Scope and Use Case

DSpace uses a hierarchy of Communities, Collections, and Items. Communities hold sub-communities (which hold collections) and collections (which hold items). Use these instructions to create a new community or sub-community.

Audience

• Repository Administrator
• Community Administrator

Create Community

Step 1: Login using your credentials

Step 2: Move your cursor over the “+” sign

Step 3: Click on the “New” link and click on “Community” to proceed with the community creation process.

Step 4: A popup providing the option to either create a Parent community or a sub-community will appear, with a list showing existing communities.  Create your new community by either: 

1. Clicking on “Create a new top-level community” to create a top-level community.
   … or…
   
2. Typing the name of the existing parent community in the search field to add a sub-community within. Upon typing a few letters of the community’s name, a list of communities having those letters or words will appear. Click on the community name to create a sub-community.

Step 5: As per the user’s choice in the previous step, the application will open the "Create a Community" form or the "Create a Sub-Community for Community [name here]" form to populate information regarding the new community. Below is the explanation of the information that needs to be populated in this form.

The “Create a Community” and “Create a Sub-community” forms are identical. The critical difference is that the “Create a Community” form creates a top-level community while the latter creates a sub-community within a community or sub-community.

The description provided below the following screenshot remains identical for both Community and Sub-Community creation.

1. Community logo – Select the community’s logo by clicking on the ‘browse’ link to select an image file. It is advisable to maintain uniform dimensions of the logo across the repository.
2. Name – Enter the community’s name. It is the only mandatory field, as indicated by the ‘*.’
3. Introductory text (HTML) – Users can add introductory text providing an overview of the contents stored in the community. Users can utilize HTML tags to format the text or continue entering the plain text content.
4. Short Description – This field can have a one-liner description of the community that appears with the community name in the list of communities on the parent community page (or on the DSpace homepage in the case of a top-level community).
5. Copyright text (HTML) – Users can enter copyright information here. Users can utilize HTML tags to format the text or continue entering the plain text content.
6. News (HTML) – Enter news about this community. Users can update this by regularly going to this section via edit community.
7. Action Buttons – Users can click on the appropriate button as desired. Clicking on the Save button will add the community to the repository.

Step 6: Click on the ‘Save’ button to complete the Community creation. A success prompt will pop up upon community creation, and the user will be re-directed to the community homepage.

Success prompt upon community creation

Community homepage

Edited and approved by DCAT Documentation Working Group, December 2024.