Software Skills Needed
The installation, customisation and ongoing maintenance of a digital repository generally requires the same technical skill set, and are usually performed by the same staff. In principle, installing and customising a repository is a one-off task, requiring a relatively short burst of intense activity by staff with appropriate IT skills. It is therefore advisable for the relevant staff to be assigned full-time during this phase of the project. The period for which they will be required depends on the software being used, the degree of customisation, and system architecture. The closer to an out-of-the-box product you go, with its default configurations and recommended platforms, the quicker the process will be.
Ideally, technical staff who have experience with the software and hardware platforms required by your choice of software should be engaged or assigned to the project. If no one suitable is available, time and resources for relevant training or recruitment should be allowed. Software providers often run technical courses on their products so it may well be worth sending staff on them.
The popular software choices tend to be fairly quick to install, taking the order of a couple of days for a standard configuration. This assumes you do nothing in the way of customisation more than the basics of adding institutional name and logo, the name of the repository, and the name and email address of the administrator. More time should be allowed if the repository is to be matched with an institutional or departmental web look and feel. This could be anything from a week to a month. As stated elsewhere, it important to note the changes made, because they may need to be repeated them during a future software upgrade.
If the repository is to be pre-loaded with material, for instance extracts from PubMed Central or some other resource, time should also be allowed for this.
Much of this commitment of resources can be avoided by outsourcing, either by hosting the repository with a suitable service provider or bringing external people in to do the in-house setup. However, time for setting specifications, liaison and project management should still be allowed for, and consideration should be made of sending staff on any product-specific courses for the sake of ongoing maintenance.
Specific skills
The specific skills required by technical staff will vary depending upon the choice of hardware platform, operating system, and repository platform. Local technical staff will probably have preferences over hardware and operating system, so it is advisable to make use of existing skills and use these systems.
There are generic skills that apply to all repository platforms. These include:
- HTML (HyperText Markup Language)
- Web page design
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
- SQL (Structured Query Language)
Specific repository platforms will have their own requirements depending upon which programming language they are written in. DSpace and Fedora are written using Java, while EPrints is written using Perl. The technical documentation provided by the chosen repository platform should list the technical requirements it has, and therefore the skills required.
