Implementation of the new, systemwide ScholarWorks institutional repository continues apace. Here is the latest.
Implementation team
COLD recently decided to extend the timeframe for the Implementation Team, which will continue in its role overseeing the ScholarWorks migration and implementation through the summer. The team will be providing a recommendation on a long-term governance structure at the next in-person COLD meeting in September.
Authentication
We’ve made rapid progress on authentication for ScholarWorks. At this point, 21 campuses and the CO have their authentication set-up and verified. You can see the current status of campus authentication here. We should complete this work well ahead of the original deadline of June 30. The CO Identity Management group did the necessary leg work to register ScholarWorks with InCommon and provided the documentation to make this easy for campuses to implement.
Along with authentication, we’ve also put in place the initial ‘administrative set’ configurations for each campus in order to support various authorization and workflow requirements. There will be ongoing work in this area as we bring campuses onto the production system.
Pilot project
The Pilot group has spent the last month road testing the new system. The focus has been on performance testing, exploring configuration of workflows, and minor issues with the submission forms. Kevin has been busy addressing the issues raised from this testing, while the rest of the group will be turning its attention to documentation. We’ve extended the pilot phase by an extra week to facilitate this work. This won’t impact our overall migration and implementation timelines.
New design & accessibility
The Chancellor’s Office, in collaboration with the User Interface & Accessibility task force, has been working on a new design for ScholarWorks, most recently with a focus on improvements to the home page. You can see the in-progress work on the demo site. The UI task force examined a large number of other institutional repositories in order to select design ideas that would enhance ScholarWorks’ visual and promotional appeal. This culminates several months of work going back to January to improve the out-of-the-box Hyrax interface. The new design will be available in production by June 14.
The UI task force is also conducting an extensive accessibility review of ScholarWorks, including developing a VPAT, roadmap, and accessibility statement. This has included both automated and manual testing of the new ScholarWorks UI, with a focus on accessibility barriers typically cited by the Office of Civil Rights. Fresno will be providing monthly accessibility checks of ScholarWorks using Compliance Sheriff.
Data migration
In addition to our focus on the implementation of the new ScholarWorks, Kevin has been steadily working on data migration tasks. We’ve completed development of data mapping and loading scripts to support the migration of data from Islandora to Samvera. This work will facilitate Moss Landing’s migration to ScholarWorks. We are currently running a test load for their review. Preliminary work to support Long Beach’s migration from Symposia to Samvera has also been completed.
Second phase of the project
Now that authentication and the initial design and implementation tasks are nearly complete, we’ll soon be turning our attention to the next phases of the ScholarWorks project. That will include training for non-pilot campuses and an increasing focus on data migration, including data review tasks for all campuses. That work will begin in earnest in the second half of June.