Library to Scale Up Libra

The University of Virginia Library has embarked on a project to rebuild the University’s institutional repository Libra to meet technical standards and the needs of the University’s administration, the Library, and scholars. Plans are for Libra 2 to be ready to accept deposits by the spring of 2016.

Three segments of Libra—electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), open access articles, and open access datasets—have been the foundation of repository requirements, but current and future needs have outstripped the capabilities of the Libra 1.x structure. By updating Libra we ensure that the Library will maintain a functioning institutional repository, fulfilling the 2010 Faculty Senate’s Open Access Resolution and the Library’s commitment to 98% of graduate programs that require an ETD deposit for completion. Further, a recent Jefferson Trust grant proposal for $78,000.00 over two years to digitize and provide worldwide access to dissertations and theses depends on the continued development and stability of Libra.

Early in 2015 the Libra Services Team completed a comparison of institutional repository platforms and development options, and recommended the following two-pronged platform for the Libra 2 project:

  1. ETD/Open Access Repository Platform: Penn State University’s Sufia, as a core for a U.Va.-built Hydra/Fedora 4 solution.
  2. Data Repository Platform: Harvard University’s Dataverse, hosted and administered by U.Va.

U.Va. affiliates can follow the project blog, or contact Ellen Ramsey for more information.

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