2026-07-09 Partner Call

Facilitator: @Heather Greer Klein

Note Taker:

Attendees

• Your name here!

• @Eleni Castro

• @Rob Kaufman (for a portion of the 2nd half)

• @Jon Dunn

• @Paul Walk

• @Kirsten Leonard

• @Chris Awre

• @Christine Peterson

• @Juliet Hardesty

• @Jessica McMillen

• David Moles

• @Nick Steinwachs

• @Annamarie Klose

• @Nicholas Mark Homenda

• Esme Cowles

• @Alberto Martinez

• Rodrigo Cuellar

• @Margaret Mellinger

Agenda & Notes

1. Additions to the agenda?
   
   

2. Rob’s proposed Annual Hyrax/Hyku Upgrade Plan Partner benefit - for feedback

   1. Proposed plan description - open to feedback. Includes marketing copy at the bottom from WVU admin, written to appeal to an administrator.

      1. Rob is going to do this as a trial for OSU, then open it to any Partner.

      2. Timeframe for opening upgrade planning service to all partners after OSU pilot (estimated ~4 weeks)
         
         

3. Draft to discuss - guidelines for tagging AI-assisted or generated code

   1. Essentially this is the Apache Foundation guidance for 2.0 license

   2. Tagging AI-generated contributions at the commit level is the one substantive new requirement; language shifted from Apache’s document "suggested" to "should be included."

   3. Commit-level tagging enables rapid identification of AI-generated contributions if legal landscape shifts or if code needs to be reviewed or backed out.

   4. Group discussed that this a guideline and not a policy, and we don’t want to make a community statement for or against AI tool use as opinions are strongly divided in the community. But with tools being used, we want this tagging to happen at a minimum. Policy framing to be revised to state "we do not endorse or forbid AI use, but if used, require X."

   5. Consensus reached to reframe the policy as neither endorsing nor forbidding AI use, but requiring specific steps (tagging) if AI is used, to avoid implying community endorsement.

   6. This guidance with edits will be on the agenda for the next Board call. Want to also make sure the tagging requirement is easy to do/not onerous.

   7. Further or more detailed guidance should come from a facilitated and scoped working group. Noted tension between developers fully embracing AI-assisted coding and those who view any accommodation as endorsing monopoly capitalism and environmental harm. AI-generated documentation is a specific concern as it is hard to review for accuracy at scale and can appear well-written even if it is ultimately unhelpful.
      
      

4. Update on imminent Hyrax and Hyku releases (Rob joining for this)

   1. Hyrax 5.3 released with flexible metadata (behind a feature flag) and redirect/canonical URL/aliasing work; compound metadata deliberately excluded and sitting in Main.

      1. Nick H and Heather are working on a short video to share what 5.3 features mean for Hyrax installers who have been out of the loop.

      2. Next Hyrax release (5.4) primary feature: compound metadata, a long-requested capability working with flexible metadata both enabled and disabled. THat will resolve the backlog, and we’re looking at ways to sped up the QA process.

      3. Other bigger thing is prepping for Hyrax 6. Will be functionally identical to the final Hyrax 5 release except all Fedora/Wings support removed; no supported path to Fedora 4. This has always been the plan. It has been almost 2 years since Valkyrie hit main, and we can do significant code cleanup when this is removed. Will only support supported Rails at that time, so we must finish Rails 8 support.

      4. Important to remember, Hyrax 5.x will remain available for download and will receive security patches for approximately one year after Hyrax 6 launch. But we should be working people through the transition as quickly as we can.

   2. Hyku - development is moving a lot of Hyrax development. A few in production using compound metadata; next release will still point to a locked Hyrax main SHA, not a released version, and try catching up again. Release streamlining will help us make sure released Hyku points to released Hyrax, but we are not there yet.

      1. Rob described an emerging two-track model for Hyku deployments:

         • Stability track: Released versions, security patches only, features off by default

         • Active development track: Pointing at Main/SHAs, rapid iteration, feature flags enabled

      2. The knapsack architecture enables switching between tracks as institutional needs change.

      3. Current challenge: re-entering an active development cycle after a stability period has become prohibitively difficult; this is a known problem being addressed.

      4. Guided import (Bulkrax) will be included in the next Hyku release; the question of whether to switch the feature flag default to true is deferred to the next Hyku interest group meeting.
         
         

5. Latest from Apereo Foundation transition

   1. OASIS will charge us a daily rate for all the days we need in July until the transition is finalized

   2. Waiting on final sign-off from OASIS attorney; Heather’s employment, financial transition, press release/communications are ready to go after that

   3. Partners who need July invoices will receive them from Apereo in the latter half of the month
      
      

6. Quick review of Heather’s census of known installations of Samvera platforms

   1. Spreadsheets - send Heather any additions or corrections. We’re very close to a full understanding of platforms and implementers. We use the IRD (Institutional Repository Directory) as source of truth.

      1. The IRD doesn’t capture repositories not on platforms (ie Princeton) or users of our non-platform tools. This work is scoped to identifying platform users for now.

      2. Estimated ~110 institutions (California State system counted as one despite being 20 centrally managed Hyrax instances).

   2. It is critical to find pathways for financial support from platform users: Nick Homenda stepping down from volunteer Hyrax product owner role at end of year; funding model for formal contractor roles for Hyrax and Hyku product owners is unresolved. Rob, Nick, and Nic Don have done incredible work with these roles working together just for the last 6 months and we don’t want to lose that. Direct outreach to implementers to encourage financial support is one way to close the gap.

   3. We want to find a way to structure a consortial membership option that meaningfully engages hosted Hyku institutions in the open source community.

   4. Feedback from recent RFP process indicates Hyku is meeting outlined requirements.

   5. Potential niche opportunity: undergraduate publishing use case, where Collection Builder is currently the de facto standard; Hyku could potentially compete.
      
      
      

7. Other Updates: 

   1. Notetaker for August: @Christine Peterson

   2. Notetaker for September: @Eleni Castro

   3. Please consider a demo or discussion at a 2026 Partner call

   4. Anything for the Samvera Board? (Standing item) 
      
      

Date of next call: August 13th; Shared staffing funding numbers. What does our budget need to be to support shared staffing roles short-term and long-term?

Notetaker: