A presentation at Samvera Connect 2019, originally titled "Samvera Stack Overview", described thus and Samvera can be a daunting stack for newcomers. This presentation is designed to give developers and community members the common definitions and descriptions of the Samvera stack at the application and framework level. Framework topics include discussions around Rails, Sidekiq, Data Stores, Fedora, Solr, Blacklight, etc. While application level topics include discussions around Avalon, Hyrax, Hyku, etc. At the end of the presentation, attendees will have a greater understanding of Samvera's components and how they interact and come together to create a Samvera application.
GeoConcerns is a plugin to CurationConcerns for managing geospatial resources in a repository (http, A presentation at Hydra Connect 2016 described thus, and //geoconcerns.github.io). This presentation will give an overview and demonstration of GeoConcerns’ features and PCDM-based data model. In addition, we will discuss the code base and future development work such as integration with Sufia. An audio recording of the session is available for download below.
A workshop given at Hydra Connect #2 described thus and This workshop will offer three detailed demos and case studies of mature production systems from the Hydra community. The contrasting case studies are Hydra@Hull from the University of Hull, Avalon Media Systems from Indiana University and Northwestern University, and ScholarSphere from Penn State University
A presentation at Samvera Connect 2019, originally titled "Creating a Vision for Samvera", described thus and As Samvera had undergone a shift it its governance over the past 2 years, Samvera Steering wanted to ask Partners to contribute to the creation of a vision for Samvera’s future. The visioning exercise was conducted in April 2019 at the Samvera Partners meeting, involved over 30 community members, and was facilitated by Hannah Frost and Carolyn Caizzi. This presentation will update the community about the process used, the outputs of the exercise, and about any ongoing work to further hone the vision of Samvera’s future.
A presentation at Hydra Connect 2016 described thus and This case study will address the initial decisions and reasons for switching to Hydra, prototyping for launch of Hydra head, metadata cleanup and asset migration, final quality review, and lessons learned. An audio recording of the session is available for download below.
A presentation at Samvera Connect 2019, originally titled"Questioning Authority, Questioning authority is a Samvera developed gem that provides a standard way of accessing external authority controlled vocabularies. As part of the Mellon Foundation-funded Linked Data for Production (LD4P) project, this gem was expanded to include a module for general processing of authorities that provide linked data regardless of ontology. This module leverages the existing normalized data format of QA and expands it to include extended context allowing for more accurate selections. Also part of this work was the development of QaServer which is an engine from which you can build a standalone Rails app acting as a service point for submitting queries to QA. The QaServer includes a management UI to explore the availability of authorities and the performance of requests. We will look at recent enhancements to QA, the QaServer UI, a caching system for linked data authorities without an API, metadata entry using extended context, and how we’ve leveraged linked data in some of our user facing applications., and Connecting to Authorities through Linked Data", described thus
Fedora, the flexible, extensible, open source repository platform for managing, preserving, and providing access to digital content, is a key component of most Samvera implementations. Fedora 4.x, the latest version of Fedora, has been in production since 2015, and since then the real-world experience of the community’s use cases has clarified Fedora’s role in supporting preservation and access in the context of large collections and performance at scale. This understanding led to an effort to formally specify the Fedora application programming interface (API) that provides a stable layer of abstraction between clients and repository instances. In this way, alternate back-end implementations suited for specific user cases can all expose the same core services to repository clients. This initiative will allow the Fedora project to adapt to technological change more easily over time while insulating clients from changes in the underlying implementation. This presentation will provide an overview of the the API specification effort, including current status, motivations, and benefits, with a particular focus on the relevance to Samvera. A brief survey of alternate implementations will provide context for the different use cases that will be enabled by the specification. This will be of interest to current and future Fedora implementers looking for an update on the current status and technical roadmap of the project. A video recording of this session is available at the 'Related URL' below. and A presentation given at Samvera Connect 2018 described thus
Slides from a workshop given at Hydra Connect #2 described thus and Agile is based on self-organizing cross-functional teams addressing evolving requirements and delivering solutions incrementally. Adaptive planning and continuous improvement make Agile teams highly flexible and able to rapidly respond to change. Participants in this workshop will learn about the principles and benefits of Agile and will engage in core Agile activities that they can take back to their own teams.
