Comparison of EPrints, DSpace and Fedora

From: Arthur Sale <ahjs_at_ozemail.com.au>
Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 08:27:46 +1100

I am doing a comparison of functionality and adopter experiences for the
two most widely used institutional archive-creating software packages for
repositories: EPrints and DSpace, and also Fedora (a minor player
globally but possibly important in Australia).  I am seeking your help in
collecting information. Information about other packages would also be
welcome.

 

(1)

If you have used or compared any of this software, could you please take
the time to let me know what you consider the respective
advantages/disadvantages of each to be, and for what purposes? I am also
interested in features that you think are equivalent or readily achieved
in each.

 

(2)

The two major software packages explain their orientation as follows:
EPrints puts a particular emphasis on OA content (preprints and
postprints of institutional research output and theses), DSpace on
digital curation in general. Fedora describes itself as repository
storage layer software requiring custom front-ends for any purpose. If
you have any specific comments on that these overall orientations and
whether they are appropriate, they would be very helpful too.

 

(3)

While all these packages are free and open source, I would also be
interested in any cost estimates in implementing the one you chose, how
many hours or dollars you spent on setup, how much maintenance you have
to expend, and how reliable the software is (crashes, downtime, etc).
Would you recommend it to someone else?

 

I will post a summary of the results (and maybe an interim report) on
AmSci OA Forum, and may get back to you if I reed a bit more detail.
Thank you in anticipation of a prompt response and a flood of emails.
Email direct to me at Arthur.Sale_at_utas.edu.au if you want.

 

Arthur Sale

Professor of Computing (Research)

University of Tasmania
Received on Sun Nov 20 2005 - 00:02:19 GMT