Latest developments in Hydra-land - Chris Awre, University of Hull. This presentation was part of Repository Fringe 2014, which took place from 30th to 31st July 2014, in Edinburgh.

1. Latest developments in Hydra-land
Chris Awre
Head of Information Management
Library and Learning Innovation
University of Hull
Repository Fringe 2014, Edinburgh, 30th July 2014

2. Hydra-land

3. Hydra-land
• 24 Partners – 2 more in progress
• Wide range of uses
• Institutional repository
• Workflow management
• Archives and special collections
• Research data
• Image management
• Media management
• Careful timezone management for Partner
calls ;-)

4. What is Hydra?
• Hydra is…
• An open source workflow and user interface
toolkit for use over a Fedora repository
• Hydra is also…
• A community that develops repository
solutions together

5. How do you use Hydra?
• Download Hydra gem and build local solution
• Hydra gem at version 7
• Hydra gem is a package of all core gems
required for a Hydra implementation
• Available via github
• https://github.com/projecthydra
• Implement some of the Hydra gems as part of
a wider solution
• Take existing Hydra solution (Hydra head) and
adapt this
• Implement Hydra solution bundle

6. Hydra@Hull

7. LSE Digital Library

8. ScholarSphere / sufia (Penn State)

9. Sufia -> CurateND (University of Notre Dame)

10. Avalon

11. Current community activity
• Mailing list development
• New hydra-community Google Group
• Open to anyone wishing to follow Hydra activity
• NB. Distinct from hydra-tech
• Hydra Connect conference
• First conference held January 2014
• Workshops, talks, unconference discussion
• Connect #2 – October 2014
• And then annually
• Face-to-face way of finding out about Hydra

12. Hydra Europe
• First Hydra Europe Symposium held
• Dublin, April 2014
• Situated alongside second European Hydra Camp
• Four-day in depth training course
• Attendance from UK, Ireland, Denmark, Austria,
• Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands
• Web events being arranged
• Second Symposium being planned
• Spring 2014

13. Hydra UK
• Interest in Hydra from York, Lancaster, Durham
• Primary desire is to consolidate repository activity
• Nascent Hydra UK group formed
• To support each other
• Technically and managerially
• To mutually develop solutions
• E.g., around open access
• Jisc PathFinder projects
• To feed UK needs into Hydra development
• Next meeting – October 2014

14. Working groups
• Structuring of development discussions within
Working Groups
• Hydra Archivists Working Group
• Hydra Digital Preservation Working Group
• Hydra RDF Working Group
• Highlights current areas of interest
• Work is also ongoing to ensure Hydra works with
Fedora 4 seamlessly
• Fedora 4.1 release in 2015 intended to deliver
this

15. Hydra-labs
• https://github.com/projecthydra-labs/
• Where developments mature before general
release
• Some highlights
• browse-everything
• Cloud storage connector
• ORCID plugin / IRUS UK gem
• hydra-derivatives
• File format transformations
• questioning _authority
• Controlled vocabulary plugin

16. Hydra in use

17. Archives and special collections
• Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame
• Separation of content management and access
• Hydra head
• Workflow stages, from ingest to complete record
• Blacklight
• Content exported to Blacklight for indexing and
searching
• Good example of managing multiple metadata
• MARC for catalogue records
• EAD for archival records

18. Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame

19. Tufts Digital Library

20. Theatre Institute of Barcelona

21. Spotlight
• Blacklight plugin for exhibition presentation
• Include items from within the repository
• And elsewhere on the web
• Videos released showing progress
• Get feedback from community
• Transparent software development
• https://github.com/sul-dlss/spotlight
• Similar to Omeka
• Exhibition collection can be saved back into the
repository as an archive of the curation

22. ArchiveSphere
• Off-shoot from ScholarSphere
• Exploring management of born-digital archives
• Started with ingest
• Hydra community conversation about needs
• Hydra Archivists Working Group (HAWG)
• Interest in Hydra integration with ArchivesSpace
• Royal Library of Denmark designing a preservation
infrastructure using Hydra

23. Royal Library - Infrastructure overview
INTERNAL EXTERNAL
Data in
•Ingest workflows
•Metadata enrichment
•Digital curation
Archiving & Data
Management
”Valhal”
Long-term
Preservation
”Yggdrasil”
Data out
•Apps for web/mobile etc.
•Raw data (REST API)
•OAI-PMH provider
Dissemination,
Data Delivery
”Bifrost”
RL
Bit Repository
Discovery Discovery
Repository Repository

24. Research data
• Like many, Hydra is feeling its way in RDM
• Many already hold (small) data
• Hull, Virginia, Stanford, etc.
• Virginia Tech starting to store big data from this
autumn
• Interest in going beyond this
• Data visualisation, geodata…
• UC San Diego
• Hydra over DAMS, not Fedora
• Holds large numbers of datasets

25. UC San Diego

26. Image management
• Many current Hydra heads hold images
• Tufts and UC San Diego are good examples
• Northwestern has developed detailed image
management workflow
• Digital Image Library (DIL)
• Build custom collections
• Create details/crops
• Zoom, rotate
• Controlled access
• Wider interest in embedding IIIF

27. DIL, Northwestern

28. Media management
• Increased need to manage audio and video
• Hydra community has taken different approaches
• RockHall
• Embedding within collection, local viewing
• Avalon – IMLS-funded project
• Indiana/Northwestern collaboration
• Solution bundle for media management
• WGBH
• Digital Asset Management System development
• Large-scale management
• OpenVault catalogue – Blacklight/Hydra

29. WGBH OpenVault

30. Workflow management
• Stanford has broken down the stages of
repository management
• Hydrus – IR Hydra head
• Deposit focus
• Access is through SearchWorks discovery tool
• Argo
• Workflow administration
• Internal Hydra head for monitoring the
management of content as it is processed
• Separate heads for ETDs and EEMs (everyday
electronic materials)

31. Where next?
• Hydra Connect / Hydra Europe Symposium /
Hydra UK
• Establish as regular events
• Foster mailing list interaction
• Support those coming new to Hydra
• Develop more packaged solutions
• Add to Avalon
• Involve more vendors for development and
ongoing support
• Watch the community continue to be creative!

32. Further information
Web: http://projecthydra.org
Wiki: http://wiki.duraspace.org/display/hydra
Lists: hydra-community@googlegroups.com & hydra-tech@
googlegroups.com
Code: http://github.com/projecthydra/
Connect:
https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/hydra/Hydr
a+Connect+Meetings

33. Thank you