Archiving Research Data into Hydra through the Open Science Framework (OSF) - A look at initial work of Notre Dame and Johns Hopkins to archive research projects from the OSF into Fedora and Hydra repositories, and first implementation of a Fedora Research Object Model. This plugs into a service offering of the Center for for Open Science, OSF for Institutions (OSF4I). ND/JHU version will be initial support for OSF Fedora Archiving Add-on in the OSF as part of OSF4I offering. We hope to start discussion around next steps for other Hydra institutions to use this along with OSF4I to allow them support to archive research data from the OSF into their own Hydra/Fedora repository. An audio recording of the session is available for download below. and A presentation given at Hydra Connect 2016 described thus
A presentation at Samvera Connect 2019 described thus and BrowseEverything is a Gem which provides developers with an API and a set of user interface components for uploading files from cloud storage services and Samvera repository applications. As a core component, this Gem is actively maintained by members of the Samvera Community, and within the past year has had an interest group chartered in order to provide some set of guidance around its continued use and development. While previous releases of BrowseEverything have proven to be robust and sufficient in providing file upload functionality to Samvera applications (most notably, various releases of Hyrax), there exist a number of architectural changes for the codebase which have long been considered necessary in order to improve the user experience provided by the user interface components for the Gem. These will include standardizing the API in order to facilitate those who wish to develop additional drivers for currently unsupported cloud storage solutions. This presentation aims to outline the future proposed changes to the Gem itself, as well as to demonstrate the upcoming design changes for the user interface components. Insight and direction from attendees will be welcome, as we invite all interested parties in shaping the roadmap for this Gem.
This presentation will provide an overview of the needs of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, challenges and successes of building a custom application based on Hyrax and Avalon, features developed both within the application and as re-usable components, and how to represent PBCore metadata in a Samvera application. The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB), founded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is currently a joint venture between WGBH and the Library of Congress. It is a collection of digital audiovisual content created for public media distribution, requiring an adaptable technical infrastructure that can support close collaborations with organizations of varying technical and institutional capacity. The critical component for this is the Archival Management System (AMS), the entry point through which contributors’ descriptive, technical, and preservation metadata is ingested into the AAPB collection and where all metadata is managed and improved through cataloging by AAPB staff and interns. With plans of moving to a new system, hopefully one with a more active opensource community around it, the AAPB determined that the best path forward was to build the tool on Avalon and within the Samvera community. In 2017, the AAPB was awarded a grant by the Mellon Foundation to do just this, and the AMS 2.0 development project began in December of 2017 and is slated for completion by the beginning of 2019. AAPB is working with AVP and Indiana University as part of the development team. At the same time the project was starting, Avalon made the decision to move to Hyrax for Avalon 7. That changed the starting point and scope for the AMS 2.0 development plan, which is now to build a custom application on a Hyrax base creating features in tandem with the Avalon team. A video recording of this session is available at the 'Related URL' below. and A presentation given at Samvera Connect 2018 described thus
how to add project and how to promote project to Project-Hydra. In addition we will examine a few nominated projects to see if we can promote them., We will examine Hydra-Labs and the processes we should adopt for it including, and A workshop given at Hydra Connect #2 described thus
A presentation given at Hydra Connect 2016, described thus and In the UK, the Universities of York and Hull are looking at Archivematica's place in a research data pipeline. The two universities have slightly different use cases but share the desire to put research (and likely other) content through Archivematica on its way to the repository thus giving us a solid base for long-term preservation. We are both now in the third phase of a joint project to build proof-of-concepts to illustrate how Hydra and Archivematica can work together to manage and preserve research data. Since our project began, Jisc have launched an ambitious UK national research data shared service where a range of suppliers offer systems in different lots. Both Hydra / Fedora and Islandora / Fedora are part of the the ‘research repository’ lot of the service and the work of York and Hull has heavily informed the ‘preservation’ lot, with Archivematica one of the systems on offer. This presentation will describe the proof-of-concept work done by Hull and York, and will provide an overview of the new Jisc service.
