SoftServ | Appointment

Overview

The British Library worked with us to develop their Samvera-based multi-tenant Shared Research Repository in partnership with other UK cultural heritage institutions.

Jenny Basford

Repository Services Lead, British Library

After piloting an initial instance of Hyku open-source repository software for the Shared Research Repository, the British Library sponsored a second phase as a collaborative project between SoftServ and CoSector. iro.bl.uk represents a multi-tenant implementation, with discrete repositories for several cultural heritage organizations in the UK. Key work included a major data migration, custom front-end theming, aggregate cross-tenant search functionality, and integrated DOI minting and content population.

Requirements

Our Solution

One instance of repository software that would host multiple discreet repositories for participating institutions.

Hyku provided the perfect solution to this requirement, allowing administrators of a Hyrax-based repository software to create multiple individual repositories within. Although the repository contents and tenant-level admin capabilities are unique, Hyku also provides a higher level admin role that allows cross-tenant administration by British Library product owners. Hyku’s easily adaptable UI also facilitated custom theming for each partner repository.

In addition to tenant-level search, a shared repository landing page that provides search functionality across all tenants.

With input from the greater Samvera community, SoftServ implemented the concept of a search-only tenant in Hyku, giving the Shared Research Repository a high level landing page that aggregates search results across all repositories in the system. We also responded to a specific use case that required the ability for individual tenants to opt in or out of the aggregate search.

Integrate DataCite for DOI minting in the repository, with the ability to auto-populate based on DOI.

This requirement gave SoftServ the opportunity to work with other Samvera community institutions to align a DOI (digital object identifier) solution and share code, which was ultimately a group effort that was contributed back to core Hyku. The integration allows for minting of DOIs for new works added to the repository, as well as the ability to populate metadata for works with existing DOIs with a lookup feature.

Results

We helped the British Library develop a multi-tenant, flexible, and customizable repository to fit the needs of their partner institutions.

A key value point to a collaborative shared repository for stakeholders was the ability to search all partner content, which was not previously available in Hyku. SoftServ implemented a unique “search-only tenant” concept to satisfy this requirement.

An attractive, engaging front-end was an important requirement. SoftServ’s design team created a theme that unifies the entire Shared Research Repository, while working comfortably with individualized branding elements on partner repositories.

SoftServ worked with other community developers to implement code that allows minting of digital object identifiers upon creation of new works as well as the more complex requirement to auto-populate metadata via DOI lookup.

It was important to the British Library to utilize an open-source solution with active community support, and one that would welcome contribution. As part of the Samvera Community, choosing Hyku allowed this project to contribute multiple features to the community, such as customizable collection thumbnails, and the ability to feature and order collections in Hyku.

Testimonials

Here's what people had to say about us.

Melissa Campbell

Engaged Learning Tools Specialist, UC San Diego

SoftServ helped us navigate a big update to our student research opportunity portal, building in new features centered on student user experience. They took on the challenge and found solutions for all of our needs to support our diverse campus stakeholders.

Erik Johnson

CEO, CablingPlus

They have the knowledge, experience, and professionalism to ensure 100% success. They built us an enterprise level custom e-commerce website/platform that has been nothing but rock solid.

Andreas Kostopoulos

Archives Manager, American Research Center in Egypt

Thank you for all the great work you are doing at SoftServ! So pleased and proud to have worked with your team on developing our digital archives.

Rachel Howard

Digital Initiatives Librarian, University of Louisville Libraries

We appreciate the time SoftServ took with us, as well as their team’s expertise, guidance, and persistence. They made it possible for us to include multi-page documents, provide friendly URLs for items and collections, and limit the size of allowable downloads in our Hyku application.

Jill Morris & Kirsten Leonard

Executive Directors, PALNI / PALCI

SoftServ has been key in helping us accomplish the ambitious goals of our grant-funded efforts to build a cost-effective multi-tenant Hyku repository to suit the needs of many diverse institutions. Their expertise, commitment to education and open source values, and contributions to the greater Hyku and Samvera community has been highly valued by our team and is what sets SoftServ apart.

Melissa Campbell

Engaged Learning Tools Specialist, UC San Diego

Erik Johnson

CEO, CablingPlus

They have the knowledge, experience, and professionalism to ensure 100% success. They built us an enterprise level custom e-commerce website/platform that has been nothing but rock solid.