Open Source Repository Management: Hydra

I was talking to a colleague Monday, who mentioned Hydra. As the site says:

Hydra is not just a repository software solution.  Rather, we see it as having three complementary components:

• there is a vibrant, highly active community supporting the work of the project which shares an  underlying philosophy behind all that it does
• there are design (and other) principles involved in constructing a successful Hydra “head” for use with compatible digital objects, and of course,
• there are the software components, the Ruby gems, that the Hydra community has constructed which are combined together to provide a local installation

Hydra lists 12 partners on its web site, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Penn State and Stanford.  From his report, Hydra is easier than DSpace, etc.  He said that modules from Hydra are easy for another institution to implement.

If you've used Hydra, what do you think of it?  If you haven't used it, is it something you'd consider testing out?  Why? Why not?

Addendum (1/11/2013): I was asked on Twitter if Hydra is being used for institutional repositories and the answer is "yes".  It is also being used for images libraries, media collections and more.  See this page for more info.