DSpace for E-Print Archives

DSpace$^{TM}$ (http://dspace.org/) is the new open source digital repository system from the MIT Libraries and Hewlett-Packard Labs designed to support the digital collections of academic research institutions, as well as the SPARC conception of Institutional Repositories for digital research material [1]. The DSpace system has been described elsewhere in detail [2] so the focus of this article is on its implementation at MIT for archiving e-prints and other artifacts of scholarly communication, and making these available to the public. The MIT Libraries are deeply concerned about the well-documented crisis in scholarly communication [3] and are committed to working towards innovative solutions. We share this concern with many of the MIT faculty and administration, several of who have been key supporters of the DSpace project and related initiatives at the university. The MIT Libraries were a founding member of SPARC, and are a signatory of the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI). This article will describe how MIT Libraries have implemented DSpace to support these goals.