a bit of effort for initial installation
  and customisation but has a slick user interface
• Active user community in many different areas
  (NDLTD uses EPrints for individuals whose
  institutions do not have archives!)
• Modifying the software can be tricky

10
EPrints Interface
11
DSpace

• DSpace was developed by Hewlett-Packard for MIT
  to manage its institutional repositories, but it
  is open source and free for anyone else to use
• Has the backing of a professional software
  development company
• Based on Java servlets, Postgres database, Java
  libraries
• Still somewhat unproven but very promising

12
DSpace Interface
13
Greenstone

• Well-known open source digital library software,
  funded largely by UNESCO for digital libraries in
  third-world countries
• Good support for compression and full-text
  indexing of documents
• Alas, it does not support submission of documents
  only works for fixed collections
• Not really suitable for ongoing management of
  ETDs
• Next version may be different 2005/6?

14
Bottom line

• No easy solutions ?
• ETDdb most specific and oldest tried-and-tested
  solution
• Youre largely on your own
• EPrints largest community of users
• Software works but difficult to change
• DSpace most professional software
• Still in testing phase

15
Links

• ETDdb
• http//scholar.lib.vt.edu/ETD-db/developer/
• EPrints
• http//www.eprints.org/
• DSpace
• http//www.dspace.org/
• Greenstone
• http//www.greenstone.org

16
Thats all Folks!

• direct all heckling and flames to
• hussein_at_cs.uct.ac.za