Institutional Repository

The fact of the matter is that Greenstone is a a complete library management software for managing digital collections and handles such activities as borrowing and all. DSpace is for institutional repositories and not a complete library management software. It therefore does not handle borrowing and stuff like that. If it is a repository you want i advise that you make the effort and get DSpace for it. it is the ability of Greenstone to handle digital collections that makes it look good as a repository platform or software, but DSpace handles the job best especially for academic institutions as it helps determine and control the workflow from article creation through editing to final posting. The ability of DSpace to create the workflow makes it useful to edit and control the workflow of the repository gives it heads over Greenstone for repositories.

A suggestion coming from the African Digital Library Support Network (which partners with the IRC Platform): start easy with Greenstone as Institutional Repository.

And have the additional benefit of Greenstone being able to "publish on portable media such as DVD and CD ROM" as Aston Mushowani explains.

Information on Greenstone (from the present version 2.85 onwards) serving as Institutional Repository can be found here http://adlsn.org/greenstone-285-as-oai-server
where you arrive from this ADLSN Support Documentation overview page: http://adlsn.org/documentation-overview
Also the Greenstone 2.85 Release Notes have information - which Notes come with the download: http://www.greenstone.org/download

Once you have some experience with creating the right metadata for OAI and a grip on having it harvested (picked up) by one of the (global) Open Access Initiatives, you can still consider to switch over to Dspace. There is practical literature and there is FOSS software that bridges (both ways) between Greenstone and DSpace.

And I agree with the other responses here that a choice between Greenstone and Dspace also depends on "intended use of the software" and "targeted users". In an academic environment these are both the authors that you may wish to give tools and a workflow to add their article to the Repository all by themselves (here DSpace shines) and the students and fellow researchers looking for articles: either through the front end of one of the big OAI Initiatives (both Dspace and Greenstone can serve as IR Server for harvesting) or through the front end of DSpace (I suppose: no personal experience with that) or Greenstone (here Greenstone has extensive searching and browsing options).

Repke Eduard de Vries, ADLSN community member

 Hi
 
I was privileged to have a feel of both software. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. The beauty of Greenstone is that it is easy to customise at any level without any need to know the codes. In the librarian interface, one can customise the database unlike with DSpace where one has to be knowledgeable of the codes.
 
One has to look at the aims of each software before making a choice. Each was designed for a specific purpose and each serves a particular need though the two software do overlap and compliment each other. 
If one one is looking at coming up with portable libraries, then Greenstone is the software to go with as it can be published on portable media such as DVD and CD ROM
DSpace is highly technical in nature as it requires someone with a high degree of computing to configure and customize it whereas Greenstone has the librarian and user interfaces that make it possible for someone with basic computing skills to customize it. DSpace is ideal for Institutional Repositories whereas Greenstone use ranges from personal to Institutional.
 
Truly speaking, I think it is a matter of preference than anything else; and this preference will be based on the intended use of the software
--
Aston Mushowani
Special Collections Librarian
University of Zimbabwe Library
P.O. Box MP45
Mount Pleasant
Harare
Zimbabwe
amushowani@uzlib.uz.ac.zw
+263772734103

 Dear colleagues,

I have a practically proven experience both on Greenstone and DSpace. I have developed large collections of digital libraries both in Greenstone as well as DSpace. But my experience on Greenstone is very bad and might frustrate the Greenstone user community. Do u like it to share my experiences on Greenstone?
 
With regards,
 
Yohannes M. Alemu

This is my opinion. I think it depends on your collection and targeted users. Greenstone serves as Digital library and its intereface is pretty much customisable so it can project a nice looking interface for users. On the other hand DSPACE is designed to serve the academic / university community, so it can always be good for university community users.