All DSpace meetings follow the Lyrasis Code of Conduct. We ask you to remain respectful in all discussions. We also encourage you to report any violations to Lyrasis (see Code of Conduct for details). |
What is DCAT?
The DSpace Community Advisory Team (DCAT) represents the interests of repository managers and administrators across the globe and, indirectly, DSpace end users. DCAT is a permanent DSpace Working Group sponsored by the DSpace Steering Group that advises DSpace Program governance groups. We welcome feedback and participation from anyone in the community.
Date & Time
- Tuesday, June 16, 2026, 12:00 Eastern Time
- See the world clock to determine the meeting time for your location.
- Meeting length: one hour
Join information:
We will be using the DCAT Chair's Zoom Room for our meeting.
NOTE: there is a new passcode to enter the meeting: dspace2025
Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://umn.zoom.us/j/95455262817?pwd=Z3o5BexR7gsspIzDiP7beexkthKR4i.1 (Meeting ID: 954 5526 2817) Passcode: dspace2025
Additional ways to join: DCAT Chair Zoom Room
Agenda and Notes:
- Quick Informal Survey - What version are you using?
- Accessibility for repositories
- Next Meeting: July 14, 2026
Notes:
- Migration from 7.x to 9.x may be a useful discussion at some point?
- Open Repositories highlights?
- AI integrations?
- Challenge of absorbing infrastructure burden posed by accesses from AI bots
- Paying for 'for-profit' tech corporations to harvest our public resources for their benefit
- 'Open as possible and closed when necessary'
- AI: Tension between cost of AI on public infrastructure vs. emerging possibilities
- Segueway: University of Virginia Archival AI Protocol: https://libraopen.library.virginia.edu/entities/publication/4dd278d9-b75c-423a-a9e9-3053be4f37d7
- Aspirational vs. pragmatic
- General consensus: Virtual and Hybrid conferences are preferable over purely in-person conferences since they're more financially accessible, recordings are available if folks can't attend sessions synchronously or need reviews, etc.
Upcoming Conferences:
- North American User Group Meeting in September
Accessibility
- Any interest in participating in these groups?
- Julia Gilmore - text tooltips
- Can we build off the work of UX groups
- Adding post meeting (Genny): This project will require a lot of coordination and is more complicated than it appears. Perhaps creating fields in certain areas that can be locally populated is best. Having help text in a single language is not ideal for the rest of the world, nor volunteers capture all the local nuances. Identifying areas most suited for contextual help text boxes would be a good way to move this project forward.
- Submissions and policy guidelines for encouraging people to submit PDF/As, etc.
- Questions about integrating file checkers to assess accessibility
- US accessibility law (ADA Title II), risk of institution being sued for inaccessible content
- Remediating pdfs is labour-intensive
- Automated means would be amazing if that were possible
- OA published articles are generally terrible for accessibility
Call Attendees
Noor Alifa Ardianingrum FAO (version 7.2, Atmire-hosted, upgrading to 9 in fall)
Emily Crawford, State Library of Massachusetts (version 7.6.1)
Lia Eggleston DSpace Program, Lyrasis
Kent Gerber University of Minnesota (version 9.2)
Erin Jerome University of Massachusetts Amherst (version 7.6.x, Atmire-hosted)
Carolyn Sullivan Université d'Ottawa (version 8.3)
Philip Young Virginia Tech (7.6.2, upgrading to 9.x this summer)
James Holobetz University of Regina (Scholaris Network v8.4)
Colin Lukens Harvard Library (version 8.3; CRIS 9 this fall)
Jordan Piščanc (4Science)
Genny Jon York University, Toronto (latest version of 7.6.x)
Regrets