Kelsey, If you’re looking for a web-based app where you can capture metadata, store files, and find and retrieve them again, Drupal seems totally workable. But I think the issue that might concern me most about using Drupal for a document repository is that it’s relatively fluid. In my experience document repositories last a good decade or more and migrating them is a pain, and not undertaken lightly. Drupal evolves relatively quickly, and persistence isn’t one of it’s focal points. (This is why Fedora is Islandora’s special sauce, from a Drupal perspective.)
If you are interested in Hydra-in-a-Box, there will be some (doubtless smashing) presentations and maybe even a demo at Open Repositories<https://www.conftool.com/or2016/index.php?page=browseSessions&search=hydra+in+a+box> next month. There is much work left to do, but it’s beginning to take shape. In addition to the videos Mark cited, we’re sending regular updates to the Hydra lists; you might find hydra-t...@googlegroups.com<mailto:hydra-t...@googlegroups.com> or hydra-commun...@googlegroups.com<mailto:hydra-commun...@googlegroups.com> worth joining. (Cary—you might also like to join if you’d like to keep current. We have a good set of discussions and information exchange going on with many in the Islandora community.) Best, - Tom On May 5, 2016, at 5:08 PM, Mark A. Matienzo <mark.matie...@gmail.com<mailto:mark.matie...@gmail.com>> wrote: Hi Cary, Hydra-in-a-Box has already started development as of the last week of March. To that end, we've released demo videos on a weekly basis at the end of each of our sprints, which we've posted to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDs5eqwVjfb7dIA6KWffdUlSASYMtZQcL Best, Mark A. Matienzo <m...@dp.la> Project Manager, Hydra-in-a-Box Director of Technology, Digital Public Library of America On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 7:15 PM, Cary Gordon <listu...@chillco.com> wrote: To be clear, Hydra-in-a-box is in the planning stage at this point, and has not AFAIK, begun development. While planning to offer a much friendlier install than earlier incarnations of Hydra, is still a Fedora-based solution, and won’t come with a Fedora-expert-in-the-box. It will address metadata management issues, but exactly how that will happen is not yet defined. The good news is that both Islandora, the tool I work with, and Hydra will be moving to Fedora 4, and that will make them both easier to use in many respects. In fact, they should become interoperable. Thanks, Cary On May 5, 2016, at 2:38 PM, Kerchner, Daniel <kerch...@email.gwu.edu> wrote: Although you might not have the level of technical expertise required to support Fedora-based applications in their current incarnations, you might want to keep an eye on progress on the Hydra-In-A-Box project. Hydra-In-A-Box is meant to provide the benefits of Hydra but would actually be easy to install (i.e. not requiring a software developer on staff) and/or can be used as a hosted solution. I think a major driver is to provide a solution that is just as much an option for "small, scrappy institutions" :) http://hydrainabox.projecthydra.org/ - Dan *Dan KerchnerSenior Software Developer, Scholarly Technology GroupThe George Washington University LibrariesGelman Library2130 H Street, NWWashington, DC 20052kerch...@gwu.edu <kerch...@gwu.edu>* On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 5:15 PM, Kelsey Williamson < kelseyfayesaw...@gmail.com> wrote: Hi code4lib, I was hoping to get some input on this. My small, scrappy institution is considering using drupal as a repository, primarily via the Biblio module. Obviously this is not ideal, but for reasons I won't get into, our tech environment won't support ePrints or dspace, and hosted services are not an option either. We do not really have the level of technical expertise required to support any fedora-based applications, and cannot hire any additional support. There's a chance existing staff could stretch to get there, but it would not be a pretty process. With all that said, do any red flags come to mind? I looked through both code4lib and drupal4lib listserv archives and poked around google, but didn't find much evidence of anyone else using drupal in this way. Seems suspicious. While my gut tells me it's a bad idea (metadata! standards! preservation!), I'm having trouble articulating this to my group in a way that sticks, because using Biblio would be easy. I would appreciate hearing any other thoughts or opinions on this. Thanks! Kelsey
