Hydramata: Building a Nimble Solution with Hydra to Transcend the Institutional Repository

Presentation given at Open Repositories 2014 in Finland on the community Hydramata project that is building a shared application framework for institutional repositories based on Hydra. We are all facing rapidly changing repository demands that call for maximizing flexibility and interoperability among a heterogeneous network of technologies, varied workflows and wide array of evolving formats that are pushing the limits of our Institutional Repository technology. We need a repository to support research data, large image collections, articles, digital exhibits, video, and data visualizations. We live in an environment of decreased resources, increased complexity in how scholarly work is produced, stored and disseminated. Join us for an update on a project undertaken by six Hydra institutions with varied legacy repository solutions in order to build a flexible, sustainable framework to meet the diverse needs of the institutions. We will share how the technology, the resourcing strategy and the project methodologies are meeting prioritized needs while reducing risks and increasing efficiency. If you are a small, medium, or large institution, a repository manager, developer, librarian, digital library technologist, director, or anyone else struggling with similar challenges, then this presentation is for you.