DSpaceDirect vs. DSpace
DSpaceDirect is a hosted version of out-of-the-box
DSpace software. The service is provided by the
Lyrasis non-profit member organization and allows institutions of all sizes to store, organize, and manage DSpace repository content in the cloud. DSpaceDirect can be used to preserve and provide access to digital objects; makes content easily searchable by end users; and allows that content to be easily managed by content curators.
In order to make your DSpaceDirect site easier to use, we've slightly tweaked which out-of-the-box DSpace features are enabled or disabled by default. Below is a brief summary of our default settings for DSpaceDirect. As a DSpaceDirect customer, you may ask for a different set of features to be enabled or disabled based on your own needs.
Enabled by default in DSpaceDirect:- DSpace user interface (UI): we can make some basic customizations to the default interface
- Discovery search feature: This allows for filtered/faceted searches within DSpace.
- Usage Statistics (Solr-based): This allows for Community/Collection/Item usage statistics to be captured.
- Google Analytics may be enabled and is recommended.
- Google Scholar-friendly embedded tags: These HTML tags are hidden into each page and allow Google Scholar to more easily index/search your site.
- RSS/Atom feeds: These feeds allow users to subscribe to your site or to individual Communities or Collections. Users can receive notifications of newly added content in their RSS reader of choice.
- Subscriptions: Logged-in users can also choose to receive email notifications about Communities or Collections
- Checksum checker feature: This feature is run occasionally and verifies that individual files stored in DSpaceDirect have not become corrupted.
- OAI-PMH interface: This allows for external systems to harvest metadata via OAI-PMH and link to content in your site.
- SWORD (v1 and v2) interface: This allows for external systems to deposit content via the SWORD protocol (after authenticating)
- All other standard "out-of-the-box" DSpace features (except where noted below)
Disabled by default in DSpaceDirect: (
some items may be enabled by request)
- Item Level Versioning. This feature lets you version Items within DSpace. However, as the feature is still very new to DSpace (and disabled by default), we have chosen to leave it disabled in DSpaceDirect.
- Advanced Approval Workflows. These allow more flexibility to the workflow approval processes. However, as the feature is still very new to DSpace (and disabled by default), we have chosen to leave it disabled in DSpaceDirect.
- Ability to assign Creative Commons licenses to Items during deposit. As this feature is disabled by default in DSpace, we have chosen to leave it disabled in DSpaceDirect.
- SWORD Client. This feature allows admins to send content from DSpace to an external system which supports the SWORD protocol.
- Configurable entities. This feature is still new to DSpace (and disabled by default), so we have chosen to leave it disabled in DSpaceDirect.
- Researcher profiles. This feature requires Configurable Entities to be enabled and is also disabled by default, so we have chosen it leave it disabled in DSpaceDirect.
Please note that the above list will change over time as new features are added to DSpace and become more stable. For DSpaceDirect, our general policy is to ensure default DSpace features are always enabled. We also try to enable optional DSpace features that we feel are both widely useful and well established/stable.
Demo Repository Site
The DSpaceDirect Demo Repository offers a chance to preview a basic DSpaceDirect repository. If you would like an administrative account in order to test the administrative functions please create an account on the Demo repository and contact us to have the account upgraded to test the administrative features.
Subscriptions
DSpaceDirect Subscriptions are priced based on the total GB of storage needed for your account. You can request a quote here.
Add-On Packages
DSpaceDirect offers several optional add-on packages to help meet your repository needs. Details for each package are below, and you can ask for additional pricing details when requesting a quote.
Additional Storage
DSpaceDirect currently allows for up to 1 TB of total storage (both content and index) per account.
DSpace Data Transfer
The Lyrasis Hosting Services team can transfer data out of existing DSpace repositories (any version) at a flat rate. With this option, we will require a copy of your database and your asset store and config information in order to reconstitute your DSpace site. We will provide additional details after your contract has been signed.
Custom migration
If you are interested in transferring data out of another repository system, such as Digital Commons, please contact us so we can begin a quoting process.
DSpaceDirect accounts include the default DSpace metadata fields, default submission fields, default OAI-PMH fields and default search, browse, and discover filters. You can review these default fields here. Your institution can customize these fields and other aspects of the submissions process (such as licenses and advanced embargoes) for a one-time fee. For details see the Enhanced Submission Process and Metadata Fields.
Custom URL
By default DSpaceDirect repositories have a DSpaceDirect URL: repositoryname.dspacedirect.org. If you would like to redirect to a URL on your institutions website, you can add the custom URL package for a one-time fee. Please note that in order to set up a custom URL, you must be able to manage your institution’s DNS or request changes of your institution’s DNS, as well as provide a valid SSL certificate. It is a good idea to discuss these requirements with your institution's website administrator prior to starting your subscription.
Location-Based (IP) Authentication
Location-based authentication is available for DSpaceDirect repositories or restricted collections within a repository. If you are also planning to use EZProxy for your DSpaceDirect repository, please let us know when reaching out for a quote.
