A shared multi-tenant research repository platform for the British Library

Our approach

We responded to a tender from the British Library to run their Shared Research Repository platform. This is a multi-repository platform that makes provision for Independent Research Organisations to describe, store and promote their research outputs. While the service is managed by the British Library for their partners, CoSector provides hosting and application support directly to the BL. We also undertook a project along with our development partners Notch8 to provide a number of enhancements to the platform.

The platform chosen by the BL was Samvera Hyku, which is an open-source repository platform designed for the multi-tenant context. This allows the BL to manage the service as a whole via an administrative interface.

Our first task was to migrate the repository away from another supplier who had used a hybrid system that consisted of Hyku and a proprietary front-end.

Once that work was done, we worked closely with the BL on a project to implement a number of platform enhancements . These included bespoke theming, to provide an overall brand for the shared service which also allowed for partner branding foreach of the repositories. Other enhancements included the integration of import and export capabilities, integration of a DOI import and minting service.

One of the stipulations of the BL when providing enhancements was to ensure that platform enhancements were contributed back to the Samvera open-source community, and this has proved to be a benefit both to that community and the ongoing development and support of those enhancements.