Kitodo – Key to digital objects

Software Release Management

The freely available and widely used open source suite Kitodo (formerly Goobi) enables workflow control and metadata capture in mass digitisation. The product has been continuously developed since 2004. Kitodo implements the METS/MODS profile authorised by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and can therefore be linked to a wide range of presentation modules. SLUB develops and maintains two such modules: the DFG Viewer, which also serves as a reference implementation, and the very flexible and powerful Kitodo.Presentation.

In January 2011, a release management agreement between the state libraries of Berlin, Göttingen, Hamburg and Dresden and the company Zeutschel GmbH as major Kitodo users came into force. The agreement aims at a sustainable, open and professional release management to ensure the continuous improvement and extension of the open source software suite from Digital Library Framework. The release management includes the coordination of developments, functionalities and schedules as well as the monitoring of general quality criteria and is currently managed by SLUB.

On this basis, further development can be coordinated through contributions from various institutions and companies. The committee around the Kitodo Release Manager discusses possible development directions and determines concrete release decisions. All measures serve to ensure focused development and the establishment of reliable release cycles to make development and use attractive for further companies and institutions.