Islandora: an open source digital repository solution

• Published in: Computers in Libraries Vol. 34; no. 9; pp. 12 - 32
• Main Author: Kent, Alex
• Format: Magazine Article Trade Publication Article
• Language: English
• Published: Westport Information Today, Inc 01-11-2014
• Subjects: Academic libraries; Alumni; Cable television/data services; College campuses; Colleges & universities; Community; Community Relations; Computer Software; Conferences (Gatherings); Consortia; Digital asset management; Digitization; Educational Technology; Electronic Libraries; Guidelines; Implementation; Institutional repositories; Internet services; Library associations; Library Automation; Library consortia; Local Issues; Metadata; Methods; Online services; Open source software; Oral History; Photography; Public domain; State Schools; State Universities; Student Publications; Usability; United States; United States > US; Minnesota
• ISSN: 1041-7915

Islandora is a digital asset management (DAM) system that uses common open source tools such as Drupal, Fedora, and Solr to build a dynamic, robust, and customizable digital repository. Islandora can be used for institutional repositories focusing on scholarly work such as masters' theses, dissertations, and student publications. It works with specialized collections from university archives that contain mixed materials such as documents, photographs, audio files, and videos. The author chooses Islandora because he felt it fit the needs of their MnPALS consortium; the community is supportive and innovative, and the software meets their viability standards. Islandora's DAM system is high-quality, flexible, and stable. All of his work with the Islandora beta projects has given him insight on how open source software and communities can be a viable option for libraries, especially as costs for proprietary systems increase and budgets are cut. He has found the Islandora community to be very responsive and have used its feedback several times.