About the software

Web site

http://dev-repo.library.uq.edu.au/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Licensing

Fez is available under the GNU General Public License (GPL)

Date of this document

February 2007

Versions tested

1.2

RUBRIC recommendation

In 2006 RUBRIC did not recommend that partners use Fez due to its immaturity, and the fact that a full-time technical resource would have been required to install and maintain it. In 2007 support is available from the creators of the software, although it is still relatively untested as a  live system.

Fez is a rapidly maturing repository software application.

Taking a lead from Dspace, Fez is built around constructs known as “Communities” and “Collections”. RUBRIC-central does not recommend collections where there is a choice.

Support & Hosting options

Contact the software developers.

Issues

While the number of sites using Fez is growing, it is still relatively untested as a production system. We have confidence that the University of Queensland is committed to Fez development and the product should continue to improve.

Because Fez stores a large amount of configuration information in a database, development and deployment needs careful management. Rules need to be developed in offline test systems and then deployed to the live system and this will require database manipulation.

RQF support

Fez will have RQF support for document delivery and a module designed to manage RQF portfolios; the University of Queensland has undertaken a series of RQF trials using Fez when it became available and we have every confidence that the software will 'play nicely' in the RQF process.

Who should consider this software?

For institutions wanting to run a general purpose repository Fez is a promising choice, provided that the technical resources are available to manage it. Contact the developers, as they may be able to offer support under a formal arrangement.