[Dspace-general] RES: DSpace for e-theses

[Steve Thomas]

I've had only a quick read of this, but the author has made a number of
errors, in my opinion:

1. She's ignored (or wasn't informed about) the customisation capabilities
of DSpace -- additional indexes, changes to item displays etc.

2. She's ignored (or wasn't informed about) the availability of SQL as a
query tool for reporting and the like. Sure, SQL is ugly, but it provides a
powerful option for the sorts of issues she's raised.

3. She's confused DSpace with an administration and reporting tool, which it
hasn't been designed to do. It's a moot point whether DSpace should have
these capabilities, and I guess a topic for future development.

I guess this points to an issue with marketing -- there's obviously some
confusion about what DSpace _is_, and this reflects, IMHO, similar confusion
among the development community.

For me, the key strengths of DSpace are:

1. Free.

2. Open source.

3. Solid database back end with SQL.

4. Support for OAI-PMH harvesting.

5. Simple Web interface.

6. Accessible to search engines (Google etc.) -- not a "dark" archive. (Does
WebGencat allow Google indexing? I only see a search form interface.)

7. Provision for organising content (Communities and Collections). (I'm not
aware of any other repository software that provides this, and while not an
essential, it is proving to be useful here.)

Sure, there are irritations in DSpace (I'd love a Next item button on the
Item display), but it has great strength for what it has been designed to
do.


Steve

 
Stephen Thomas, 
Senior Systems Analyst, 
University of Adelaide Library 
UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE SA 5005 AUSTRALIA 
Phone: +61 8 830 35190 
Fax: +61 8 830 34369 
Email: stephen.thomas at adelaide.edu.au 
URL: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/stephen.thomas 
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: dspace-general-bounces at mit.edu [mailto:dspace-general-
> bounces at mit.edu] On Behalf Of Afonso Comba de Araujo Neto
> Sent: Tuesday, 19 December 2006 3:37 am
> To: Dspace-general at mit.edu
> Subject: [Dspace-general] RES: DSpace for e-theses
> 
> 
> 
> It's interesting to notice that they completely missed the fact that
> DSpace is an open software, customizable in anyway you chose and their
> chosen solution not only costs about thousands of dollars a year, but
> probably is something heavily limited in terms of customization. Even if
> that's a small detail for them, I'm pretty sure that's not the case for
> most of the institutions around the world that chose to use DSpace.
> 
> But, anyway, the criticism is technically valid.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Afonso Araujo Neto
> 
> 
> -----Mensagem original-----
> De: dspace-general-bounces at mit.edu
> [mailto:dspace-general-bounces at mit.edu] Em nome de Dorothea Salo
> Enviada em: segunda-feira, 18 de dezembro de 2006 13:32
> Para: Dspace-general at mit.edu
> Assunto: [Dspace-general] DSpace for e-theses
> 
> 	Of interest to those using DSpace for ETDs:
> <http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00007938/>.
> 
> 	Some of the technical concerns in this paper have been
> addressed, but the
> criticism of DSpace's search capabilities is still quite relevant.
> 
> Dorothea
> 
> --
> Dorothea Salo, Digital Repository Services Librarian
> (703)993-3742     dsalo at gmu.edu
> MSN 2FL, Fenwick Library
> George Mason University
> 4400 University Drive, Fairfax VA 22031
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