Samvera technology is a rich resource available to institutions that have a need for digital repositories and an interest in data preservation.  The stack was dictated by those who use it, and the direction of the technology is kept relevant by the continual guidance of the Samvera community.  However, with the goal of maintaining versatility, Samvera’s core components require a measure of customized implementation work to provide the most value for its users.  That gap between core technology and deployed digital repository can be a challenge to bridge, particularly for smaller institutional departments and organizations with limited budgets or technical resources.  Fortunately, there are multiple Samvera solution bundles designed to build out much of that work in advance, including Hyku.

Hyku is the product from the Hydra-in-a-Box project, lead by the DPLA, Stanford University, and DuraSpace under an IMLS grant. It is a user-friendly, multi-tenant application that gets libraries, museums, and other institutions connected so Samvera digital repository software. An extension of the Samvera base built upon Hyrax, Hyku is easily deployed, easily supported, and puts Samvera within reach for institutions with limited resources.  Key features include the use of Universal Viewer for optimal collection object viewing as discrete customizable theming of multiple repositories under the multi-tenant structure. This last feature is especially significant, as it means one institution can set up one instance of Hyku with several collections branded to specific departments or other collection-specific visual theming.

Like other Samvera solution bundles, Hyku is supported by it’s own open-source community and guided by the Hyku Interest Group. There has been a lot of Hyku activity in the past year, with large-scale projects under way between several community developers and high-profile institutions. Significantly, Hyku was promoted from Samvera Labs in February of 2019, indicating it met all the requirements to move out of the Samvera sandbox and into production use.  

Following this progress, Notch8 is launching HykuUP in 2019, building on a joint project with the Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (PALCI) and the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI), as well as recent work with New York City Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS). Work from these benchmark projects will benefit the HykuUP product, which will include more enhanced theming customization developed for the PALNI/PALCI project.

HykuUP offers several benefits to adopters, including:

  • Fully-Hosted Implementation – hosting and maintenance are provided by Notch8 under a HykuUP subscription, freeing internal IT resources
  • Customized Theming – theming options are enhanced beyond even Hyku, with additional expert assistance options available to help match existing brand identity
  • User-Managed Data – even non-technical institution staff can manage the data importing to create collections, though Notch8 also offers expert assistance options

Contact Notch8 for more information, or to register for the beta of HykuUP.

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