[Dspace-general] Handle System changes

[MacKenzie Smith]

To the DSpace Community

Following up on Jane Euler's recent posting about a new fee structure for 
the Handle System that CNRI is introducing this year, here are the details 
as they apply to us (to the best of my knowledge)

CURRENT USERS of the Handle System (i.e. those who already have a prefix 
assigned to them) will
-- pay a $50 annual fee for the service on January, 2007 and annually 
thereafter, on invoice by CNRI
-- register with CNRI
-- upgrade to the new version 6.2 of the Handle server in DSpace
-- for more information see this web page that CNRI has set up 
http://www.handle.net/upgrade_6-2_DSpace.html

NEW USERS of the Handle System (i.e. those who request a prefix from now 
on) will
-- pay $100 for the new prefix and the first year of use (you will 
automatically be registered at that time)
-- pay a $50 annual fee on the anniversary of your registration, on invoice 
from CNRI
-- upgrade to the new version 6.2 of the Handle server in DSpace (see 
instructions at the link above).

NOTE: the 6.2 Handle server upgrade is not required to make the Handle 
System work with DSpace 1.4
or any earlier version... it's just a greatly improved version of the 
Handle server that you should upgrade to
for performance reasons. The upgrade is promised to be very simple and you 
can schedule it when you
have the time (CNRI would like it to be as soon as possible). It's very 
likely that the 1.5 release of
DSpace will be packaged with version 6.2 of the Handle server.

CNRI is the non-profit organization that created the Handle System and 
(very importantly) runs the global
identifier resolver system. They have received revenue for doing that from 
the International DOI Foundation
and other sources for many years, but the DSpace community has not be asked 
for funding. The amounts
involved are modest, but if you feel that you cannot afford these fees you 
should contact CNRI about
getting a waiver (email hdladmin at cnri.reston.va.us)

DSpace made the CNRI Handle System its default persistent identification 
system from the very beginning
in 2002, and so far it has served us well. MIT will continue to use the 
Handle System and pay the new fee,
but every DSpace site will need to decide if it will do likewise or look 
for another solution for persistent
identifiers to archived items. There are a few other network identifier 
systems around, each with its own
pros and cons, and there was some work proposed years ago to generalize the 
identification system code
in DSpace so that sites could choose which system they preferred. That was 
never implemented, but there
are sites that have opted out of the Handle System and if you ask on the 
list I'm sure they'll explain what
they did.

Finally, as you know, we're in the process of creating a new non-profit 
(501c3) DSpace Foundation to
govern the open source software and, among other things, deal with the many 
legal and business issues
that come up around the system all the time. This is a really good example 
of how the foundation can
help our community... in theory the DSpace Foundation could act as an agent 
on our collective behalf
and use our membership fees or other sources of revenue to cover these 
payments so that we won't need
to worry about them. But in the meantime...

The folks at CNRI are happy to answer any questions or help you if you need 
it, so don't hesitate to
contact them at hdladmin at cnri.reston.va.us

Thanks,

MacKenzie


MacKenzie Smith
Associate Director for Technology
MIT Libraries