Single Sign-On Authentication
Lyrasis can add SSO from a select set of options to your DSpaceDirect repository.
Timeline for New Account Implementation
A new DSpaceDirect account can take from 4-10 weeks to implement. The implementation does not begin until a service level agreement has been executed, and the subscription invoice has been paid. Lyrasis typically starts gathering information from clients for their setup on the first of a month; the client can choose which month, if they need to delay implementation after signing their contract.
Factors that influence implementation timing include how many other new accounts are in the implementation process queue (May-September can be particularly busy) and the number of add-on packages required, as well as how responsive a client is in providing necessary information to set up a new repository.
Security
Please see our Security FAQ.
Searching from Other Library Catalog And Discovery Systems (E.G. Ex Libris Primo, EBSCO Discovery, Etc.)
You can harvest your DSpaceDirect content metadata into external systems in order to make this content more searchable/findable, so long as the external system supports OAI-PMH metadata harvesting. This means the external system contains a copy of DSpaceDirect Item metadata and can search DSpaceDirect content, providing a direct link to individual items in your repository. This is the route that most libraries take to make DSpace content available in a library catalog or discovery service (as most of these services support OAI-PMH harvesting from other systems).
For instance, according to the documentation available online:
- Ex Libris Primo looks to support OAI-PMH
So, simply point either of those at the DSpaceDirect OAI-PMH interface and then schedule the external service to harvest metadata from DSpaceDirect on a regular basis.
Every DSpaceDirect site has an OAI-PMH interface available at https://[dspacedirect-site-url]/oai/request?verb=Identify
For example: https://demo.dspacedirect.org/oai/request?verb=Identify
Custom Code
DSpaceDirect clients are not be able to make direct changes to the code of their DSpace site, although clients may request theme changes or similar. Lyrasis handles the installation, maintenance, and upgrades of the DSpace code and the servers it is running on as part of the hosted and managed DSpaceDirect service.
Allowing clients to add customized code may complicate the upgrade process for their site, making it potentially very difficult for Lyrasis to perform an upgrade on your behalf. Further, allowing clients to have direct server access (e.g. via SSH) can also be a security concern as Lyrasis runs several client sites on a single server. For those reasons, Lyrasis does not give customers direct access to update or modify the DSpace code for their site.
API
Currently, DSpaceDirect offers the following (out-of-the-box) DSpace APIs:
SWORD v1 or v2 (available off the "/sword" path of each site) - more info on using SWORD is on their website
OAI-PMH (available off the "/oai" path of each site) - more info on using OAI-PMH on the openarchives website
REST API (available off the "/rest" path of each site) - more info on the DSpace REST API is available on the DSpace wiki
Full Text Search (I.E. Search Within Documents)
DSpaceDirect provides full text search but
only for specific document formats (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, HTML, plaintext). Note that image-based PDFs (e.g. PDFs generated from scanning physical documents)
cannot be full text searched unless they are
OCRed before being deposited into DSpace.
Please note that documents are indexed in an overnight process (as this activity can take some time, depending on the quantity and size of documents). This means that you will not be able to search within the full text of documents until the
next day (however, document metadata is searchable immediately). There are also (usually rare) occasions where DSpace is unable to index a supported document for full text searching. If you notice that a particular document is not searchable after a day passes, please let us know by opening a Help Desk ticket at dspacedirect@lyrasis.org.
Representing Journals in DSpaceDirect
In the DSpace structure, often the Journal is represented as a Community (or sub-community), with the issue represented as a Collection, and individual articles as Items within the collection. This arrangement may or may not be ideal depending on how your institution may want a Journal displayed/represented, but DSpace allows for basic Journal/Issue metadata (and thumbnails), as Communities/Collections support metadata and thumbnails.
DSpaceDirect has an in-browser viewer for video and audio files. You are able to store any media file format. For images, you are also able to store any image format with DSpaceDirect, and certain image formats (BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG) will automatically have a thumbnail generated to be used within the user interface. (Again, thumbnail generation happens overnight.) There are no slideshow or image gallery capabilities.
CAS Support
DSpaceDirect does not support CAS.
Dublin Core
Yes, DSpaceDirect metadata is all in Dublin Core as this is what the DSpace software uses to store metadata internally.
Through the DSpaceDirect administrative interface, you can export metadata to a CSV file.
Usage Statistics
For detailed information about accessing statistics, please see: Getting Started How-To: Usage Statistics
Built-in usage statistics (Solr-based) are included in DSpaceDirect. Community/Collection/Item statistics are captured. By default only admins can see the built-in statistics. It is possible to make very basic statistics publicly available, but only information about downloads and views are displayed per item/collection/community.
Google Analytics may also be enabled and is recommended. Google Analytics more thoroughly weeds out spider and bot activity, resulting in more accurate statistics.
