The Texas Digital Library hosts Open Access digital repositories using DSpace, allowing member institutions to provide reliable online access to their scholarly and instructional output.
With a digital repository hosted by the TDL, institutions can collect, store, preserve, and disseminate digital content – including documents, audio files, images, and datasets – all within a secure, professionally managed environment in the Amazon Cloud.
DSpace is a widely-used open source repository software that can manage and preserve all types of digital content and facilitates indexing of that content by commercial search engines, such as Google.
Why use a Digital Repository?
A Digital Repository hosted by the TDL:
- promotes the principles of Open Access
- ensures the long-term preservation and accessibility of digital assets
- provides access to unpublished research of faculty, research staff, and students
- preserves and disseminates a wide variety of content beyond traditional scholarly articles, including datasets, learning objects, electronic theses and dissertations, audio-visual content, and presentations.
- helps universities fulfill obligations to make publicly funded or non-profit-funded research available on an Open Access basis
- allows universities to capture digital e-learning courseware and Open Educational Resources
- encourages access and sharing among disciplines and institutions
- showcases an institution’s faculty and student output, and through participation in the Texas Digital Library consortium, the scholarly contributions of the entire state
Repository Hosting Services
TDL’s Digital Repository hosting service includes:
- Hosted installation of DSpace for each institution
- Basic theming of DSpace in a mobile-friendly theme
- Persistent links (“handles”) using open standard
- All system administration handled by TDL staff
- Local repository management and control
- Integration with local campus authentication (via Shibboleth)
- TDL Helpdesk Support and the TDL DSpace Users Group
- Basic DSpace training via web conference
Learn more in the Digital Repository section of our wiki.
To set up an Digital Repository hosted by the TDL, you must be a member of the Texas Digital Library. To find out more about membership opportunities, please see the Membership section of our Web site.
If you are a member of the Texas Digital Library and need assistance in setting up an Digital Repository, please contact us for more information.