The DLF Community Spotlight recently highlighted ScholarSphere, Penn State’s institutional repository. Authors Mike Giarlo and Patricia Hswe discuss how ScholarSphere differs from other IRs: “Having refrained from jumping on the IR bandwagon in the early 2000s, Penn State was an outlier among R1 university peers. The deliberation, however, allowed us to leverage lessons learned in hindsight from first-generation IRs, especially the need to draw involvement early from users.”
While IRs might not generally fall under the digital humanities umbrella, the post affirms the importance of “community centered development,” as Penn State contributes to the Hydra project and develops Sufia, a Rails engine for facilitating self-deposit institutional. There may be lessons for DHers in terms of project management, partnering with library IT, and developing and customizing software. Additionally, Giarlo and Hswe note that “Putting community — whether at the local, organizational, or national level — ahead of other concerns has turned into a fundamental strategy for sustaining digital preservation and stewardship services at Penn State.”
