Thursday, January 30, 2003

6 Institutions Will Help Fine-Tune a Popular New Archiving Program By DAN CARNEVALE Six major research universities announced this week that they are working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to fine-tune an MIT program for archiving scholarly works called DSpace, which has become wildly popular in academe in just a few months. The six institutions are Columbia University, Cornell University, Ohio State University, the University of Rochester, the University of Toronto, and the University of Washington at Seattle. Together with MIT and the University of Cambridge, they will form a group called the DSpace Federation and test the archiving software. The software is free and open source, which means the users can read and change the source code so they can customize it to their liking. MIT designed DSpace with Hewlett-Packard Laboratories to allow professors to store reports and other research documents in a searchable digital archive. Eventually, MIT officials hope, professors will be able find scholastic research as easily as college students search for MP3's of their favorite music. About 2,000 institutions, libraries, and other organizations have downloaded DSpace since its release in November. MIT officials tapped the six research universities that are now part of the DSpace Federation to use the software and report back on how it works and how to make it better. No particular problems with the software have surfaced, but officials at MIT want to perform a systematic test on the software to see what problems could pop up. MIT received a $300,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to form the federation. That's in addition to a $1.8-million grant from the Hewlett-Packard Company to create the software. MacKenzie Smith, associate director of technology for MIT's libraries, said DSpace doesn't come with explicit instructions on how to use it, so it's up to the institutions to experiment with it and see what it can do. "When it comes to you, it's an empty box," Ms. Smith said. "They're testing it, and they're also improving it." DSpace is free to download now. But Ms. Smith said the federation will discuss whether it's necessary to add a fee for people to use the software. Susan Gibbons, director of digital library initiatives at the University of Rochester, said because the software is open source, the institutions in the federation will take the lead in finding out what DSpace is capable of. "There isn't a company behind it that you can call when you have problems," she said. "MIT will see where they hit roadblocks and where did they have problems." Background articles from The Chronicle: MIT's Open Window: Putting Course Materials Online, the University Faces High Expectations (12/6/2002) 'Superarchives' Could Hold All Scholarly Output (7/5/2002) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Senators reintroduce bill to ban all human cloning Skirmishes begin over commission's report on Title IX Stakes are high in affirmative-action cases, former U. of Michigan president says INS gives colleges 2-week grace period on deadline for using database to track foreign students Oregon colleges raise fees and plan to cut programs in wake of tax measure's defeat Florida State's provost replaces dean of new medical school Duke professor releases data on grade inflation at 34 colleges 6 institutions will help fine-tune a popular new archiving program