Since July 2019, LYRASIS and DSpace governance have worked together to expedite the release of DSpace 7. The DSpace 7 Working Group has worked hard on what will be the largest release in DSpace history, with a completely new, dynamic user interface and a suite of next generation repository features (see NOW AVAILABLE: DSpace 7.0 Beta 2). This team effort has resulted in an estimation process and staged release program of key features requested by institutions such as yours. The staged release of DSpace 7 has been a success, with DSpace 7 Beta 1 completed on March 4, and DSpace Beta 2 released on April 20th.

To ensure these release goals could be met, DSpace governance approved a plan to directly fund development work for DSpace 7. Given the size of the new version, and the technologies required to create it, the goals could not be completed with community development alone.

Financial contributions from DSpace members above and beyond membership fees directly funded the development work that resulted in timely Beta 1 and Beta 2 releases. We gratefully recognize the following institutions, who together have generously contributed more than $100,000 to support the DSpace 7 staged release program:

  • Cornell University
  • Duke University
  • Imperial College London
  • Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis
  • LYRASIS
  • National Library of Finland
  • The Ohio State University
  • Texas Digital Library
  • University of Arizona
  • University of Edinburgh
  • University of Kansas
  • University of Minnesota
  • University of Toronto
  • ETH Zurich, ETH Library

We also gratefully acknowledge the generous contributions of Atmire, 4Science, RCAAP (FCT|FCCN & Minho University) whose continuing engineering resources have driven development of DSpace 7. 

We need your help:  The DSpace 7 Working Group estimates that $300,000 of paid development is required to meet the ambitious goals of the Beta release program. We are one third of the way to that goal already, with generous contributions from 12 member institutions. 

Any of the following actions will contribute to keeping the DSpace 7 release schedule on track to meet the release goals:

  • Become a member of DSpace at any level and join the 97 institutions who directly support the community
  • Increase your membership level, and the additional funds will be directed to development
  • If you are already a member, consider a one-time donation of additional funds for DSpace 7 development

These funds will go directly to contracting with developers to meet the expedited DSpace 7.0 release plan. DSpace 7 is an ambitious and fully community-supported release without one dollar of grant funding. 
Thanks to our generous community we are well on our way to meeting our financial goal. Please contact Laurie Arp to learn more about how you can help contribute towards DSpace 7.