Dear Friends,

It is with some sadness and deep gratitude for the values we share and the work we have accomplished together that I announce my departure from my post as CEO at DuraSpace to serve as the Associate University Librarian for Technology Services at Arizona State University Library. As of June 1, Erin Tripp, Business Development Manager at DuraSpace, will serve as the Interim Chief Executive Officer. Valorie Hollister, Director of Membership and Finance at DuraSpace, and Bill Branan, Services Technical Director, will assist Ms. Tripp with the transition.

As DuraSpace CEO the organization had its strongest fiscal year ever in 2017. We have built a team of community and technology experts who will continue to successfully carry out the DuraSpace mission. When I came to DuraSpace in 2015, I was fortunate to be able to continue the work of my predecessor, Michele Kimpton, to build a robust membership program that currently enjoys a 94% retention rate. Relationships with the Samvera Project have been formalized and strengthened and, most recently, DuraSpace entered a partnership agreement with CASRAI. DuraSpace hosted services business more than doubled, providing much needed archiving and preservation services to the community as well as additional support for our open source projects through revenues from hosted services.

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I am returning to academic librarianship to work more closely with the creators and users of repository and research outputs and to help preserve content and make it more easily accessible for scholars of every stripe. DELETED 2 sentences  At ASU, I will have the opportunity to deepen my commitment to local and global activities that foster inclusivity in the scholarly ecosystem. 

It has been a great privilege and pleasure to have served as CEO at DuraSpace as we have grown in staff, membership, and funding, broadening our scope, and extending the community’s collective reach. I am so proud of all we have accomplished and I look forward to continuing to support its mission as a community member.

With many thanks for your support and participation.

Warm regards,

Debra Hanken Kurtz

CEO

2018 Membership Campaign 

Our 2018-19 Membership Campaign is off to a great start! Thank you to each of our renewing DuraSpace members for your continued support. A special thanks to the members who increased their membership level this year including, McMaster University, and the University of Hong Kong. And finally, a warm welcome to our brand new members this year, SIGMA, the University of Tampa, and ZHAW University Library. If you have questions about your membership, please contact Valorie Hollister <vhollister@duraspace.org>.  

Leadership Group Elections

Earlier this month we launched the nomination phase of our Leadership Group election process.  Each DuraSpace project has representative, community-based governance model that includes several governing groups with various levels of responsibility. Eligibility to serve in project governance is determined by participation in the DuraSpace Membership Program.  Individuals sitting on the Leadership Group for each project play a key role in setting the strategic direction and priorities of the project through the approval of the annual budget allocation and project roadmap and establishing the annual community direction. Leaders also nominate the members of the project Steering Group.  Nominations are made by the appointed Community Liaison at each member institution.  Their role includes both the nomination of a candidate from your institution (if there is an open Leadership Group seat) and voting in the election on behalf of your institution which will take place later this month.  If you have any questions about the Leadership Group election process please contact Kristi Searle.  

place holder Hot Topics Member Webinar

SERVICES  

 Webinar: DuraCloud in 2018: What’s New? What’s Next for the Software & the Service? 

Registration is open for our DuraCloud overview webinar on Thursday, May 24, 2018 at 1:00p.m. ET.  In this one-hour webinar we’ll discuss DuraCloud’s features, storage options, and hosted service options in the United States and Europe.  Participants will also learn more about DuraCloud as open source software, the development roadmap, and the new pricing options for storing over 20 TB. 

New Customers

We are excited to welcome new ArchivesDirect customer CUNY Graduate Center and new DSpaceDirect customer Engineering World Health.

ArchivesDirectDSpaceDirect, and DuraCloud services from DuraSpace are built on solid open source software platforms and require very little effort to start up. DuraSpace staff experts work directly with service customers to provide personalized on-boarding processes and superb customer support. Our services can provide open access to institutional resources, preservation of treasured collections, and simplified data management tools. Contact Heather Greer Klein to learn more about any of the web services DuraSpace offers, and to learn about special discounts for new DuraCloud subscribers who are DuraSpace members at the Silver level and above.


DuraSpace-euroCRIS Interoperability Event

We’d like to invite you to the first DuraSpace-euroCRIS Interoperability Event with our Strategic Partner euroCRIS.

The DSpace and CRIS Systems one-day Workshop will focus on interoperability between DSpace repositories and CRIS systems iprior to the CRIS 2018 Conference in Umeå, Sweden - on Wednesday, June 13, 2018.

During the DSpace and CRIS systems workshop, DSpace users will have a great opportunity to meet to identify existing examples of integration between DSpace and CRIS systems and to discuss functionalities that DSpace could implement in the future in order to support workflows traditionally associated with Research Information Systems more effectively.

The workshop agenda is now available: http://www.cris2018.se/schedule/  if you’re interested in participating please let us know using this form.


WHERE WE'LL BE THIS SPRING (UPDATE)

CASRAI-CA Reconnect18, Ottawa, Canada, May 23/24 - David Baker

Canadian Association of Research Administrators (CARA) Annual Conference, Ottawa, Canada, May 27-30 - David Baker

CASRAI-UK Reconnect18, Glasgow, UK, June 25/26 - David Baker

CASRAI-EU Reconnect18, Porto, Portugal, June 29 - David Baker, Michele Mennielli

Open Repositories Conference, June 4-7, Bozeman, Montana - David Wilcox, Tim Donohue, Michele Mennielli

VIVO ConferenceJune 6-8, Durham, NC - David Baker, Heather Greer Klein, Andrew Woods

EuroCRIS Conference, Umea, Sweden, June 13-16 - Michele Mennielli, Mike Conlon, David Baker