[Dspace-general] DSpace authorization documentation

[Mark Jordan]

Hi,

A while back I asked the members of the DSpace community for assistance with workflow and authorizations. I offered to
create some docs since there seemed (to me anyway) to be a need for some clarification on this topic and some
examples.

After thinking about the most likely scenarios (of course, informed by the current and developing practice at my own
institution), I have framed these docs as questions and answers, since that type of approach may be a useful
supplement to the existing information and may appeal to people who want a simple "how to" to get them going.

Here is what I have so far. I'd love some feedback on whether this type of approach would be useful to people setting 
up DSpace (that is the intended audience), whether the answers contain factual or conceptual errors, or on any other 
aspect.


Q) How do faculty submit their items into DSpace?

A) If the community allows faculty to submit their own material, the DSpace admin will have to create a group (such as
"Collection X Uploaders"), give that group "Add" rights on the community, and add each faculty member to the group.
Don't forget that people must be registered before you can add them to a group.



Q) I want one group to be able to upload into a collection and another group to "control" the submissions (this group
is the "gatekeepers"). The gatekeepers should also be able to edit metadata.

A) Giving the uploaders "Add" permissions, and the gatekeepers "Add", "Write", "Read", and "Remove" permissions will
let them have full control over the submissions. The gatekeepers should be assigned to workflow step 2 only or step 3
only (if you use step 2, members of groups can reject submission; if you use step 3, members of groups can accept but
can't reject).



Q) So why would you use workflow step 1?

A) According to the DSpace documentation, members of groups assigned to workflow step 1 "Can accept submission for
inclusion, or reject submission." However, they cannot modify metadata. If you want some people to accept or reject a
submission at the earliest stage possible, put them in this group (and give the group "Read" permissions on that
collection). You can then put other people in step 2, which will let them modify metadata.



Q) My community wants the gatekeepers to upload and add metadata to the submissions. What kind of workflow and
permissions should I assign?

A) Put all the staff you want to do this into a group, associate them with workflow step 3, and give them "Read",
"Add", "Write", and "Remove" permissions on that collection. Important: if item authors don't upload their owm
material, within DSpace they will not be presented with the click-through license. If your gatekeepers are submitting
items on behalf of authors, they will be presented with the click-through license instead (since accepting the license
is part of the ingestion process).



Q) Can collections inherit the authorizations of their parent community?

A) Yes. If you create user groups and assign them authorizations at the community level, these authorizations will
apply to the collections within that community. This is useful if you have a set of gatekeepers or uploaders for a
community that contains multiple collections.





Mark

Mark Jordan
Acting Coordinator of Library Systems
W.A.C. Bennett Library, Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada
Phone (604) 291 5753 / Fax (604) 291 3023                 
mjordan at sfu.ca / http://www.sfu.ca/~mjordan/