Adam Strohm
Interim Dean, Director of Distinctive Collections and Digital Strategy
Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Institute of Technology
Sean Murphy
Head of Systems and Open Infrastructure
Paul V. Galvin Library, Illinois Institute of Technology
Librarians of Illinois Institute of Technology’s Paul V. Galvin Library report on their challenges, opportunities, and successes while migrating Illinois Tech’s institutional repository to the latest version of Islandora. This in-progress migration project, managed collaboratively by a team of librarians without vendor assistance, may serve as a case study for institutions seeking to perform similar repository migrations. Illinois Tech’s institutional repository contains both traditional repository objects as well as archival and special collections objects, necessitating a careful and intentional examination of metadata structure to take advantage of new flexibilities inherent in the latest Islandora version. This presentation will cover the migration process from start to finish, including details on decision making with regard to metadata structure and linked data integration. It will also report on the team’s experiences modernizing their repository platform, such as moving to a Docker-based installation and utilizing automation tools like Python and Mercury for metadata transformation. A discussion of the team’s User Experience analysis will also be included, as well as aspirations on future work to extend the functionality of the Illinois Tech repository regarding the presentation and discovery of scholarly output of the Illinois Tech research community.
