4624S14DSpaceEmbargo

DSpace [1] is an open source repository application used by many organizations and institutions. It provides a way to access and manage all kinds of digital documents. The 4624S14DSpaceEmbargo project was intended to extend the functionality of the ItemImport command line tool. Specifically the goal was to add the ability to embargo uploaded items until a specified date. This functionality was already implemented for the two web interfaces (XMLUI and JSPUI). DSpace is used by the Virginia Tech library in the form of VTechWorks [2].

The project was overseen initially by Keith Gilbertson and Zhiwu Xie who work for the Virginia Tech library. Near the end of the semester we were introduced to another software developer for the library, Jay Chen. We helped Jay set up the DSpace environment on his local computer and demonstrated to him how to use the ItemImport command line tool.

Embargoes are used to limit access until a specified date. An embargo can be applied as a resource policy on an item, group, or bitstream level. An item level embargo restricts access to all of the files uploaded for a particular item. A group level embargoes submissions from anyone that is a member of the specified group. By default, the Anonymous group is the group that is used. A bitstream level embargo restricts access only on a specific file that is uploaded. The date format expected for setting an embargo must adhere to the ISO 8601 date format [3], specifically the YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM, and YYYY variations.

The deliverables for this project were the source and this documentation. Source code will be available on VTechWorks as well as GitHub. The GitHub repository [4] will be more up to date than the VTechWorks copy because we will continue some work on the project after the due date for this project based on feedback from the DSpace developers. The JIRA ticket for this feature to be implemented in DSpace 5.0 is DS-1996 [5].

[1] DuraSpace, “DSpace”, 2014, http://dspace.org/ [2] Virginia Tech, “VTechWorks”, 2014, http://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/ [3] ISO, “Date and time format - ISO 8601,” 2014, http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/iso8601.htm [4] GitHub, “jebschiefer/DSpace,” 2014, https://github.com/jebschiefer/DSpace/ [5] DuraSpace JIRA, “[DS-1996] Embargo Support in ItemImport,” 2014, https://jira.duraspace.org/browse/DS-1996