The research and scholarly publishing environments are changing rapidly and there is an increasing expectation that research findings will be shared openly, both among funders and policy makers, and the wider research and public community. Institutional research repositories and scholarly platforms play a critical role in supporting these open research practices by capturing, preserving, and disseminating the research and scholarly outputs produced by institutions, but the current processes to support researchers and librarians in doing so are still fairly manual and time consuming.

This presentation will describe the outputs of a project to address this issue by integrating one of the most widely used, open repository platforms, DSpace, with OpenAlex, a free and open catalogue of the world’s scholarly research system. Using OpenAlex’s open API (Application Programming Interface), this integration allows for the quick import of relevant research and scholarly (meta)data into DSpace repositories, which will in turn help institutions improve the quality and completeness of their research records and will streamline researcher publication and reporting workflows by providing accurate information in automated ways. Moreover, this solution will contribute to increasing and enhancing the availability of open and accurate information about research outputs in the wider scholarly ecosystem.

Authority files are essential for organizing and enhancing metadata discoverability in repositories. The German National Authority File (GND), a cornerstone of metadata management in the German-speaking world and part of the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF), encompasses nearly 10 million entries, including persons, corporate bodies, subject headings, conferences, works, and geographics.

This presentation showcases a comprehensive integration of GND into DSpace using the External Sources Framework. The integration enables seamless searching and linking of GND content within DSpace, with a configurable submission interface allowing users to filter results by type and display enriched information, including images from Wikimedia Commons. Geolocations stored in GND are leveraged alongside GeoNames to power features like map-based search results, item views with OpenStreetMap, and a browse-by-map functionality.

This extension is highly customizable, supporting flexible metadata field configurations and linking or importing entries via DSpace’s authority or custom entities frameworks. Additionally, we developed external data providers for lobid.org, Wikimedia Commons, and GeoNames, with the source code planned for open release.

A live demonstration will highlight the functionality, technical challenges, and design principles, inviting repository managers, librarians, and developers to explore the potential of this integration for their institutions.

This panel will explore how the integration of Vireo with DSpace fosters a community-centered approach to managing Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) and other research outputs. By streamlining submission workflows, enhancing repository functionality, and enabling interoperability, this integration empowers institutions to serve diverse communities more effectively. The discussion will include real-world case studies, insights into open-source collaboration, and strategies for promoting trust in digital repositories while supporting local and knowledge sharing.

The integration of Vireo, an open-source ETD submission and management system, with DSpace, a widely used open repository platform, represents a significant achievement in repository evolution. This panel aligns with the Community sub-theme by showcasing how this synergy addresses the diverse needs of global users while fostering trust and enabling repositories to better promote equitable access. With the increasing demand for interoperable systems that balance global connectivity and local context, Vireo and DSpace stand as powerful tools for supporting repository growth and innovation.

DSpace 9.0 is due to be released in May 2025. This presentation will discuss the new features and improvements to the DSpace platform that arrive in 9.0, including major performance enhancements, accessibility improvements, and upgrades to Bootstrap 5 and Angular 18. The exact set of features released with version 9.0 will be announced in May.

We’ll briefly discuss the ongoing maintenance releases for both 8.x and 7.6.x, including which improvements have been backported from the 9.0 development processes.

In addition, we’ll provide a brief update to the community on the early roadmap to DSpace 10.0, due in May 2026. This may include brief updates on the potential merger of DSpace-CRIS back into DSpace, as well as other DSpace Steering priorities for the 10.0 release. A separate panel session will discuss this potential merger in greater detail.

With a view to supporting the development of DSpace 10.0 and future versions of DSpace, , we’ll conclude by providing a brief overview of current and planned DSpace community activities, along with ways that institutions can get involved or support DSpace by becoming a member or contributor.