Comparison of Open Source Digital Library Software with Special reference to Greenstone, DSpace and EPrints

In the past years a great number of digital library and digital repository systems have been developed by individual organizations -mostly Universitiesand given to the public as open-source software. The advantage of having many choices becomes a great headache when selecting a Digital Library (DL) system for a specific organization. To make the decision easier, we compared three such systems that are publicly available using an open source license, are compliant with Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAIPMH) and already have a number of installations worldwide. Using these basic restrictions we selected for comparison the following Three broadly used DL systems i.e. DSpace, Greenstone, EPrints. Each of these systems was been thoroughly studied based on basic characteristics and system features described in the following phases. The latest versions of those systems were examined. The DL systems are compared based on stated characteristics and the level of support on each of them. In phase 2, the characteristics needed by a modern DL system are discussed. In phase 3, the three DL systems are compared based on each of the DL characteristics and the results are summarized in a score table. Each system has its advantages and drawbacks, as stated in the above comparison, categorized by basic DL system characteristics and features. That comparison can only be used as a guideline by an organization in order to decide if one of these DL systems is suitable to host its digital collections.