Founded July 2009 | ||
Similar Lyrasis, ORCID, Washington and Lee University, Electronic Information for Librari, OCLC | ||
DuraSpace is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization founded in 2009 when the Fedora Commons organization and the DSpace Foundation, two of the largest providers of open source repository software for managing and providing access to digital content, joined their organizations.
Contents
The DuraSpace portfolio of open source technologies is developed by librarians, archivists, technologists and researchers who share the goal of creating and preserving long-term access to the world’s digital heritage. For stewards of knowledge open source software has several important advantages over proprietary software. Open source is developed through free sharing and the transparent exchange of ideas and resources among peers. DSpace and Fedora communities have used this process to build software platforms that power repositories in more than 1,500 institutions in over 100 countries.
DuraCloud is a new service and open source technology for managing content in the cloud that was launched by DuraSpace in 2011. DuraCloud makes use of commercial cloud infrastructure to provide organizations with tools for archiving content across multiple cloud providers to ensure that documents, imagery and videos are always backed-up. DuraCloud features built-in compute services for digital preservation, data access, transformation, and sharing. Institutions including University of Michigan ICPSR, Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern University, State of North Carolina Library and Archives use DuraCloud to preserve digital resources.
History
The DuraSpace organization has sustained and improved open technologies that are tested and durable since 2009. Working with global communities of practice DuraSpace is actively involved in projects that use DuraSpace technologies for access, management, and preservation of digital content. DuraSpace collaborates with open source software projects, academics, technologists, curators and related commercial partners to create innovative, interoperable technologies and open standards and protocols that share an interest in preserving digital scholarship and culture.
Technology
The DuraSpace open technology software portfolio crosses the boundaries of institutional systems, the Web, and cloud infrastructure and provides software solutions that address requirements of both data curation and long-term preservation.
Supporting organization
The DuraSpace organization receives financial support from organizations that use DSpace, Fedora and DuraCloud open source software. DuraSpace does not receive significant funding from government agencies or private foundations. Sixty-two organizations contributed at one of three levels of financial support in fiscal year 2011.
DuraSpace in turn provides the user community with tools, services, and leadership in support of the ongoing development of open source technologies news and information, publications, education and professional development services, and community mailing lists/forums.