Building Better Institutional Repositories with Islandora

At IslandoraCon 2025, Discovery Garden’s own Akanksha Singh delivered a session that resonated with attendees looking to use Islandora for their institutional repository (IR) platforms. Her presentation focused on how DG Starter, our flexible Islandora development stack, offers a powerful, flexible framework to meet the evolving needs of institutions looking to house and share their scholarly work.

Why Islandora?

Institutions may consider turning to Islandora to build their IRs because of its ability to accommodate a wide variety of content types (including ETD’s - Electronic Thesis and Dissertations), strong metadata support, and a roadmap driven approach to development. These capabilities ensure that Islandora repositories are not only interoperable and standards-compliant but also extensible and sustainable over time.

Streamlined Workflows and Dashboard Views

Islandora allows institutions to define and automate editorial workflows using Drupal’s Content Moderation module. Common states like “Draft,” “Under Review,” “Approved,” and “Published” can be customized to suit local approval chains, particularly useful for ETDs where faculty, advisors, and librarians may each have a role in vetting submissions.

Repository managers benefit from a centralized dashboard where they can view submission queues, review statuses, and publication logs at a glance.

Persistent Identifiers and Tombstoning

Support for persistent identifiers (PIDs), including DOIs, ARKs, and Handles, is built in. The dgi_actions module simplifies integration with external PID services, allowing identifiers to be minted automatically at publication. If content is later removed, Islandora supports tombstoning: a method of replacing the object with a placeholder page explaining the reason for removal while retaining the PID link.

Flexible Access Control with Embargoes

Granular access control is one of Islandora’s strengths. Institutions can set embargo dates, IP-based restrictions (e.g., campus-only), and exceptions for specific users. These controls are especially important when managing ETDs or sensitive research materials that may need temporary or limited access.

Measuring Impact: Analytics and Google Scholar

Islandora repositories are integrated with Google Analytics out-of-the-box to track views, downloads, and user locations. Metadata is exposed in a format that makes repository content easily discoverable by Google Scholar, helping institutions boost visibility and citation rates for their authors.

Akanksha also emphasized the importance of academic SEO. Rich metadata, persistent URLs, and proper licensing all play a role in ensuring that content ranks well and remains findable over time.

Citation Tools and Altmetrics

The Islandora Citations module supports a wide range of formats (APA, MLA, Chicago) and allows easy mapping of metadata fields through a user-friendly interface. Repositories can also surface alternative metrics by integrating with services like Altmetric, helping demonstrate broader research engagement beyond traditional citations.

Author Profiles that Matter

Islandora leverages Drupal user accounts to create rich author profiles, complete with ORCID iDs, affiliations, research interests, and publication lists. Linking works to author profiles enhances discovery and gives researchers a centralized, institutionally supported showcase for their contributions.

Encouraging Feedback and Community Input

Using Drupal Webforms, institutions can embed feedback forms directly into repository pages. Users can report metadata issues, request content, or suggest improvements, strengthening the feedback loop between institutions and their communities.

Built-in Accountability and Preservation

Islandora’s versioning and audit trail capabilities ensure transparency, compliance, and data integrity. Every change to content or metadata is logged, and older versions can be restored if needed. Preservation features include scheduled fixity checks using Discovery Garden’s own fixity module.

Islandora as an Institutional Repository

• Aurora - University Repository at Boston College - https://ur.bc.edu/ 
• DG Starter - Atlanta University Center - https://radar.auctr.edu/ 

Ready to Learn More?

Akanksha’s session at IslandoraCon 2025 underscored why Islandora remains a leading choice for institutions building modern, open, and interoperable repositories. Whether you’re looking to improve your workflows, strengthen access control, or surface your research in more impactful ways, Discovery Garden is here to help. Download Akanksha’s presentation.

Ready to see what Islandora can do for your organization?

Whether you’re managing a single repository or supporting a multi-institution consortium, Islandora offers the flexibility, scalability, and support you need. Contact Discovery Garden to schedule a demo, start a project discovery session, or learn more about how we can help you build a future-proof digital repository.