History
The development of an institutional repository at AUC grew out of the need for a means to organize, preserve, and make available electronic versions of graduate student theses, and existing digital collections, such as the Rare Books and Special Collections Library’s digitized photographs, rare books, and architectural drawings.
DSpace was chosen for these purposes from among several institutional repository and digital library software platforms, for a variety significant reasons. As the most popular institutional repository software platform on the market, particularly among education institutions, it offered the largest community-based support structure possible. The software is open source, meaning it is available free of charge and completely customizable. Compatible with current standards and protocols, DSpace allows AUC to to make its collections available as widely as possible, and provides the greatest level of digital preservation functionality to ensure long-term access to deposited digital materials.
Implementing the AUC DAR Repository offered an opportunity for collaboration between University Academic Computing Technologies (UACT) and AUC Libraries and Learning Technologies, specifically the Rare Books and Special Collections Library, allowing each unit to contribute its unique skills and abilities. UACT, with its leadership in making academic applications available to the university community, maintains the technological infrastructure by handling the software development, customization, and technical maintenance of the DSpace platform. The Libraries, participates in this partnership by developing collections of digitized and born-digital materials, supervising metadata creation and maintenance, and facilitating long term preservation of the university's digital assets.