University of Queensland
Library staff have released version 1.0 of Fez, a new, open source, Fedora-based digital repository management
and workflow system.
The software can be used to build and manage any kind of digital repository - from publications archives to image repositories. It can also be used to manage mixed-use business or institutional repositories which contain a variety of digital objects such as datasets, documents, spreadsheets, institutional records, archives and multimedia.
Fez can also be used for the management of learning objects, or simply as a metadata gateway to distributed content. The software can handle multiple metadata schema.
It provides an ideal solution for institutions gearing up for the RQF.
Benefits
Scalable
Flexible
Robust
Configurable
Free, open source
Powerful
The Fez software is based on PHP and MySQL and works as a front-end and administration tool using Fedora 2.1.
The digital repository can handle different content models which can be customised through a web-based administrative interface. New content models can be added at any stage.
Each object (whether a single object, a collection or a community) has layers of associated metadata - structural, rights, preservation and so on. This ensures that all objects in the repository remain usable over the long term.
The system is designed to handle a number of different roles - creator, editor, viewer, approver, and so on. The permissions and authentication assigned to each role are governed by rules set up in the Fez-ACML.
The workflow system manages the life cycle of an object in Fedora - from the create or deposit stage, through approval and edit, to the publish stage. It also manages security.
Existing repositories can easily be migrated to Fez. A fully documented process for migrating eprints.org records is currently under development. A script for migrating ADT metadata into Fez is already available from UQ's eScholarshipUQ page.
The Fez software is available for download now.
It is still in beta, with many further developments planned. There is full documentation of the current Fez release.
The software was developed as part of the UQ Library's contribution to the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories project.