We will present our use case for and development of a GraphQL API in Figgy, our Valkyrie-based digital collections management application. We'll give a brief summary of GraphQL itself, demo an in-broswer query tool called graphiql, and show how we used the graphql gem to quickly develop and deploy a GraphQL API endpoint. A video recording of this session is available at the 'Related URL' below. and A presentation given at Samvera Connect 2018 described thus
Do you ever wonder what working groups exist in the Hydra community or what topics are being discussed or how to spark a discussion or a working group? We are proposing a framework for interest groups and working groups which has proven effective in other successful communities toward raising awareness, connecting members with common interests, spawning action oriented working groups and making time at face to face meetings in support of both "percolating" ideas and heads down work. Join us to explore how this framework can further empower our community. and A presentation at Hydra Connect #2 described thus
however, all of Rail's most common UI elements and features will be retained. If time permits, we will also add Blacklight as a dependency for search and retrieval., How Valkyrie differs from ActiveRecord How to manage the differences between Valkyrie and Rails while retaining most of Rails' common features In this workshop, participants will learn how to build a simple Rails application using Valkyrie as a dependency. Data will be persisted with Valkyrie's data mapper pattern and not with ActiveRecord, and Slides from a workshop given at Samvera Connect 2019 and described thus
This annual report on the Hydra Project will provide a synopsis of the project’s current state from a high level perspective, including recent developments and important trends in adoption and activiity, the technical framework, the community framework, major projects and milestones, and where we may be going in the near future. With so much activity in so many different parts of the project, this session is a chance to take a step back from the many trees to survey the whole forest of the HydraSphere. A video of this session is available at the 'Related URL' below. (Very Low Audio for half of this and then just regular Low Audio - max out volume with headphones to hear) and The 'State of the HydraSphere' address given at Hydra Connect 2016, advertised thus
Valkyrie is a new persistence layer for Samvera, supporting multiple backends for storing files and metadata. Currently supported backends include Fedora, PostgreSQL and Solr for metadata, and Fedora and local disk for files. Valkyrie provides an abstraction layer over file and metadata persistence, allowing an application to be configured to use different backends without code changes. This workshop will include, Description, A workshop given at Samvera Connect 2018 described thus, and An overview of Valkyrie's design, including why the Data Mapper pattern was used, and how Valkyrie addresses sustainability issues with ActiveFedora Status updates on current Valkyrie development, including applications built using Valkyrie, and efforts to use Valkyrie in Hyrax Hands-on exercises to give attendees first-hand experience working with Valkyrie and demonstrate how concepts from Samvera applications work with Valkyrie
Participants will leave with ideas and methods for how to receive, prioritize, and plan multiple concurrent Library IT projects by taking into consideration the complexity, cost, and impact This half-day hands-on workshop will introduce participants to Michigan’s “Front Door” request intake and cycle planning process. At Michigan, we have designed a cycle planning process to gather requests of all kinds, rate and review, and finally, assign resources as appropriate. The workshop is intended to be a simulation of the cycle planning process from intake to resource planning exercise. The participants will get a feel of how requests are rated and reviewed for cost, complexity, and impact. We will be sharing the tools and templates used at Michigan for reviewing the requests, planning the cycle, and assessing the works’ progress throughout the cycle. and Slides from a workshop given at Samvera Connect 2019 and described thus
A presentation given at Hydra Connect #2 described thus and Our first year of developing a Hydra-based institutional repository yielded many surprises, frustrations, and eureka moments. We will tell you what we wish someone had told us about the Hydra community, Rails applications, System/Stack deployment, and Developer collaboration.
A plenary presentation at Hydra Connect 2016 advertised thus and An update on recent progress on the Hydra in a Box project, including work related to product development for the repository and metadata aggregation components, development of the hosted service, development and infrastructural decisions, and community engagement. A video of this session is available at the 'Related URL' below.
