Maureen welcomes the new Leadership Group for its first meeting. A round of introductions is held. Maureen thanks the note taker Beate Rajski.
2 Resources
Maureen describes the resources available to the Leadership Group and listed in the agenda. Steering meeting notes are not public. Everyone from Leadership should have access. The link to DSpace-CRIS videos by 4science will be added to the list.
3 Elections
Election of Vice Chair was not successful because the quorum was not reached. A new call for nominations will be sent out by Maureen. The Vice Chair serves for Leadership and Steering. This a one-year renewable term. The Vice Chair does not automatically succeed the Chair.
4 Development
Currently working on Version 9.0, which will be mainly a maintenance release focussing on improving performance / scalability in general, accessibility fixes and code cleanup / maintenance. The release date has been postponed from April to May 2025 due to scheduling conflicts.
8.1 and 7.6.3 are planned as security and bug fixes and backport for performance and accessibility fixes. Release probably early in 2025.
DSpaceDirect, a registered service provider, donates a full VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessiblity Template) to DSpace. VPAT is US centric, but it is based on international standards for accessibility like WCAG.
5 Future Planning
At the end of the last governance year, the Leadership Group approved a measure to investigate a potential merger of DSpace-CRIS into DSpace. An overview of the potential merger was sent to all new leadership members. There will be two working groups. One on strategic planning and one on technology planning. Steering is working of drafting charges for both working groups. This will also determine who will be member of the group. The recommended charges will be presented to Leadership offline via email for review, suggestions and comments and then approval. The groups can then be formed. They will report back to the Steering Group. Although a merger will not take place before DSpace 10, it will impact the development of 9.0. No contributions will be accepted that could hinder a possible merger.
6 First quarter of financials
Bridget excuses the late sent out.
The overall status is positive as compared to budget, but still early in the new fiscal year
SCOSS pledges were received and the campaign ended
Membership went down by 4,000. There is no recent loss of members. Two left in May due to software changes.
A reserve fund for the unexpected has been has been set up
Maureen: Next meeting we will talk about potential new members and fundraising.
DCAT generally convenes the second Tuesday of the month, at 12:00 Eastern Time. This allows European and Pacific members to join. Good attendance worldwide on a mainly volunteer basis
Testathon will be planned for 9.0
DCAT will propose a theme for 2024-2025
Several wg Documentation, taks-oriendted orgientation group. Also repository manager documentation which requires translating technich documentation for this focus.
Working group on task-oriented documentation and translation, which has still a lot of gaps compared to technical documentation. Focus on DSpace 7 which is mainly used among members. 9 is not expected to make major changes necessary.
Intent to understand the implication of the potential merger of DSpace-CRIS into DSpace. Most DCAT members do not use entities yet.
Leadership thanks Kimberly and DCAT for the great work they are doing.
8 Break
9 DSpace Governance Working Group
The revised MOU between DSpace and Lyrasis was approved in last governance year.
Next up is working on drafting bylaws for DSpace.
10 Membership
TIB Hannover & UB Erlangen-Nürnberg join the German Consortium (both bronze)
Network of Spanish university and scientific libraries approved membership this week
Swiss National User Group: meeting online on Dec 5.
DSpace Praxistreffen in Bamberg for German speaking DSpace community on March 27/28
Indian User Group: Two Day ORCID GPF Supported National Workshop on DSpace, 23 -24 September 2024
Fedora AI Discussion Series:
Isabel attended a Fedora workshop on AI bots. AI Discussion Series - Fedora Community Conversations. The discussion series is open beyond Fedora since this a performance problem for most live repository sites.
Tim will initiate a DSpace documentation page with tipps and best practice for solutions against aggressive AI bots.
There were also presentations on AI problems at OR2024 and and the North American User Group Meeting.
Bill Branan: How could we use AI in DSpace
Atmire and 4Science: Performance issues on live systems are more important
AI should be an agenda item for next leadership meeting
Marketing Working Group
Item for next leadership meeting
12 OR2025
Many LG members will visit Open Repsitories Conference in 2025. A meetup should be scheduled.
Tim set up a wiki page DSpace at OR2025 For potential proposals regarding DSpace. Everyone should add their ideas. It is an opportunity to pair people up.
DSpace will be submitting for Repository Showdown
Deadline: 18 Dec 2024
13 Meetings
Suggestions for future meeting agenda items/topics can be added to the agenda. If possible the should include interactions.
Tim Donohue Ask 4science for DSpace-CRIS demo at next LG if applicable Type your task here, using "@" to assign to a user and "//" to select a due date
Tim Donohue set up wiki page for collaborative documentation on AI bots
Maureen Walsh facilitate offline election on vice chair
