Unit 11: Home Sites Evaluation

Particularly when working with open source software, the need to reference documentation online to troubleshoot or figure out how to use the systems becomes key. Unless you contract with a support service, there is no customer service line to call when you run into problems or client consultant to contact when you need additional training or support. Ease of use and comprehensiveness of information available online is crucial when evaluating and selecting systems. So far in our testing, I think the Drupal, DSpace, and Omeka home sites are the easiest to find and navigate and have the clearest, easiest to use documentation. The EPrints, JHOVE, and harvester sites have a fair amount of documentation, but their sites are not as easy to navigate and the documentation that exists is not nearly as easy to access and make sense of.