Services for DSpace Communities

The MIT Libraries administer DSpace at MIT. Outlined below are the range of services the Libraries provide to DSpace Communities.

The DSpace Basic Service includes both Core Services and Management Services:

• Core Services offer a fully functional system where DSpace Community members can submit, preserve, and access items in DSpace.
  
• Management Services include providing ongoing support for DSpace Communities, responding to customer inquiries, and supplying system monitoring, back-up, and recovery.

Additional services may be offered through the DSpace Premium Services on a fee-for-service basis.

DSpace Core Services

Submission Services

DSpace offers faculty and researchers a flexible, easy-to-use submission process. A faculty member or designee simply completes a brief submission form and grants permission for DSpace to distribute and preserve the work.

An authorized submitter to DSpace can do the following:

• Register with DSpace and edit his/her user profile
• Post a submission to a specified Collection
• Enter metadata for a submission, using standard forms with Community-specific default values
• Include additional metadata
• Bundle multiple files of various formats in a single submission
• Allow the system to identify formats of submitted files, with user override
• Associate the Creative Commons license with the submitted files
• Grant a non-exclusive license to the host institution to distribute a submission in accordance with the specified distribution policy and translate it for the purposes of preservation
• Receive updates on the progress of an item through the submission workflow process
• View past and pending submissions in a personalized My DSpace page

Content Workflows

Communities can use a customized workflow process to control how new submissions are reviewed and approved for that Community's Collections. When we intially set up a DSpace Community, we will establish these submission workflows, as well as the reviewer, metadata editor, and coordinator roles for each Community.

Through the submission workflow process, reviewers, metadata editors, and coordinators can:

• Augment and approve submissions in the workflow process
• Review the content of the submission for appropriateness to the Collection and make the decision to route a submission back to the submitter or give approval
• Check the submission's metadata for completeness and obvious errors, edit errors, and make the decision to route a submission back to the submitter or give approval
• Augment the submission's metadata
• View, select, and perform workflow tasks from the "Pending Workflow Tasks" section of his/her personalized My DSpace page

Core Repository Services

DSpace provides storage and preservation management services to ensure the longevity of deposited materials. Users should be assured that content submitted in supported formats will be accessible even when the original application in which it was created is obsolete and the means to access it are inoperable.

Note that MIT faculty, researchers, departments, labs, and centers do not have to download or run DSpace on their servers. The MIT Libraries run and maintain the DSpace servers for all MIT Communities. You use a web-based submission and search interface to access DSpace.

For each submission to a DSpace Collection, DSpace

• Provides persistent storage, including appropriate back-up and recovery procedures
• Assigns a unique persistent identifier that will not change and is appropriate to cite in other works
• Supports a range of service levels for preservation and notifies users of DSpace's preservation constraints
• Stores provenance information
• Maintains an auditable history and record of changes to the archive

Core Repository Quotas

A community's initial storage quotas are based on the size of the DSpace Community as determined by the MIT Libraries. Thereafter, the quotas will be reviewed on an annual basis, at which time MIT Libraries reserve the right to alter the quotas as dictated by demand and resource availability. Communities with greater storage needs may be served through Premium Services.

Here is the current storage allocation for DSpace Communities:

DSpace Quotas

Community Size	Small	Medium	Large
Number of Submitters	<50	51-149	>150
Number of Documents per year	300	600	1000
Average File Size	1 MB	1MB	1 MB
Annual Storage Limit	300 MB	600 MB	1,000 MB
Total Storage After 5 years	1.5 GB	3 GB	5 GB

 

DSpace Management Services

Community Management Services

DSpace's Community Management Services include consulting and applied services tailored to each DSpace Community at MIT. Library staff will provide guidance in developing a Community or Collection's workflow process, metadata requirements, and distribution policies, as well as launching a custom DSpace Community homepage. A standard set of online reports will also be made available to each Community to help manage its Collections. Additional custom reports may be made available through Premium Services.

The MIT Libraries will manage all aspects of the Community set-up process, including:

• Planning and scheduling new Community and Collection set-ups
• Leading the initial Community meeting to discuss and explain set-up requirements
• Implementing a custom workflow for the submission process including metadata defaults
• Customizing DSpace Community and Collection home pages
• Training Community users and coordinators
• Assisting with ongoing Collection set-ups
• Coordinating bulk loads of historic content and metadata

End-User Support Services

See the DSpace FAQ for answers to routine DSpace support questions.

End-User Support Services are managed through Case-Tracker system, which helps manage customer support inquiries. Case Tracker enables the DSpace support staff to track user inquiries, problem resolutions, and requests for new features or enhancements.

System Management Services

System Management Services are the back-office support for DSpace, working to ensure optimal system performance and high availability. The MIT Libraries will provide a comprehensive set of technical services for DSpace system operations, including:

• Performing system monitoring, testing, and debugging.
• Performing system administration.
• Monitoring and upgrading DSpace utility programs and middleware.
• Developing approved system enhancements.
• Performing bulk loading of historic content and metadata.
• Maintaining a registry of known content and metadata formats for preservation purposes.

DSpace Premium Services

The basic service level includes all necessary functionality to build a DSpace Community. For communities requiring additional services or with extraordinary storage demands, the MIT Libraries have introduced a set of premium services to meet the exceptional resource requirements of DSpace Communities.

Examples of premium DSpace services include:

• Increased disk space
• File scanning from printed documents
• File conversion
• Metadata consulting
• Metadata creation services

MIT Libraries reserve the right to introduce fees as needed to aid in cost recovery for their efforts. The intention is that these services will be introduced as user demand dictates, as the system functionality is developed, and, where necessary, additional resources are obtained to support them within the MIT Libraries.