Qatar University moves QSpace to Atmire Open Repository

Written by

Kobe Jong

Atmire Sales & Marketing Team

June 29, 2026

•

Case study

Industry:

Open Repository DSpace Express Custom DSpace

Qatar University’s repository plays a central role in preserving and disseminating institutional knowledge. QSpace is described in public repository directories as a digital archive of the university’s intellectual output, including academic works from faculty, graduate students, and research centers. Like many long-running institutional repositories, QSpace had reached a point where platform modernization could reduce operational risk and improve maintainability. The existing repository was running on DSpace 6.3, and the project objective was to migrate its contents to a new Open Repository installation so the original repository could be shut down after completion.

Challenges

Moving from an established DSpace 6.3 repository: The project required a careful migration path from an existing production repository while preserving content, metadata, files, and usage history.
Managing a large assetstore without local duplication: Because the assetstore was expected to be large, the migration approach needed to avoid unnecessary local copying or compression before upload.
Preparing for multilingual repository needs: Qatar University required optional support for right-to-left interface presentation and Arabic user interface labels, making internationalization part of the future-ready repository plan.

Solution

Qatar University selected Atmire’s Open Repository as the best-fit solution for the next phase of QSpace. The platform provides a hosted, supported DSpace environment with production, test, and standby infrastructure, plus ongoing maintenance, upgrades, persistent identifiers, and repository support.

Migration

Atmire migrated Qatar University’s existing QSpace repository from DSpace 6.3 to a newer DSpace-based Open Repository environment. The project covered the migration of repository content, metadata, files, and usage statistics.

Arabic and right-to-left interface support

The project included required code adaptations for a right-to-left theme and Arabic user interface label translations. For a repository serving Arabic and English audiences, this enhancement can improve usability and accessibility for local users while keeping the platform aligned with international repository expectations.

QU Digital Hub reflects Qatar University’s commitment to preserving and providing long-term access to its scholarly and institutional output. Migrating to Open Repository provides a platform that is better aligned with these objectives, with enhanced features and add-ons that will enrich our collections, improve data quality, and streamline our workflows.

Being involved in the migration of QU Digital Hub from DSpace 6.3 to Open Repository 7.6 was a rewarding experience. The Open Repository team worked closely with us throughout the project, helping ensure a smooth transition while addressing our technical and operational requirements
Nada Aboueata (Senior Application Developer at Qatar University)

Discover the repository here: https://qspace.qu.edu.qa

Call to action

Planning a DSpace migration? Reach out below to Atmire's team.

‍

Get in Touch

Thanks you! We've received your message.

We are currently experiencing very high numbers of contact form entries but nevertheless aim to get back to you as soon as possible. Replies to contact form entries from institutional or corporate email accounts (e.g. non-gmail, yahoo, ...) are actively prioritized.

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.