Explore how Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and Catalyst collaborated to amplify the reach of research outputs through the development of Tuwhera Showcases.
Auckland University of Technology (AUT) champions open access to research, making research outputs open by default. AUT’s award-winning repository platform, Tuwhera, is built using open source software to enable long-term preservation, storage, and management of research. A subset of Tuwhera is Tuwhera Showcases, that reuses existing content in AUT’s repository of university research and is built on DSpace.
In 2024, research groups approached the AUT Digital Development team to explore ways of showcasing their research to increase its impact. To support this initiative, AUT wanted to:
AUT decided to collaborate with long-term partners, Rōpū kohinga at Catalyst, for support of the initiative. The collaboration followed the success of Ia, the world’s first Rainbow research platform, which they collaborated on in 2023. A project that had similar goals of open access and improving the discoverability of research. Rōpū kohinga have also provided Koha for Te Mātāpuna Library & Learning Services at AUT since 2021.
Working closely together, AUT and Catalyst chose to extend DSpace due to its flexibility and existing institutional knowledge. The result was a lightweight, scalable solution, enabling customised visual presentations of research collections.
When considering the long-term impact, Tuwhera Showcases needed to be easy to implement and maintain so the AUT Digital Development team could be as self-sufficient as possible. One way this was achieved was through creating workflows for changes so they didn’t rely on server-side work or vendor support.
Tuwhera Showcases were built by creating a new ‘theme’ that sits on top of the standard DSpace front-end Angular interface. To ensure ease of maintenance and sharing features with the DSpace community, components were reused wherever possible, and new components were built only when necessary. Therefore, Showcases are highly sustainable through upgrades and patches, as the core code is only lightly modified.
Thank you so much for helping us connect our work with our research stakeholders and communities.
Now, staff can easily update the page layout with minimal learning or technical skills by using HTML and CSS, and standard content mapping features.
Key features included:
The first showcase was created for the “Tourism for All New Zealand Research Group” at AUT and went live in December 2024. The release was scheduled to coincide with a significant event for industry leaders, government, and overseas visitors, and was well received. Professor Alison McIntosh, leader of the Tourism for All New Zealand Research Group, was thankful for the “incredible showcase” and help in promoting the Tourism for All NZ Research Group’s work at the event.
The showcase code itself is easily shareable. AUT hopes that in the future, the functionality will become part of the core DSpace code or available as a plugin. Since going live, AUT has sponsored two enhancements to DSpace written by Rōpū kohinga, which are under review by the DSpace open source community.
AUT Centre for Person-Centred Research (PCR) is currently working on its showcase site to display its research.
Rōpū kohinga at Catalyst are experienced in supporting organisations in a range of sectors to care for their collections. From higher education institutions to firefighters, iwi Trusts to corporate libraries, we can help support your collection goals, no matter the size of your repository.
Explore how Rōpū kohinga at Catalyst supported Te Kotahitanga o Te Atiawa Trust to future-proof their collection in Koha.
Ia, the world’s first Rainbow portal launched in September 2023, and a year on, we share the collaborative nature of the project between Rōpū kohinga and AUT.