This workshop will discuss upgrade strategies, workflows, best practices and common pitfalls. Some familiarity with either Rails or Samvera applications is recommended. We'll go in depth on how we evaluate an application for upgrade, different strategies we recommend and when to use them, and walk through a couple scenarios in depth. and A workshop given at Samvera Connect 2018 described thus
A preliminary understanding of geospatial metadata An elementary understanding of linked geospatial metadata Practical metadata modeling for Hyrax An introduction to RDF Graph stores for linked spatial data Methods for analyzing spatial linked data as RDF Graphs This workshop aims to provide a set of overviews and technical exercises which shall provide participants with an understanding of linked geospatial data, and what role it could serve within a Samvera repository application. The objective of the exercises will be to provide participants with experience modeling geospatial metadata for Samvera repository resources. Building upon this, an understanding of how this linked geospatial metadata may be indexed for content discovery, or exported into separate platforms for analysis, shall be demonstrated. As much of this work is derived from the undertakings of the Geo. Predicates Working Group, striving to remain aligned with larger community web standards (such as those published by the W3C) should be considered the proper context for any practical usage of linked geospatial metadata. and Slides from a workshop given at Samvera Connect 2019 and described thus
A presentation given at Hydra Connect #2, advertised as "is Fedora 4 a good option for my needs?" and described thus and This session will discuss some of the features that are new in Fedora 4 that will undoubtedly send dazzles up the Hydra stack.
The keynote address at the Hydra Connect 2016 conference advertised thus and This presentation aims to present opportunities for collaboration between current Hydra members and The Daniel Cosío Villegas library at El Colegio de México (COLMEX) as well as other Mexican institutions that are interested in making a Mexican-based Hydra users group. COLMEX has been actively planning the implementation of a Hydra-based repository. Given that COLMEX has a significant presence in various digital libraries and repositories interest groups in Mexico, we have taken the opportunity promote Hydra as an alternative, not only with the hopes of promoting the project but to find local partners that might be interested in collaborating. We hope that we might find international partners who will help to spur initiatives through various means of evangelizing, helping support efforts, and perhaps coming down to Mexico to visit. In this manner we can help Hydra become a truly global initiative and one which considers north-south collaborations especially those outside the English-speaking world.
A workshop given at Samvera Connect 2018 described thus and If you are new to Samvera or considering adoption of Samvera products, this workshop is designed for you! Samvera is a community, a set of tools, and increasingly a collection of ready-to run applications to help build a digital repository for your institution. It is an open source and sustainable community. This workshop will provide an on-boarding and general entrée to the Samvera community for non coders. The workshop will begin with an overview of Samvera community and products– what is it, why is it different. It will showcase some applications that exist, and discuss the how the community at large works. The overview will be followed by a general technical overview designed for non-coders. The staff skills needed to maintain and contribute a Samvera solution will be discussed, resources that exist to get started, and how to contribute code to the community. The workshop will conclude with discussing how to pitch Samvera and get institutional support. It will discuss the advantages of being part of the community and how that strengthens the sustainability of the tools, the applications, and the community overall.
