Community, Cohesion, and Commitment: Developing and Deploying Open Source Tools in the UVa Online Library Environment

The University of Virginia Library is a key partner in the collaborative project known as “Hydra”; the goal of the Hydra Project is to create a comprehensive set of open source repository workflow tools that allow librarians and scholars to manage describe, deliver, reuse and preserve digital information. U.Va.’s commitment to the project includes the definition of metadata standards, the creation of search and discovery interfaces, and the development and implementation of multiple Hydra “heads” such as the interface and workflow in use for the U.Va. institutional repository. This talk will provide a brief overview of the Hydra Project and the tools under development, describe some of the processes and challenges for development teams working within a library setting, discuss the value of having a Digital Humanities R&D group (the Scholars’ Lab) embedded in this same setting, and the types of “alt-ac” positions, roles, and responsibilities that can be found in this environment.