About
The technical infrastructure for the Project for the Study of Dissidence and Samizdat is supported by the University of Toronto Libraries Information Technology Services department. The Project's technical components can be separated into 4 areas:
1. Database of Soviet Samizdat Periodicals
The Database was launched in 2011 and created using Drupal 7, an open source content management platform. Drupal's MySQL database stores each periodical's metadata record. These metadata records are indexed and made searchable through Solr. In 2024 the database was migrated to Drupal 10. Click here to view a web archived copy of the original Drupal 7 website.
2. Electronic Editions of Selected Samizdat Journals
The Electronic Editions of selected samizdat journals site was launched in 2015 and created using Islandora 7, an open source digital asset management platform. The Islandora stack was comprised of Drupal for front-end presentation, Fedora for back-end digital asset management, and Solr for indexing and searching. Digitized images of the journals were ingested into the site, along with metadata modeled using the MODS metadata schema. In 2024, the Electronic Editions were moved out of Islandora to the homegrown University of Toronto Libraries' New Collections U of T Platform. Click here to view a web archived copy of the original Islandora 7 website.
3. Illustrated Timelines of Dissident Movements
The Illustrated Timelines were created using timeline.js and embedded onto the site’s Drupal pages.
4. Interviews with Activists
The Interviews were created using Drupal pages.