Libraries Selects TIND IR and TIND RDM to Power Next Generation of SURFACE
Syracuse University Libraries has selected TIND Institutional Repository (TIND IR) and TIND Research Data Management (TIND RDM) as the twin foundations for the next generation of SURFACE, the University’s open access digital repository. Managed by the Libraries since 2010, SURFACE provides a trusted home for faculty, staff and student scholarship, generating more than 10 million downloads worldwide.
The decision to select TIND and its cloud-based repository and digital archive services concludes a rigorous, multi-year process driven by the articulated needs of faculty, evolving federal mandates and the Libraries’ commitment to accessibility, open access and long-term research stewardship. TIND distinguished itself across nearly every area of evaluation, including a superior commitment to accessibility, extensible management tools, and the ability to provide multiple scholarly services under a single, cloud-supported platform.
For faculty, the new platform provides more intuitive ways to submit their scholarship, stronger metadata support to increase discoverability, and deep integration with the persistent identifiers (including ORCIDs and DOIs) that modern open access scholarship requires. At the same time, end-users will enjoy a seamless discovery interface where they can easily sort and filter results. This will make it easier than ever for anyone anywhere to find and use valuable, cutting-edge University-generated scholarship, helping drive its public impact.
And, for the first time, SURFACE will provide a locally managed open space for campus research data, including datasets, code, supplementary materials and other outputs that accompany published scholarship. In the last few years, the research landscape has shifted significantly, particularly regarding open data. In 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy published the “Nelson Memo” which called for public access to federally funded research and the data behind it. With TIND, Syracuse University researchers will gain additional means to satisfy these requirements.
TIND will also improve the experience for students and faculty who publish with or edit any of the Libraries’ portfolio of open access journals. TIND’s configurability and flexibility are well-suited to editorial and peer review workflows. This should provide a more seamless and powerful journal management experience for editors than previously available on the SURFACE platform.
“The decision to adopt TIND reflects years of listening carefully to our faculty and research community, who especially stressed the need for additional research data support” noted Scott Warren, Senior Associate Dean for Research Excellence at the Libraries. “We are excited that choosing TIND means we can add this functionality to SURFACE to better reflect active scholarship at Syracuse University. Because SURFACE has been a cornerstone of Syracuse University’s open access commitment for more than fifteen years, the migration to TIND represents both a preservation of that legacy and a meaningful expansion of the Libraries’ support for our students and faculty.”
About TIND
TIND, an official CERN spin-off, offers commercial library management, digital preservation, and research data management solutions built upon CERN open-source software. Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, TIND serves academic, public, and special research libraries globally. For more information, visit www.tind.io.