DalSpace is Dalhousie’s open-access institutional repository. It is used to preserve, store, and showcase digital content created by the Dal community. You may have used DalSpace to search for or cite scholarly work, explore archival material, or upload a Master’s or PhD thesis. DalSpace makes content discoverable not just to the Dal community, but to people worldwide.

DalSpace must be a stable, reliable resource for people, however they choose to use it. Software upgrades ensure it is always secure and supportable. Over the last year, a team from Dal Libraries worked together to upgrade DalSpace, including system administrators, instructional support technicians, and scholarly communications and metadata librarians who tested it and provided feedback.

People Notice When DalSpace is Down

As with any upgrade, the goal is to ensure a seamless transition with minimal downtime. Choosing a downtime period for the platform was a challenge. Geoff Brown, digital scholarship librarian, says he gets emails from around the world about the repository’s resources. He noted there can be more than 1200 items added to DalSpace in the run of a year, with the Faculty of Graduate Studies as DalSpace’s biggest contributor and the heaviest upload times in June as students add their theses. It is understandable why coordinating downtimes takes time and thoughtful attention.

What Has Changed

Although it has a new look and feel, the public interface of DalSpace was not the focus of the upgrade. The work was primarily on the back end to make what was already a secure, stable, and reliable repository more robust. David Mifflen, system administrator with Academic Technology Services, says the front and back ends of DalSpace are now separated and run on different servers. The user interface is simplified, faster, more flexible, and more secure. Changes and updates are now easier to perform and will not impact the user’s experience. In addition to the new look, filters offer more nuanced browsing and searching.

Read more about DalSpace. If you have questions about registration or uploading content, contact Geoff Brown.