From in-house DSpace 6.3 to hosted DSpace Express: University of South Africa's new institutional repository

March 27, 2025
Case Study
From in-house DSpace 6.3 to hosted DSpace Express: University of South Africa's new institutional repository
Industry: 
Open RepositoryDSpace ExpressCustom DSpace
The university recently migrated from an in-house DSpace 6.3 system to DSpace Express, simplifying repository management and ensuring long-term sustainability. The process also included the implementation of Single Sign-On (SSO) and Atmire’s advanced statistics feature to track and visualize repository usage.

The Unisa Institutional Repository (UnisaIR): an open digital archive showcasing the scholarly and research output of the University of South Africa (Unisa). The repository preserves a wide range of digital assets, including theses and dissertations, research articles, conference papers, rare materials, and more.

The university successfully migrated 22,854 items from an in-house DSpace 6.3 instance to DSpace Express. The new repository structure reflects Unisa’s academic organization, with content grouped by its various colleges, along with collections dedicated to open distance education and research journals.

As the only university to carry the country’s name, Unisa has been a cornerstone of higher education for 150 years. Known as the people’s university, it continues to evolve with the needs of South Africa’s diverse academic and research community. UnisaIR plays a key role in that mission by making knowledge widely accessible.

Interesting fact:

  • Unisa is the second South African institution this month to join Atmire’s Repository solutions, following the Tshwane University of Technology (see case study here).

🔗 Explore the new UnisaIR: https://uir.unisa.ac.za

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