'Repository Software Comparison: Building Digital Library Infrastructure at LSE', Ariadne Issue 64

Introduction: "Digital collections at LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science)[1] are significant and growing, as are the requirements of their users. LSE Library collects materials relevant to research and teaching in the social sciences, crossing the boundaries between personal and organisational archives, rare and unique printed collections and institutional research outputs. Digital preservation is an increasing concern alongside our commitment to continue to develop innovative digital services for researchers and students. The Digital Library Management and Infrastructure Development Programme is a cross-library initiative to build our capacity to collect, manage, preserve and provide access to our digital collections. The initial phase of the programme has investigated our collections, their users and best practice in the wider community and produced functional specifications for testing against the current best-of-breed open source repository software. Following this comparison we made a recommendation for the implementation of a repository system to operate at the core of our digital library. This article gives a summary of that comparison...."