We're a mid-sized university library (10,000 fte) trying to get an IR off the ground to showcase student and faculty research. We've had a DSpace instance running for several years, but we use so few of its features that DSpace ends up being more trouble than it is worth. In particular, it's very frustrating to deal with metadata editing, file management, the Handle URL system, and HTML/CSS theming.
I am considering leaving the DSpace model in favor of our "IR" just being a glorified FTP site that MARC records in our catalog can point to. I might even build a tiny frontend using some scripting language to add IP authentication, URL redirect stuff, or a Google Scholar interface, but that's really it. No metadata modelling, no preservation features, no indexing. Does anyone have experience using a very small, file-based (as opposed to database-driven) application as a foundation for an IR? Are there any problems I should anticipate? Joshua Welker Information Technology Librarian James C. Kirkpatrick Library University of Central Missouri Warrensburg, MO 64093 JCKL 2260 660.543.8022
