Hasselt University developed customizations to the open source repository software DSpace that provided useful new features but did not get integrated into the main DSpace codebase. They partnered with 4Science to develop a submission module that would be aligned with DSpace roadmaps and published as open source. 4Science developed the module over a year, resulting in features like configurable workflows, authentication including Shibboleth, and administrative editing that will be included in the upcoming DSpace 7 release.

1. When a local project becomes
beneficial for the whole community
(and vice versa?)
Goovaerts, Marc (1); Breban, Jelle (1); Leinders, Dirk (1); Schoeters, Eline (1); Bollini, Andrea (2); Digilio, Giuseppe (2); Pascarelli, Luigi Andrea (2); Mornati, Susanna (2)
Organization(s): 1: Hasselt University, Belgium; 2: 4Science, Italy

2. • In the different repository communities most of the
local initiatives does not make it to the community.
This is a huge waste of opportunities.
• In the end local resources can be made available to
extend community efforts, for the benefit of all
institutions that adopt the same open-source
solution.

3. Background
• Since 2003 Hasselt University Library has set up an
institutional repository with the open source software DSpace.
• The customization of the software resulted in interesting
functionalities that the university library shared with other
communities.
• But it did not have any impact on the DSpace community.

4. • The Document
Server@UHasselt, the
repository of Hasselt University,
was set up by the University
Library.
• The development is based on
the Open Source Software
DSpace
DocumentServer@UHasselt over the years
2004
2008
2012 2016

5. Institutional repository and research management at
Hasselt University
• The University Library and the Research Coordination Office
developed it as an invaluable instrument for the management
of the publication output of the university (since 2007).
• Data from the Document Server is used for research
management goals.
• The Document Server is the exponent of the Open Access
policy of Hasselt University.

6. Development and customization of DSpace at Hasselt
University
• Services of the DocumentServer@UHasselt
• Repository: Documents in full text
• Academic Bibliography: Overview of the publication output of UHasselt
• Research management: For national and internal evaluation, reports
• Semi-automatic generated metadata: Categorization (A1–>D2) and
validations (for evaluation and funding)
• Linked to the data of the research databases

7. Type-based submission for rich and correct metadata

8. Authority systems for authors and journal titles

9. Sharing with communities
• UNESCO – IODE
o OdinPubAfrica (2004):
Publications of oceanographic
institutes in Africa
o OceanDocs (2006):
Publications of oceanographic
institutes worldwide (including
OdinPubAfrica)

10. Sharing with communities
● AgriOceanDSpace (2010):
o A common interest of FAO and
UNESCO-IODE a Dspace with
rich metadata
o Including an authority system
for ASFA and AGROVOC
thesaurus
o AGRIS AP OAI-crosswalk: to
create a rich metadata export
functionality
AGRIS AP OAI-crosswalk
Usage of ASFA and AGROVOC thesauri

11. AgriOceanDSpace Implementations

12. Despite the aim to share these enhancements for
which a large community has shown interest, the
Hasselt University Library was unable to finalize the
contribution to the main code base.

13. Issues
● The main focus was delivering services for Hasselt University
and the FAO – UNESCO communities
● Limited staff, who did not have time to get involved in the
DSpace developers community
● The customization needed a rewriting of many parts of the
original code, which limited the possibility of integration in the
main code of DSpace
● A modular approach was not successful either (started in 2013)
● Presentations at the DSpace workshops and Open Repository
conferences did not have the expected impact

14. A modular approach – started in 2013
● Two independent modules where
created without any use in DSpace:
○ Thesauri plugin (connected to Eprints)
○ Submission plugin

15. DocumentServer@UHasselt – Status 2017
● A DSpace 1.7.2 installation completely customized to the
requirements needed by the University Library and the
Research Coordination Office
● Further developments on an outdated version became very
difficult while new requests were made by the users.
● Attempts to move the in-house developments to the newer
versions of DSpace failed.
● Hasselt University decided to outsource the development of the
submission module.

16. Development requirements
● High level of requirements defined by Hasselt University :
○ A modern user-friendly interface for the submission of publications.
○ Enriched and granular metadata
○ Extraction of metadata out of publications and/or import of existing
metadata
○ Automation of ‘authority control’ for author names, organization, journals, …
○ Extended correction possibilities: duplication detection, …
○ A modern user interface on DSpace with extra functionalities (e.g.
integration of external data like citations, IF)
● Another concern was that the developed modules should also
easily be moved to later versions of DSpace.

17. Role of 4Science
● A decisive reason to choose 4Science was the fact that they
agreed to publish the source code as Open Source
● 4Science proposed to align the project since the earliest stage
with the community roadmap, to avoid the risk of another
large, unmerged open-source contribution
● 4Science takes an intermediate role to negotiate with the
community

18. Project execution summary
● Status: finalization phase, soon the first installation in
production using DSpace 7 code (also available for other
institutions who want to early adopt DSpace 7)
● Duration: 1 year
● Staff: 7 developers involved in different parts of the project
(2+ years effort)
● Results: under final review for inclusion in DSpace 7

19. Main outcomes
● Authentication (including Shibboleth)
● Configurable Enhanced Submission
● Configurable Workflow
● Administrative submission-like edit
● Configurable MyDSpace

20. DSpace-CRIS
JAVA API
DSpace JAVA API 6.x / 7
Angular
(submission)
JSPUI
6.x
REST 7
Architecture
DBMS
Assetstore

22. In the Submitter’s MyDSpace, both in progress
(workspace, workflow) and past submissions are
listed

23. A partial support for hierarchical metadata is available thanks to the
“group” input-type
In this sample configuration the group consists of two fields: authors,
affiliation. Author is the “main” field so it is shown in the tags section
to summarize the value of each group value. Clicking on a specific
name, it is possible to change the affiliation, etc.
Tags can be reordered using drag & drop

24. The submitter can mark false positives
or provide a reason for duplication

25. The user has to discard invalid values before
deposit

26. Pool and claimed tasks are shown in the MyDSpace of validators,
offering appropriate actions

27. Thank you very much
UHasselt & 4Science
Goovaerts, Marc (1); Breban, Jelle (1); Leinders, Dirk (1); Schoeters, Eline (1); Bollini, Andrea (2); Digilio, Giuseppe (2); Pascarelli, Luigi Andrea (2); Mornati, Susanna (2)
Organization(s): 1: Hasselt University, Belgium; 2: 4Science, Italy