DSpace

For the Doria and Theseus platforms, the National Library has employed the open source-based DSpace software as well as the Manakin software, which enables flexible editing of the interface and its appearance.

The National Library’s DSpace services are open to materials from all Finnish institutions of higher education. The National Library offers libraries its ready-made DSpace platform. Even though the technical maintenance of the servers, disk space and publishing applications are centrally managed, each individual library may operate in its own environment, customise the appearance of the interface, and save and describe its materials independently.

Besides the centrally maintained DSpace service, the National Library offers technical support and advice to libraries who are using DSpace but are not in the joint system with other libraries.

In addition to providing software support, the National Library assists in the uniform application of metadata formats, description practices and identifiers.

The National Library’s pilot project in deploying DSpace was the transferral of the University of Helsinki publishing service E-thesis into the new environment. The DSpace interface and the appearance of E-thesis were published in February 2007.

The National Library received financial support from the Ministry of Education’s national Open Access project (OA-JES) for the development of the DSpace-based publishing environment.