The University of Houston (UH) Libraries, in partnership and consultation with numerous institutions, was awarded an IMLS National Leadership/Project Grant (LG-70-17-0217-17) to support the creation of the Bridge2Hyku (B2H) Toolkit. As part of this toolkit, University of Houston is developing several applications to assist in the migration of data from CONTENTdm to Hyku. The workshop will cover two important tools, a importer gem that would allow Hyku providers an easy insert into their stack for users to migrate with. This workshop will have attendees work with these applications and the B2H Toolkit to cover the basics in metadata migration. Learn how to use CDM Bridge to get your data out of CONTENTdm, allowing you to assess, reconcile and prepare your data for Hyku. See how using HyBridge can ingest your data into Hyku and learn how to evaluate that data in its new home., A workshop given at Samvera Connect 2018, advertized as "Hands-on with the Bridge2Hyku Toolkit", described thus, a stand alone electron-based tool that easily pulls metadata and files out of any CONTENTdm instance for migration and metadata remediation. HyBridge, and CDM Bridge
In the UK, the Universities of York and Hull are looking at Archivematica's place in a research data pipeline. The two universities have slightly different use cases but share the desire to put research (and likely other) content through Archivematica on its way to the repository thus giving us a solid base for long-term preservation. We are both now in the third phase of a joint project to build proof-of-concepts to illustrate how Hydra and Archivematica can work together to manage and preserve research data. Since our project began, Jisc have launched an ambitious UK national research data shared service where a range of suppliers offer systems in different lots. Both Hydra / Fedora and Islandora / Fedora are part of the the ‘research repository’ lot of the service and the work of York and Hull has heavily informed the ‘preservation’ lot, with Archivematica one of the systems on offer. This presentation will describe the proof-of-concept work done by Hull and York, and will provide an overview of the new Jisc service. An audio recording of the session is available for download below. and A presentation at Hydra Connect 2016 described thus
A workshop given at Samvera Connect 2018 described thus and Have you ever wondered when to use admin sets vs collections, what this new collection type is all about, or how many work types you should have? This workshop will focus on designing approaches for best practices on using admin sets and collections in structuring a repository in Hyrax. We will talk about the basic building blocks available in Hyrax from collecting items to controlling visibility to work types and files. Consideration will be given to various uses cases, from single-use case systems to complex multi-use case systems. There will be time for hands on design in groups of use cases brought by participants.
This session will be a brief introduction to the Hydra community, and a 35,000ft view of Hydra technically. It is an opportunity for people new to Hydra to get some context around what we are about and, hence, the rest of the conference! and An introductory presentation at Hydra Connect 2016, described thus
A workshop given at Samvera Connect 2018 described thus and This workshop will discuss tools and capacities for building external interfaces (React apps, mobile apps) that use Samvera as an API and data source. We recommend some familiarity with developing Samvera or Rails applications as a pre-req to this workshop. We'll go over API design, look at authentication gotchas and walk away with a solid understanding of what it would take to build external tools that connect to your Samvera instance.
A presentation given at Hydra Connect #2 described thus and Some have the impression that running a Hydra system requires a significant team of developers. In fact, there are a number of institutions running Hydra that are "one-developer shops". This talk will explore the pros and cons.
Samvera publicity leaflet for use at conferences. Version 1 dated October 2018 in A4 and US Letter formats. This version of the leaflet has been superseded.
A workshop given at Samvera Connect 2018 described thus and This hands-on workshop will cover tools and techniques to help managers keeping in sync with community development efforts while managing the user expectations and needs. We will cover the dynamics of dedicating responsibilities at the institution and the community level.
An overview of the Avalon solution bundle and the new Avalon components Hands-on activities adding the components to a Hyrax application and using them to ingest and play time-based media, The Avalon Media System is a Samvera-based system for managing and providing access to large collections of digital audio and video. Through version 6, Avalon was known as an independent Samvera solution bundle. In Hyrax-based Avalon 7, the previous monolithic codebase has been broken down into components available for use outside of the solution bundle. These components enhance media playback in Hyrax through robust derivative generation, streaming server support, adaptive bitrate streaming, a IIIF Presentation 3.0 consuming player, and a scriptable embedded player. This workshop will include, and A workshop given at Samvera Connect 2018 described thus
Samvera publicity leaflet for use at conferences. Version 2 dated April 2019 in A4 and US Letter formats. This version of the leaflet has been superseded.
“In order to support centralized staffing the Samvera Community needs a strategy to raise significant funds on an ongoing basis. Partner discussions have supported the idea of a required contribution model that equitably distributes the burden. The contribution model will include both financial and in-kind staff time tiered options. Equity, good standing, how to value in-kind contributions, and incentives will be addressed in the proposed contribution model.” The work developed over two phases producing these reports. and The Samvera Contribution model Working Group was chartered to propose a model in support of the Governance Working Group recommendation that
The t-shirt design for the Samvera Connect conference at Washington University in St Louis, MO, in 2019. The design mixes the image of the Samvera 'tree' with the St Louis street plan.
This policy describes how the Samvera Community will process and manage your personal data. It applies to the data collected through community activities such as online and face-to-face meetings. Samvera cares about protecting your privacy. Our primary objective in meeting GDPR and related privacy legal requirements is service to our community.
