It’s Official: LYRASIS and DuraSpace Merger Will Take Place by July 1, 2019

Note: Today’s news (below) follows a January 24, 2019 LYRASIS/DuraSpace “intent to merge” announcement.

From a LYRASIS Announcement:

LYRASIS and DuraSpace are pleased to announce that by July 1, 2019, they will officially merge to create one dynamic organization, empowered to help drive scalable change, new technologies and vital services.

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The newly merged organization will be an on-ramp to a worldwide collaborative community of more than 4,000 institutions and nine open source, community-supported technology programs across six continents. In addition, it will build capacity in the scholarly ecosystem through open technologies, services, funding opportunities, expertise, training, and support.

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Erin Tripp, DuraSpace’s Executive Director explains, “We found that our two organizations were working more and more toward similar goals such as stewarding community-supported and open source initiatives in the scholarly ecosystem. We each observed a growing need for innovation, research and development, and thought leadership. I feel strongly that by working together, we can have a greater impact on our communities.”

Robert Miller, CEO of LYRASIS, says of the merger, “Over the past three years we have tested and launched a thought leadership and program development initiative that combines collective risk mitigation and community engagement with milestone-based funding. The rapid adoption of this by 10% of our membership has confirmed to us that this technology platform and service focus is more critical now than ever before. Leveraging DuraSpace’s global institution base with our strategic end-to-end solution focus will be a substantial win for our members.”

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All services, programs, purchases and subscriptions through LYRASIS and DuraSpace will continue without interruption. No action needs to be taken at this time by any members to ensure continuity of service.

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LYRASIS will be the public name of the merged organization and led by Robert Miller. Within LYRASIS, a newly-created DuraSpace Community Supported Programs division led by Erin Tripp will be the future home of all existing DuraSpace Open Source Software projects and all LYRASIS community supported programs including ArchivesSpace and CollectionSpace, as well as DSpace, Fedora, and VIVO.

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