2024-08-09 Partner Call

Facilitator: @Heather Greer Klein

Note Taker: @Esmé Cowles

Attendees

• @Robin Lindley Ruggaber

• @david.schober

• @Esmé Cowles

• @Beth Shields

• @Glen Horton

• @Chris Awre

• @Kirsten Leonard

• @Nicholas Mark Homenda

• @Emily Lynema

• @Kate Lynch

• @Karen Cariani

• @Jon Dunn

Agenda & Notes

1. Any other items for the agenda?
   
   

2. Proposed charters: Accessibility Interest Group, Documentation Interest Group

   1. Accessibility IG

      1. Goal: supporting institutions in meeting WCAG guidelines, getting needed documents like VPATs

      2. Don’t have uniform testing across different products/parts of the stack, don’t have VPATs/accessibility roadmaps

      3. Deliverables: VPATs for Avalon/Hyku/Hyrax, evaluate needed changes, recommendations for developing accessibility roadmaps

      4. Looking for members from Avalon/Hyku/Hyrax to represent different products and perspectives

      5. UK/EU requirements have sometimes been stricter, so hopefully can get European engagement to represent that — the exact standards required have recently been clarified for US public institutions, but still an evolving landscape

      6. Need to have accessibility embedded in development, testing, and release processes, and not have this be separate or reactive

      7. As accessibility is increasingly mandatory and critical for all of us, this is an area where centralized funding by Samvera would make sense when needed

   2. Documentation IG:

      1. From https://samvera.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/samvera/pages/1750663216

      2. Need more scaffolding to make it easier to know what documentation needs exist, when docs are out of date, etc.

      3. Members of this group would not necessarily be doing the documentation work, but more writing tickets, prioritizing, etc.

      4. There has been a lot of work done on documentation, and it has long been a sore point

      5. Sustainability of documentation is hard — it’s easy to have a push to write documentation, but harder to keep it updated over time

         1. Write The Docs is a good framework for this, keeping documentation with code can be a good way to make sure it is updated in tandem with code changes
            
            

3. Hyku for Consortia IMLS Planning Grant

   1. Overview - The Partnership for Academic Library Collaboration and Innovation (PALCI), in collaboration with the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI), representing over 100 diverse academic libraries, is seeking an IMLS National Leadership Grant for Libraries totaling $248,600. This grant aims to support a 24-month project that enhances coordinated efforts among various Hyku projects, user communities, and developers. The goal is to ensure the sustainability and efficient development of the Samvera-based Hyku repository software, benefiting all users. This project will further collaborative decision-making for developing and integrating highly requested features into Hyku's core codebase, thereby improving the software's functionality for all users. By doing so, Hyku will become a more sustainable and effective repository solution, particularly for libraries dealing with budget constraints amid a consolidating commercial market. This initiative aligns with NGL-L Goal 3 and Objective 3.1, which aim to enhance digital infrastructure in libraries.

   2. Project includes economic analysis of total cost of running and using Hyku, and an organizational consultant to analyze how Hyku is managed by different orgs. Can guide development efforts towards aspects that address financial and organizational needs.

   3. Also investigating roadblocks to upgrading, to see if new tooling addresses the needs

   4. First planning meeting coming up soon to get started, will be calls for opportunities to connect and get involved
      
      

4. Hyrax/Hyku Community Sprints through the end of the year - please pledge hours

   1. The Hyrax Maintenance Working Group is organizing two community sprints to work on Fedora 6 integration and accessibility in Hyrax:

      September 3-13: Hyrax-Fedora 6 integration
      October 28-November 8: Accessibility

      Our goals for these community sprints are to release Hyrax with Fedora 6 fully supported and to address all reported WCAG 2.0 A and AA accessibility issues. We’re feeling ambitious and need your help!
      
      

5. Regional Meetings - updates and planning needs

   1. Midwest (9/25-9/26)

      1. 24 people signed up

      2. ShareFair: show off your repo and talk about what works and what doesn’t

   2. West Coast (10/9-10/10)

   3. Northeast (10/14-10/15)

      1. 11 signups

   4. Europe (10/22)
      
      

6. Other Updates: 

   1. Sign up to present or facilitate a topic (5 - 30 minutes) at a future Partner call

      1. Potential ideas of interest include research data and the challenge of campus v library IT

   2. Nominations open for the Julie Allinson Award 2024.

      1. The aim is to complete the process by September 1st so the Award can be given out at a regional meeting.

   3. Hyrax and Hyku development updates
      
      

Anything for the Samvera Board? (Standing item) 

Date of next call: September 13th

Notetaker: @Emily Lynema