At the April 2019 partners meeting in the final discussion after the visioning exercise, we collectively [see list of creators] thought it would be useful for a small group of folks to spend more time processing all the ideas and input generated by the exercise participants, distilling the material further and then bring the results of that work back to Partners with a report and recommendations. This is that report.
The Fundraising Working Group was chartered at the behest of Partners. It was to investigate the idea of seeking sponsorship for Samvera’s annual Connect conference, to manage Samvera’s 2019 fundraising appeal to Partners, and to investigate how Samvera might create a much greater annual income in order to support the hiring of staff. This is the Working Group's final report.
Assignment document transferring the 2019 Memorandum of Understanding between Samvera and DuraSpace to Lyrasis following their merger. It also extends the agreement for six months.
The Governance Working Group was chartered by Partners thus, A one-page summary of the discussion, documentation, and feedback to-date related to the various governance models under consideration. * Synthesis, This step will be shepherded by Steering, as the proposed model will also be assessed for legal, licensing, and MOU implications prior to further community review. * Proposal, Development of a draft governance proposal and incremental steps to implementation if appropriate * Community Input, Circulation of the final proposal for potential adoption at a Spring/Summer 2018 partner meeting, The Governance working group is a small group chartered by the community to help synthesize and formalize the various governance discussions and documents currently underway. The scope of the Samvera Governance Working Group’s deliverables will be, Circulation of the above to Partners, stakeholders, and the Steering group for review, comment, and change requests to the proposal * Legal Review, * Context, A revised governance proposal based on community, stakeholder, & legal feedback * Community Review, and A summary of the themes and issues that the community hopes to address by refining existing or adopting new governance practices and structures. Ideally identifies key differences and decision points between the models provided for evaluation and current model. This combined context and synthesis documents should be approximately 750-1500 words (1-3 pages) in length * Draft
An overview of the Samvera Community in fall 2019 written as a companion document to the Samvera Roadmap Council's white paper describing the state of the technology.
An update to delegates at Samvera Connect 2018 about Samvera's Hyrax software. A video recording of this session is available at the 'Related URL' below.
A presentation updating delegates at Samvera Connect 2018 about work on the Valkyrie gem. A video recording of this session is available at the 'Related URL' below.
Contributors to the Samvera codebase require the consent of their institution or organization and to give this, the employer must sign a Corporate Contributor License Agreement. This is the downloadable form.
The Samvera Community's Annual Report for 2017. This report may be of particular interest as it explains the reasons for the change of name from the 'Hydra Project'.
A presentation at Connect 2018 updating delegates on the recommendations of Samvera's Governance Working Group. A video recording of this session is available at the 'Related URL' below.
Samvera Partners must sign a formal one page Letter of Agreement (LoA) in support of the formal and legal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Steering Group in April 2012. A composite document comprising the 2012 MoU, amendments made to it in 2018 to reflect the name change from Hydra to Samvera, changes made in 2019 to reflect governance changes in the Community, a version of the MoU showing the effect of these amendments, and a blank Letter of Agreement are in this downloadable document.
Avalon will demonstrate how an initial plan to re-architect Avalon Media System utilizing the Hyrax stack has paired with efforts to ensure greater sustainability of both Avalon and Samvera as framework and community. Following that goal, the past year the Avalon team has made terrific strides toward the development of Avalon 7, in part through community collaborative work with Hyrax and Samvera teams. Additionally, we'll cover work aimed at preservation and scaled hosting of Avalon, as well as a range of activities including IIIF development for audiovisual media, collaborations with Avalon users, new features such as OHMS integration, our participation in community interest and working groups, and our efforts at outreach to find and assist new and potential users. A video recording of this session is available at the 'Related URL' below. and Presentation to delegates at Samvera Connect 2018 described thus
The paper lays out the current state of Samvera, in terms of its core software and the underpinning architecture. To set the software in context, the paper describes the Samvera community and its organizing structures. The White Paper aims to provide a useful introduction to those new to Samvera, and to act as a positioning document for those wanting to understand where Samvera is at. Finally it provides a framework for navigating the future.